Page - 107 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

“As i cannot write I put this down simply and freely” | 107www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 95–122 house next to the charity school. Later, she raised her niece, Elizabeth French, the daughter of her deceased sister Louisa.23 Most of the people mentioned in the embroidery have been identified. The traumatic experience Elizabeth refers to happened in the house of Lieutenant G., who was employed in the newly established coastguard. In her intimate text, Elizabeth did not record what happened to her, nor had she dared explain her situation to her friends who supported her after she left Fairlight: but I very soon left them and came to my friends but being young and foolish I never told my friends what had happened to me they thinking I had had a good place and good [11] usage because I never told them to the contrary they blamed my temper Besides being thrown down the stairs, we do not know what other abuse Elizabeth endured. It is difficult not to assume that she was sexually abused.24 In any case, she describes the destructive and long-lasting impact of this expe- rience in her vivid autobiographical textile, which is currently the only known document to have been produced by her. Why did Elizabeth embroider her autobiographical narrative? Why did she choose such a demanding and steady textile technique? Was it a form of “self-imposed penance”?25 Embroidering as an Educational and Religious Practice “As i cannot write I put I down simply and freely […]” suggests a spontaneous form of expression, which seems to contradict such neat and time-consuming needlework. Samplers are specimens of embroidery techniques stitched into a piece of fabric. They were used to practice stitches and motifs and collections of patterns, and were employed to reproduce, design, and inspire ornaments and letters in clothing and home linen. Samplers are examples – from the Lat- in exemplum or old French essamplaire26 – which are widespread throughout different cultures and times.27 23 See Goggin 2002, 47. 24 See Goggin 2002, 40 alludes to sexual violation and physical abuse. 25 Goggin 2002, 39 quotes a note by Lili Griffith, who sold the sampler to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1956. 26 See Browne/Wearden 1999, 7: “any kind of work to be copied or imitated.”. 27 An interesting collection of samplers can be found in a virtual exhibition on the website