DELIVERY AFTER SCUTCHING. 91 



tive, are firmly fixed to a horizontal bench, before which 

 the workmen stand in rows, with every convenience beside 

 them for bringing and removing the material. Flax- 

 combing, in such cases, becomes a separate trade ; and 

 the men, doing nothing else, and being paid by quantity, 

 acquire great skill and rapidity of execution. 



Combed flax is in a state to spin. An immense quan- 

 tity of thread is spun by machinery at filatures, spinning- 

 mills or factories, especially of late years ; but there 

 was in former days in England, and there still exists 011 

 the continent, so strong a prejudice in favour of home- 

 spun articles, that housekeepers are content to pay as 

 much for the mere spinning as they can buy ready- 

 spun thread for at the filature, or the spinriery by steam. 

 In many families in the north of Prance, from the sheets 

 on the bed to the master's Sunday shirt, every bit of 

 flaxen cloth is spun in the house. 



Spinning by means of the rouet, or spinning-wheel, 

 and the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, and the 

 thumb and first two fingers of the left, is an operation 

 not quite so simple as it looks ; as is proved by the diffi- 

 culty which mechanicians experienced when they first 

 attempted to imitate it by machinery. The spinning- 

 wheel is attached to one end of a frame, which is a sort 

 of oblong three-legged stool. The spinner seats herself 

 with the frame before her, having the wheel on her right 

 hand. To he legs of the frame is attached a foot-board, 

 by means of which, and the action of one foot or some- 

 times of both, a rotatory motion is given to the wheel. 

 The wheel, by a cord or strap passing round it, and a 

 whorl or small circular block, rapidly turns the axle or 

 spindle on which is fixed the bobbin to receive the thread. 

 The head of this axle carries, just below its extreme tip, 

 the shafts of the spindle, a horse-shoe-shaped piece of 

 box-wood, which revolves with the axle. One shaft or 

 side of the horse-shoe is studded with little iron hooks, 

 to direct the thread on its passage to the bobbin. The 

 head of the iron axle is perforated, like a punch, for the 

 thread to pass through. A piece of quill or straw at- 



