7W(,.rfrf
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TO THE
SUPERIOR AND LADIES
OF THE
PRESENTATION CONVENT,
James’s-Street, Dublin.
Respected Friends,
WHAT was happily began for the benefit of poor females in England, has been matured for the benefit of Ireland and the world by the suggestion» arising from your benevolence in the education of youth. To conceal this fact would be ingratitude. As one that loves Ireland and covets her welfare and the prosperity of her poor, with the feelings of a fraternal heart, it becomes a duty to thank you, for your suggestions hava added to the energies of education by increasing its economy.
May that Christian liberality which has adorned your conduct in this benevolent Essay, to promote the education of the female poor, ever cause your light to shine before men in works of mercy, peace, and righteousness, is the sincere desire of your friend,
AMICUS,
p 59193﻿AN ADDRESS
TO THE
LADIES OF IRELAND.
THE editor of this impression of the Report of the progress of a principle of teaching needle-work, whereby one mistress may govern and teach two hundred scholars with as much ease as twenty, is induced to the publication which has been known in England, and introduced into many schools since the time of the resolution passed by the Duke of Kent, as may be seen in the succeeding pages, by the importance of this subject to the poor of Ireland. The economy of a plan which is capable of extending its benefits to every school and every cabin in the country, will be the best apology for this appeal to public notice.— On behalf of a system whereby every poor girl in the Empire may attain a proficiency in useful work, which is indispensible to the comfort of a family and the natural employ of a female character.
It is to be hoped this system may be extended so generally over the nation, as to better the condition of the poor, by general neatness of apparel, which usually goes hand In hand with cleanliness of persons.
INTRO-
A 2﻿I*
A school for teaching girls needle-work, may be fitted up the same as a writing school with desks,' but this is not indispensible.—It is however a great convenience where schools possess the funds adequate to such accommodation.
The first school wherein one mistress could ever govern and teach two hundred girls, was first built by Joseph Lancaster, and established in person by his two sisters in 1805.
The plan for tuition proved as easily adapted to girls boys, but in regard to needle-work, it was found twenty girls would occupy the whole attention of a single teacher, and one hundred and eighty must remain uninstructed.
The industry and attention of M. & S. Lancaster, made the matter more easy, but in their accompanying their parents into the country, the needle-work became almost wholly suspended and neglected till the Spring 1810, when it was partly introduced on the present plan.
It had been, a considerable time, a subject of regret, that so many promising children educated in the school established by the sisters of J. Lancaster, and conducted under their patronage to this time, should from the neglect of a delegate have been so much strangers to the attainment of needle-work as an essential qualification for females in future life. Yet this painful fact allowed for, other circumstances must be taken into consideration. So large a number of girls had never been assembled under the care of a single teacher; and however it had been
proved
﻿vi	Introductory Observations,
proved that even a child of ten years old could govern and
teach them as to learning ^ nothing had been done with
regard to needle-work equal to the magnitude of the
object.
In the Spring 1810, the following arrangements were completed, and the time which has since elapsed has proved their value and importance.
The first duty of the governess of the school, is to examine the progress, and class the children according to the proficiency they have already made.
Each monitor of a class has but one thing to teach, each scholar but one thing to learn j the whole class are always employed on the same work at one time,
This rule is applicable to every class.
The inspection is conducted with more facility by the monitor as well as by the governess, in consequence of the simplicity of the duty to be performed, each child being taught from the beginning to fix and prepare all the work she has to do. The governess is wholly exonerated from the trouble of preparing the work, and the time so saved is devoted to the superintendence and inspection of the children’s industry.
The removal of the children from one class to another, is facilitated by the teacher being thus exempted from the drudgery of tuition.
Many girls who attend day-schools will be found capable of teaching each other on this plan. The rapid progress made in many schools in England where it has been introduced, is of the most satisfactory description j indeed they cannot do otherwise than improve, as they first learn all the principal parts of needle-work in an analized form, and when they have afterwards to make a
garment,﻿Introductory Observations.	vii
garment, they are found already proficient in all the kinds of work required on the operation.
They acquire this knowledge, as will be seen in the sequel on materials, that if spoiled in the using, are of little value and not capable of being much impaired.
Ladies who know and feel the benefit of industry as essential to the female character, can best appreciate the advantage of this simplified mode of instruction for females; which, if well received by the public, will prepare the way for another communication on a branch of the same subject, of far more importance and utility to every class of society, and of which the present detailed report is only the basis.
