Page:The reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor (IA b21971961 0001).pdf/160

122 that the inhabitants are comfortable and happy.

It would be well for the inhabitants of cottages, as well as poorhouses, if the custom, of very frequently white-washing them, were prevalent throughout the kingdom. Clean white-washed walls not only contribute to prevent the existence of vermin, but induce habits of cleanliness in those who reside within them. It was observed by the late Mr. Howard, in his work on Lazarettos, that, in the cottages on his estate in Bedfordshire, which had been made comfortable, "and white-washed both within and without, the very same families, which were before slovenly and dirty, had, upon this change of habitation, become neat in their persons, their houses, and their gardens,"

When it is generally known that the