130 ENGLISH STRAW PLAT. [No. 



in England ; that, at all events, it was desirable to 

 get from America some of the seed of this grass ; and 

 that, for this purpose, my informant, knowing that 

 I had a son in America, addressed himself to me, it 

 being his opinion that, if materials similar to those 

 used by Miss WOODHOUSE could by any means be 

 grown in England, the benefit to the nation must 

 be considerable. , v v . 



D. In consequence of this application, I wrote to 

 my son James, (then at New York,) directing him to 

 do what he was able in order to cause success to the 

 undertaking. On the receipt of rny letter, in July, 

 he went from New York to Weathersfield, (about a 

 hundred and twenty miles;) saw Miss WOODHOUSE; 

 made the necessary inquiries; obtained a specimen 

 of the grass, and also of the plat, which other per- 

 sons at Weatherstield, as well as Miss WOODHOUSE, 

 were in the habit of making ; and having acquired 

 the necessary information as to cutting the grass 

 and bleaching the straw, he transmitted to me ah 

 account of the matter ; which account, together with 

 his specimens of grass and plat, I received in the 

 month of September. 



E. I was now, when I came to see the specimen 

 of grass, convinced that Miss WOODHOUSE'S mate- 

 rials could be grown in England; a conviction 

 which, if it had not been complete at once, would 

 have been made complete immediately afterwards by 

 the sight of a bunch of bonnet-straw imported from 

 Leghorn, which straw was shown to me by the im- 

 porter, and which I found to be that of two or three 

 sorts of our common grass, and of oats ? wheat, and 

 rye. 



F. That the grass, or plants, could be grown in 

 England was, therefore, now certain, and indeed 

 that they were, in point of commonness, next to the 

 earth itself. But before the grass could, with pro- 

 priety, be called materials for bonnet-making, there 

 was the bleaching to be performed ; and it was by 

 no means certain that this could be accomplished by 

 means of an English sun, the difference between 



