Tow Cloath

 Today, I bid fond farewell to faithful friends: two of them, left and right. This is hardly a frivolous post, although if you have recently lost a loved one, it pales in significance. Inanimate objects are important in our lives; think of a favourite childhood toy or a lovely earring you have lost.

My slippers have warmed my toes for more years than I remember. My husband replaced them at least five years ago; the new ones shared my toes with the old ones. Generally, but not always, these slippers served my feet in summer and the newer ones in winter. However, the ease with which they slipped onto my feet gave them priority. No offence, nice black slippers.

Knowing that their days were limited, I purchased a new pair at Marshalls in the fall. Average, dull gray slippers would take their rightful place on my toes come the new year, I knew, but they will never replace them.

My old faithfuls sit in my clear bag, awaiting their disposal on Friday morning. No stone will mark their place. There will be only this blog post in tribute and memorial to their faithful service. I shed no tears; but I do raise a piece of tow cloath in their honour. Their value? Priceless. Other slippers will warm my tootsies, but they will not replace them.

Oh, how I've wondered about that word, tow, in the inventory of old Francis Holmes. It is one word of several that still elude me, but more and more, I'm replacing the ???s with an actual word written by quill in 1675. I've been transcribing the document for several months and it has become almost as familiar to me as the worn imprints on the soles of my dear red slippers.

Line 15: To 5 yds TOW Cloath at 2sh, hat 6sh, popper 18d, Cushings 4sh, fether bed bolster & two pillows 6ti. Value 7 - 1 - 6.

 What does that mean in modern English? Perhaps you wonder, perhaps you don't care. I will tell.

The "To" introduces the next line in the inventory. Also used were per and item, and a symbol I can't reproduce but it looks like a fancy, cursive L. 

Yds means yards. In Canada, we now purchase fabric in metres; but I have purchased fabric by the yard in years past. 

Hat is a thing that you wear on your head. Could be made of buckskin, beaver, wool . . .

A popper is a snap fastener. I think, since poppers were given a mention, they were not attached permanently like they are on babies jodhpurs.

Cushings are cushions.

A fether bed is what I have slept on at the farm, under the old tin roof. 

A bolster is a sturdy roll-like thing that props up your pillow.

Pillows are pillows are pillows - what I sleep on, dream on, lie awake pondering what to blog about tomorrow on. 

Tow cloth will not fix up the hole in the toe of my slipper - it is too far gone. 

Lexico dictionary definition: the coarse and broken part of flax or hemp prepared for spinning; a bundle of untwisted natural or man-made fibres.

The manufacture of linen was also a complicated process. When the flax had been rotted, washed, and dried in the flax kiln, the stalks were opened, thus exposing the fibres. The latter were combed in order to remove the pith, then pulled through finer combs to separate the tow, and finally sorted as to fineness. Course tow was used to make bags, suiting, towels, and fine linen goods. After the fibers had been spun into thread the skeins were washed and bleached in a solution of ashes and hot water. Since the cloth - which was woven on a semi-homemade frame - had a light brown color, it was washed and bleached in the sun. Pure white fabrics could be obtained by soaking bleached linen in buttermilk.

The Roots of American Civilization: A History of American Colonial Life, by Curtiss P Nettles. Page 240.