Country life was idealised by the Victorians into an exquiste rural idyll far away from the smoke and grime of the growing cities. Artists of the late nineteenth century sought to perpetuate this nostalgic vision, and their work found its greatest expression in the images of cottages and cottage life. Drawing on the watercolours of Helen Allingham, Myles Birket Foster and Charles Wilson and the writings of Flora Thompson and Thomas Hardy, Andrew Clayton-Payne describes the cottages themselves, how they were built and domestic traditions that determined the cottagers' lives.