g. YORKSHIRE. 7$ 



convenient place to be " fwingled," when 

 leifure and conveniency will permit. 



The "fwingling" (and, generally, the 

 " deeping" and the " rating") is done by 

 men who make a bufinefs of it, travelling 

 from place to place wherever flax is under 

 cultivation. 



The prqcefs of fwingling is that of fepa- 

 rating the woody fubftance from the fila- 

 ments. To effed this, the rough ftubborn 

 {terns are mangled in a " break ;" an inflru- 

 ment which breaks the brittle fubftance of 

 the Item provincia.liy, the " bun'' into 

 fragments, without feparating them from the 

 ^laments. The feparation is effected by beat, 

 ing, or rather hewing the mangled items, 

 againft a v< fwingling flock" (an upright 

 ftout board or flab) with a cc fwingle-hand" 

 * or wooden broad-axe ; the fwingler fror5 

 time to time drawing out the tow or fhort 

 broken filaments, by means of a " foot- 

 heckle" (refembling the tpols of the flax- 

 dreflers) ; and thus ufing alternately the 

 fvyingle-hand and the heckle, proceeds until 

 the line be rendered fit for the flax-drefler ; 

 namely, until the principal part of the frag- 

 ments 



