Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/136

 being cultivated as the staple article of the peasant's food. In the poorest cottages there are always two apartments; but it is customary for all the members of the same family to sleep in the same room. Bedsteads and bed-clothes are possessed by all. In Penzance, and the other small towns of the district, where space is precious, many individuals are often crowded into one house, and want, in all its forms, want of furniture, clothing, cleanliness and air, consequently becomes very conspicuous. This observation especially applies to Penzance and Newlyn. The cottages have always inclosed chimneys, and are not particularly smoky.

B. Fuel.─Fuel is rather a scarce commodity in this district. That commonly used by the labouring classes in the country, consists of coarse spongy turf, shaved from the scanty covering of the granite moors, together with heath and dried furze from the same places. The almost total absence of wood renders it, as an article of fuel, quite unknown, and coals are almost entirely confined to the towns and houses of the better classes. There is hardly any of the true peat of Scotland and Ireland to be found in the district.

C. Dress.─The dress of the common people is not at all peculiar. Except when oppressed by poverty, they are, in general, sufficiently well clothed. Fishermen are here, as elsewhere, remarkable for the warmth of their clothes. The miners, when above ground, wear the common dress of the peasantry, only tinged with the ochry livery of their tribe.