Ayrshire Housing Part 3
26. Peesweep Rows, Dalry
(William Baird & Company.)
Front Row. - The front row consists of eleven houses of two apartments, built of stone. The kitchen measures approximately 15 feet by 11 feet and the room 11 feet by 9 feet. The rent is £3 12s. per annum. There are four dry-closets provided for this row and four washing-houses, but no coal-houses are provided, and, except in those cases where the tenants have built coal-houses for themselves, they keep their coals below their beds. There are four ash-pits. The roadway is unpaved, but owing to a plentiful supply of red " blaes " it is fairly dry.
Turned Row. - This row consists of twelve single-apartment houses built of stone. The houses measure approximately 15 feet by 11 foot. A small porch has been built at the doors of the houses. The rent is 1s. 3d. per week. There are no washing-houses and no coal-houses. There are four dry-closets and two ash-pits for this row. The closets are placed in front of the houses, and very near the doors. The floors are brick tiles, and very uneven and cracked. The roadway is unpaved, but owing to a supply of red "blaes " is not very dirty.
Wee Row. - This row consists of ten single-apartment houses built of stone. The house measures approximately 15 feet by 11 feet. There are two dry-closets and one ash-pit built near the doors of the houses. The rent is 1s. 3d. per week. The brick-tiled floors are very uneven and cracked. The floors in this row are about 18 inches below the surface of the road, and the houses are in consequence very damp, and the rain occasionally comes into the houses to the depth of several inches. The roadway is unpaved, and at this row very dirty.
Furnace Row. - The Furnace Row consists of 23 two-apartment houses built of stone. The kitchen measures approximately 12 feet by 11 feet and the room 11 feet by 9 feet. The rent is 6s. per month. The brick-tiled floors are very uneven ,and cracked, and the floor underneath the beds is the bare earth. There are four dry-closets for this row, and two ash-pits, built in front of the houses and in close proximity to the doors of the houses. There are no washing-houses nor coal-houses, and the coals are kept below the beds. The ash-pits are filthy and evil smelling here. In all the rows in this place the provision of water is inadequate. There is in this case only one well supplied for two rows. The roadway is unpaved and very dirty.
Double Row. - This row consists of 32 single-apartment houses built of stone. They are built sixteen on each side of a row, back to back. The house measures approximately 15 feet by 12 feet. There are six dry-closets and three ash-pits for this row. There are no washing-houses nor coal-houses, and the coals are kept below the beds. The floors are of the usual brick-tiled type, and, as is the case wherever we have seen this kind of floor provided, the surface is very uneven and cracked, and it is a heartbreak to the housewife to keep it clean. If waxcloth is laid on it it is cut up in a short time, and where no covering is put on the children carry the "muck " in from the quagmire of a road outside. There is no covering on the earth below the beds. There is only one water tap for all this row.
Stoopshill Row. - This row contains twenty-four houses, but in addition to these a number at the top end of the row have had to be built up owing to their dangerous condition, caused, as we are informed, by a subsidence. The houses here are divided into several compartments. The kitchen measures 12 feet by 11 feet and the room 9 feet by 8 feet, but there are two places, the size of a cupboard, with a built-in bed in each. In these places there is hardly room for a person to turn. The rent is 6s. 6d. per month. There are no washing-houses and no coal-houses. There are eight dry-closets and four ash-pits, built together and placed immediately in front of the houses. These places, judging by their appearance, are considerably overworked. There are no syvors at this row, and the sewage, on the date of our visit (27th November 1913), was flowing from the closets and ash-pits and settling down in the ground in front of the houses. The roadway in front of these houses is in a miserable condition with "muck." The brick tile floors constitute the usual eyesore to the visitor and terror to the housewife.
This finishes the description of the Peesweep Rows. We wish they were finished in the material sense as well, for the only thing more melancholy than the Peesweep Rows was the anxiety of some of the women to show us how well pleased they were with their houses, and the fear that the latter would be condemned and shut up.
Additional information from Thomas McKerrell, Minutes of evidence
"I should say Peesweep Row is about 60 years old"
27. Carsehead Rows, Dalry
(William Baird & Company.)
