THEM***


Transcribed from the 1860 James Nisbet edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                   [Picture: Public domain book cover]

  [Picture: Tucker’s cottage.  The Oldest House in Kensington Potteries]





                              RAGGED HOMES,
                                   AND
                            HOW TO MEND THEM.


                                * * * * *

                                    BY
                                MRS BAYLY.

                                * * * * *

         “The corner-stone of the commonwealth is the hearth-stone.”

                                * * * * *

                             Fifth Thousand.

                                * * * * *

                                 LONDON:
                 JAMES NISBET AND CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.
                                M.DCCC.LX.




DEDICATED,
BY PERMISSION,
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.


MY LORD,

I do not inscribe this narrative of facts to you in the expectation of
adding to that acquaintance with the working-classes which you have
gained from personal intercourse with them.

It is for my own satisfaction that I have dedicated this little Volume to
you.  An opportunity, which might not otherwise have occurred, now offers
for thanking you in the name of the poor whom you have cheered by your
sympathy, and of the rich whom you have stimulated by your example.

Compliments between fellow-workers are not seemly, however humble the
bestower, however illustrious the receiver.

That you have allowed your name to appear in these pages cannot but be
gratifying to the writer.  The reader will rejoice no less, and from
higher than personal motives.  He will see in this kindness another proof
of your hearty interest in that class which, if rightly considered, is,
from its very poverty, a blessing to the land, by putting our indolence
and selfishness to shame.

                         I have the honour to be,

                                                                  MY LORD,
                                          Your Lordship’s obliged Servant,
                                                               MARY BAYLY.




PREFACE.


AMIDST the excitements of political contests at home, with wars and
rumours of wars abroad, the voice of “Social Science” is occasionally
heard, and listened to, with a growing conviction of its importance.  The
Politician, the Moralist, and the Christian are impelled by various
reasons to its consideration, and will listen with equal interest to its
details.

Experience is always valued by practical men, and the records of what has
been done are anxiously sought, to assist our judgment in future and more
extended exertions.

The condition of the young, and the education of children, naturally
engaged the earliest attention of Social Reformers.  Experience has shewn
the importance of genial influences at home, and that it is _necessary_
to improve the homes of the poor, in order to save the children from
destruction.  It has also been found that _much_ can be thus effected.
Poor women, who have been subjected to the severe discipline of a
struggling existence, are often willing and anxious listeners to useful
instruction, and are perhaps more susceptible of good influence than
younger persons who have not felt the necessity for improvement.  There
is, therefore, room to hope that the influence which can be brought to
bear upon the mothers of the working-classes will be a most important
element in that general elevation which it is our desire to attain.

It was principally owing to this impression, and also the great desire
which I felt to do something, however feeble, to bring more happiness and
comfort into the houses of my poor neighbours, that induced me, five or
six years ago, to commence a Mothers’ Society.  The usual ways of helping
the poor seemed to me to effect little real good.  The nice soup sent for
the sick man was spoiled by being smoked in the warming up, or by the
taste infused into it from the dirty saucepan: the sago intended for the
infant was burnt, or only half cooked; and medicine and food alike failed
to be efficacious in the absence of cleanliness, and in the stifling air
which the poor patient was doomed to breathe.  The mothers of the little,
thin, fretful babies would complain to me that they could not think why
the child did so badly, for they managed to get a rasher of bacon for it
whenever they could, and always fed it two or three times in the night.
I saw that the wise man was indeed right in saying “that knowledge is the
principal thing;” and that if I could help them in any way to “get
knowledge,” it would be a gift far surpassing in value anything else I
could offer them.  The applications constantly made to me for information
on the best modes of establishing and conducting these Societies, induce
me to suppose that they have taken some hold on the public mind, and that
these institutions supply a want that is every day increasingly felt.

