Further, the manipulation of the bigger fibres was easier to fingers perhaps only infrequently devoted to the work, and therefore up to this period the majority of straw hats were thick and weighty. There were exceptions such as _Leghorns_ that were plaitted from a variety of bearded wheat or rye (_Triticum turgidum_) grown in Tuscany. This was light in weight, comparatively tough, and of a fine natural golden colour. The upper part of the straw called _Punta_ (or point) was used for all Leghorn hats, and also for making plait which was called _Tuscan_, from the locality of growth. When _Tuscan_ was the only straw plait exported from Italy, Great Britain was one of the purchasers, and during the early part of the nineteenth century up to the repeal of the Corn Laws and the abolition of protective duties on other goods, British importers of _Tuscan_ plait had to pay a duty of 8s. per lb. weight. The desire to produce straw hats of less weight brought the bottom half of the straw column into use. That portion generally has a sheath, protecting it from the sun, which being stripped disclosed the under part of pearly white colour, this from being at the foot was called _pedale_, and although not so tough as the _punta_, was sufficiently so for plaitting purposes, and was very much lighter in weight. The first parcel of _pedale_ plait arrived in Great Britain in 1878, and is supposed to have been purchased by Messrs. Carruthers & Co., of Luton. But even then the quantity of fine _pedale_ straws grown did not suffice for the increasing demands for straw hats. The Italian straw, being so well established as the best material, caused workers to endeavour to find similar straw in other countries which had adopted straw hat making as a commercial undertaking. It is probable that the climate of Scotland was not alone the cause for the migration of the Lorrainers; the search for fine white, light, straws, impossible to obtain in the cold north, may have drawn these operatives to the southern parts of England. Whatever the actual reason or reasons, it is certain that by 1624 the neighbourhood of South Bedfordshire (Dunstable), North-west Hertfordshire (Hemel Hempstead), and probably East Buckinghamshire was producing higher grade straw hats than any hitherto obtainable in the British Isles. The district comprises practically the whole of the Eastern ranges of the Chiltern Hills, an area of chalky subsoil. The discriminating Lorrainers quickly discovered the extreme beauty of colour of the Chiltern straws, and it is almost certain that for this reason alone the art of making plait braid was introduced into the locality, which from 1624 onwards has been undoubtedly the centre of the British straw hat industry.