MANUFACTURING CELERITY.
In 1811 a gentleman made a bet of one thousand guineas, that he would have a coat made in the course of a single day, from the first process of shearing the sheep till its completion by the tailor. The wager was decided at Newbury, on the 25th of June in that year, by Mr. John Coxeter, of Greenham Mills, near that town. At five o’clock that morning, sir John Throckmorton, bart. presented two Southdown wedder sheep to Mr. Coxeter, and the sheep were shorn, the wool spun, the yarn spooled, warped, loomed, and wove; and the cloth burred, milled, rowed, dried, sheared, and pressed, and put into the hands of the tailors by four o’clock that afternoon: and at twenty minutes past six the coat, entirely finished, was presented by Mr. Coxeter to sir John Throckmorton, who appeared with it before upwards of five thousand spectators, who rent the air with acclamations at this remarkable instance of despatch.
For the Table Book.
BALLAD.
Suggested on reading the Novel Of
“Castle Baynard.”
“And must thou go, and must thou go,
So very, very soon?
There is not time to say farewell
Before the morrow’s noon.”
“O let me kiss away those tears
That dim thine eyes of blue,
The king’s behest must be obeyed,
And I must sigh, adieu.”
“Yet stay! oh stay! my Eustace, stay!
A little, little while;
I fear me that in Gallia’s court
Thou’lt woo another’s smile.”
“Nay, nay, Matilda, say not so,
Thy knight will aye be true,
True to his own betrothed maid,
So now, sweet love, adieu.”
“Yet tarry—canst thou tarry not
One other, other day?
Then guard this pledge of plighted faith
When thou art far away.”
“This precious gift, this flaxen lock,
How fondly shall I view,
And cherish next my heart—but now,
One last, last kiss, adieu.”
***
July 3, 1827.