The only value that can be attached to any remarks which I have to make
is, that they are the result of some years’ experience; and that the
plans which I have adopted, though capable of great improvement, have
been to some extent successful.  But the principal motive in my own mind
for sending these simple narratives forth into the world is, the hope
that more attention than ever may by their means be directed to that
great and difficult subject, the improvement of the homes of the poor.
As a few notes of a bird, the lisping of a child, the sound of the wind
dying away, have sometimes been sufficient to awaken the spirit of
harmony in some master-mind, and so led to the composition of the music
which has thrilled and delighted all who have heard it; so, it is hoped,
the suggestions here made may be of use to many minds, and that anything
already effected may be as the drop to the showers, or as the first buds
of spring to the luxuriance of summer.

8 LANSDOWNE CRESCENT,
      _May_ 10, 1859.




CONTENTS.

                                        PAGE
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER                       1
                 CHAPTER I.
A VILLAGE—NOT PICTURESQUE                 19
                CHAPTER II.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHARACTER                39
                CHAPTER III.
SLOW ADVANCING                            61
                CHAPTER IV.
SOWING SEED                               81
                 CHAPTER V.
HOMES AND NO HOMES                       107
                CHAPTER VI.
DIFFICULTIES                             125
                CHAPTER VII.
GIVING AND RECEIVING                     143
               CHAPTER VIII.
LIGHT UPON A DARK SUBJECT                157
                CHAPTER IX.
OUR MISSIONARIES                         175
                 CHAPTER X.
OUR BABY                                 195
                CHAPTER XI.
LETTERS                                  213
                CHAPTER XII.
OBSTACLES: WHO SHALL REMOVE THEM?        237
APPENDIX                                 259




INTRODUCTORY.


    “Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore
    Of nicely calculated less and more.”

                                                               WORDSWORTH.

A FEW weeks ago I was visiting the Library in the British Museum.  Two
gentlemen, who stood near me, appeared very earnest in the pursuit of
something which they wanted.  Presently, by an exclamation of delight, I
understood that their search had been successful; they had found what
they had sought.  And what had they found?  A very old book, so badly
printed as to be read with difficulty, and containing information of what
must have taken place at least two thousand years ago—information very
interesting and important to the old Romans, no doubt; and which would
have been still more so, if they could have foreseen what delight it
would have imparted, centuries later, to two inhabitants of a remote
island in the north, who could not possibly be affected by it.  But so it
is: some minds prefer to dwell on the past; others live in the present;
and some seem of opinion that “man never is, but always _to be_, blest.”
This diversity is no doubt necessary; all do some good: the antiquarian
adds to the interest of our libraries, if not of our lives; and we owe
much to those who teach us to look forward, if they will only at the same
time help us to look upward: but to such as wish to _do_ something, who
desire to have an influence on the great living history which every day
is writing afresh, the passing events of the time have the greatest
charm, because they not only present food for reflection, but opportunity
for exertion.

We not unfrequently hear people speak of life in such a way as would lead
us to suppose that there had been some mistake as to the date of their
birth.  Had they come a little earlier or a little later, it would have
been different; but the present seems to afford them no object of
interest.  They complain of intolerable dulness, the weariness of life;
and in watching the cheerless, the objectless existence of such people,
we wonder that it is recorded of only a single individual, that one
morning he shot himself, for the reason assigned on a slip of paper which
he had left on the dressing-table—“I am tired of living only to
breakfast, dine, and sup.”

I have often thought, when listening to such complaints, of the prayer of
Elisha for his unbelieving servant, “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes,
that he may see;” and if the Lord would do for them as He did for this
servant, and open their eyes—not to see “mountains full of horses and
chariots of fire” waiting to deliver them—but alleys, and lanes, and
villages, full of the needy and the sick, waiting for loving hearts and
kind hands to come and help them to rise from their degradation,
wretchedness, and filth,—the strain would be changed; and, in the
contemplation of such a vast amount of labour, followed by such rich
reward, we should rather expect to hear, if it must still be the language
of complaint:—

    “O wretched yet inevitable spite
    Of our short span! and we must yield our breath,
    And wrap us in the lazy coil of death;
    So much remaining of unproved delight!”

There are many indications in the present day that the fields are “white
