On a Matting made from the Typlia latifolia. 289. 
want of bedding. Their own pecuniary resources are but too 
often insufficient to supply the more imperious demands for food 
and clothing ; so that, in ordinary circumstances, their sufferings 
from cold, during the hours intended by nature for repose and 
restoration, are excessively severe; as those well know, who have 
seen, with satisfaction not unmingled with sorrow, the joy which 
the donation of a single blanket invariably produces. If those 
who have the opportunity, would instruct and encourage the in- 
dustrious poor in the manufacture of matting from the Typha, 
they would thus be enabled to supply themselves with an article, 
which, when employed as a cover to their damp floors, as cur- 
tains to their couches, and as an auxiliary to their scanty stock 
of bedding, would most materially contribute both to their com- 
fort and to their health. 
The material of which matting, and the rush-bottoms (as they 
are called) of chairs, are usually made, is the Scirpus lacustris, 
known in some parts of England by the name bull-rush, and in 
Durham and Northumberland by that of pelecive. It grows na- 
turally in deep slow streams, and is particularly abundant in the 
neighbourhood of Newport Pagnel in Buckinghamshire. 
The demand for this article, however, in the Newport Pagnol 
manufactories is considerably greater than that district can supply ; 
and, in consequence, large importations of the Scirpus are made 
from Holland. Hence, in time of war, the article is often scarce, 
and at an exorbitant price. ; . 
Prior to the winter of 1817, Mr. Salisbury, induced by a lau- 
dable desire of opening new sources of industry to the unem- 
ployed poor, attempted, in various ways, to. apply the leaves of 
the Typha latifolia (flag, or greater cat’s-tail) to the same pur- 
poses as the Scirpus. For this purpose he was allowed, by the 
overseers of the parish of St. George, Hanover-square, to em- 
ploy some of their paupers in collecting about 23 tons of the 7'y- 
pha from the marshy grounds about Little Chelsea and Clapham; 
and afterwards in manufacturing a part of it into mats, baskets, 
hassocks, chair-bottoms, &c. 
Samples of these various articles were laid before the Society 
in December 1817; and it appeared, that with equal skill in 
manipulation, equally neat work might be produced from the 
Scirpus and from the Typha. It being, however,'a matter of con- 
siderable importance to ascertain the relative durability’of the 
two articles under similar circumstances of ordinary wear, the 
following experiment was made :—A piece of the best Dutch 
matting, at 2s. Gd. a yard, and a similar one of Mr. Salisbury’s 
manufactyre, were laid down side by side in the Society’s pre- 
mises on the 13th of December 1817. Their relative situations 
were occasionally changed, in order to equalize, as nearly as pos- 
Vol. 59, No. 288, April 1822, Oo sible, 
