Grim Shakers

Charles Dickens, encountering American Shakers, observed:

"we walked into a grim room, where several grim hats were hanging on grim pegs, and the time was grimly told by a grim clock, which uttered every tick with a kind of struggle, as if it broke the grim silence reluctantly, and under protest. Ranged against the wall were six or eight stiff high-backed chairs, and they partook so strongly of the general grimness, that one would much rather have sat on the floor than incurred the smallest obligation to any of them. Presently, there stalked into this apartment, a grim old Shaker, with eyes as hard, and dull, and cold, as the great round metal buttons on his coat and waistcoat; a sort of calm goblin."

(Dickens, American Notes for General Circulation)

Note: Come to think of it, I've experienced a few church services like that myself!

In Defense of the Shakers: They were the first ones who put seeds in evelopes to sell across the country. What would today's gardeners do without them?