poem/prose
This non-textile section will contain a poem or piece of prose that appeals to me.
I will change it every now and again..
See bottom of page for date it was last changed.
Click on 'previous' for all the earlier entries.
The emphasis on old work only implies that these are pieces out of copyright, not that I do not enjoy more recent ones.
The Spitalfield Weaver's Lament
My looms entirely out of square,
My rolls now worm-eaten are;
My clamps & treadles they are broke,
My buttons, they won't strike a stroke;
My porrey's covered with the dust,
My shears and pickers eat with rust;
My reed and harness are worn out,
My wheel won't turn a quill about;
My shuttle's broke, my glass is run,
My droplee's shot - my cane is done!
This anonymous poem is quoted in "Historical Account of Silk Manufacture" by Samue Sholl, 1811
But some words need explanation. Rolls are presumably the cloth and warp beams. Clamps may be lams. Buttons are battens or beaters. Porry is part of warp behind shafts, between them and the lease rods. Shears are the weaver's scissors. like miniature sheep shears. A picker was a little pointed instrument for adjusting threads. The wheel is his means of winding bobbins or quills. Glass, perhaps he had an hourglass for seeing how time passed. Cane is the warp, from French, Chaine. Droplee is the most puzzling word and leads one down strange avenues.
It seems that when an apprentice ran away from his master, the latter was legally bound to advertise for his recapture, even offering a reward. As obviously he did not want an unwilling worker back, the practice was to offer worthless or discouraging rewards. For instance, a wig-maker offered "A shave on one side with an old blunt razor!" an ironmonger "a two-penny nail" and so on. It is in one of these "rewards" for returning a run-away weaving apprentice that this rare word, droplee, occurs. The owner offers "One ordinary Zig-Zag Droplee" which is thought to refer to the "roughly woven end of a piece of cloth". So "My droplee's shot" means "I have reached the far end of my weaving" But why zig-zag? Another master-weaver offered "a Thrum"; and a velvet weaver offered "The stump of an old hook"
These odd ads appeared in the Daily Advertiser in mid 1700's. They are described in "Notes and Queries", for Feb 18, 1933, by Ambrose Heal, the founder of the famous London furniture shop.
PS. Looking back in old Weaver's Journals I see that I inserted the poem there and with an explanation of droplee! Thus:-
"Probably the closely-beaten bit of plain weave woven at the end of a length before it is cut off. This could possibly be derived fr0m the French, drap (cloth) and lier, (to bind). The word is still current (1964) in the carpet trade and is applied to the pile-less bit woven at both ends of a carpet which is afterwards turned under and sewn, to form the end borders.
last changed 16 September 2007