COTTAGIUM, is properly a little house for habitation without lands belonging to it: stat. 4. Edw. I. But by a later statute 31 Eliz. c. 7., no man may build a cottage unless he lay four acres of land thereto; except it be in market-towns or cities, or within a mile of the sea, or for the habitation of labourers in mines, sailors, foresters, shepherds, &c. and cottages erected by order of justices of the peace for poor impotent people are excepted out of the statute. The four acres of land to make it a cottage within the law are to be freehold, and land of inheritance; and four acres holden by copy, or for life or lives, or for any number of years, will not be sufficient to make a lawful cottage.