IN SCOTLAND.

129

More ample details, regarding the construction of the Lo-thian and Berwickshire cottages, will be found in the Appen-dix , NO. V.

In the central district, and the north-east Lowlands, theaccommodations given to the married farm-servants are of adifferent description. Their cottages are generally 12 feetwide, and from 24 to 36 feet long. They usually have twodivisions, or what they term “ a But and a Ben.” In the oneof these divisions most commonly used, (besides a bedsteadfor some of their children, and the kitchen furniture), thereis a fire-place. In the other, there is a bedstead for the cot-tager and his wife, or sometimes two bedsteads, if the childrenare young and numerous, and also a fire place. These cot-tages have only an earthen floor below, and in general nomore than two windows, one in each end. A few of themhave three or four windows, and are ceiled above in one end,with a plain coat offline plaster, or covered with thin deals. Insome places they are thatched commonly once in two years,which costs from 5 s. to 10 s., besides the cottager’s trouble inputting on the thatch. More frequently they are slob-thatched orsewed, that is, covered with a coat of straw from 5 to 10 inchesthick, which costs from £. 5 to £. 6, and lasts from 15 to 20years. The inferior kind of these cottages, till within these lastseven years, cost only from £. 8 to £. 10; and the better sort, ortradesmen’s houses, from £.15 to £. 20 ; but from the greatrise in the price of wood and labour, an artificer’s house builtwith stone and clay, and pointed with lime on the outside ofthe walls, having a ceiled roof, with a wooden floor in the bestend or bed-room, and stob-thatched with straw, costs from£. 30 to £ 40. A few of the richer artisans, and some of thesmall farmers in the north-east Lowlands, have houses 8 feethigh in the side-walls, and as wide as the cottages in Ber-wickshire. But in that case, they have a loft, with a foot ofside-wall above the floor, and two windows in the gable. Thisgives them a convenient garret the whole length of the house;in one end of which they usually have a fire place. Wherever

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