Ladies who are visitors at public charities, who superintend the education of their own children, or who are inclined to befriend poor school-mistresses, by making them a present of a book they cannot afford to purchase, will have an extensive opportunity afforded them of doing good, by circulating this publication as extensively as opportunity admits.
One mistress will be sufficient to conduct a school however numerous : and the attention of a number of Ladies will not be required daily, to fix the work and aid the mistress in a duty for which she and her little teachers alone will be competent.
It has cost some few pounds in the experiment, but it has elicited a plan of instruction, which may be the means of teaching industry to every poor child in the empix-e.
It is but justice to the Friends and Patrons of the Lan-casterian system, to inform them that specimens of this plan of teaching needle-work, have been submitted to
some﻿vlil	Introductory Observations.
some of the highest female personages in the nation ; and were honoured with their approbation, as well as that of many Ladies among the Nobility and Gentry.
The universal approbation which this plan has already excited, the high and distinguished sanction with which it has been honoured, affords great encouragement in presenting it to the public.
Note.—“ At a Meeting in aid of the education of the poor, on the Royal Lancasterian System, held at Joseph Lancaster’s Free-School, London, May 11, 1811,
His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent in the Chair:
Resolved, That the School for Girls is conducted in a manner, and on principles, as to industry, on a plan which has never before been shewn in this country ; and Mr. Lancaster’s sisters are requested speedily to publish a report of the same.
FIR3T﻿9
FIRST CLASS WORK.
Fixing Work for Hemming.
ALL children who have not learnt how to fix or fold down their own work neatly, are placed in this class to learn it. The materials on which they learn are of waste paper ; the whole class are supplied with pieces of this, the length generally about three or four inches, the breadth rarely more than one inch. When a piece of paper is two inches broad, it may be divided in two pieces, and will admit of double usefulness; when it is between one and two inches in breadth, the surplus breadth is of no consequence.
Old waste paper will supply abundant materials at a cheap rate: the quality of the paper is of little consequence, so that it will admit of folding down. The length and breadth of each piece of paper as before described, needs not to be precisely adhered to, and yet papers as near that size as can be obtained, will be best adapted for the use of children.
Employment.—The whole class being supplied with papers by the monitor, several to each child, the command is then given, and all begin to fix the hems as if they were folding down cloth for hemming; the monitor passing up and down the desk or desks to see the children do their work carefully. When once done, the monitor makes an inspection and gives fresh papers to each child.—See Plate No. 1.	"	B
The﻿10
The object of this employ is to teach the children to prepare their own work for hemming; and the great advantage they derive from it, is being accustomed to fix their hems neat and even.
Inspection,—is easily conducted by the governess of the school: as to this class, each girl retains every paper given her to fold, and when all the papers are folded, the governess will pass along the front of the desks and review them. As the work is not of a minute nature, and its parts are very conspicuous, the inspection is made with facility. When the governess pleases to give the scholars relief by a change of position, the class may be called out and pass in review before her. This needs only to be done occasionally, in order to relieve the fatigue of the children after sitting for a considerable time in school.
SECOND CLASS WORK.
THE sole employ of the children in this class is turning down, or fixing the materials for hemming, and then doing it on linen.
The pieces of linen are in general nearly three inches long and one broad. The thread they work with is patent three cord cotton thread,* the manufacture of the ingenious David Holt, of Chorlton Mill, Manchester; than which, an article finer and cheaper, has not yet been brought into market. The scholars in this class are
furnished
* This article has been highly approved and countenanced by the first personages in the empire.﻿furnished with needles and thread, and a piece of linen. Thus prepared, they first turn down or fix their own work, and in the next place perform it.
General facility of inspection.—As the excellent cotton thread before mentioned is to be had of a variety of colours, as well as of various degrees of fineness, the governess makes it a general rule to have the linen or cotton given out to work with, nearly all of one colour, and the thread of an opposite colour. The material worked on, and the thread made use of, afford by their opposite colours, a striking contrast to each other: the stitches are easily seen and inspected at first glance. This affords monitors a great facility of inspection while superintending their classes, and the like good effects ai’e found by the governess in the inspection of the work when finished. Constant inspection has been found an incalculable advantage as to learning in the boys’ schools; and it is not of less importance as to needle-work, than it is in reading, writing, and arithmetic. These general observations apply to the work of every class, detailed in succession after this, the next class excepted, which like the first class is a preparatory one. The classes are not allowed to do any kind of work, but that appropriated to each class.
