AN OLD QUILT AND ITS STORY.
Among all the beautiful needlework exhibited in the "Woman's Industry Department" of the recent Edinburgh Exhibition, many must have observed a bed-quilt worked in a quaint conventional pattern, on a white linen ground, which bore a label to the effect that it was "designed and commenced by a Countess of Aberdeen towards the middle of the last century, and recently completed by a crofter woman in Aberdeenshire."
Could the quilt tell its own tale, its history, no doubt, would be most pathetic and interesting; but we will try, with the knowledge we have, to lightly sketch that history.
The Countess who commenced it was Anne, daughter of Alexander, second Duke of Gordon. The third wife of William, Earl of Aberdeen, she was still a young woman when, by his death in 1745, she was left a widow. Quitting Haddo, the home of her married life, she went with her young family to reside in the fine old historic castle of Fyvie, a few miles distant, which, with her dower, had been bought by the Earl as her jointure house. The Countess seems to have been gifted with artistic tastes, as she left in Haddo many evidences of her skill and industry—several sets of beautifully-worked curtains, with long-forgotten curious stitches, producing varied and admirable effects. But the bright, pretty industry of the Countess was checked. Sickness, to be followed by death, entered her home.
We may fancy that by her husband's sick-bed the first beginning of this quilt was made—how, in the intervals of watching the invalid, a few sprays and scrolls were delicately traced. But the summons had gone forth, and, as death approached, the work, which had been in part the occupation of happier days, and a resource in affliction, was thrown aside.
When the widowed Countess had settled in a new home, and again faced the ordinary duties of life, we need not wonder that she thought no more of the discarded work left at Haddo House, but set herself to design afresh and embroider the curtains which have ever since (until recently) adorned a bed-room in Fyvie Castle.
Into these no doubt was woven many a thought for the Jacobite cause, and many an anxiety for dear ones, as her own family, the ducal house of Gordon, had been keen supporters of the Stuarts, and it is said that the Countess came out on the road-side, near Fyvie Castle, with her children, to see the Duke of Cumberland's troops pass on their way to Culloden to put down the Scotch rebellion, and boldly avowed to him her sympathy with his foe.
But what of the work the Countess left at Haddo House? As to it, our history is silent for more than a hundred years. It has lain folded by the fingers of the busy worker that have long been still. Sorrow and joy have come by turns to the house—birth and death. Children have prattled, and statesmen have discussed the affairs of nations. Those who have made history have come and gone; philanthropy and romance have alike been woven into the family story; but the piece of discarded broderie has been unheeded.
At length the present Countess of Aberdeen, whose name will ever be associated with earnest desire and effort for the good of others, and whose taste and love of the beautiful led to her interest in such work, unfolding the long-forgotten quilt, conceived the idea of having it completed, if possible. To whom, however, could the beautiful work be entrusted to be finished, by deft fingers and graceful appreciation?