"North Country People" [pp. 62-68]

"North Country People."
halfway between Mr. Ruskin's home at Coniston, and Wordsworth's at Rydal."
He goes on to relate how difficult it was to
get wheels, some coming even from Stornoway
and the Isle of Man; how old garrets were
sacked, and how finally the village carpenter
was inveigled into constructing home-made
wheels. Then a little cottage was taken and
made into a spinning-school. When a woman could spin a good thread, Mr. Fleming
allowed her to take a wheel home, giving
her the flax, and buying it back when spun
at two shillings per pound of thread. Ladies
were impressed into the service as Miss Encouragers and Commenters. Pupils poured
in, and then came the weaving.
"In an old cellar in Kendal, we discovered a loom. It was in twenty pieces, and
not all the collective wisdom of the village
knew how to put it together. Luckily a lady friend had a photograph of Giotto's Campanile, and by help of that, the various parts
were rightly pieced together. We then secured an old weaver, and one bright Easter
morning saw our first piece of linen woven
-the first purely hand-spun and hand-woven linen produced in all broad England in
our generation. A significant fact, that, if
you think all round it.
"Over that first twenty yards, the scoffers
rejoiced greatly. It was terrible stuff; frightful in color, and of dreadful roughness, with
huge lumps and knots wandering up and
down its surface. However, one dear lady
pronounced the material delightful, and purchased a dozen yards at four shillings a
yard.
"As Giotto fixed our loom for us, Homer
taught us the true principle of bleaching, and
so we adopted the simple method described
in the Odyssey.
"Orders and inquiries soon came from all
parts of England. Fashion helped us too,
for our linen was eagerly sought after for
embroidery, portibres, tea cloths, etc. To
conclude, we have two looms going at Coniston, and another at Sheffield, employing
about forty women. Two of my women once
spun me one pound of thread in the day,
but that was a tour de force; the women's
average weekly earnings are under five shillings.
"The widest linen is forty-four inches,
and its price four shillings. All the money
produced by the sale of linen is paid into the
bank, and the profits will be divided among
the workers at the end of the year."
One of the prettiest of the "Old Countree " customs is the " rush bearing," still
kept up symbolically in many of the villages.
It was long before we could find the origin
of this quaint practice, but we finally succeeded in doing so from the rector. The
parish children assembled one particular day
in July, when the wild and cultivated flowers
were in their glory, each child carrying a rustic frame or emblem decorated with exquisite blossoms. Of all ages, from the little
toddler to the tall, gawky boy, from every corner of the hamlet they came, even from the
neighboring farms, bearing their wealth of
roses, pillars, broken columns, arches, baskets twined and interwoven with nodding
grasses and trailing vines. One of the most
beautiful designs on this particular occasion
was a harp, bound round with rushes, and half
smothered in pond lilies. the white petals
and gold centers conspicuous for a long distance. Another was a crown of pale blush
roses veiled with ferns. Other forms were
simply rushes themselves, twisted into scepters and wands.
When all the children were gathered together, they marched in twos, led by the
village band, which had practiced for weeks
on the green the most appropriate selections for the festival, to the church. The
streets were lined with people, strangers and
residents, attracted by any incident which
lent novelty to their quiet life. A short service was held in the chapel, after the emblems had been arranged on the altar and
window-seats. On the following Monday
the children removed the flowers and placed
them on the village graves, chanting meanwhile "The Rush-bearing Hymn," written
for the purpose by Coleridge; then all adjourned to the neighboring green, where the
school-treat was held, each happy little one
receiving a bran new silver sixpence, and a
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