"Persevere. Be not weary in well doing. Youth in society are like flowers Blown in their native bed, 'tis there alone Their faculties expand in full bloom Shine out, there only reach their proper use. "Wrought by Lydia J. Cotton. Aged 9 years. August 27. 1819. Love learning and improve." Foreign Samplers It has been my endeavour in this volume to confine the survey of samplers and embroideries entirely to the production of the English-speaking race, in part because other authors have drawn almost all their material from foreign sources, and the subject is sufficiently ample and interesting without having recourse to them, and also because the collections containing foreign samplers or embroideries are very few, and although they, perhaps, surpass the efforts of our own countrywomen in the variety of their stitches and the proficiency with which they are executed, they take a less important place where interest of subject is the main recommendation. [Illustration: FIG.--49. AMERICAN SAMPLER OF THE LAMBORN FAMILY. 1827. _Mr A. W. Drake's Collection._] [Illustration: FIG. 50.--AMERICAN SAMPLER BY ELIZABETH M. FORD. _Dr Jas. W. Walker's Collection._] [Illustration: FIG. 51.--AMERICAN SAMPLER BY LYDIA J. COTTON. DATED 1819. _Mrs C. J. Longman._] Nevertheless as the acquisition of them may add an interest to those who never fail on their travels to inspect the contents of every curiosity shop they come across, the following description of them which Mrs C. J. Longman, who possesses a most important collection, has been good enough to furnish, may not be out of place. "My collection of foreign samplers includes specimens from the following countries: Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, but by far the largest number of my foreign samplers come from Germany, and, next to English ones, the German seem more easy to obtain than those of any other country. In Spain and Portugal there are also a fair number in the market. "The dated samplers abroad seem to begin at about the same period as in England, namely, the middle of the seventeenth century. The earliest specimens that I possess from these several countries are as follows: Germany, 1674; Switzerland, 1675; Italy, seventeenth century (undated); Spain, early eighteenth century (undated); Belgium, 1724; Holland, 1726; Denmark, 1742; France, 1745; Portugal, early nineteenth century (undated). "There are a few marked characteristics which seem to belong to the different countries, which it is interesting to note. "In the German samplers, the initials of the worker and the date are almost always given, enclosed together, in a little garland or frame; but I have never seen the name signed in full. I have only once seen a German sampler with an inscription on it; in that case 'Fur uns geoffert' is worked above a representation of the Crucifixion.