DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1312#0093
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 49
In reverting once more to the subject of needlework (we trust our fair readers will
excuse us for so doing), we ought not to pass over the industry of a good little girl,
fourteen years of age, who favoured us with a crochet bed-quilt, with the ten command-
ments in the centre. A more ambitious display of learning—joined with industry—
was made by Eliza Sutton, of Maidstone, in a crochet bed-quilt, the centre of which
exhibited a group of flowers ; above them, three scriptural sentences—in English, French,
and German; below, three others—in Spanish, Italian, and Latin; a scriptural sentence
in English at each side; and the borders enriched with dates, and allusions to the Great
Exhibition, in the mother-tongue. We should recommend that a lamp be kept constantly
burning by the side of the bed, in order that its occupiers might (in case of insomno-
lency) turn the time to profit, by translating and transposing the various languages at
their finger-ends. The unassuming boast of another of these crochet performances was,
that it contained 425 invisible joinings without a knot. A quilt of patchwork, in 13,500
pieces of silk, satin, and velvet, by Maria Johnson, of Hull, redeemed, by the elegance of
its design, the apparent waste of time in putting the multitudinous materials together.
We would fain extend the same meed of praise to a bonnie Scot, of the name of
Johnstone, who, it appears, devoted the leisure hours of eighteen years to the concoction
of a table-cover, consisting of 2,000 pieces of cloth, from which he arranged twentyv
three historical and imaginary characters, six equestrian scenes, a fox-hunt, and a
pantomime, crowning the whole with the regalia of Scotland in the centre. Another
article connected with Scottish history amused us by the title—"Mary, Queen of Scots,
mourning over the dying Douglas," in Berlin-wool. Another extraordinary production
in needlework was a set of chess-men, dice, and board; the men being clothed in silk, in
characteristic costume ; the pawns representing the gentlemen of her Majesty's body-guard
of gentlemen-at-arms, in their uniform. King James stigmatised the noble game of chess
as a philosophic folly. We do not think this performance would have raised it in his'
estimation.
CHAPTER X.
PROVINCIAL VISITORS—A RETROSPECT—TRAVELLING, OLD AND NEW—THE LOUNGER AND THE"
AUTISAN—FIVE-SHILLING DAYS AND ONE-SHILLING DATS—ST. TAMES AND ST. GILES, ETC., ETC.
The sight of the multitudes daily brought up from the provinces for one brief visit
to the Exhibition, and that over, taken back to their homes, was one to excite profound
interest and even anxiety. The mere possibility of the .thing is a new feature of our
times. It is but forty years since Napoleon was astonishing the world by the rapidity
of motion he could give to large masses, and by the sudden concentration of widely-
scattered forces; yet Napoleon himself would have been staggered by a proposal to place
50,000 persons at their ease in one building for five hours, all of whom had breakfasted
at home, a hundred miles off, and would sup at their homes in the evening. If that
was not actually done, it was, at least, proved to be possible; for many thousands present
in the Exhibition from before twelve till after four o'clock, accomplished that feat. All
great movements of mankind have hitherto been tedious, difficult, costly, and even
disastrous. The march of armies is more fatal than the field. The path of pilgrims
is beset by the spoiler, by famine, and by disease. The festival of Jaggernaut generally
In reverting once more to the subject of needlework (we trust our fair readers will
excuse us for so doing), we ought not to pass over the industry of a good little girl,
fourteen years of age, who favoured us with a crochet bed-quilt, with the ten command-
ments in the centre. A more ambitious display of learning—joined with industry—
was made by Eliza Sutton, of Maidstone, in a crochet bed-quilt, the centre of which
exhibited a group of flowers ; above them, three scriptural sentences—in English, French,
and German; below, three others—in Spanish, Italian, and Latin; a scriptural sentence
in English at each side; and the borders enriched with dates, and allusions to the Great
Exhibition, in the mother-tongue. We should recommend that a lamp be kept constantly
burning by the side of the bed, in order that its occupiers might (in case of insomno-
lency) turn the time to profit, by translating and transposing the various languages at
their finger-ends. The unassuming boast of another of these crochet performances was,
that it contained 425 invisible joinings without a knot. A quilt of patchwork, in 13,500
pieces of silk, satin, and velvet, by Maria Johnson, of Hull, redeemed, by the elegance of
its design, the apparent waste of time in putting the multitudinous materials together.
We would fain extend the same meed of praise to a bonnie Scot, of the name of
Johnstone, who, it appears, devoted the leisure hours of eighteen years to the concoction
of a table-cover, consisting of 2,000 pieces of cloth, from which he arranged twentyv
three historical and imaginary characters, six equestrian scenes, a fox-hunt, and a
pantomime, crowning the whole with the regalia of Scotland in the centre. Another
article connected with Scottish history amused us by the title—"Mary, Queen of Scots,
mourning over the dying Douglas," in Berlin-wool. Another extraordinary production
in needlework was a set of chess-men, dice, and board; the men being clothed in silk, in
characteristic costume ; the pawns representing the gentlemen of her Majesty's body-guard
of gentlemen-at-arms, in their uniform. King James stigmatised the noble game of chess
as a philosophic folly. We do not think this performance would have raised it in his'
estimation.
CHAPTER X.
PROVINCIAL VISITORS—A RETROSPECT—TRAVELLING, OLD AND NEW—THE LOUNGER AND THE"
AUTISAN—FIVE-SHILLING DAYS AND ONE-SHILLING DATS—ST. TAMES AND ST. GILES, ETC., ETC.
The sight of the multitudes daily brought up from the provinces for one brief visit
to the Exhibition, and that over, taken back to their homes, was one to excite profound
interest and even anxiety. The mere possibility of the .thing is a new feature of our
times. It is but forty years since Napoleon was astonishing the world by the rapidity
of motion he could give to large masses, and by the sudden concentration of widely-
scattered forces; yet Napoleon himself would have been staggered by a proposal to place
50,000 persons at their ease in one building for five hours, all of whom had breakfasted
at home, a hundred miles off, and would sup at their homes in the evening. If that
was not actually done, it was, at least, proved to be possible; for many thousands present
in the Exhibition from before twelve till after four o'clock, accomplished that feat. All
great movements of mankind have hitherto been tedious, difficult, costly, and even
disastrous. The march of armies is more fatal than the field. The path of pilgrims
is beset by the spoiler, by famine, and by disease. The festival of Jaggernaut generally