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148 WOOL KNITTING IN THE SHETLAND ISLAND...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
E. It Lias Frequently Been Observed, Alt...
few hundred weight of potatoes . They live—such , living- as it may be called—binning and knitting . Until agedand
unabley sp very , to do either , they get no parochial aid . They greatly desiderate > their tea : if possibleit forms part of every meal . No milk or
, sugar with it , a little coarse oatmeal for bread , and the small pot of _jDotatoes once a day—such is their food . Perhaps some favourite
nephew , or kind-hearted boy , will hand a few sillacks to the lonely woman , if he has been tolerably successful in his evening ' s take of "
these small fish ; then she feasts : usually she is healthy ; pure air , temperate livingand not very hard workconduce to this . But
, , should sickness come—very desolate and lonely is _siich a " woman ' sweary lot ! " One or other of the neighbours visit her regularly ,
helpher , give what is needful out of their own poverty , but yet not a few instances have occurredwhen such a one has been found _,
, dead—alone ! An example singularly affecting * occurs in the history of one of "
these females . There was a large family growing up , all boys but one , "when a
sad but not uncommon accident happened . One day in early autumn , the boat of which the father was skipper , and his
eldest son ( a fine boy of fifteen ) , one of the six " hands , " was returning from the deep-sea fishing heavily laden . The wind
rosevery suddenly , and their course lay across a dangerous current , running round the north point of the island . The men , intent
on the skilful management of the preciously freighted boat , and with their homes in sightwere not aware ofor made light of
the danger , else they had turned , aside , and found , another harbour in safety . But , while wives and sisters and mothers stood high on
the cliff , in terror endeavouring to signal the men to keep off—on came the little bark—instantaneously to be swallowed up in the
deceitful whirlpool , the death screams of their agony reaching even to the helpless frantic group that saw them perish , and not a
vestige of their fate did the relentless waves ever discover . The father and son we have alluded to were long and deeply
mourned . One by one the remaining sons , as soon as they were able , went to Liverpool to embark as seamen . They seemed
tohave imbibed a horror of the fishing business , as if the other were one whit more safe ! Yet who could wonderwhen it is recollected
what a scene they witnessed on that fearful day , of their boyhood . And yet—one by one they perished in their youthful
prime"by various casualties incident to the sea , and far from their home . Tidings of the deaths came in sad successionuntil only one of
, the six was left . The mother with her only daughter lived in one _* of the little cots we have referred tobut their comforts diminished
, sadly , as the little presents the sons used to send came no longer . After five or six years' absence the son who survived returned
tohis mother again , sickly and disabled by a fearful shipwreck , and .
148 Wool Knitting In The Shetland Island...
148 WOOL KNITTING IN THE SHETLAND ISLANDS . . 5 *
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1863, page 148, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051863/page/4/
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