The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-06-30
SHOPPING LONG AGO.
SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION IN
1.-THE PASSION LETTERs."

Commissions Which Wives Gave to Their
Husbands In the Fifteenth Century Have
aQuaint Appearance In This Age-Dame
PASTOR as - Housewife.
In tho spring of 1440 Dame Agnes
PASTOR wrote to her fright worship
full and dear husband" in haste, the
Wednesday next after Deus qui erranti-
bus" (the collect for the third Sunday
after Easter). Having commended the
gracious mien Of the young gentlewom-
an her son proposes to marry, she says:
"Tbo parson of Stockton told me that
if SO would buy her gown her mother
would give thereto goodly fur; the
gown needeth to be had, and Of color it
would be q goodly blue or else bright
sanguine"
The Mistress Margaret Mauteby, for
whom this gown was "purveyed, be-
came the wife Of John PASTOR, and her
letters, covering nearly 90 years, are
noteworthy in that famous collection,
Tho PASTOR Letters, which reveal so
many secrets of bygone statecraft, but
what is of moro worth to us now, Civ
ing glimpses of household economy and,
by clear connotation, the inner life of
the women of the period. Margaret Pas
ton appears us an active, prudent house
wife, looking into every detail of her
large establishment and, from her hus-
bands prolonged absences, forced to az
sumo many masculine cares. She man
aged the several farms of their estate in
the Hundred of Tunstead Norfolkshire.
She planned new buildings, armed and
defended her besieged hall, conducted
lawsuits and arranged the marriages of
her children and grandchildren. But
withal, she was very woman, and it
is interesting to note tho "cwig wei
bliche" running like thread of gold
through long series of letters.
Tho orders sent to her husband and
son, who were usually i'll London, for
various articles Of apparel are curious
to examine. That in her youth sho was
fond of all gauds may be guessed from
q letter written not long after her mar
riage, when, inquiring infinitely of her
husbands health during some slight in
disposition, she had clever than d new
gowne, though it were of scarlette,"
that he recover. Her commissions arc
usually very moderate and limited to
the plain necessities of everyday wear
as for example:
II pray you that ye would vouchsafe
to buy me some frieze to make of your
children's gowns. Ye should have best
cheap and best choice of Hays wife, as
it is told me. And that ye would buy
yard of broad cloth of black, for one
hood for me, Of 44d. or 1 shllings a
yard, for there is neither good cloth nor
good frieze in this town"
Yet this town was Norwich, the seat
of WOODEN factories from the time of
Henry /, their crude work later i'm
proved by tho skill of Philippa's Flem-
lngs. 1t was evidently the nearest mar
ket and the source of ordinary supplies,
for Dame Pastor had but just written,
May it please you to wit, I was at
Norwich this week to purvey such
things US necdeth me against this viii
ter.
Worsted and its neighbcring Kerscy,
which gave their names to the fabrics
there made, were III the east of Nor
folk. In reference to the products of
the former Sir John writes from Lon
don to "mino own dear sovereign lady,"
pray ye you will send me lther
two ellis of worsted for doublets to
happe me this cold winter, and that 20
inquire where William PASTOR bought
his tippet of fine worsted, which is al
most like silk, and if that be much
finer than that yc should buy me after
or shillings, then buy me quarter
and the nail thereof for collars, though
1t be dearer than the other, for would
worship of Norfolk
Sometimes a bit of feminine vanity
is seen, as when Lady Pastor writes
her husband:
Il pray you that ye would do your
cost Oh mo against Whitsuntide that I
may have something for my neck. When
the queen was here. 1 borrowed my
cousin Elizabeth Clere's device, for [
dared not for shame go with my beads
among SO many fresh gentlewomen as
were here at that time.
And Sir Johns memory for domestic
commissions was like other men 5, for
i'll the next letter his wife prays him
that he vouchsafe to remember to pur-
vey thing for my neck and to do make
my girdle. " and i'll still another, II
thank you that ye vouchsafe to remem.
Der my girdle.
1t shows u pleasant confidence and
the assurance of her absent husband
interest III every side of her life that
she writes him infinitely Ct her plans i'll
making her gowns, saying: 81 pray you
that ye would vouchsafe to buy piece
OF black buckram for to line with q