First Row. - The First Row contains 14 two-apartment houses built of stone. The kitchen measures approximately 14 feet by 11 feet and the room 8 feet by 6 feet, and there is a cupboard which contains a set-in bed in addition. There are six dry-closets, without doors, for this row. Neither washing-houses nor coal-houses have boon provided, but in many cases the people have built these outhouses for themselves. The closets, at the date of our visit, were very dirty, and very difficult of access if one wished to prevent his boots from being soiled. The syvors and cesspools in front of the houses were very dirty. The roadway is unpaved and very muddy. The rent is 1s. 6d. per week.
"Stickit" Row. - This row consists of ten houses of two apartments built of stone. The kitchen measures approximately 12 feet by 10 feet and the room 12 feet by 9 feet. The rent is 5s. 6d. per month. In one house we found twelve persons, four of them grown up. There are four dry-closets, without doors, and they were all in a filthy condition. The ash-pits are very large, and at the date of our visit filled with very foul material. Neither washhouses nor coal-houses have been provided, but the people have built these conveniences for themselves. Some of the tenants complained that the houses were troubled with rats, and in the words of one tenant, "They were rotten with damp."
"Wee Stickit" Row. - This row contains 9 two-apartment houses built of stone. The kitchen measures approximately 12 feet by 11 feet and the room 10 feet by 9 feet. The rent is 5s. 6d. per month. There are two dry-closets, without doors, and one ash-pit, built in front of the houses. Neither washing-houses nor coal-houses have been provided, but the people have built them for themselves.
The Carsehead Rows have houses floored with the usual sunken twisted, and cracked brick tiles. The roadways are all unpaved and muddy, and there is a huge mound of black "blaes " in front of the rows, which does not make the prospect any the more pleasing.
Additional information from Thomas McKerrell, Minutes of evidence
"The Carsehead Rows will probably be about the same age [as Peesweep Row]. I think our information was that they were built about 60 years ago"
28. Ardeer Square, Stevenston
(Merry & Cunningham, Limited.)
This square consists of four rows of houses built in the form of a square, and other three rows situated inside the square. The houses are all built of stone. There is a very large pond of water in the square for supplying the furnaces which are close at hand.
Side Row. - This row contains 16 two-apartment houses. The kitchen measures approximately 12 feet by 11 feet and the room 10 feet by 9 feet. The rent is 9s. 6d. per month. (The rents in this square are from 30 to 50 per cent higher than the rents of similar houses we have visited anywhere in Ayrshire.) There are three washing-houses provided in this row, and inside each washhouse a water-closet has been erected in recent years for the use of females. Some of these closets are in such a bad state of repair that they cause an offensive smell in the washing-house, and with regard to other rows in the square they cannot be used at all. Two dry-closets are provided for the males. They have doors on them, and are built in conjunction with the ash-pits, and placed in front of the houses. The roadway is unpaved and dirty.
Back Row. - This row contains 26 single-apartment houses built in blocks. Three blocks have six houses each, and one block has eight houses. At the top end of the row there is a model lodging-house and dining-room, where boarders are fed and lodged at 12s. per week, or where a bed can be obtained for 6d. per night. The dwelling-houses measure approximately 17 feet by 11 feet, and there is a cupboard with a set-in bed. As a rule there is one washing-house for every three tenants and a water-closet inside of it for females, and one dry-closet for every three tenants. There is one ash-pit for every six tenants. As these are the sanitary arrangements for the whole square, with exceptions which we shall note, we do not propose to refer to them again. The rent of these houses is 7s. 11d. per month.
Shilling Row. - This row contains 8 single-apartment houses, and the house measures 14 feet by 12 feet approximately. This house does not even contain the cupboard bed described in the row above. This row has no closets, washing-houses, or coal-houses, and shares those conveniences attached to the row opposite. The houses here are very damp, and in the inside of several doors the water was lying in pools. The rent is 6s. 6d. per month.
Front Row. - This row contains 10 two-apartment houses and 8 single-apartment houses. The rent of the two-apartment house is 8s. 7d. per month and the single apartment 6s. 6d. per month. The single-apartment house measures 12 feet by 12 feet approximately, and the double house measureskitchen 12 feet by 12 feet and room 10 feet by 8 feet. In this row there is one washing-house for six tenants, with closet in it for females, and one dry-closet for males for every six tenants. The syvors and cesspools at this row were in an abominably filthy condition, and pools of water inches deep lay on the roadway in front of the houses.
