Reputed to be from the Bedfordshire lace makers circa 17/18 century

Up in the morning, before it is light
Done all her work before it is light

Down at her pillow she sits so complete
Like a lace maker, working so neat,

With fingers so lissome and bobbins so small,
While the poor servant girl goes down to the hall,

With holes in her stockings and rags on her back
I'll be a lace maker, if ever so slack,

I'll turn over timber sticks, put in my pins of wire
My wire pin is in. I'm the one nigher.

'Lace makers were considered to make splendid wives!'

Young girls were often paid by the number of pins they inserted in the lace. They had little jingles to help them work.

Twenty pins have I to do, let ways be ever dirty
Never a penny in my purse but farthings five and thirty.

Another method of paying the lace makers was to cover the finished lace with coins, the good merchants would use silver coinage and bad ones pennies or even farthings giving the maker a very low wage. Most had to work by candlelight and many went blind at an early age.

Mrs C

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 2-Sep-02.