19. Old Maid's Ramble: Desperate Walkers

Old Maid's Ramble

By Becky Brown

The country in Hampshire, England

One of Jane Austen's delights was walking across the countryside from village to village. A few days after her 23rd birthday in 1798 she wrote her sister Cassandra:

"I enjoyed the hard black frosts of last week very much, and one day while they lasted walked [from Steventon] to Deane by myself. I do not know that I ever did such a thing in my life before."

 Less than two years later the hike of a few miles was commonplace for Jane.

"On Thursday we walked to Deane, yesterday to Oakley Hall and Oakley, and to-day to Deane again. At Oakley Hall we did a great deal—eat some sandwiches all over mustard... ."

A month later at her friend Martha Lloyd's house, the weather kept them inside.

 "It is too dirty even for such desperate walkers as Martha and I to get out of doors, and we are therefore confined to each other's society from morning till night..."

Desperate walkers Jane and Martha were perhaps considered eccentric. Ladies did not hike. About one hundred years later walking was still ill-advised. In 1896 health expert John Madison Taylor warned against it. Girls should "take mild open-air exercise (of which walking solemnly along the street is emphatically not the best and not even a good form)."

Advice such as Taylor's was still in vogue when I was a teenager in the 1960s. Exercise of any kind seemed unwise (female troubles, you know) and unladylike (boys hated competition).

 

According to Taylor: 

"The so-called calisthenic exercises, which mean 'beautiful forcefulness,' probably because they are usually so hideous, are devoid of interest and not particularly useful. Only that exercise is best which involves some pleased acquiescence.... Fancy dancing, as previously remarked, admirably develops loins and back....The bicycle is monotonous, and the character of movements is restricted by the rotary mechanism, hence it develops unsymmetrically and may exhaust before tiring the muscles. Cycling is a peril because of the competition of companions who lure the weak ones too far. Girls should not push up steep hills and never attempt to keep pace with powerful young men."

1911---A Kansas sports team from the Library of Congress

 

I'm sure Taylor recommended housework too. I'm jealous of American girls who went to high school after Title IX was enacted in 1972. Within a few years girls' participation in team sports went up from 4% to 25%. At last summer's Olympics, women won 56% of Team USA's medals.

"[Brother Henry] talks of the Rambles we took last summer with pleasing affection." Jane Austen, April 11, 1805

Old Maid's Ramble

By Becky Brown

She threw in more fabrics in this version:

"I always think more fabrics are better!"

Celebrate a good hike with Jane, Martha and Old Maid's Ramble. The pattern was given the unfortunate name about 1890 by the Ladies Art Company.

It makes a great two-color block

It's BlockBase #2328a.

Oops! Ginny says #2338a and she's right, but I

can't get it to find the number. Search as a wild card

for Ramble and you'll see it.

 

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

The red measurements come from the EQ rotary cutting default set to 1/16th inch rather than 1/8".
 

A - Cut 12 squares 3-1/4". Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles.

You need 48 triangles.

B- Cut 1 square 5-1/4". Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles.

You need 4 triangles.

Here's a how-to for a two-color version. Throw in more fabrics and refigure the shading.

Cutting a 12" Block

A - Cut 12 squares 4-3/16". Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles.

You need 48 triangles.

B- Cut 1 square 7-3/16". Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles.

You need 4 triangles.

  

Read about the benefits of Title IX mandating girls' sports here:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/as-girls-become-women-sports-pay-dividends/

Desperate Walkers

by Dustin Cecil

  

Remember early concepts of exercise in John Madison Taylor & William Hughes Wells , Manual of the diseases of children. Search for the words feebleness or puberty.

http://books.google.com/books?id=vVOmNgiRtfAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=William+Hughes+Wells+,+Manual+of+the+diseases+of+children&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XT-5T6-yEIaa8gSL2PySCg&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=William%20Hughes%20Wells%20%2C%20Manual%20of%20the%20diseases%20of%20children&f=false

And read Jane Austen's letters in a Project Gutenberg e-book here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22536/22536-h/22536-h.htm