Monkey Row. - This row is formed of 8 single apartments built back to back with the 8 single apartments of the Front Row just described. In fact, they correspond exactly with rooms of the Front Row. The whole house measures 10 feet by 8 feet. They have neither coal-houses nor washhouses, closets nor ash-pits, and human filth and refuse is thrown out on the ground in front of the houses. The syvors are in an abominably filthy condition.
Middle Row. - This row contains 12 single-apartment houses, and is the same type of house as the ones described in the Back Row, with the same rent and same sanitary conveniences.
Furnace Row. - This row contains 18 single-apartment houses in three blocks of six houses each, and 13 two-apartment houses. The single apartment measures approximately 16 feet by 11 feet, and there is the same cupboard with set-in bed, as previously described. The rent in 7s. 11d. per month. The two-apartment houses measure approximately - kitchen 12 feet by 12 feet and the room 12 foot by 9 feet. The rent of this house is 9s. 6d. per mouth. There are the same outhouses as are described in the Back Row.
The aspect of the whole square is a most melancholy one. There do not appear to be any rhones on any of the houses, and as none of the roadways are paved the result can be readily imagined. At every gable there are large pools of water several inches deep, and ruts of mud at every row. The floors are all brick tiles, with the usual sad result of broken floors and uneven surfaces, which mock the efforts of the most industrious housewife to keep a tidy house. The houses are inhabited by the miners of the neighbouring pits and the furnace workers of the Ardeer furnaces.
29. Greenwood Rows, Parish of Dreghorn
(A. Kenneth & Sons.)
1st Row. - There are five rows here built of brick. They were erected about seven or eight years ago.
The first row contains eight houses of a kitchen and two small rooms each. The kitchen measures approximately 14 foot by 13 foot, and the rooms are of about equal size, and measure approximately 9 feet by 8 feet. The floors are brick tiles, and in most houses they are much worn, and make a very uneven surface. The tenants complain that the houses are damp.
There as one dry-closet for every four tenants, and one washing-house for every four tenants, and one ash-pit for the row. This ash-pit is in a very filthy state, and the sewage from it was " seeping " into the ground all round about. Each house has a coal-house. These outhouses are placed at the back of this row. The rent of the houses is 2s. 9d. per week.
The roads are unpaved and very dirty.
2nd Row. - This row contains seven houses of a kitchen measuring 12 feet by 12 feet, a room 9 feet by 6 feet, and a small scullery. There are two dry-closets for the row and two washing-houses. Each house has a coal-house. There is one ash-pit in a filthy condition, and the closets are very dirty and evil-smelling. The tenants complain that the houses are damp.
The roads here are even in a worse condition than at the first row. One can hardly avoid going up to the ankles in "glaur." The brick tiles on the floor are in many cases badly worn and cracked.
The rent of this house is 2s. 6d. per week.
3rd Row. - This row is similar to Row No. 2, and contains seven houses of the same type and the same sanitary accommodation. The ash-pit and the closets are in a filthy condition, and very evil-smelling.
4th Row. - This row contains eight houses of practically the same size as the ones previously described. In this case they have wooden floors, and even that little amenity makes a great difference in comfort to the people. There are four closets for the row, but they are very dirty, and one we opened contained three or four inches of "sludge" on the floor. This seems to be due to the rain running in below the doors and carrying mud with it. There is one washing-house for the eight tenants. The ash-pit is very filthy.
The roads here in front of the houses are in an abominable condition. Pools of water and inches of mud are at the front of every door. The people occasionally throw kitchen ashes down, but this has the effect of making the abomination worse, as the ashes get trailed all over the place.
The rent of the houses here is 2s. 9d. per week.
Side Row. - This row runs at right angles to the rows already described, and faces the main road down to Montgomeryfield pit.
That road is truly horrible. There are large ruts made by the traffic to the pits, and the "glaur" at the doors of the people's houses lies in heaps everywhere. This road has been in this condition for years, and it is the talk of the whole place. It is related that a jocular miner asked one of the owners "if he would lease him the fishing of this road." The road is made worse because no syvor has been provided at the front of this row, and the slops and the mud combine to make such a horrible mess that one is surprised that people can be got to live here at all. There are ten houses in the row, of the same size as those in Row No. 4, and the same rent.
The same dry-closet accommodation is provided, but as some of the closets are not supplied with keys they are in such a state that several tenants told us that grown-up people cannot use them.