THIRD CLASS WORK.
Folding down for Seaming and Felling.
THIS is done by the whole class on pieces of paper. Two pieces are required to make the two folds which are pinned together afterwards. As the employ of the first B 2	class﻿12
class prepares them for the work of the second, so this prepares for the work of the fourth. The duty of this class is to learn to fix that kind of work which they are to do when placed in the next class above it.
The Plate No. 3 represents the folding for seaming and felling on paper quite even, as if ready for work.
The Plate No. 4 represents the same with the corner turned down, to shew the double fold.
The materials which the third class work with may be waste paper, the length and breadth of the two folds represented in the Plates.
FOURTH CLASS WORK,
Seaming and Felling.
THIS class is supplied with pieces of cotton or linen, and on each piece the pupils have to exemplify the seaming ; this is done three times, each piece being cut on purpose, in order that none of the pieces of linen may be lost. The pupils hem them round after the work is done, which keeps each specimen neat and free from rugged edges.
FIFTH CLASS WORK,
Drawing Threads and Stitching,
THIS class is supplied with pieces of cotton the same as the former. The nature of the work will speak for itself. The quantity of practice afforded appears considerable﻿13
derable, as a cliilcl will do three times the usual work on a piece of cotton the size of a shirt wristband.
The work of this class derives great advantage from the use of coloured thread, and the power of contrast. The stitches being commonly very close, when clean and fine, will not be nearly so perceptible or easily examined, when the wrork is done with common thread, as when the cloth is of one colour and the thread of another. Some of the materials for the fifth class work, may be made to serve for wristbands for the sixth class to work with.
The facility of inspection arising from the use of coloured thread is such, that a school-mistress may inspect the work of five or six pupils while she woidd be looking only at one in the common way.
Without vigilant inspection, there is no view of the activity or of the idleness of the scholars. Every thing which contributes to the facility of inspection, will be duly appreciated by teachers of youth, and ladies who visit Institutions for the instruction and industry of females.
SIXTH CLASS WORK^,
Gathering, and Fixing on Gathers.
THE Plate No. 7 represents a part of a sleeve with a double wristband, for the sake of affording double practice to the learner. Seven rows of stitching are allowed in each wristband instead of two, merely for the great quantity of practice in a small material.
Each﻿14
Each girl is supplied with a pair of wristbands and a piece of cotton, after which the monitor instructs them in gathering and fixing on the same, till they become proficient, and are removed into the next class.
SEVENTH CLASS WORK.
Button Holes.
THE Plate will elucidate the nature of the work allotted to this class. The monitor teaches each girl to cut the button holes to the proper size.
The power of contrast and the facility of inspection are increased for the work of this class ; no two button holes are worked with the same coloured thread. The diversity of colours renders the work of each button hole conspicuous, and thereby increase the readiness with which inspection may be conducted with the work of a large number of children.
EIGHTH CLASS WORK.
Buttons.
THE eighth class are employed in sewing on buttons, which are made on purpose by the girls, previous to fastening on. As they cost scarce any thing but labour, a sufficient number are easily made for practice: the practice﻿tice with a very few pieces will answer every purpose, and the buttons may be cut off and sewed on repeatedly. For attaining perfection, the buttons are sewed on at the ends of those pieces which are used for the fifth and sixth class works, and the stitching is sometimes done in a less proportion in the work of these classes to afford room for a button-hole, as well as a button at the end of the piece, or shirt wristband.
NINTH CLASS WORK.
Herring- Hone Stitch.
NO. 10 exhibits a representation of a piece of cotton with columns, or rows of this kind of work for the practice and consequent improvement of the learner.
No. 11 exhibits the use of the same, exemplified on a piece of flannel. The Plate No. 10 shews by a small specimen, the immense quantity of work which a child may have the practice of, upon a single yard of cloth, worth six-pence or eight-pence. Those who can judge how many garments must be completed before a child can have the quantity of practice a small piece of cotton will afford, will readily appreciate the beneficial results of this method.
TENTH CLASS WTORK.
Dm ■ning.
THIS is practised on a piece of cotton, for the sake of cheapness and quickness. The holes are purposely made for the sake of mending, but the pupils learn to
darn﻿I
16
darn well in consequence. The same practice has been exemplified with regard to worsted, muslins, &c. ; but cotton is pointed out as being cheapest and most generally attainable as a material for the work of children at school.
