The Cottar's Saturday Night, verses 4 and 5

Category

Library Item

Item no

24763

Title

The Cottar's Saturday Night, verses 4 and 5

Description

A view of a family relaxing inside their cottage kitchen. The father sits besides the fireside and reads to a child sitting on his knee whilst a dog stands at his feet. At the kitchen table, an elder girl shows her mother a length of material or dress, as younger children look on. One child plays with a marble on the stone floor at his mother's feet.

Artist / maker

Faed, John

Date

1853

Size

19.1 x 25.1 cm

Type

Engraving

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

A cottar, or cotter, is an old scots word meaning a married farm labourer who lives in a cottage provided by his employer. This image illustrates verses 4 and 5 from Robert Burns' The Cotter's Saturday Night:
Belyve the elder bairns come drapping in,
At service out, amang the farmers roun';
Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin
A cannie errand to a neebor town:
Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown,
In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e,
Comes hame, perhaps, to shew a braw new gown,
Or deposite her sair-won penny-fee,
To help he parents dear, if they in hardship be.

Wi' joy unfeign'd brothers and sisters meet,
An' each for other's weelfare kindly spiers:
The social hours, swift-wing'd, unnotic'd fleet;
Each tells the uncos that he sees or hears;
The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years;
Anticipation forward points the view.
The mother, wi' her needle an' her sheers,
Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new;
The father mixes a' wi' admonition due.

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Related images

Related subjects

Animals > Mammals > Dogs

Clothing and dress > Garments > Dresses

Homes > Residential buildings > Cottages

Homes > Residential buildings > Crofts

People > Adults > Men

People > Adults > Women

People > Children > Children playing

Places > United Kingdom > Scotland

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