No one could possibly assert that a house whose drainage was out of order was fit for habitation; so that, if your landlord is ill-advised enough to bring an action against you, you need have no fear of the result. But I fancy that he is only trying it on, and will abandon his claim when he finds that you are determined to resist it. It was fortunate for him that you did not stay on in his house and contract typhoid fever, or something of the kind. If one of you had done so, you might have taken action against the landlord for damages and compensation. What I have just written only applies to the hire of a furnished house. The law on the letting of furnished lodgings is quite different. There is no implied warranty that the lodgings shall continue fit for habitation during the term. I know of a case where a friend of mine took lodgings at the seaside for his wife and family, and while they were staying there one of the landlady’s children became ill with scarlet fever; but, as she did not wish to lose her lodgers, the landlady concealed the fact of her child’s having the fever from my friend. The consequence was that my friend’s wife and child also became stricken with the fever, and he was put to a lot of expense for medical attendance, nursing, etc. But he was unsuccessful in an action which he brought to recover such expenses as damages, because the jury found that the house was healthy at the time of the letting. And the judges of the Appeal Court laid down the axiom that there is no implied agreement in the letting of furnished lodgings that they shall continue fit for habitation. If a landlady were to let out lodgings knowing that one of the inmates of her house was suffering from an infectious disease, I have no doubt that she would render herself liable to a claim for damages if one were subsequently brought against her; and it may give you, my dear Dorothy, some satisfaction to learn that she would certainly be liable to a criminal prosecution involving a heavy fine or imprisonment. “Trespassers will be prosecuted” is a notice which one frequently sees in the country; but it is an empty threat. Provided you are careful to do no damage to the grass, you may trespass as much as you please. Very often you will find such notices stuck up in fields over which there is a right of way. In such cases the notice simply means that you should keep to the footpath and not trample down the grass. It has been said that it is no offence to take mushrooms, blackberries, primroses, or wild plants of any kind or to trespass to find them. Of course this only applies to mushrooms which are growing wild; but it still applies even when such mushrooms may be a source of profit to the owner of the field, provided they are growing wild and not in a state of cultivation.