ELEVENTH CLASS WORK.
Marking.
VARIOUS specimens of samplers might be exhibited, but the annexed plate represents one containing the large and small alphabet and figures up to twelve, which are sufficient attainments to prepare a child for marking of linen, or practising on samplers at length.
Remarks.—Another class may be added to practise binding, and making tucks ; back-stitch, hem-stitch, &c. but these works have no plates ready to illustrate the subject, and the principle of tuition is precisely the same.
Economy.—The preceding details of the invention of a new manner of teaching needle-work, points out the? following advantages.
The material for employing two hundred thousand girls in needle-work may be obtained at a moderate expense ; the cheapest cottons answering that purpose are easily to be purchased.
Those who are desirous of carrying the economy of the thing still further, will find old or new rags answer the purpose most excellently. The advantages will be more striking when it is considered these materials will be worth
nearly
I﻿17
nearly as much for rags, after they have been cut into small pieces, and used for this purpose as before. In this case the economy of the material, reduces the expense of tuition beyond all common expectation.
In many cases the quantity of practice is four-fold increased by this substitute for the regular material.
A little inspection will easily shew to intelligent Ladies, that one yard of linen or cotton when used in this way, will find employment for a whole class. A pound of rags will go nearly three times as far in the quantity of employment, as one yard of cloth ; and yet in either case, from sixpence to a shilling will find materials to employ a large class of children for a considerable time. Further it is worthy of consideration, that one yard of cloth so used, will often furnish ten or twenty times more practice than can be had in making many garments.
It is hoped, that this appendage to the Royal Lancas-terian System of Education, will in point of economy, do credit to what has preceded it. The following statements may be depended on by the public.
A girl employed in the first class will be able out of a pound of waste paper, to have as much practice as in folding down near 200 yards of cloth in length. The cost of the material in many cases, nothing, at most a trifle.
A girl in the second class, if hemming one side of a yard of cloth in the usual manner of school, while doing so, will hold in her hand and perhaps spoil a quantity of materials which divided into parts, may be capable of employing 200 children in the same kind of work at the same time, the cost of material being worth about sixpence. In using rags equivalent to a yard of cloth, only half the expense will be incurred.
C
The﻿SEWING
The same observation has been found to apply with little difference to the quantity of work belonging to the fourth class.
One single yard of cotton, or its equivalent in rags, will furnish near 100 yards of stitching in length, to the children in the fifth class. About 100 children may also be employed in this kind of work from the same materials.
A girl employed in the sixth class from one yard ot cloth value six-pence, will have as much practice as in doing the same part of the work in making twenty shirts.
A single yard of cloth will furnish materials for children in the seventh class, to make near 1000 button holes.
A single yard of cloth divided into portions, will furnish 200 girls with employ for the eighth class work, and this in succession four times.
The same observations apply to the remaining classes. A yard of cloth devoted to the ninth class work, will afford about 200 such specimens near the size of the one exhibited in the plate.
In the eleventh class the girls work on coarse canvass, that they may see the threads easily before they begin on fine.
The cheapness of the material.—The quantity of employ it can be made to furnish, and the facility of pro» ducing these beneficial results, are such as it is hoped will render the Royal British System of Education conducive to the aid of parents and private tutors in teaching children, as well as to public schools for girls, so as to benefit all the female youth of Britain.﻿19
SEWING COTTON.
THE sewing cotton mentioned in a former page, as the invention of David Holt, of Chorlton Mill, Manchester, has from its superiority and quality, been honoured with the immediate patronage of the Queen and Princesses, who intend to use it exclusively.
Ladies and public charities may be supplied with this superior article, by applying to Michael Walsh’s Trimming Warehouse, Fishamble-street, Dublin.
M. Walsh is sole Agent for David Holt, of Man-■y	Chester, in the sale of this sewing cotton, which has not
only been honored with the patronage of the first Ladies in Britain, but daily increases in obtaining that 'preference »	which nothing but merit can give.

C 2
FIRST﻿﻿21
The Seam doubled down to shew the Fold, No. 4«
FOURTH CLASS WORK.
*
4*
Seaming and Felling, No. 5.
FIFTH﻿﻿﻿24
NINTH CLASS WORK.
Herring-Bone Stitch, No. 10.

No. 11.﻿﻿26
ELEVENTH CLASS WORK,
Marking, No. 13.
