Page:The English Peasant.djvu/95

 religion is at a very low ebb indeed in our rural districts. The conclusion to which an Oxfordshire clergyman has come may fairly be accepted as descriptive of the condition of things throughout the country: " I am satisfied, from observations which I have made during a period of thirty-five years passed in the ministry of the Church, that before our teaching and preaching can have the effect we look for, we must house the labourer in a better manner."

V.

cottages look quite idyllic, standing among the gardens and orchards of that picturesque county, but the report describes them as being, except upon the estates of a few landowners, in a deplorable condition. In one place they are spoken of as "wretched," in another as "ruinous hovels," in a third as "damp, dark, unhealthy holes." Usually the walls are made of "cob," a concrete formed of mud, straw, and pebbles. The roofs are of thatch, but too often open and out of repair. The usual form is a kitchen and back room, with two bedrooms above; small cots of only a kitchen and a bedroom are comparatively rare. The interior of these cots is cheerless enough. Enter one, and it will be found dark and dingy for want of light—no bright coal fire, but a grate with a solid front, into which are dropped the roots that have been grubbed up for fuel. The floors are of concrete, or paved with slate, occasionally nothing but earth, and at times very rough. Mount the stairs to the low-pitched bedroom, and you may sometimes find such holes in the floor that your legs are in danger of slipping through into the chamber below. According to Dr Hunter, the people say they feel oppressed and heartless about furnishing their rooms or keeping them tidy. Sometimes they only use two of the rooms; of the rest, one will be turned into an ash-bin, the other into a store-room for potatoes, or into a general receptacle for rubbish. An occasional show of crockery suggests that, under happier circumstances, the Devonian labourers could make themselves bright and cheerful homes.