Again, an article from the Boston Evening Transcript but this one appeared on the 14th of August 1902 and was taken from the London Daily Mail newspaper.
Please take time to read it and also, perhaps, to compare and contrast the image it portrays of Harris & Lewis with that which I have attempted to present via this blog…
Monthly Archives: October 2010
An Advert for THE "HARRIS CLOTH"
Should you be sitting to read your copy of the Boston Evening Transcript on Wednesday the 26th of April 1899, your eye might alight upon the sub-heading ‘AHEAD OF ALL’ and to the second entry:
THE “HARRIS CLOTH” is spun and woven in the homes of the fishermen on the estates of the Countess of Dunmore, in the island of Harris. W.Hebrides.Scotland. In all colors for gentlemen’s spring wear at MESSENGER & JONES, 388 Washington street. Specially imported.
(Original here. from which you can see that the paper, celebrating its 70th year, cost 3 Cents.)
It is worth noting that, despite her having died some 13 years earlier, it was still the Countess of Dunmore whose name was linked to the origin of this “Harris Cloth” and it would be another decade before the ‘Orb’ trademark was established for Harris Tweed.
Burial at Sea in the 19thC
Upturned Boats
These examples of boats being given a second lease of life as sheds in Lindisfarne led me to seek further examples. It was brought to my attention that the Peggotty family in Charles Dickens’ ‘David Copperfield’ lived in such a structure in Great Yarmouth as shown on this book jacket .
Further South down the East Coast of England I found these in Whitstable and Gravesend, Kent .
On the West Coast of mainland Scotland, however, it was considered bad luck to re-use parts from old vessels and the only Scottish examples that I’ve been able to discover are these from Stronsay, Orkney Isles and the Shetland Isles .
If you know of other examples, whether of whole hulls or perhaps just a spar used as a roof-timber, then please drop me a line…
Crowdie Vikings
macleodgenealogy.org
Just a brief note that this site contains interesting biographical information in the Notes section at the bottom of each page:
Yachtsmen of Harris
Hugh Matheson’s of Stornoway
Tasglann nan Eilean Siar
This is the new blog of the Hebridean Archive Service:
http://blogserver.cne-siar.gov.uk/wp-archivist/
Enjoy!