30. Ironworks Square, Parish of Kilwinning
(William Baird & company.)
Double Row. - On the left-hand side entering this square is the row known as the Double Row. It is built of stone, and contains 43 two-apartment houses. The kitchen measures approximately 12 1/2 feet by 10 1/2 feet, and the room 10 feet by 8 1/2 feet. The floor is made of brick tiles, and, as is usual in such cases, the surface is often broken and very uneven. There are two set-in beds in the kitchen and one in the room.
A number of people who have large families are provided with what was known as "hurly beds." This is a box arrangement made with wheels on it, which slides under the set-in bed, and it provides beds for children under the set-in beds. The parents, or grown-up members of the family, use the top bed, and the children sleep in this box on wheels under the same bed.
There is one dry-closet provided for every four tenants, one washing-house for every eight tenants, and one ash-pit for every eight tenants. These outhouses are all built together, and placed in front of the houses, 15 feet from the doors. The ash-pits are in most cases very evil-smelling, and being in such close proximity to the dwelling-houses we can well believe what some of the tenants told us that the smell " in the summer time was awful." Each house has a coal-house.
A peculiarity of the dry-closet arrangement here is that there are two seats placed in each closet, apparently for the purpose of enabling two persons sitting side by side to use them at the same time. The closets here, however, were kept very clean, and proper cement floors have been put in them. The roadway is unpaved, but owing to proper bottoming it is very clean.
The rent is 7s. 5d. per month.
Cross Row. - This row runs across the top of the square, and contains what were originally 15 two-apartment houses, but owing to a number of people taking two houses there are now only nine tenants, occupying them. This is a proof that there is a strong desire among many miners for larger houses than are now provided. The kitchen measures 12 feet by 10 1/2 feet and the room 10 feet by 9 feet. The rent of the house is 7s. 5d. per month, and where one family has rented two houses the rent is double. There is the same outhouse accommodation as in the row already described. The floors are made of brick tiles, and are as usual in many cases broken and cracked. The roadway is unpaved, but comparatively free from mud.
Single Row. - This row is situated on the right-hand side entering the square, and is built of stone. There are sixty houses here without an opening. The houses are all single-apartment ones, but there is a very small place in addition which just holds a bed. The kitchen measures approximately 17 1/2 feet by 10 feet. There is a small porch at the door, which serves as a coal-house. The floors are brick tiles, with the usual uneven surfaces. The outhouses - washing-house, dry-closets, and ash-pit - are built together in one erection, and placed 15 feet from the doors of the houses. The rent is 6s. per month. Several of the women showed us that their houses were very damp. The roadway is unpaved, but comparatively clean.
Brick Row. - The Brick Row is built behind the Single Row. It is, as its name denotes, built of brick. There are 34 two-apartment houses. The kitchen measures 14 feet by 8 feet and the room 10 1/2 feet by 7 1/2 feet. There are exactly the same outhouses as in the other rows, and placed only 15 foot from the doors. The roadway is unpaved, and although not so clean as the roads at the other rows, it is yet comparatively free from mud. There are large gardens between this row and the Single Row, and they are well cultivated. The rent is 6s. 3d. per month.
Additional information from Thomas McKerrell, Minutes of evidence
"Then there is another trifling error I made about the " hurly bed." It was the first time I had ever seen a "hurly bed." The inference can be drawn that the children sleep inside the hurly bed while it is below the ordinary bed. As a matter of fact, the hurly bed is drawn out into the floor while they sleep in it. The rest of the statement may be taken, as generally correct, so far as we know."
31. Barkip, Parish of Dalry
Office Row. - There are 10 houses of two apartments in this row, built of stone. The kitchen measures 12 feet by 12 feet and the room 13 feet by 11 feet. The floors are brick tiles and very much broken up, and the surface very uneven. There is one dry-closet for each house and one ash-pit for the row. These erections are placed at the end of the row.
There are no washing-houses and no coal-houses. The coals are kept below the bed.
The roadway is unpaved, and there are numerous pools of water at the front of the doors. The ash-pit was filled to overflowing, and was in a horrible mess. The houses are in a very bad state of repair. The walls are broken in some cases in the inside of the houses, and we saw several doors lying off the hinges, with the result, as one tenant informed us, the doors could not be locked at night. The rent of these places is 1s. 3d. per week.
