VIII.] ENGLISH STRAW PLAT. 127 



platted here ; and that it would not answer to turn 

 into plat straw of just the same sort grown in Eng- 

 land ? It was impossible to believe this; but possi- 

 ble enough to believe, that persons now making 

 profit by Italian straw, or plat, 'or bonnets, would 

 rather that English straw should come to shut out 

 the Italian and to put an end to the Leghorn trade. 



220. In order to show the character of the reports 

 of those manufacturers, I sent some parcels of straw 

 into Hertfordshire, and got back, in the course of five 

 days, fifteen specimens of plat. These I sent to the 

 Society of Arts on the 3d of April ; and I here insert 

 a copy of the letter which accompanied them. 



TO THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. 



KENSINGTON, April 3, 1823. 



SIR, With this letter I send you sixteen speci- 

 mens of plat, and also eight parcels of straw, in order to 

 show the sorts that the plat is made out of. The num- 

 bers of the plat correspond with those of the straw; 

 but each parcel of straw has two numbers attached 

 to it, except in the case of the first number, which is 

 the wheat straw. Of each kind of straw a parcel of 

 the stoutest and a parcel of the smallest were sent to 

 be platted ; so that each parcel of the straw now sent, 

 except that of the wheat, refers to two of the pieces of 

 plat. For instance, 2 and 3 of the plat is of the sort 

 of straw marked 2 and 3 ; 4 and 12 of the plat is of 

 the sort of straw marked 4 and 12; and so on. These 

 parcels of straw are sent in order that you may know 

 the kind of straw, or rather, of grass, from which the 

 several pieces of plat have been made. This is very 

 material; because it is by those parcels of straw that 

 the kinds of grass are to be known. 



The piece of plat No. 16 is American; all the rest 

 are from my straw. You will see, that 15 is the finest 

 plat of all. No. 7 is from the stout straws of the 

 same kind as No. 15. By looking at the parcel of 

 straw Nos. 7 and 15, you will see what sort of grass 

 this is. The next, in point of beauty and fineness 



