What does the phrase refer to?
"Sunday black, and sea-cloth polished on the bench of rowing" — from Merry Men by Robert L. Stevenson. What’s the meaning of Sunday black, sea-cloth, and bench of rowing?
Original paragraph is like this:
The garden was fenced with the same wood that I had noted in the boat; there were chairs in the kitchen covered with strange brocade; curtains of brocade hung from the window; a clock stood silent on the dresser; a lamp of brass was swinging from the roof; the table was set for dinner with the finest of linen and silver; and all these new riches were displayed in the plain old kitchen that I knew so well, with the high-backed settle, and the stools, and the closet bed for Rorie; with the wide chimney the sun shone into, and the clear-smouldering peats; with the pipes on the mantelshelf and the three-cornered spittoons, filled with sea-shells instead of sand, on the floor; with the bare stone walls and the bare wooden floor, and the three patchwork rugs that were of yore its sole adornment—poor man’s patchwork, the like of it unknown in cities, woven with homespun, and Sunday black, and sea-cloth polished on the bench of rowing.
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Filed under: Old World Bar Stools
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I didnt really want to read the question but uuuuhhhhhh…… Yea
In the Christian west around the 18-19th century, Sunday was a day of rest: a time to devote to the praise of God. In the outer islands, where deaths at sea were common, people were considered particularly God-fearing and aware of His wrath.
If I were to refer to clothing, which is perhaps a phrase you may be more familiar with. ‘Sunday best’ – was always to be worn for church (and high-holidays), basically to look presentable in the eyes of God, and your community. It was your VERY best clothing – so ideally, no holes, no patches, etc.
If you were so poor that you didn’t have anything that had no holes or patches – to show you still had a degree of pride and self-worth, you took special care with what you had, and the way in which you looked after it.
Stevenson here is describing something that is not simply black – but something that has had some additional effort to make it as black as it could ever be. Some well equipped rowing boats of that period may have benches covered with heavy hessian woven matting – to stop a man sliding off while rowing against heavy seas. With constant effort, the weight and movement of the man might effectively scour and polish the wood immediately under where he sits.
The tone of the piece you quote suggests that special preparation has been made to mourn the passing of someone or something substantial.