English fiction -- 19th century; Walker, Robert, 1710-1802
He also assisted his neighbours in haymaking and shearing their flocks,
and in the performance of this latter service he was eminently dexterous.
They, in their turn, complimented him with the present of a haycock, or a
fleece; less as a recompense for this particular service than as a
general acknowledgment. The Sabbath was in a strict sense kept holy; the
Sunday evenings being devoted to reading the Scripture and family prayer.
The principal festivals appointed by the Church were also duly observed;
but through every other day in the week, through every week in the year,
he was incessantly occupied in work of hand or mind; not allowing a
moment for recreation, except upon a Saturday afternoon, when he indulged
himself with a Newspaper, or sometimes with a Magazine. The frugality
and temperance established in his house, were as admirable as the
industry. Nothing to which the name of luxury could be given was there
known; in the latter part of his life, indeed, when tea had been brought
into almost general use, it was provided for visiters, and for such of
his own family as returned occasionally to his roof and had been
accustomed to this refreshment elsewhere; but neither he nor his wife
ever partook of it. The raiment worn by his family was comely and
decent, but as simple as their diet; the homespun materials were made up
into apparel by their own hands. At the time of the decease of this
thrifty pair, their cottage contained a large store of webs of woollen
and linen cloth, woven from thread of their own spinning. And it is
remarkable that the pew in the chapel in which the family used to sit
remained a few years ago neatly lined with woollen cloth spun by the
pastor’s own hands. It is the only pew in the chapel so distinguished;
and I know of no other instance of his conformity to the delicate
accommodations of modern times. The fuel of the house, like that of
their neighbours, consisted of peat, procured from the mosses by their
own labour. The lights by which, in the winter evenings, their work was
performed, were of their own manufacture, such as still continue to be
used in these cottages; they are made of the pith of rushes dipped in any
unctuous substance that the house affords. White candles, as tallow
candles are here called, were reserved to honour the Christmas festivals,
and were perhaps produced upon no other occasions. Once a month, during
the proper season, a sheep was drawn from their small mountain flock, and
killed for the use of the family; and a cow towards the close of the
year, was salted and dried, for winter provision: the hide was tanned to
furnish them with shoes.—By these various resources, this venerable
clergyman reared a numerous family, not only preserving them, as he
affectingly says, “from wanting the necessaries of life;” but afforded
them an unstinted education, and the means of raising themselves in
society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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