LXVIII.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



195 



hedges. These rushes are in best condition in the height of 

 summer ; hut may be gathered, so as to serve the purpose well, 

 quite on to autumn. It would be needless to add that the 

 largest and longest are best. Decayed labourers, women, and 

 children, make it their business to procure and prepare them. 

 As soon as they are cut they must be flung into the water, and 

 kept there ; for otherwise they will dry and shrink, and the peel 

 \vill not run. At first a person would find it no easy matter to 

 divest a rush of its peel or rind, so as to leave one regular, 

 narrow, even rib from top to bottom that may support the pith : 

 but this, like other feats, soon becomes familiar even to children ; 

 and we have seen an old woman, stone-blind, performing this 

 business with great despatch, and seldom failing to strip them 

 with the nicest regularity. When these junci are thus far pre- 

 pared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached, and take 

 the dew for some nights, and afterwards be dried in the sun. 



Some address is required in dipping these rushes in the 

 scalding fat or grease ; but this knack also is to be attained 

 by practice. The careful wife of an industrious Hampshire 

 labourer obtains all her fat for nothing ; for she saves the scum- 

 mings of her bacon-pot for this use ; and, if the grease abounds 

 with salt, she causes the salt to precipitate to the bottom, by 

 setting the scummings in a warm oven. Where hogs are not 

 much in use, and especially by the sea-side, the coarser animal- 

 oils will come very cheap. A pound of common grease may 

 be procured for fourpence ; and about six pounds of grease 

 will dip a pound of rushes; and one pound of rushes may be 

 bought for one shilling ; so that a pound of rushes, medicated 

 and ready for use, will cost three shillings. If men that keep 

 bees will mix a little wax with the grease, it will give it a 

 consistency, and render it more cleanly, and make the rushes 

 burn .longer ; mutton-suet would have the same effect. 



A good rush, which measured in length two feet four inches 

 and a half, being minuted, burnt only three minutes short of an 

 hour: and a rush still of greater length has been known to 

 burn one hour and a quarter. 



These rushes give a good clear light. Watch-lights (coated 

 with tallow), it is true, shed a dismal one, " darkness visible ; " 



