A Servant and the Sabbath

Dean Ramsay in his extensive chronicle of Edinburgh life tells us.

“A manifestation of even still greater strictness on the subject of Sabbath desecration, I have received from a relative of the family in which it occurred.

The Hon. Mrs Stewart lived in Heriot Row and had a cook, Jeannie by name, a paragon of excellence. One Sunday morning when her daughter went into the kitchen, she was surprised to find a new jack (recently ordered, and which was constructed on the principle of going constantly without winding up) wholly paralysed and useless.

Miss Stewart naturally inquired what accident had happened to the new jack, as it had stopped. The mystery was soon solved by Jeannie indignantly exclaiming that "she was nae gaeing to hae the fule thing clocking and rinning about in her kitchen a’ the blessed Sabbath day."