1727. Does she spin for the shops?-No; she spins generally for ladies in the town, who employ her to make worsted for them.
1728. Ask her employers altogether ladies, not merchants?-They are just merchants' wives, and ladies in the town-chiefly Dr. Cowie's lady.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, MRS ANN ARCUS, examined.
1729. You are a dresser in Lerwick?-Yes.
1730. How do you carry on that business? What is the nature of it?-I sometimes make shawls myself, and sell them. There [producing it] is a line of mine, which I got from Mr. Sinclair.
1731. Do you dress shawls or make them?-I dress shawls, and sometimes I make them or get them made.
1732. What is the dressing business?-Washing the shawls, and stretching them on the grass, and mending [Page 34] them and making them ready for the market. The stitches sometimes give way when they are stretched and then I mend them.
1733. Do you also bleach the shawls?-We whiten them with brimstone.
1734. You do that before stretching them on the grass?-Yes.
1735. That is part of the washing process?-Yes.