Sampler
Object name
Maker
Date made
1840
1841
1841
Place made
Description
Sampler embroidered by ten-year-old Amelia Harriet Lamble Pearce, with text titled 'UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE'.
Content description
Sampler worked on unbleached linen in silk threads, embroidered by ten-year-old Amelia Harriet Lamble Pearce. The majority of the text is occupied by a five-stanza poem titled 'UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE', framed by a border of flowers and leaves growing from a sinuous vine. The text is worked in cross stitches, while the floral border is worked in stem, satin, and straight stitches. The text reads,
UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE
The grass and flowers which clothe the field:
And look so green and gay:
Touch'd by the scythe. defenceless yield.
And fall. and fade away
Fill emblem of our mortal state:
Thus. in the Scripture glass:
The young the strong. the wise. the great:
May see themselves but grass.
Ah, trust not to your fleeting breath:
Nor call your time your own:
Around you see the scythe of death
Is mowing thousands down
And you who hitherto are spar'd
Must shortly yield your lives
Your wisdom is to be prepar'd
Before the stroke arrives
Lord. help us to obey thy call:
That from our sins set free
When: like the grass our bodies fall.
Our souls may spring to thee.
Amelia Harriet . Lamble Pearce
Aged 10 Years
The text comes from a Christian hymn called 'Hay-time', written by John Newton, the co-writer of the famed hymn 'Amazing Grace'. 'Hay-time' was written in 1778 and is hymn 35 in Newton's 1779 Olney Hymns. Amelia Harriet Lamble Pearce was born in Puddletown, Dorset in 1830, the daughter of Andrew Pearce and Harriet Pearce (nee Lamble). Her father was a millwright. She married Charles Meech, a keeper, in Puddletown on 16 May 1855. Amelia is listed in the 1861 census as a dress maker and then as a housemaid in South Bersted, West Sussex in the 1871 census, separated from her husband. She died in December 1878.
Amelia's birth year of 1830 and her age of ten tells us this sampler was made in 1840 or 1841.
UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE
The grass and flowers which clothe the field:
And look so green and gay:
Touch'd by the scythe. defenceless yield.
And fall. and fade away
Fill emblem of our mortal state:
Thus. in the Scripture glass:
The young the strong. the wise. the great:
May see themselves but grass.
Ah, trust not to your fleeting breath:
Nor call your time your own:
Around you see the scythe of death
Is mowing thousands down
And you who hitherto are spar'd
Must shortly yield your lives
Your wisdom is to be prepar'd
Before the stroke arrives
Lord. help us to obey thy call:
That from our sins set free
When: like the grass our bodies fall.
Our souls may spring to thee.
Amelia Harriet . Lamble Pearce
Aged 10 Years
The text comes from a Christian hymn called 'Hay-time', written by John Newton, the co-writer of the famed hymn 'Amazing Grace'. 'Hay-time' was written in 1778 and is hymn 35 in Newton's 1779 Olney Hymns. Amelia Harriet Lamble Pearce was born in Puddletown, Dorset in 1830, the daughter of Andrew Pearce and Harriet Pearce (nee Lamble). Her father was a millwright. She married Charles Meech, a keeper, in Puddletown on 16 May 1855. Amelia is listed in the 1861 census as a dress maker and then as a housemaid in South Bersted, West Sussex in the 1871 census, separated from her husband. She died in December 1878.
Amelia's birth year of 1830 and her age of ten tells us this sampler was made in 1840 or 1841.
Dimensions
width: 45cm
height: 55cm
height: 55cm
Materials
Stitches
Techniques
Motifs
Catalogue number
RSN.2783
© Royal School of Needlework