(Continued from p. 134.) In our last fragment, we offered a few remarks on fences in parks and pleasure-grounds, and our present article was intended to be devoted to plantations; but, as there is now, happily, a great spirit in the country for the improvement of cottages, we shall give that subject the preference. The depressed state of the agricultural population in England, the consequent pressure of the poor-rates in some places, and the outrages of incendiaries in others, have forced the attention of the landed proprietors to the means of ameliorating, or at least quieting for a time, their territorial population; and, in consequence, we have heard, for upwards of a year, of cottages being repaired, and land allotted to cottagers at moderate rents, throughout most of the English counties. Within the last six months the alarm occasioned by the cholera has caused increased attention to be given to the subject of comfortable cottages for agricultural labourers, and to that of the condition of the poor generally; cleanliness, warmth, proper ventilation, and wholesome food being found the best preventives of that disease.