Burn Row. - This row contains 12 two-apartment houses, built of stone. They appear to have been originally one-apartment houses, but in every case a tenant has now two apartments - but and ben. The kitchen measures approximately 14 feet by 11 feet, and the room is of the same dimensions. The floors are made of cement. There are two washing-houses for the row and four dry-closets. There is one ash-pit, and it is very dirty. The roadway is unpaved, but is kept very dry owing to a plentiful supply of ashes. The rent is 1s. 6d. per week.
Brick Rows. - There are 10 single-apartment houses, five on each side, built back to back. They are built of brick. The house measures 11 feet by 10 feet. The floor is of brick tile and very broken, and in the house we saw there were many holes in the floor.
There are no washing-houses and no coal-houses. We saw a woman doing her washing on the floor of the only room in the house, and the coals were stowed below the beds. There is one ash-pit, which was filled to overflowing. The roadway is unpaved and very dirty. There are two dirty dry-closets for the row. The rent is 1s. per week.
Plantation Row. - There are 22 two-apartment houses in this row, built of stone. The kitchen measures approximately 14 feet by 11 feet and the room 11 feet by 11 feet. The brick tile floors are very much broken up and uneven. There are six dry-closets for the row and two ash-pits.
There are no washing-houses and no coal-houses. The washing is done in the kitchen, and the coals are kept, below the beds. The roadways are unpaved and dirty. There is only one water tap for the row. The rent is 5s. 9d. per month. The houses are said to be very damp, and a large gutter has been cut at the back of the houses in order to let the water run away. The tenants complain that there is very little pressure in the water tap in the summer time.
32. Glengarnock Ironworks Square, Parish of Kilbirnie
These houses are inhabited by the workers at the furnaces and steel works close by. We were induced to visit them because Kilbirnie parish is second highest on the list with infectious diseases for the Northern District of Ayrshire. After seeing this square we think we know the reason for this bad pre-eminence.
Front Row. - This row is is front of the square, with the doors facing to the front street. It contains 11 two-apartment houses, built of stone. The kitchen measures approximately 13 1/2 feet by 12 feet. This is the best row in the square, and there is a water-closet provided for every three tenants, and one washing-house for every five tenants. Each tenant has also a coal-house. There are no ash-pits, but a much better system has been adopted in this row for dealing with refuse. The tenants are supplied with metal dustbins, which are emptied every day or two. The roads are paved in front, and very clean. The rent of this house is 2s. 6d. per week, but this includes rates and gas.
Back Row. - This row contains 20 single-apartment houses, ten in front and ten at the back, built back to back. The house measures approximately 11 feet by 10 1/2 feet. the floors are brick tiles, with the usual miserable results. The roads are unpaved and dirty.
There are no washing-houses and no coal-houses. Washing is done in the only room in the house, and coals kept below the bed. There are three tenants for one dry-closet, and one ash-pit for the row. The rent of these places is 1s. 6d. per week each.
Side Row. - This row contains 6 two-apartment houses, built of stone. The kitchen measures 12 feet by 11 feet and the room 11 feet by 11 feet. The floor is made of the usual miserable broken brick tiles.
There are no washing-houses and no coal-houses. The roadway is unpaved and dirty. The rent is 2s. 1d. per week.
Bottom Row. - The Bottom Bow contains 12 two-apartment houses of the same type as those in the Side Row. There is the same want of accommodation.
No washing-houses and no coal-houses. The water-supply is wretchedly inadequate. There is only one tap for all the houses in the square, and the tenants complain of being very short of water in the summer time. There are only two ash-pits for the whole square, and they are so much overworked that they are in a filthy condition. The houses of the Side Row have a very deep and, we should say, a dangerous syvor running at the back of them. We do not wonder that the tenants complain that the houses are very damp.
Bank Row. - This is a small row with one single-apartment house, one two-apartment house, and one three-apartment house, situated behind the Side Row of the square. The rent of the one-apartment house is 1s. 8d., the two-apartment house 2s. 6d. per week. There is one washing-house, said to be provided by the tenant, and the tenant has to carry the water to it herself. There is one dry-closet.
Pond Row. - This row consists of 14 single-apartment houses, seven at the back and seven at the front, built back to back. The house measures 11 feet by 10 1/2 feet. The floors are the usual miserable brick tiles. There is one large ash-pit between the rows filled with tons of evil-smelling filth. The houses have no rhones on them, and the unpaved roadway in front of the houses is in a deplorable condition.
