THE BEST LANDLORD IN ENGLAND 

We moved in last year, 1868. Our cottage is the envy of all the folks around. No. 1 New Row, Wass. Never had such luxury before. We’ve got proper running water in the kitchen, with a hot water boiler and good oven and grate, a nice flagstone floor, easy to clean, and we’ve even got a fireplace in our bedroom for those cold winter days. Not that we get much chance to enjoy it, even at weekends. Out the back we’ve got a coal house, ash pit, our own very fine privy and a pigsty. My William lost no time in getting hold of a piglet, because as my old dad always said, “there’s good eating on a pig.” We’ve even got an allotment up the bank. Mind you we’ve got to obey the rules for tenants if we want to stay here. Like keeping the allotment well dug and manured. Pig’ll come in handy for that. They’re going to give a prize every year for the best kept one. I know our William will try hard to win. Right competitive he is. And of course I’ll try to win the one for the most clean and tidy cottage.

We’ve got a school up the bank, and the schoolmaster lives in Melrose Cottage on the corner opposite the Stapylton Arms.  According to our rules, we have to send the children there regularly and the teacher reports on their attendance every month. They go when they can, but when there’s work to be done out in the fields that’s far more important than a bit of schooling. After all our George is going to work in the estate woods debarking the trees and Mabel is off into service as soon as she’s old enough. What do they need to read and write for? Although our Mabel is learning to sew, which could come in useful.

Mind you, our William’s been saving up to join the Wass Mental improvement society. He says he’ll get a family ticket but I say we can’t afford it. We’ve got better things to spend our money on, and anyway he could visit for just a penny a time. They’ve got magazines, newspapers and books up there, and a librarian comes on Saturday evenings to change the books. William says it’s important to go and discuss what’s happening in the world, and improve himself. I say the pig needs mucking out and the garden digging.

Still, we’re doing all right here in Wass. That Henry Stapylton looks after his tenants. They say as how he’s the best landlord in England and they may well be right.