Habitations for the labouring poor 1817

Loretta reports:

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The habitations of the labouring poor may be rendered ornamental, and the comforts of them increased, at a very trifling charge beyond the cost of common buildings . . . the annexed plate is designed for four cottages, connected with each other, and under one roof; a mode of building that admits a considerable saving of expense . . .   The public attention is now so fully called to consider the condition of the labouring classes of mankind . . . on the means of increasing their comforts, and on lessening the demands for parochial and other aid . . . [T]he following  . . . proves the advantages which result from giving the labourer the means of employing his surplus time.

A commonable land belonging to a parish was inclosed, and an allotment, containing twenty-five acres, set out for the use of such of the poor as rented less than ten pounds a year, to be stocked in common. Previous to the inclosure, there were some few cottages that had land let with them, to the amount of six or seven pounds a year each. The occupiers of those cottages with land annexed to them, were remarkable for bringing up their families in a more neat and decent manner than those . . . without land . . . [I]t was this circumstance that led to the laying out of a plot of lands . . . to other of the cottages, and to add a small building sufficient to contain a horse or cow; and likewise grafting stocks to raise orchards. In some instances small sums of money were lent to these cottagers for the purchase of a cow, a mare, or a pig.

[T]his proceeding . . . has not in one instance failed in giving an industrious turn even to some of those who were before idle and profligate; their attention in nursing up the young trees has been so much beyond what a farmer . . . could bestow, that the value of the orchard increased to double its usual rent, and the poor's rate fell from half-a-crown to four-pence in the pound, when in some of the adjoining parishes they were at length so high as five shillings in the pound; and it has also been the means of bringing a much larger supply of poultry to the market.
—Ackermann’s Repository, September 1817