There are no washing-houses and no coal-houses. The coals are kept below the beds. The rent is 1s. 6d, per week. There is a large pond, for the supply of water to the furnaces, in front of this row. We understand it is in some places 7 feet deep. It is surrounded by a brick wall, but there are several openings where children could wander in. The water from the pond was leaking at this row, and very large and deep pools of water were lying a few yards from the houses.
Long Rows. - These are two rows facing each other, fronting a long street. On the left-hand side the row has been formed by the houses on one side of the back to back rows we have already described, and 12 two-apartment houses built of stone. The kitchen measures 13 feet by 12 feet and the room 11 feet by 9 feet. The floors here are made of wood.
There are no coal-houses and no washing-houses. The washing has to be done in the house, and the coals are kept below the beds. The roadway is unpaved and very dirty. The rent of these twelve houses is 2s. 6d. per week, and there is no gas provided in the houses.
On the right-hand side row there are 49 two-apartment houses. The kitchen measures 14 feet by 12 feet and the room 12 feet by 9 feet. There are stone floors in this row.
There are no washing-houses or coal-houses for all these forty-nine houses. The rent on this side of the street is 2s. per week. The tenants think that the reason why the tenants on the other side of the street are charged 6d. more a week for rent is because they have wooden floors. A wooden floor in this locality is evidently regarded as a luxury.
The street measures 27 feet across from the houses on one side to the houses on the other side of the street; and the dry-closets are placed in the centre of the street. The effluvia can be better imagined than described. The syvors running along each side of the street are very dirty. There appear to be only two water-taps for this long street of forty-nine houses on each side. We also discovered only three ash-pits for this great population, and they are placed at very great distances apart, and there were at the date of our visit (5th December 1913) several tons of filth in each of them.
There are no drying-greens, and the whole street was decorated with clothes hung up to dry.
The houses in these rows are largely inhabited by Germans and Poles. Some of them can speak a little English, and in several cases we discovered that they could speak German. The houses of the people which we inspected wore kept very clean and tidy.
Railway Cottages - Those are two rows running parallel to each other. They are a newer type of house, and built of stone. Each row contains fourteen houses, and they are built in blocks of two in each block. There is a meuse lane running between the rows. The kitchen measures approximately 14 feet by 12 feet and the room 12 feet by 10 feet.
There are no washing-houses, but coal-houses have been supplied. There are no ,ash-pits, but metal dustbins have been provided, which are emptied every other day. There is one dry-closet for every two tenants. The roads are unpaved, but comparatively clean. There is a horrible dirty ash-pit just behind the first two houses, presumably used by the people across the street in the square. The floors are made of wood. The rent is 2s. 7d. per week.
There is only one water-tap for each row, and, as is the case in all the other rows, the people complain that the water supply is inadequate. There are no cesspools.
The tenants complain that the houses (in their own language) " are rotten with damp."
This is a property recently erected. It is built of brick and rough-cast, and is two storeys. There are fourteen tenants living in the bottom flat and fourteen tenants on the top flat. The tenants on the top flat have access to their houses by an outside stone stair. The floors are made of wood.
There is a washhouse for every four tenants, and a water-closet for every two tenants. Each tenant has a coal-house. There is a cement pavement on one side of the houses and a brick pavement on the other side.
The houses on the bottom flat have both a front door and a back door. The kitchen on the bottom flat measures approximately 13 feet by 9 feet and the room 9 feet by 9 feet. There is a lobby leading from the front door to the kitchen. The houses on the. top flat are larger to the extent of the floor space of the lobby. There is a very small scullery, and every house has a water-tap in the scullery.
The rent of these houses is 3s. per week each.
After visiting Glengarnock Square and inspecting the general overcrowding, the want of accommodation, and the general aspect of the place, we are not surprised that the number of infectious diseases notified from Kilbirnie parish is nearly as great as the number notified from Stevenston (Landward), where Ardeer Square, previously described, is situated.
Additional information from Thomas McKerrell, Minutes of evidence
"Dealing with Glengarnock, we state that there is a street with forty-nine houses, and we point out that there are dry-closets built in the centre of the street. I think we are wrong there. We passed them, but we did not go into them. We were told they were dry-closets. We are now told that they are water-closets. I think it is likely to be correct, because the ash-pits are not built outside them. "