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those left are never kept on; the closets are stopped up and the pans
are broken. The chimneys are never swept, so that the rooms become
blackened and disfigured. The paper is torn off the walls; the floors
and passages are never washed, and there are no mats, so that the
whole place becomes a mass of dirt and destruction. The water-butt
lids and the dust-bin lids are used for firewood; the ball-cocks are
broken off, so that there is great water waste, which floods the yards
and washes away the cement from the paving.
The very hand-rails of the staircase are broken away, and even the
walls are picked with nails, or something of the kind, so as to leave
large holes. The windows are constantly broken and stopped up with
brown paper; in fact, there exists in every parish a juvenile windowbreaking
club, the members of which demolish every pane of glass
they can, especially iu empty houses.
As the better houses are becoming filled with these families, the
prospect is truly not favourable; moreover, in Clerkenwell, a population
of ice sellers and French organ grinders is gradually creeping in
from Holborn, whose habits are filthy and unsanitary in the extreme.
New regulations are being framed by the Vestry to remedy these
evils ; but I fear they will be nugatory in effect.
These disorderly people and their children require proper training,
whick I hoped years ago would have been acquired through the School
Board, but it has not occurred; in fact, many women, who, when
younger, have been in service, and have kept an eight-roomed house
in perfect order under a mistress, when living in only one or two
rooms of their own, allow them to become a mass of dirt.
Let us hope, however, that a better state of things may come; but
it is evident that many of the newly proposed improvements refer
rather to a condition of ornamental repair of the dwellings than to
requirements of health. In fact, after daily inspection of the dwellings
of the poor for more than 40 years, and hearing the remarks
made upon them, I cannot help thinking that those who legislate in
the matter should be landlords for a time at least, to enable them to
become acquainted with the relation of repairs to reckless damage.
At all events, it is evident that the condition of the Parish, described
as " worse than it has ever been before," does not relate to its sanitary
condition, which, through the incessant labours of the Vestry, has
continued to improve, in spite of the increase of an unsanitary
population.
And when it is recollected that our worst courts—the terrible Turnmill
Street Courts (specially mentioned by Mr. Godwin), Sedbury
Place, Wood's Place, Suffolk Court, and Caroline Court—have been
demolished, and replaced by the fine model buildings—Corporation
Buildings, Farringdon Buildings, Compton Buildings, and Peabody