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5ULW0C

CUTTING﻿CUTTING OUT GARMENTS.
THE practice of measuring by a scale of parts has long been found useful in a variety of cases, but never before now applied to the art of cutting out garmehts.
In the scale of parts, an eighth, tenth, or any other part of an inch, is made to represent a foot, a yard, or any other length or breadth.
When the ratio between the small scale and the large one which it represents is properly understood, admeasurement by the small scale will be an accurate representation of the same length, &c. on the large measure, as its parts are measured off by the small one. Thus in Common Practice.
First. Take the article to be measured with, say is a piece of linen, twenty-six yards long.
Second. Then take a yard measure to measure with, and cut off from the piece of linen as many yards, or parts of a yard, as may be required for any given length or breadth. Now reader see the practice of
MEASURING BY SCALE.
TAKE apiece of paper or cloth, let it be twenty-six parts instead of twenty-six yards long. Each part, say the eighth of a yard, will represent a real yard measure, and the whole piece of cloth, or paper, will represent as many yards as may be in the large piece of cloth.
Then, instead of a full measure, the eighth of a yard, to represent a full yard.
D 3
With﻿With that any length or breadth may be measured,and the matter in which a pupil has to be instructed is the Ratio between the small scale and the large one.
Thus in the Copper-plate No. 2, will be seen a repre-sentive piece of cloth yard wade, with about one yard and a half of it unrolled.
And attached thereto will be found the measure.
When a class of pupils are each supplied with pieces of cloth, or paper, on the size of the Plate No. 2 *, and with a measure as attached, the pupils may thereby cut out the pattern of any common garment, making an accurate admeasurement by scale, and learning to measure practically.
For in the measure, see Copper-plate No. 2, three parts will represent three quarters of a yard.
Three parts and an half will represent three quarters two nails, and any other length by the same rule.
When children are instructed with a piece of cloth, accident may cause them to spoil it, but here a child may learn to cut out the common garment, and not spoil any useful thing.
This is applicable to every school, for every class of the community. It is the simple application of a general principle, which may be a blessing to every female in the three kingdoms, to the poorest cottage girl, as well as to the children of the first Ladies of the land.
Elizabeth Lancaster, the wife of Joseph Lancaster of London, demonstrated this. She publicly took part in a Lecture, saying therein all that an amiable and accomplished woman could say in favour of what might be of
* The Copper-plate, No. 1, is the same, only on a smaller scale.﻿’	29
service to her sex, amidst the approbation of her friends
*	and near two hundred ladies, among whom was the Princess of Wales.
But she gave a practical exemplification. Her only Daughter, a child of nine years of age, exhibited in her own person, a proof of the utility of the plan. The garments she ’wore were all made as well as cut out by her own hands; this little girl exhibited at the head of a number of other females, taught and clothed at the expense of a private friend of female education.—It is no wonder that mother and daughter were both honoured with high approbation. This improvement is now to be further extended under her own auspices. t	But Ladies who love the poor of this country, will
be well able to judge of the benefit their poor may derive from the extension of these simple arrangements,
*	the result of powerful yet economical principles.
The copperplate accidentally misnumbered 4, shew a pattern of a frock, on a scale reduced from the full size,
*	but the cutting out and the reduction of the scale, being
%	the work of Elizabeth Lancaster herself.
A practical demonstration of the advantages of this, it is hoped will soon be seen in Dublin, to the benefit of hundreds of poor females; and it is to be hoped the Ladies of Ireland will remember this preparatory address, consider its good effect, and support its practical results for the welfare of the needy.
**"	The Lady Abbess and Sisters of the Convent in James’s-
Street, have proved that paper may be used for teaching girls to work in lieu of rags. It is paper of a peculiar kind, manufactured in England; the economy of this idea
now
*﻿* '
so
fcow practically demonstrated will be likely to prove that three pence will find as much work for a poor girl before she learns to cut out garments as three shillings would with cloth or rags.
It is because of the zeal of these sisters in female education and their suggestions of this idea, that the thanks of the Editor of this report are given to them, for those ladies by suggesting an hint to further economize a very economical system, have a claim on our gratitude, they have rendered a service to humanity.
Let the Ladies of Ireland generally interest themselves for the education of poor females, and they will soon find the 'whole community better for their exertions.
They admire works of mercy, happy will it be, if they will double their diligence in doing then?.
FINIS﻿Pu fills ft ed Itf, J-Lancaster June 4- *1814-﻿


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