The schools (see Plate VII.) are the gift to the village of Mr. and Mrs. George Cadbury. They accommodate 540 children (270 boys and 270 girls), and are constructed on the central-hall plan. There are six class-rooms for fifty children each, and six for forty each, and the dimensions of the large hall are 84 ft. by 32 ft. The land falls from North to South, and advantage has been taken of the basement afforded to provide for accommodation for classes in cookery, laundry, manual instruction, and various branches of handicraft. The buildings stand in grounds two and a-half acres in extent, adjoining which is the Park, the children thus having access in all to about ten acres. The tower rises to a height of about 60 ft., and has been utilised for a library, laboratory, &c. An extensive view of the surrounding country is obtained from the top, and a map, incised in stone, with compass and locating apparatus, is provided for instructing the children in local geography. Everything is being done in the designing of details—carved and painted panels, &c.—to make the building itself a permanent means of educating the children; the subjects chosen include historical scenes, truthfully depicted as regards dress, customs, architecture, &c., while in the bosses and voussoirs are represented English flowers and foliage, conventionally treated. The carving is executed by Mr. Benjamin Creswick, of Birmingham. In the designing of the building every effort has been made to embody the latest improvements and the result of the most broad-minded and enlightened study of education. Gardens are provided for the instruction of the children in gardening, vegetable growing, &c. The low death-rate at Bournville during 1904 of 6·9 per thousand, compared with 19 per thousand in Birmingham, is some indication of the healthiness of the village. The figures are taken from the report of the district medical officer of health. [Illustration: PLATE IX. RUSKIN HALL, BOURNVILLE.] [Illustration: PLATE X. MEETING HOUSE, BOURNVILLE.] [Illustration: PLATE XI. MEETING HOUSE, BOURNVILLE.] It is not proposed to deal here with the economics of model village or garden city schemes generally. Though the movement is still very young, it is already advancing from the problematical stage. Its progress is being watched with the keenest interest by many who realise that of all courses the most impracticable in the long run is that which allows the slum-suburb to spring up unchecked. If it be asked, with regard to the problem of the housing of the people, what is Bournville’s contribution towards its solution, it would be stating its claims at the lowest to say that it stands as an example of what the village of the future may be, a village of healthy homes amid pleasant surroundings, where fresh air is abundant and beauty present, and where are secured to its people by an administration co-operative in nature numerous benefits which under present conditions are denied them elsewhere.