Written on Easter Sunday. MS. ] [Footnote 381: 1819. Her Husband's ... MS. ] [Footnote 382: 1819. Which she had spun--culling ... MS. ] The following (incomplete) version of this Easter Sunday sonnet exists in MS.:-- COMPOSED ON EASTER SUNDAY Erewhile to celebrate this glorious morn That saw the unvanquished Saviour of mankind Rise from the grave, the Ruler and the Hind Put on fresh raiment, till that hour unworn, Fair cloth of home-bred wool which he had shorn, Her hands had spun, culling her daintiest fleece, Such reverence paid they to the Prince of Peace. O blest estate, when Piety sublime These humble props disdained not! Are thy flowers Banished for aye, from Britain's hills and vales Extinct, or lingering in a happier clime, Where our abused inventions are unknown And benefits are weighed in Reason's scales? ED. "GRIEF, THOU HAST LOST AN EVER READY FRIEND" Composed 1819.--Published 1819 [I could write a treatise of lamentation upon the changes brought about among the cottages of Westmoreland by the silence of the spinning-wheel.[DR] During long winter nights and wet days, the wheel upon which wool was spun gave employment to a great part of a family. The old man, however infirm, was able to card the wool, as he sate in a corner by the fire-side; and often, when a boy, have I admired the cylinders of carded wool which were softly laid upon each other by his side. Two wheels were often at work on the same floor; and others of the family, chiefly little children, were occupied in teasing and cleaning the wool to fit it for the hand of the carder. So that all, except the smallest infants, were contributing to mutual support. Such was the employment that prevailed in the pastoral vales. Where wool was not at hand, in the small rural towns, the wheel for spinning flax was almost in as constant use, if knitting was not preferred; which latter occupation has the advantage (in some cases disadvantage) that, not being of necessity stationary, it allowed of gossiping about from house to house, which good housewives reckoned an idle thing.--I. F.] One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.