128 ENGLISH STRAW PLAT. [No. 



combined, are the pieces Nos. 13 and 8 ; and by look- 

 ing at the parcel of straw, Nos. 13 and 8, you will 

 see what sort of grass that is. Next comes 10 and 5, 

 which are very beautiful too ; and the sort of grass, 

 you will see, is the common Bennet. The wheat, 

 you see, is too coarse ; and the rest of the sorts are 

 either too hard or too brittle. I beg you to look at 

 Nos. 10 and 5. Those appear to me to be the thing 

 to supplant the Leghorn. The colour is good, the 

 straws work well, they afford a great variety of sizes, 

 and they come from the common Bennet gross, 

 which grows all over the kingdom, which is culti- 

 vated in all our fields, which is in bloom in the fair 

 month of June, which may be grown as fine or as 

 coarse as we please, and ten acres of which would, 

 I dare say, make ten thousand bonnets. However, 7 

 and 15, and 8 and 13, are very good; and they are to 

 be got in every part of the kingdom. 



As to platters, it is to be too childish to believe that 

 they are not to be got, when I could send off these 

 straws, and get back the plat, in the course of five 

 days. Far better work than this would have been 

 obtained if I could have gone on the errand myself. 

 What then will people not do, who regularly under- 

 take the business for their livelihood? 



I will, as soon as possible, send you an account of 

 the manner in which I went to work with the grass. 

 The card or plat, which I sent you some time ago, 

 you will be so good as to give me back again some 

 time ; because I have now not a bit of the American 

 plat left. 



I am, Sir, your most humble and most obedient 

 servant, WM. COBBETT. 



221. I should observe, that these written communi- 

 cations of mine to the Society, belong, in fact, to it, 

 and will be published in its PROCEEDINGS, a volume 

 of which comes out every year ; but, in this case, 

 there would have been a year lost to those who 

 may act in consequence of these communications 

 being made public. The grass is to be got, in great 



