124 ENGLISH STRAW PLAT. [No. 



now began tobe imported, and to be platted in this coun- 

 try. So that we had hands to plat as well as the 

 Italians. All that we wanted was the same kind of 

 straw that the Italians had : and it is truly wonder- 

 ful that these importations from Leghorn should have 

 gone on increasing year after year, and our domestic 

 manufacture dwindling away at a like pace, without 

 there having been any inquiry relative to the way 

 in which the Italians got their straw ! Strange, that 

 we should have imported even straw from Italy, with- 

 out inquiring whether similar straw could not be got 

 in England! There really seems to have been an 

 opinion, that England could IH> more produce this 

 straw than it could produce the sugar-cane. 



213. Things were in this state, when in 1821, a 

 Miss WOODHOUSE, a farmer's daughter in CONNECTI- 

 CUT, sent a straw-bonnet of her own making to the 

 Society of Arts in London. This bonnet, superior in 

 fineness and beauty to anything of the kind that had 

 come from Leghorn, the maker stated to- consist of a 

 sort of grass of which she sent along with the bonnet 

 some of the seeds. The question was, then, would 

 these precious seeds grow and produce plants in per- 

 fection in England ? A large quantity of the seed 

 "had not been sent : and it was therefore, by a mem- 

 ber of the Society, thought desirable to get, with as 

 little delay as possible, a considerable quantity of the 

 seed. 



214. It was in this stage of the affair that my attention 

 was called to it. The member just alluded to applied 

 to me to get the seed from America. I was of opinion 

 that there could be no sort of grass in Connecticut 

 that would not, and that did not, grow and flourish in 

 England. My son JAMES, who was then at New- 

 York, had instructions from me, in June 1821, to go 

 to Miss WOODHOUSE, and to send me home an account 

 of the matter. In September, the same year, I Jieard 

 from him, who sent me an account of the cutting and 

 bleaching, and also a specimen of the plat and grass 

 of Connecticut. Miss WOODHOUSE had told the 

 Society of Arts, that the grass used was the Poa 



