138 Notes and Sketches. 



on credible authority, " that in the currency of a 

 year wool shipped at the port of London for Aber- 

 deen was insured to the value of ,40,000." Few 

 women, according to Douglas, could earn " above 

 eighteenpence a-week by spinning and knitting stock- 

 ings;" but, as we have seen, some of them did earn con- 

 siderably more. He adds, that at a former time" worsted 

 stockings had been worked in the country upon very 

 fine brass wires, which sold as high as three or four 

 pounds sterling a-pair. A pair of these, however, was 

 almost constant work for a woman for six months ; and 

 thus valuable chiefly " as a mark of great patience and 

 ingenuity in the worker." These, one would be dis- 

 posed to believe, must have been the stockings for 

 which George Pyper gave his highest premium. 



In domestic spinning the rock and spindle were the 

 only available instruments during the first quarter of 

 the century. With these a woman could produce only 

 about three and a-half hears (each heer consisting of 240 

 threads or rounds of the reel) a-day. When the rock 

 and spindle came to be superseded by the spinning- 

 wheel, a woman could spin twelve heers a-day. 



The spinning of the thread was done in the farmers' 

 families, and the yarn was taken to the weaver to be 

 wrought into webs. To be able to spin well was, of 

 course, an important accomplishment; and thus in 

 1741, Elizabeth Thorn, " spinning mistress" in Aber- 

 deen, desires to make known her readiness to teach 

 women to spin "with both hands." On her applica- 

 tion, the County Clerk was authorized to sign her 

 advertisement to that effect. Eight years thereafter, in 

 1749, a "further encouragement" was given to this 

 lady, by the county gentlemen agreeing to draw the 

 attention of the Magistrates to the spinning school, 

 and recommending that people both in town and 

 country should take the benefit of it. In 1751 a 

 competition for prizes in the matter of brown linen 

 cloth and linen yarn took place, under the auspices 





