LINEN DRAPER'S
Linen Draper
Linen Draper
counter. Maria called the attention of Emily to a short fat coarse looking woman, who was enquiring the price of some muslin which the owner was shewing her. "Five shillings a yard!" said she, in a shrill voice, at the same time enlarging her eyes and stretching out her hand, "Why, I can buy as good as this at any shop for three. Surely you must take me for a ninny, to ask so much money for your muslin." So saying, away she walked highly offended, although the article which she had rejected was offered to her at its fair price.
Mrs. Durnford desired to look at some Cambric, and while the man was searching for it, she asked Caroline if she remembered from what country the finest was imported. The little girl hesitated, and her mamma requested Maria to give her the necessary information. "Cambric is made in several parts of France and Flanders," said Miss Durnford. "That from Cambray is, however, esteemed the best. We imitate it in Scotland, but have not brought it to the perfection of the foreign Cambric."
"Very well! Maria," said her father, "I am pleased to find that you remember so well what you are told, and now Emily, can you inform me what that fine cloth is made of, which your mother has just bought for your brother's shirts?" "It is made of flax, papa, which in Latin islinum, from whence the word linen andlinonis derived."
"You are a good girl," said Mr. Durnford, "and I mean to reward each of you according to the knowledge which you display during our visit to the Bazaar. Flax grows in many parts of England, and still more in Scotland and Ireland. When fit to gather, it is taken by the flax dressers, who pass it through water, strip the slender stalks of the rind; and then it becomes fit to split, and again undergoes a process to prepare it for the wheel. It is then spun into thread, more or less fine according to the purpose it is intended for. The very finest is as minute as the smallest hair, and is used by the lace makers. That is, of course, a very fine sort of which the Cambric is made. It is a singular thing that the Romans, who in consequence of their extensive conquests, became the most luxurious people on earth, never discovered the art of making linen from flax, or hemp, which is a coarser plant of the same kind. Their cloathing, though extremely magnificent, being embroideredwith purple, and often with gold, was woven only of wool, and Voltaire, a celebrated French writer, makes Tullia, the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Cicero, the greatest orator the world ever saw, admire the superior elegance of the toilet of an English lady. They had neither stockings nor linen, for which we should think the finery of their sandals attached with gold cords, or their embroidered vests fastened with diamond lockets, made but a poor compensation."
"Oh! what a beautiful shawl, papa," cried Caroline, "I wish my sisters had each one."
"That is very expensive, my sweet girl," said her father, "it is made of the fine wool of the Angora goat, a native ofthe warm regions of the earth, and is manufactured in India. We vainly attempt to imitate them here, but cannot succeed. But come, let us turn to the