In days gone by – even in my childhood – many little girls
completed a sampler. This activity,
which would probably be regarded as extremely "old hat" by young women of today,
served as a way to learn about sewing and, more specifically, the gentle art of embroidery.
My husband’s great grandmother, Hannah Jane Thompson,
completed her sampler when she was nine years old. Here it is, speaking to us from 1838 – 175
years ago. It is being held by her great great great grandson, Miles Lyster, who lives half way round the world from the English village that was the home of his distant ancestor.
And here is a portrait of Hannah just after her wedding in
1847. In those days, photography was
still in the future but this dainty portrait by a society painter of the day helps us to see her as a young
English lady on the brink of her new life as a wife and mother.
We also have Hannah Jane’s precious 1861 "memories", her record of her life to that point. She composed it for her many children and perhaps she hoped that it would carry with it something of her life long after she was gone. (She actually lived on to the ripe old age of 80 - a good innings for a person at that time.)
All these are nothing more than “things”, of course, but they help us,
living all these years later, to know a little about a lady whose place in the family would
otherwise be lost to us forever. I’m
pleased her family have kept these mementos.
They remind us that, however transitory a human life may seem to be, each is significant and all leave as imprint (including that all-important DNA) on the world we so fleetingly inhabit.
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