The custom of placing a gate between two square boxes, or, as it is called, a "pair of lodges," has always appeared to me absurd, because it is an attempt to give consequence to that which in itself is mean; the habitation of a single labourer, or, perhaps, of a solitary old woman, to open the gate, is split into two houses for the sake of childish symmetry;* and very often the most squalid misery is found in the person thus banished from society, who inhabits a dirty room of a few feet square**.
*[As this absurd fashion of a pair of lodges deserves to be treated with ridicule, I cannot help mentioning the witty comment of a celebrated lady, who, because they looked like tea-caddies, wrote on two such lodges in large letters, GREEN and BOHEA.].
**[The existence of so many lodges, containing accommodation of this description throughout the country, by the sides of the public-roads; and of equally miserable houses for gardeners, in the back sheds of hothouses in kitchen-gardens, almost everywhere; shews how very little sympathy there exists between the rich and the poor in England. The cause of this, we believe to be, in most cases, want of reflection, and ignorance of the moral fact, that the more extended our sympathy is for our fellow-creatures, the greater will be our enjoyments. Another cause of the miserable accommodation in the lodges at gentlemen's gates, and also in gardeners' houses, may be traced to the want of sympathy with those whom they consider beneath them, on the part of architects, landscape gardeners, and builders. The greater number of these persons being sprung from the people, necessarily have more or less the character of parvenus, when introduced into the society of the higher classes. Observing in this class the contempt and disdain with which they look on the mass of the people, they naturally avoid everything which may remind either themselves, or the society into which they have been introduced, of their low origin. Hence they fear, that, to advocate the cause of the class from which they sprang, to be thought to care about their comfort, or to suggest improvements in their dwellings, would remind the employer of their origin, and be thought derogatory to their newly acquired station. An architect, or a landscape gardener, therefore, who has sprung from the people, is rarely found with the moral courage necessary to propose, to the rich who employ him, ameliorations of any kind for the poor. In the course of thirty years' observation we have found this to hold good, both in Scotland and England, and in the former country more particularly. How many improved plans of kitchen-gardens, and new ranges of hothouses, have there not been carried into execution in Scotland, since the commencement of the present century, and yet how few improved gardeners' houses have been built within the same period. Mr. Repton, having been born a gentleman, was under no such dread as that to which we have alluded, and we find him continually advocating the improvement of cottages. It is clearly both the duty and interest of the higher classes, to raise, by every means, the standard of enjoyment among all that are under them. Humanity dictates this line of action, as well as prudence; for it would be easy to shew, that, if improvement did not pervade every part of society, the breach between the extreme parts would soon become so great as to end in open rupture. The more the comforts, enjoyments, and even luxuries, of every servant, from the highest to the lowest, are increased, the more will they be useful, assiduous, and attached to their masters. Every servant feels this, and by every master it either is or will be felt.-Gard. Mag. vol. iv. p. 46. See also the same work, vol. viii. p. 257 to 266. J.C.L.]
