Free Regency Reading Sampler for the Holidays

 What's a 'Sampler'?

I'm glad you asked! A Regency sampler was a piece of embroidery created by young girls as both a record of stitching patterns and a tool for learning practical skills. Dating back to 1505, samplers originally served as personal pattern books before printed versions were readily available, allowing women to replicate designs from others’ clothing or decorative items. A bit like scrolling Pinterest for craft and design ideas.

    Early samplers were practical, with patterns placed haphazardly as references rather than for aesthetic design. With time, samplers evolved in both appearance and function, becoming square and systematically incorporated into education, especially for young girls from diverse social backgrounds.

    Starting as early as age five or six, girls were taught to embroider marking samplers with initials and numbers to identify household linens—a necessary skill, as most households sent laundry out. This was important for practical reasons like tracking linens and inventory rotation to prolong wear, especially for the expensive linen material. 

    By the age of eight to ten, girls advanced to more complex samplers, learning stitches, letters, and numerals, which doubled as reading primers. While boys learned writing due to future business needs, girls focused on reading, considered sufficient for their societal roles.

    The most advanced samplers, such as whitework, demonstrated high skill and were used to decorate household items, with some creating elaborate caskets or jewellery boxes. This is how samplers also displayed social status and learning progress. Girls' schools emphasised these skills as essential “accomplishments,” required to make girls marriageable. 

    Alongside needlework, some schools offered broader education in subjects like French, music, and geography. Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra attended boarding schools where they encountered such training, though their family later shifted focus to literary pursuits at home.

Cassandra Austen's embroidery sampler

In Austen’s novels, women’s needlework, like Charlotte’s embroidered landscape in Sense and Sensibility, symbolised education and readiness for societal roles. Through embroidery, women occupied their time with purpose, as needlework was woven into Regency life and a marker of both skill and character.

Here's one I've prepared earlier...for you

So, I've created a Regency romance novel sampler for you - with a special link to .pdf tasters of two of my Regency romance novels, Always a Princess and The Christmas Salon. 

This link is unique to Sweet & Sexy Divas

It's not a cloth with little stitches I'm afraid, but it is a sampler of my Clifton Hall novels - and it's free for all divas.

Simply click on the link above, and download the sample chapters for your reading pleasure this holiday season. 

Happy reading!
Love,
Clyve

XxX