A small rectangular sampler featuring an alphabet, poem, and figural motif. The center section of the textile is surrounded on three sides by a pink and green(?) sawtooth border. Within this section is an alphabet composed of ...'capital letters 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ/RSTUVWXYZ'. Beneath the alphabet is a four-line poem embroidered in ...' upper and lower case letters: 'The Farest Flowers will soon decay (CHECK SP)!!! Their fragrance lose and splendid hue So youth and beauty fade away And vanish like the morning dew' In the middle of the central field is a scene depicting a woman in a striped dress seated beneath two trees. Several kinds of birds perch in the trees above. The sampler is signed within an embroidered framework at the center bottom, 'Nabby Townsend's work wrought/ in the Eleventh year of her age./ 1795'. An unusual ...'wide arcaded border with highly stylized flowers surrounds the center field on three sides. The edges are hem-stitched. The sampler is worked in shades of green blue, coral, brown, gold, and black silk thread on a plain-woven grey-white wool ground using satin, and crossstitches. The sampler is framed in a black painted wooden frame with an ogee-bracketed outer edges. The frame is not of the same period as the sampler. stitches. The sampler is framed in a black painted wooden frame with an ogee-bracketed outer edges. The frame is not of the same period as the sampler.