STRAW-PLAITING — A LOST ESSEX INDUSTRY. 



187 



place at a later stage, I defer the description of that process and 

 pass at once to the splitting. 



This was accomplished by means of one of the little bone 

 " engines " as they were called. (Fig. 1.) Of late years the bone 

 engine has entirely disappeared, and present day plaiters on the 

 borders of Bedfordshire have told me that they have never used, 

 or even seen, other than metal engines such as those shown, 



FIG. 



B A A B 



2. — IRON STRAW- SPLITTERS, FROM MR. E. BIDWELL'S COLLECTION. 



g. 2 A.) 



which are modelled on the older instrument of bone. (Fi 

 Yet it cannot be 30 years since an old dame at Little Maplestead 

 told me she " had tried them new-fangled iron things and did not 

 hold with them ; bone for her." 



Thanks to Mr. E. Bidwell's courtesy, I am enabled to show 

 two iron splitters, finished somewhat differently from those in my 

 possession, and furnished with wooden handles. (Fig. 2 b.) 



