Casgliadau Arlein

Woollen canvas, embroidered with coloured silks in cross and satin stitches. Divided horizontally into four compartments by narrow rows of ornament. In the first, between two conventional trees, flowers and wavy stem, is the verse:

"Best use of riches, When wealth to virtuous hands is giv'n It blesses like the dews of heav'n Like Heav'n it hears the orphan's cries; And wipes the tears from widows' eyes."

In the second compartment is a house between two flowering trees surmounted by birds, and flowering plants in pots. The third has a conventional tree with birds between squirrels and flowering plants symmetrically arranged in pairs. The bottom compartment has the following inscription within an octagonal floral stem: "Mary Ann Hibbert / Aged 9 Years / 1826".

On each side of the inscription are conventional flowering tree, plant and bird designs symmetrically arranged in pairs. There is a border of a floral wavy stem.

Source: Guide to the Collection of Samplers & Embroideries (Cardiff: National Museum of Wales, 1939) by F.G. Payne.