DELIYEEY AFTEB SCUTCHING. 93 



spinning-wheel, and with a continual jig-jog motion keep 

 it whirling round. The strap from the wheel causes the 

 bobbin to revolve rapidly. On the bobbin is wound the 

 thread, which passes smooth and regular through the 

 spinner's fingers, as the fibres of flax are made to issue 

 from the distaff. 



The above description is as clear as we can contrive to 

 make it, with a living spinster before us at work, sitting 

 for her portrait in black and white. The reader is ad- 

 vised to see the thing done, reading our account of it at 

 the same time. Spinning was once an amusement for 

 ladies ; and, in the revolutions of fashion and fancy-work, 

 may yet be so again. "We have seen spinning-wheels of 

 ivory and ornamental wood, which were not inelegant 

 articles of furniture ; and spinning fine thread, it may be 

 fairly urged, is quite as intellectual, entertaining, and 

 useful an employment, as many of the curious forms of 

 "work" to which well-educated females devote their 

 time. The art of spinning is easily learned. A couple 

 of days' apprenticeship is fully sufficient for those who 

 feel any taste for the business. In humble life in Ire- 

 land during the winter season spinning-parties are formed, 

 which are there called " camps." Every girl in the village 

 in turn gives notice that she is going to hold her camp 

 011 a certain evening. They meet at seven or eight 

 o'clock, each bringing her spinning-wheel with her and a 

 sufficiency of flax, and continue till eleven, amusing them- 

 selves the while with gossip and singing. The zest of 

 the meeting is, that as the hours pass on, the respective 

 sweethearts of the ladies drop in, and make it a point of 

 duty to accompany them home, of course assisting to 

 carry the wheel and the produce of their merry labours. 



Spinning by machinery is an intricate process, on 

 which learned and scientific treatises are open to the 

 serious student. The action of the thumb and fingers is 

 imitated by iron cylinders. Their diameter and the rate 

 at which they revolve regulate the fineness of the thread, 

 which can thus be calculated with mathematical exactness. 

 Finer fabrics can be spun by machinery than by hand ; 



