A large square sampler featuring a twelve-line poem entitled 'Epitaph' composed of 1/4'-5/8' upper and lower case letters worked in black silk thread: 'Epitaph' 'Here rests his head, upon the lap of earth,/ A youth to fortune and to fame unknown/ Fair science frown'd not on his humble birth,/And melancholy mark'd him for her own. Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,/Heav'n did a recompense as largely send. He gave to misery all he had-a tear;/He gain'd from heaven (t'was all he wish'd)-a friend/ No farther seek his merits to disclose,/Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,/ There they, alike, in trembling hope repose,)/The bosom of his Father and his God.' The sampler is surrounded by embroidered motifs worked in multicolored silkthreads, including pink (now white), orange (now peachy brown), lime green (now light green), blue-green, blue, yellow, kelly green, deep rose (now mauve), and black. On either side of the title are angels and eagles. Strawberries are embroidered in each corner and across the top. The sides are adorned with six-pointed stars, floral designs, and grapes. The inscription: 'Jonathan &/ Hannah Wright' is embroidered beneath the floral design on the right side. More floral designs including lilies-of-the-valley and rose bushes are embroidered below the poem, some of which emanate from a hilly green border along the bottom of the sampler. At the center bottom is a cartouche formed of a floral border within which is embroidered in blue block letters the signature and date, 'Ruth Wright/1812' and in small black letters, 'RT' beneath which is a motif of two affronted birds with the motto, 'An/Emblem of love.' On either side of this motif are floral baskets and small tree and bird motifs. An undulating floral border is found on both sides. The sampler is worked on a very open plain-woven cotton(?) ground with hand-sewn hemmed edges in crinkled silk floss using cross, satin, stem, Rococo, detached chain or speckling, eyelet, and couching stitches. The sampler is framed in its original 2' wide wooden frame.