STRAW-PLAITING—A LOST ESSEX INDUSTRY. 187
place at a later stage, I defer the description of that process and
pass at once to the splitting.
This was accomplished by means of one of the little bone
"engines" as they were called. (Fig. 1.) Of late years the bone
engine has entirely disappeared, and present day plaiters on the
borders of Bedfordshire have told me that they have never used,
or even seen, other than metal engines such as those shown,
FIG. 2.—IRON STRAW-SPLITTERS, FROM MR. E. BIDWELL'S COLLECTION.
which are modelled on the older instrument of bone. (Fig. 2 a.)
Yet it cannot be 30 years since an old dame at Little Maplestead
told me she "had tried them new-fangled iron things and did not
hold with them; bone for her."
Thanks to Mr. E. Bidwell's courtesy, I am enabled to show
two iron splitters, finished somewhat differently from those in my
possession, and furnished with wooden handles. (Fig. 2 b.)