DOI issue:
Special winter-number 1896-7
DOI article:White, Gleeson: The sampler: an appreciation and a plea for its revival
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17298#0390
The Sampler
Such a sampler one fancies the Misses Pinkerton may seem to be begging the title. Yet, as the
may have had framed in the solemn drawing-room sampler was usually an educational task, worked in
of The Mall, Chiswick. We know that the estim- school-hours, whether at home or at a " finishing
able Miss Barbara, in her " billet " of farewell, academy for young ladies," the incongruity is not so
proclaimed that her pupil "in every variety of great as it might appear. Maps were not infre-
embroidery and needlework will be found to have quently worked by the needle long before the date of
realised her friends' fondest ivisliesP No doubt this one by Ann Hope, 1777 (page 64). But recently
a quarter of a century later the embroidery at I saw at the rooms of that most admirable Society
in Sloane Street, some
tapestry belonging, if
TIT] memory can be trusted,
^^j/i^^xyy"*'1.,.-* .r •» * |j to the Bodleian Library,
Oxford, which had been
TWweUr*tom70T™SeyeS most skilfully repaired.
»<, a i-1 r K.f| This was a huge map of
I he momma Joeam wmch »«$ me rise 0 r .
0 •& the county—or part of it
To all the jo7s »f youth . —several yards long, and
Tor thy protection Wlifat I skpt more picturesque in treat-
O Lord my hirabie Thanks accent, *
And Blefs my fos with Truth . fr
ment by far than the less
ambitious map of England
and Wales, with part of
Scotland and Ireland,
which is figured here.
^f^t But lately a paper on
^jjl j r & f Jl ; Tapestry Maps, read before
« f the British Association,
*^ * JfjT /' * proves that the examples
' Louisa ^ / 1 are ^ n0 means unique.
Lepage f Jiir In the desi§n we lllus"
^ worj< * trate, beyond the quaint
^ rn the year .jiniT-4 1 j little ships dotted hap-
•^^"^jffi V fr'T hazard on the "British
Ocean," the Irish Sea, and
the British Channel, stern
■ ij fi reality has eschewed the
groups of trees and the
houses of its earlier for-
bears. But scale, of course,
would not permit these
\i( [J latter details. Why the
<;« I] parallels of latitude and
longitude are omitted is
not quite clear; but pro-
'? |! bably it was felt that their
l\ introduction would tend
j* f. to confuse the lettering,
jfTJ^tf9 jSSf" $*( ^ *ri ry -- iL| which is so legible and
q _ "- • j' L * JL.......: .-'.-i- - -' * accurate, that one wishes
for a Bradshaw with so
the sampler of louisa lepage 1805 clear a chart. Does it
hold suggestion for the
lady cyclist to embroider
such a high-class academy reflected the mode of some part of her costume, rational or irrational,
its day, and scorned the archaic border, which with maps of the district ? It certainly suggests in a
alone prevents Martha Brown's sampler from the larger scale a capital decoration for counterpanes
lowest place. Yet it, or its duplicate, was doubt- (or bed-spreads as modernity styles them) for the
less one of the archives of the Misses Pinkerton's nursery. Imagine " the dear land of counterpane,"
past—exhaling the praise of virtue between classic with real mountains and oceans depicted, whereon
columns, in that chaste academy, under the patron- the wakeful little occupant could make imaginary
age of the great lexicographer himself. travels and sometimes engage in sending " his ships
A sampler, which is really a map in needlework, in fleets all up and down the sheets," as Robert.
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ifij
Such a sampler one fancies the Misses Pinkerton may seem to be begging the title. Yet, as the
may have had framed in the solemn drawing-room sampler was usually an educational task, worked in
of The Mall, Chiswick. We know that the estim- school-hours, whether at home or at a " finishing
able Miss Barbara, in her " billet " of farewell, academy for young ladies," the incongruity is not so
proclaimed that her pupil "in every variety of great as it might appear. Maps were not infre-
embroidery and needlework will be found to have quently worked by the needle long before the date of
realised her friends' fondest ivisliesP No doubt this one by Ann Hope, 1777 (page 64). But recently
a quarter of a century later the embroidery at I saw at the rooms of that most admirable Society
in Sloane Street, some
tapestry belonging, if
TIT] memory can be trusted,
^^j/i^^xyy"*'1.,.-* .r •» * |j to the Bodleian Library,
Oxford, which had been
TWweUr*tom70T™SeyeS most skilfully repaired.
»<, a i-1 r K.f| This was a huge map of
I he momma Joeam wmch »«$ me rise 0 r .
0 •& the county—or part of it
To all the jo7s »f youth . —several yards long, and
Tor thy protection Wlifat I skpt more picturesque in treat-
O Lord my hirabie Thanks accent, *
And Blefs my fos with Truth . fr
ment by far than the less
ambitious map of England
and Wales, with part of
Scotland and Ireland,
which is figured here.
^f^t But lately a paper on
^jjl j r & f Jl ; Tapestry Maps, read before
« f the British Association,
*^ * JfjT /' * proves that the examples
' Louisa ^ / 1 are ^ n0 means unique.
Lepage f Jiir In the desi§n we lllus"
^ worj< * trate, beyond the quaint
^ rn the year .jiniT-4 1 j little ships dotted hap-
•^^"^jffi V fr'T hazard on the "British
Ocean," the Irish Sea, and
the British Channel, stern
■ ij fi reality has eschewed the
groups of trees and the
houses of its earlier for-
bears. But scale, of course,
would not permit these
\i( [J latter details. Why the
<;« I] parallels of latitude and
longitude are omitted is
not quite clear; but pro-
'? |! bably it was felt that their
l\ introduction would tend
j* f. to confuse the lettering,
jfTJ^tf9 jSSf" $*( ^ *ri ry -- iL| which is so legible and
q _ "- • j' L * JL.......: .-'.-i- - -' * accurate, that one wishes
for a Bradshaw with so
the sampler of louisa lepage 1805 clear a chart. Does it
hold suggestion for the
lady cyclist to embroider
such a high-class academy reflected the mode of some part of her costume, rational or irrational,
its day, and scorned the archaic border, which with maps of the district ? It certainly suggests in a
alone prevents Martha Brown's sampler from the larger scale a capital decoration for counterpanes
lowest place. Yet it, or its duplicate, was doubt- (or bed-spreads as modernity styles them) for the
less one of the archives of the Misses Pinkerton's nursery. Imagine " the dear land of counterpane,"
past—exhaling the praise of virtue between classic with real mountains and oceans depicted, whereon
columns, in that chaste academy, under the patron- the wakeful little occupant could make imaginary
age of the great lexicographer himself. travels and sometimes engage in sending " his ships
A sampler, which is really a map in needlework, in fleets all up and down the sheets," as Robert.
<?6
ifij