On the Manufacture of Italian Bonnets, &c. 167 
ing wall and a terrace some feet in thickness. Upon this 
wall usually stand several vases of the antique shape, con- 
taining aloe plants, flowers, and young orange trees. The 
house itself is entirely covered by vine- branches, so that 
during summer, one knows not whether they are so many 
pavilions of verdure, or dwellings prepared for winter. 
In front of these houses swarms of young country girls 
are seen, dressed in white linen, with corsets of silk, and 
straw hats adorned with flowers, inclining to one side of the 
head. They are constantly occupied in braiding the fine 
mats, the treasure of this valley, from which the straw hats 
of Florence are made. 
This branch of industry has become the source of the 
prosperity of the valley of the Arno. It produces yearly 
three milllons (of livres,) which is distributed exclusively 
among the women ; for the men never engage in this occu- 
pation. Each young girl buys for a few pence the straw 
she wants ; she then exerts her skill to braid it as fine as 
possible ; and she sells, herself, and for her own profit, the 
hats she has prepared. The money she thus earns, consti- 
tutes her portion. ‘The father of the family has nevertheless 
the right to require of the woman belonging to his house, a 
certain amount of rustic labour on the farm. He receives 
this labour from the females of the mountains, (the Appe- 
nines,) whom the girls of the Plains pay, out of the produce 
of their hats, for performing the tasks in their stead. One 
of them can earn from thirty to forty sous a day in braiding 
her straw ; while she can hire a poor Appenine woman, to 
do her field labour for eight or ten, and they secure by this 
commutation of service, the delicacy and flexibility of their: 
fingers necessary for their nice and fine work, and which 
would be spoiled by such exercises as harden and stiffen the 
hands. 3 
Such, Sir, are the female peasants of the Vale of the Ar- 
no, whose grace and beauty are celebrated by travellers, 
whose language Alfieri went there to study, and who seem, 
in fact, born to embellish the arts, and to furnish them mod- 
els. They are shepherdesses of Arcadia, but they are not 
peasants; they possess only the health and freedom from 
care of that state, and never know its anxieties. its sun-burn- 
ings, and its fatigues. 
