Seth Thompson, the Stockinger or, “When Things are at the Worst They Begin to Mend” (1845)

Leicestershire stockingers call that a false proverb. “People have said so all our lives,” say they; “but, although we have each and all agreed, every day, that things were at the worst, they never begun to mend yet!” This was not their language sixty years ago, but it is their daily language now; and the story that follows is but, as it were, of yesterday.