- 1739 
Males pig Bt eile ad Sothet Wad : 
82109: 11 
Females 32505 6 # oe epee 
Total population in 1811 6.) 0. 3848 
East Long. 41’ 25’’, North Lat. 50° 52’ 10’, according 
to trigonometrical observations. See the Guide to the 
Watering Places 1805, and the Beauties of England and 
Wales, vol. xiv. p. 184. 
HASTINGS, Barrie or. Sce Ew@nanp, vol.. viii. 
p. 598, col. 2. 
HAT, is the name of a piece of dress worn upon the 
head by both sexes, but principally by the men. ''The 
use of hats seems to have been: first introduced’ amon 
the ecclesiastics in the 12th century, and it was not ti 
the year 1400 that they seem to have been pretty gene- 
rally adopted. 
As the art of making common hats does not invelve 
the description of any curious machinery, or any very- 
interesting processes, we shall not enter into minute 
details upon the subject. It will be sufficient to con- 
vey to our readers a very general ‘idea of the method 
which is employed. 
The materials employed in making hats, are the fur 
of hares and rabbits freed from the hair, together with 
wool and beaver. The beaver is reserved for the finest 
hats. The fur is first laid upon a hurdle made of wood 
or wire, with longitudinal openings ; and the operator, 
by means of an instrument called the dow, (which is a 
piece of elastic ash, six or seven feet long, witha eat- 
gut stretched between its twoextremities, and made to 
vibrate by a bowstick,) makes the vibrating string strike 
and play upon the fur, so as to throw the fibres toge- 
ther, while the dust and filth descend through the 
ehinks of the hurdle. A sieve or searce has sometimes 
been used for the same purpose. 
After the fur is thus driven by the bow from one 
end of the hurdle to the other, it forms a mass called a 
batt, which is only half the quantity sufficient for a hat. 
The batt or capade thus formed, is rendered by 
pressing it down with a hardening shin, (a piece of halt- 
tanned leather, ) and the union of the fibres is increased 
by covering it with a cloth, and allowing the workman 
to press it together repeatedly with his hands, The 
cloth being taken off, a piece of paper, with’its corners 
doubled in, so as ‘to give it a triangular outline; “is laid 
above the batt. The opposite edges of ‘the ‘batt are 
then folded over the paper,’and being brought together 
and pressed with the hands, they form a conical cap, 
This cap is next laid upon another’ batt, ready hard. 
ened, so that the joined edges of the first batt rest u 
the new batt. This new batt is folded. over the er, 
and its edges joined by pressure as before ; so that'the 
joining of the ‘first conical cap is opposite that: of ‘the 
second, ‘Fhis compound batt is now wrought with the 
hands for a-considerable time upon ‘the ‘hurdle, being 
occasionally sprinkled with Clear ‘water till the hat is 
basoned or rendered: tolerably firm. . 
The cap is'now taken ‘to a wooden receiver, like a 
very flat mill-hopper, consisting of ‘eight «wooden 
planes, sloping gently to'the centre, which contains a 
kettle filled with water acidulated with sulphuric acid; 
In this liquor the hat is o¢casionally dipped; ‘and 
wrought by the hands, ‘and sometimes ‘with a roller, 
upon the sloping planks. The hat is thus fulled or 
thickened for four or five hours; knots or hard sub- 
stances are picked out by the workman, and felt is 
added by means-of a wet brush to those parts that re- 
qnire it, The beaver is laid on at’ the end of this’ ope- 
654 
> HA T + f 7 
ration ; and in the case of beaver hats, the grounds of 
-beer ave'added to the liquor in the kettle. © > . . 
The ‘hat is now to receive its proper shape.» For 
this purpose the workman turns up the edge or rim to 
the depth of about 1} inch, and then returns the 
point of the cone back again through the axis of the 
‘cap, 80 as'to | ce another inner fold/of the same 
depth. A third fold is —produced: ‘by: : ving the 
point of ee and so on till the: 1e- 
sembles. a flatrei piece, having a number of con- 
centric folds. In this eel sana * 
and wetted with the liquor. \ Pdiiien: 
the point with his fingers, and: presses‘it down with his — 
, turning itat the samertime round’on’ its centre 
upon the plank, till a flat portion, equal to the erown 
of the hat,! is rubbed: out.) flat crown is now 
placed upon a block, and by forcing a'stringy “called 
commander, down the sides of the block, he 
parts adjacent tu the ¢rown to assume a | 
gure, . ‘The rim ‘now ws. like a wick 
age round the’ cylindrical eone'; but the 
is now givén fo it , 
The hat being dried, its ‘na 
with a wire brush or ‘card, and som 
ously pounced or rubbed wi umice, t off the 
coal rts,’ and afterdlide MMBet Ne ith seal- _ 
skin. The hat is now tied with a pack-thread upon 
‘its block, and is then -dyed, by being first boiled with 
logwood, and afterwards immersed*in a saline solution, ° 
consisting of a mixture of green copperas ‘and blue 
vitetolbsisiisiso 2 acnagaan to Teh See 
‘The dyed hats aré now removed to thestiffening shop. 
Beer grounds are now applied’ on the’ ‘inside Saas 
coming absougiiir ‘and when the beer are dried, 
glue, (gum Senegal is sometimes-used,) a little thinner 
than’ ‘used by » is laid with a-brush on 
‘the-inside of the crown, and the lower surface'of the 
brim. iden eh, heqits levos 
| The hat»is now softened by | to steam, on 
the steaming bason, and is then brushed: and ironed 
till it receives the proper gloss, It is then cut round 
at the brim by aknife fixed atthe end of a guage, which 
rests against: the crown: The brim, however, is not 
ly through, but is torn ‘off so as’ to leave an 
Ses Cae ‘The 
crown being tied up in gauze paper, which is neatly 
ironed. Seen 7 then ‘gently Moet e last operations ‘of 
lining and binding. hawietis re of the chips 
+t Peewee a ‘made of straw, or of the chips Straw 1 
and shavings’ pare ‘woven or. together, to 
form ribbons of narrow widths ; and these are wound 
irally round a block, and wrt erie eylin- 
drical form, so as to form the hat. The rim or border 
is made in a similar manner; and sewed to the hat after- 
wards, Leh 12% GED MH BITTY er 
_ The manufacture of straw hats-gives employment to 
vast numbers of the inhabitants of Hertfordshire 
and Bedfordshire. ‘They select ‘the whitest and most 
regular straws, and cut them exactly into lengths ; the 
straws are then whitened, by inclosing a great number 
of bundles in a large box, leaving a considerable space 
in the middle, into which a cup filled with ur is 
placed, and this being lighted, the box is shut close, and 
covered up with a'wet blanket, to keep in the vapour 
of the burning sulphur, which insinuates itself through 
all the bundles of straw contained in the box, and ren- 
ders them whiter, and of a more delicate colour. - After 
this preparation, the straws are split lengthwise into se- 
uw ~S 
