We are bound to say, however, that the prices assigned
to the cottages are far too heavy. Very few of them, even when built in pairs, work out ranch under 2200 each, and about 2180 seemed to be the cheapest. But a labour- ing man with under 25s. a week—and of course plenty of labouring men have not more than 15s. a week—simply cannot afford to pay the interest on 2180 plus the rates. Five per cent. on 2180 plus rates amounts to over 210 a year, and that means at the very least 4s. a week. If real success is to be achieved, the essential thing is to secure the 2100 cottage. We shall be told that the 2100 cottage must always be ugly. We do not, as a matter of fact, agree to this ; but even accept- ing this view, it would be cruel, nay, criminal, to impose upon working men an extra shilling a week in rent in order that Use general public may have the pleasure as they walk through the villages of seeing beautiful cottages. At the best, what we call beauty in cottages merely means a kind of pleasant prettiness, which very often degenerates into the smugness of the villa or the affectations of "ingle nooks."
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