ourt-leets or manor courts are only held at
intervals of three years, or even more, and are generally composed of
farmers, presided over by the legal agent of the lord of the manor. The
tenants of the manor attend to pay their quit rent for the preceding
years, and it often happens that if the cottager has been ill, or is
weak and infirm, the farmers composing the court subscribe and pay the
quit rent for him.

The first step when a labourer intends to become a squatter is to
enclose the strip of land which he has chosen. This he does by raising a
low bank of earth round it, on which he plants elder bushes, as that
shrub grows quickest, and in the course of two seasons will form a
respectable fence. Then he makes a small sparred gate which he can
fasten with a padlock, and the garden is complete. To build the cottage
is quite another matter. That is an affair of the greatest importance,
requiring some months of thought and preparation. The first thing is to
get the materials. If it is a clay country, of course bricks must be
chosen; but in stone countries there are often quarries on the farm on
which he works. His employer will let him have a considerable quantity
of stone for nothing, and the rest at a nominal charge, and will lend
him a horse and cart at a leisure season; so that in a very short time
he can transport enough stone for his purpose. If he has no such friend,
there is almost sure to be in every parish a labouring man who keeps a
wretched horse or two, fed on the grass by the roadside, and gains his
living by hauling. Our architect engages this man at a low price to haul
his materials for him. The lime to make mortar he must buy. In the
parish there is nearly sure to be at least one native mason, who works
for the farmers, putting up pig-styes, mending walls, and doing small
jobs of that kind. This is the builder who engages to come on Saturday
afternoons or in the evenings, while the would-be householder himself is
the hod-bearer and mixes the mortar. Nine times out of ten the site for
the cottage is chosen so as to have a ditch at the back. This ditch acts
at once as the cesspool and the sewer, and, unless it happens to have a
good fall, speedily becomes a nuisance to the neighbourhood. A certain
quantity of wood is of course required in building even this humble
edifice. This is either given by the farmers or is purchased at a
nominal rate.

The ground plan is extremely simple. It consists of two rooms