“This needlework of mine may tell
That when a child I learned well
And by my elders I was taught
Not to spend my time for nought,”
which is concentrated and intensified in one of Frances Johnson, worked in 1797:—
“In reading this if any faults you see
Mend them yourself and find no fault in me.”
In a much humbler strain is this from an old sampler in Mrs Longman’s collection:—
“When I was young I little thought
That wit must be so dearly bought
But now experience tells me how
If I must thrive, then I must bowe
And bend unto another will,
That I might learn both arte & skill.”
Owing to the portrayal of an insect, which was not infrequently met with in days gone by, upon the face of the sampler which bears the following lines, it has been suggested that they were presumably written by that creature:—
“Dear Debby
I love you sincerely
My heart retains a grateful sense of your past kindness
When will the hours of our
Separation be at an end?
Preserve in your bosom the remembrance
of your affectionate
Deborah Jane Berkin.”
The following, coming about the date when the abolition of the slave trade was imminent, may have reference to it:—
“THERE’S mercy in each ray of light, that mortal eye e’er saw,
There’s mercy in each breath of air, that mortal lips can draw,
There’s mercy both for bird, and beast, in God’s indulgent plan,
There’s mercy for each creeping thing—But man has none for man.”
Elizabeth Jane Gates Aged 12 years, 1829.
Riddle samplers, such as that of Ann Witty, do not often occur:—