Nicola tells us: "Sarah finished her sampler in the ninth month of the year 1815. The sampler is a beautiful example of school girl art and fine needlework, especially for a 9 or 10 year old.

A rural English scene is one of the beautiful features of Sarah Borton’s sampler. A farmer and servant are busy building hayricks; a very important chore on a farm. The farmer’s wife is drawing a bucket of water from the well. A meandering strawberry outer border surrounds this charming sampler. There are four different alphabets stitched in cross stitch, Algerian eyelet, and satin stitch along with a dividing honeysuckle border. Other stitches used are French knots, stem stitch, chain stitch and four sided stitch.

The main feature of Sarah’s sampler is the pretty freehand wreath that contains the verse. Sarah stitched two crowns on her sampler with the initials K and E. It was a common practice in some schools in England and Scotland to stitch rows of crowns and coronets with a single letter underneath. “K” for King, “D” for Duke and “E” for Earl etc.

Sarah used the very popular sampler verse “Jesus permit thy gracious Name to stand, As the first efforts, of an Infant hand”. This verse is believed to have been composed by the hymn writer John Newton."

The stitch count is 258w x 304h. Stitches include cross stitch over 1 and 2 threads, chain stitch, satin stitch, French knot, four sided stitch and Algerian eyelets.

The model was stitched on 40 count hand dyed Sand Dune linen from Lakeside Linens using Soie d’Alger silk floss. A DMC conversion is included.

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