Smyrna times., 1897-08-04
SHOPPING LONG AGO.
SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION IN
1.-THE PASTON LETTERS"

Commissions Which Wives Gave to Their
Husbands In the Fifteenth Century Have
aQuaint Appearance In This Age-Dame
PASTOR rs a Housewife.
In the 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:
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 be had, and of color it |
would be q goodly blue Or else a 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 i'll 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 as an active, prudent house
wife, looking into every detail Of her
large establishment and, from her hus-
bands prolonged absences, forced to as
curno MANY VnocnuIiOo noroc bo ,,,o,,
aged the several farms of their estate i'll
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 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 i'll London, for
various articles of apparel are curious
to examine. That in her youth she was
fond of all gauds may be guessed from
d letter written not long after her mar
riage, when, inQuiring minutCly of her
husbands health during some slight i'll.
disposition, she had clever than new
| gOwne, though it were of scarle;te,"
that he recover. Her commissions ARE
usually very moderate and limited to
the plain necessities Of everyday wear.
as for example:
Il pray you that ye would vouchsafe
to buy me some frieze to make of your
children's gowns. Ye should have lest
cheap and best choice of Hays wife, as
it is told me. And that We would buy
yard of broad cloth of black, for one
hood for me, of AID. or shillings Il
yard, for there is neither good cloth nor
good frieze i'll this town"
Yet this town was Norwich, the seat
of woOlen factories from the time of
Henry /, their crude work later I'M
proved by the skill Of Philippa's Flem-
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. was at
Norwich this week to purvey such
things as needeth me against this win
ter"
} Worsted and its neighboring Kersey,
which gave their names to the fabrics
there made, were i'll 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"
Il pray ye you will send me hithel
two ellis of wOrsted for doublets tC
, happe me this cold winter, and that yC
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
! or shillings, then buy me quarter
and the nail thereof for collars, though
! it be dearer than the other, for l would
make my doublet all wOrstcd for the
worship of Norfolk. -
: Sometimes a bit of feminine vanity
is seen. as when Lady Pastor write!
= her husband:
Il pray you that ye would do you
/; cost ON me against Whitsuntide that
i may have something for my neck. Whel
the queen was here. 1 borrowed ny
cousin Elizabeth Clere's device, for
dared not for shane 90 with my bead
among SO many fresh gentlewomen a
s were here at that time.
: And Sir Johns memory for dOmesti
n commissions was like other mems, fo
q in the next letter his wife prays hin
that he "vOuchsafe to remember to pur
vey thing for my neck and to do max
my girdle, and in still another, :"
II thank you that &c vouchsafe to remem
p Der my girdle.
J. 1t shows a pleasant confidence an,
| tho Of hny oh hy,cbo,,Ii
interest in every side of her life tina
she writes him minutely of her plans il
making her gowns, saying: II pray yo
II that ye would vOuchsafe to buy a piec
l. of black buckram for to line with
t. gown for me. 1 should buy me muI
l. rey gown to go in this summer and la
% in the collar the satin that ye gave M
for a hood, and can get none goo
buckram i'll this town to line it with.
Il The letter of her son William, writ
y ten in 1859, gives us an idea of the out
: fit for boy at Eton:
Vt 81 beseech you send me a hose cloth
one for the holy days of some color an
one for the working days chow coars
soever it bc maketh no matter) and
stomacher aud two shirts and q pair {
y slippers"
o This masculine stomacher seems froI
m other scant mention thereof in earl
IN writings to have been sort of skeleto
le inner waistcoat, perhaps not much MOI
n. than the chest protector of today.
% There is no more vivid appreciatio
of existing conditions of society tina
that which springs from their compar
son with life relatively of the same L,
~ gree in another age and environment
a AS a suggestion of such fruitful study
u this glimpse of the shopping of Ma
in garet, later Lady Paston of Caistt
az Manor. York Post
s-
is