| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| From “Dorothy: a Country Story.” IV. Beauty at the Plough |
| | | Arthur Joseph Munby (b. 1828) |
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| THUS then, one beautiful day, in the sweet, cool air of October, | |
| High up on Breakheart Field, under the skirts of the wood, | |
| Dolly was ploughing: she wore (why did I not sooner describe it?) | |
| Just such a dress as they all—all the farm-servants around; | |
| Only, it seem’d to be hers by a right divine and a fitness— | 5 |
| Color and pattern and shape suited so aptly to her. | |
| First, on her well-set head a lilac hood-bonnet of cotton, | |
| Framing her amberbright hair, shading her neck from the sun; | |
| Then, on her shoulders a shawl; a coarse red kerchief of woolen, | |
| Matching the glow of her cheeks, lighting her berry-brown skin; | 10 |
| Then came a blue cotton frock—dark blue, and spotted with yellow— | |
| Sleev’d to the elbows alone, leaving her bonny arms bare; | |
| So that those ruddy brown arms, with the dim, dull blue for a background | |
| Seem’d not so rough as they were—softer in color and grain. | |
| All round her ample waist her frock was gather’d and kilted, | 15 |
| Showing her kirtle, that hung down to the calf of the leg: | |
| Lancashire linsey it was, with bands of various color | |
| Striped on a blue-gray ground: sober, and modest, and warm; | |
| Showing her stout firm legs, made stouter by home-knitted stockings; | |
| Ending in strong laced boots, such as a ploughman should wear: | 20 |
| Big solid ironshod boots, that added an inch to her stature; | |
| Studded with nails underneath, shoed like a horse, at the heels. | |
| After a day at plough, all clotted with earth from the furrows, | |
| Oh, how unlike were her boots, Rosa Matilda, to yours! | |
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