28 Mary Somerville. 



after her father's death, greatly disapproved of my 

 conduct. She was an old maid who could be very 

 agreeable and witty, but she had all the prejudices 

 of the time with regard to women's duties, and said 

 to my mother, " I wonder you let Mary waste her 

 time in reading, she never shews (sews) more than if 

 she were a man/' Whereupon I was sent to the 

 village school to learn plain needlework. I do not 

 remember how long it was after this that an old 

 lady sent some very fine linen to be made into 

 shirts for her brother, and desired that one should 

 be made entirely by me. This shirt was so well 

 worked that I was relieved from attending the 

 school, but the house linen was given into my 

 charge to make and to mend. We had a large 

 stock, much of it very beautiful, for the Scotch 

 ladies at that time were very proud of their napery, 

 but they no longer sent it to Holland to be bleached, 

 as had once been the custom. We grew flax, and 

 our maids spun it. The coarser yarn was woven in 

 Burntisland, and bleached upon the links ; the finer 

 was sent to Dunferrnline, where there was a manu- 

 factory of table-linen. 



I was annoyed that my turn for reading was so 

 much disapproved of, and thought it unjust that 

 women should have been given a desire for know- 

 ledge if it were wrong to acquire it. Among our 



