The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-07
SHOPPING LONG AGO.
SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION IN
1.-THE PASTOR LETTERS"

aouaint Appearance In This Age-Dame
PASTOR as n Housewife.
In the spring Of l440 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:
1.-The parson of Stockton told me that
| if ye would buy her gown her mother
would give thereto a goodly fur; the
gown needeth to he had, and Of color it
would he a 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 80 years, are
noteworthy in that famous collection,
The PASTOR Letters which reveal so
many secrets of bygone statecraft, but,
what is of more 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 as
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 IL
is interesting to note the "ewig wei
bliche" running like thread of gold
through long series Of letters.
The orders sent to her husband and
| son, who were usually in London, for
various articles of apparel are curious
to examine That in her youth she was
( fcrA CT all gauds may be guessed from
4 a letter written not long after her mar
t riage, when, inquiring infinitely of her
( husbands health during some slight IN
disposition, she had "lever than new
= gowne, though it were of scarlette,
u that he recover. Her commissions are
= usually very moderate and limited to
the plain necessities Of everyday wear,
us for example:
Il pray you that ye would vouchsaft
6 to buy NE some frieze to make of your
children's gowns. Ye should have best
= CHEAP and best choice Of Hay wife, al
. it is told me. And that ye would buy {
n yard of broad cloth of black, for ont
lie hood for me, of 44d. or 4 shillings {
d yard, for there is neither good cloth no
6 good frieze in this town"
Is Yet this town was Norwich, the sea
J. of wooden factories from the time
Henry /, their crude work later i'm
proved by the skill of Philippians Elem
, ings. 1t was evidently the nearest mar
a ket and the source Of ordinary supplies
L. for Dame Pastor had but just written
Il "May it please you to wit, was
Norwich this week to purvey sue
things as needeth me against this VIII
ter"
I'd Worsted and its neighboring Kersey
p which gave their names to the fabric
y there made, were in the east or mo-
- folk. In reference to the products
the former Sir John writes from Lol
don to "mine own dear sovereign lady:
II pray ye you will send me hith'
two ellis of worsted for doublets
happe me this cold winter, and that ,
he INQUIRE where William PASTOR bougl
ed his tippet of fine worsted, which is q
e1 most like silk, and if that be mut
ed finer than that ye should buy me aft
ed 2 or 8 shillings, then buy me quart
4c, and the nail thereof for collars, thout
81 S1' it be dearer than the other, for won
,ed make my doublet all worsted for T.
sed worship of Norfolk.
seq Sometimes bit of feminine vani
SEQ % is seen. as when Lady Pastor writ
12; her husbands
). 81 pray you that We would do 20
l ly, cost on me against Whitsuntide that
ssh NAV have something for my neck. Wh
y the queen was here, | borrowed 1
&c; cousin Elizabeth Clere's device, for
~ ~ dared not for shame go with my bea
s. among so many fresh gentlewomen
were here at that time.
And Sir Johns memory for domes
s. commissions was like other men $,
ay, in the next letter his wife prays h
,ssi, that he "vouchsafe to remember to p'
8 40 vey a thing for my neck aud to do ma
ing nv girdle, and in still another,
! th ne thank you that ye vouchsafe to RENE
4. So Der my girdle. Z"
fair 1t shows a pleasant confidence a
um the assurance of her absent husban
~ ~ interest in every side of her life Il
lis she writes him infinitely of her plans
ers making her gowns, saying: II pray
and that We would vouchsafe to buy pi
iaay; of black buckram for to line wit
i. 90 gown for me. should buy me "a III
rev gown to go in this summer and
in the collar the satin that ye gave
om- for hood, and can get none g
Y. buckram in this town to line it witt
,eep The letter of her son William, w
rket ten in 1859, gives us an idea of the {
DO; fit for boy at Eton:
70 ,J boseoch Won send me u hose Gle