Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-06-12
SHOPPING LONG AGO
SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION IN
1.-THE PASSION LETTERS"

In the spring of l440 Dame Agnes
PASTOR wrote to her right worship
full and dear husband" III haste the
Wednesday next after Deus qui errand-
bus" (the collect for tho third Sunday
after Easter). Having commended the
gracious micn of the young gentlowom-
an her son proposes to marry, she says;
1.-The pnrson of Stockton told me that
if 70 would buy her a gown her mother
would give thereto goodly fur; the
gown needeth to te had. and Of color it
would be a goodly blue or else bright
sanguine.
Tho Mistress Margaret Mnutehy. for
whom this gown was "purvcyed, be-
came the wife of John PASTOR. and her
letters, covering nearly 90 years, arc
noteworthy in that famous collection.
Tho PASTOR Letters, which reveal so
many secrets of bySone statocraft, 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 tho period. Margaret Pas
ton appears us an active, prudent house
wife, looking into every detail of her
large establishment and, from her hus-
bund's prolonged absences, forced to us
sumo many masculine cares. She man-
aged the several farms Of their estate in
the Hundred of Tunsteud, Norfolkshirc.
She planned new buildings armed and
defended her bcsicged hall, conducted
lawsuits and arranged tho marriages of
her children and grandchildren. But,
withal, she was II very woman, and it
is interesting to note the "ewlg wei
bliche" running like thread of gold
through n long series of letters
The orders sent 10 her husband and
son, who were usually in London, for
various articles of apparel are curious
to examine. That in her youth she WIS
fond of all gauds may be guessed fiuri
IL letter written not long after her mar
riage, when, inquiring infinitely of her
husbands health during some slight III
disposition, she had lever than now
gowne, though itwere of scarlette, y
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 vouchsafe
to buy me some frieze TO make CT your
children's GOWNS Yo should have best
cheap and best choice OF Hays wife, MS
it is told me- And that yo would buy ii
yard of broad cloth OF black, for one
hood for mo, of Aid. or 1 shillings II
yard. for there is neither good cloth nor
good friezc in this town.
Yet this town WAS Norwich the seat
of wooden factories from the time Of
Henry I, their crude work later i'm
proved by the skill of Philippians Flom-
ings. 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 Mt
Norwich this week to purvey such
things as needeth ME against this Win
ter -
Worsted and It's neighboring Kersey,
which gave their names TO the tahrlcs
there made, We're in the east of Nor
folk. In reference to the products Of
the former Sir John writes from Lon
don to "mine own dear sovereign lady
- pray ye you will send me hither
two oils Of worsted for doublets to
happe me this cold winter, aid that ye
inquire where William Pastor bought
his tippet Of fine worsted which is al
most like silk, and if that be much
finer than that ye should buy me after
2 or S shillings, then buy NE Il quarter
and the nail thereof for collars, though
it be dearer than the other, for would
make my doublet all worsted for the
worship of Norfolk. "
Sometimes bit of feminine vanity
is seen, as when Lady PASTOR writes
her husband:
81 pray you that yc would do your
cost on me against Whitsuntide that l
may have something for my neck. When
the queen was here, l borrowed my
cousin Elizabeth Clere's device, for [
dared not for shame go With my beads
among SO many fresh gentlewomen as
We're here at that time. :"
And Sir Johns memory for domestic
commissions was like ether mems for
in the next letter his wife prnys him
that he "vouchsafe to remember to pur-
vey thing for my neck and to do mako
my girdlc, and in still another, l
thank you that ye vouchsafe to remcm-
Der my girdle. y
1t shows q pleasant confidence and
the assurance of her absent husband s
interest in every side Of her life that
she writes him infinitely Of her plans i'll
making her gowns, saying: Il pray you
that we would vouchsafe to buy piece
of black buckrum for to line with a
gown for me. should buy me IA mur-
rey gown to go III this summer and lay
in the collar the satin that ye gave me
for a hood, and can get none good
buciraln i'll this town to line it with. :"
The letter Of her son William, writ
ten III 1459, gives Us an lGca OF the OUT
fit for boy at Elton:
81 beseech you send me hose cloth,
one for the holy days Of some color and
one for the working days chow coarse
soever it be maketh 30 nlatter) and a
stomacher aud two shirts and pair Of
slippers. !"
This masculine stomacher seems from
other scant mention thereof in carly
writings to have been sort of skeleton
inner waistcoat, perhaps not much more
than the chest protector of today.
There is no more vivid appreciation
of existing conditions of society than
that which springs from their compare
son with life relatively of the same de-
gree in another age and environment.
As suggestion Of such fruitful study is
this glimpse of the shopping OF Mar
garet, later Lady Pastor of Caistos
Manor.-New York Post
Dlscolnited.
An amusing story is told of how the
i J.