3-043-802 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Carting Seaweed, Coast of Normandy," by S. Bird, from the exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1872. Engraving of a painting. 'The spirited little picture, by Mr. S. Bird, which we have engraved from the Academy Exhibition, represents an incident often to be witnessed on the neighbouring French coast. The thrifty peasantry along the coast carefully collect the seaweed, or "vraic," as it is locally called, which the Atlantic washes on shore and leaves on the sand and shingle at ebbtide. Vraic is largely employed for manure; it is prized for its chemical properties, iodine being one of its constituents; some kinds are used medicinally, and even as food. It is a picturesque sight to come across one of the lumbering, primitive-looking carts du pays, taking in its olive-green load, drawn by the heavy but shapely Normandy horses, with their rude and huge harness and trappings; to see the comely and vivacious bare-legged Normandy girls raking up the weed, and as they do so always keeping up a lively conversation with the blue-bloused carter, as he leisurely adjusts the dank burden'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.