. Biggar and the House of Fleming: an account of the Biggar district, archaeological, historical, and biographical. on into an-other useful domestic utensil, viz., a par-ritch-stick. Distaffs and whorles werewont, in ancient times, to be highly orna-mented, and many curious and valuablespecimens are carefully preserved. In arespectable family in the neighbourhood of Biggar, a finely 326 BIGGAR AND THE HOUSE OF FLEMING. carved distaff is still kept, and regarded as a family relic. Thedistaff, spindle, and whorle here engraved, were the propertyof one of the oldest families in the village of Cou
. Biggar and the House of Fleming: an account of the Biggar district, archaeological, historical, and biographical. on into an-other useful domestic utensil, viz., a par-ritch-stick. Distaffs and whorles werewont, in ancient times, to be highly orna-mented, and many curious and valuablespecimens are carefully preserved. In arespectable family in the neighbourhood of Biggar, a finely 326 BIGGAR AND THE HOUSE OF FLEMING. carved distaff is still kept, and regarded as a family relic. Thedistaff, spindle, and whorle here engraved, were the propertyof one of the oldest families in the village of Coulter, and theinitials of one of the members of the family are cut on the topof the distaff. The yarn, after being spun, was formed into hanks bymeans of a hand-reel, which is represented below with a por-tion of the yarn upon it. When the winding of the threadwas in progress, something like the following words were used: Thems no ane, but thous ane a out;Thous no twae, but thous twae a out. The thread was not full till it had passed in a certain mannerround the reel, and so many rounds formed the hesp or The spinning wheel, which, from a representation in a manu-script of the early part of the fourteenth century, appears tohave been in use before that period, was long in being intro-duced into the Biggar district. By and by it became quitecommon, and for many years, along with a reel, formed a por-tion of the providin of almost every bride. Not only didevery farmer grow a lint crop, but almost every cottar had aportion of ground allotted to him, on which to sow a capfuof lint seed, the produce of which was manufactured into shirts,towels, sheets, table-cloths, &c. The sowing, weeding, pulling,steeping, and spinning of the lint furnished a considerableamount of employment to the farmer and cottars family, andas a matter of course the lint crop was regarded as a thing ofno small value and importance. A story is told of a stand which the cottars of CovingtonHillhead made in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookpublisheredinb, bookyear1867
