Casgliadau Arlein

Canvas, embroidered with coloured silks in cross, satin, herring-bone and other stitches and French knots. The sampler is divided into two parts by a horizontal band of a wavy stem with acorns and flowers. In the upper portion is a verse. The space on each side of the verse is filled with detached designs – flowering plants in pots, butterflies and birds. There is also the date "November / 8 / 1828" and the name "Margaret Hayward". The lower portion of the sampler is filled with detached conventional tree and flowering plant designs, a cockerel, birds, cats, cows, a horse, a donkey, and other animals. Beneath a leafy arch there is an urn with the date "18 / 38" upon a pedestal bearing the inscription: "M H / Aged / 10". The date 1828 upon the upper part of the sampler is, therefore, the date of the worker's birth. There is a border of a floral wavy stem within a narrow stripe.

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