The Ayrshire Legatees

Miss Nanny was the eldest of three sisters, the daughters of a

shipmaster, who was lost at sea when they were very young; and his all

having perished with him, they were indeed, as their mother said, the

children of Poverty and Sorrow. By the help of a little credit, the

widow contrived, in a small shop, to eke out her days till Nanny was able

to assist her. It was the intention of the poor woman to take up a

girl's school for reading and knitting, and Nanny was destined to

instruct the pupils in that higher branch of accomplishment--the

different stitches of the sampler. But about the time that Nanny was

advancing to the requisite degree of perfection in chain-steek and

pie-holes--indeed had made some progress in the Lord's prayer between two

yew trees--tambouring was introduced at Irvine, and Nanny was sent to

acquire a competent knowledge of that classic art, honoured by the fair

hands of the beautiful Helen and the chaste and domestic Andromache. In

this she instructed her sisters; and such was the fruit of their

application and constant industry, that her mother abandoned the design

of keeping school, and continued to ply her little huxtry in more easy

circumstances. The fluctuations of trade in time taught them that it

would not be wise to trust to the loom, and accordingly Nanny was at some

pains to learn mantua-making; and it was fortunate that she did so--for

the tambouring gradually went out of fashion, and the flowering which

followed suited less the infirm constitution of poor Nanny. The making

of gowns for ordinary occasions led to the making of mournings, and the

making of mournings naturally often caused Nanny to be called in at

deaths, which, in process of time, promoted her to have the management of

burials; and in this line of business she has now a large proportion of

the genteelest in Irvine and its vicinity; and in all her various

engagements her behaviour has been as blameless and obliging as her

assiduity has been uniform; insomuch, that the numerous ladies to whom

she is known take a particular pleasure in supplying her with the newest

patterns, and earliest information, respecting the varieties and changes

of fashions; and to the influence of the same good feelings in the breast

of Mrs. Pringle, Nanny was indebted for the following letter. How far

the information which it contains may be deemed exactly suitable to the

circumstances in which Miss Nanny's lot is cast, our readers may judge

for themselves; but we are happy to state, that it has proved of no small

advantage to her: for since it has been known that she had received a

full, true, and particular account, of all manner of London fashions,

from so managing and notable a woman as the minister's wife of Garnock,

her consideration has been so augmented in the opinion of the

neighbouring gentlewomen, that she is not only consulted as to funerals,

but is often called in to assist in the decoration and arrangement of

wedding-dinners, and other occasions of sumptuous banqueting; by which

she is enabled, during the suspension of the flowering trade, to earn a

lowly but a respected livelihood.