Janice Hopper wrote:
>
> At 12:36 PM 6/24/01 -0700, you wrote:
> > > Would anyone be able to tell me what the title "Weary Pund o' Tow"
> > > means? Its the title of a slow air from Gow's 3rd Repository.
> >
> >Tow is wool in its unspun state. A pound of it represents one hell of
> >a lot of work ahead in spinning it.
>
> Correction: Tow is made up of the short fibers of flax. To process flax,
> you take the retted stems of the plant and run them through hackles
> (essentially sharp tined combs.) This process splits the fibers of the
> stem of the flax plant, and combs out any short bits. The short bits are
> the tow. The long-combed out bits frequently look very much like long
> blonde hair (hence "flaxen haired") and the short bits like short blonde
> hair (tow-headed boys.)
>
> Spinning a pound of tow would be a lot of work!
>
Fully agree. The process Janice describes is what I referred to in an
earlier post, but there's also a lot of work in the 'retting' (rotting)
and beating the stems to soften them. The sharp combs are relatively
modern (18th c), the hackles were once the heads of the teasel plant
also used for carding wool (and still grown, I think, in the Priory
Garden in Melrose where the main use is now in dramatic dried-flower
arrangements). There used to be teasels growing by the Tweed next to the
Hempsford reed beds which grew flax, hemp and later tobacco. There do
not seem to be any now, it's taken over entirely by Canada balsam and
giant hogweed - and they have just declared it a site of special
scientific interest, ironic considering all the old riverside flora has
been driven out completely by these rampant invaders! No wild flax, no
reeds, no hemp, no teasels or anything.
Sorry, omitted the most recent arrival which is naturalised self-set
oilseed rape, whether genetically modified or not I don't know.
David
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