RYE.] NATURAL HISTORY. 267 



FIVE kinds of Rushes are written of : the candle Rush, 

 the hard Rush and Fen-rush, the Bull-rush or Mat-rush, 

 squinauth [or, camel's hay]. 



Batman's addition to Bartholomew, loc. cit. 



[The references to the Rushes strewed on the floors of rooms 

 are so numerous that there is no need to quote them. The 

 rushes used were often sweet - scented ones, which are still 

 found in some marshes in the Eastern Counties. Bulrushes 

 were also used (Dekker's " Bellman of London "), and hay 

 (Hentzner's "Itinerary"), or flowers: "Strew all my bowers 

 with flags and water-mints" (Lilly's "Woman in the Moon," 

 iii. 2). The Rushes must have been frequently changed, for 

 " all the ladies and gallants lie languishing upon the Rushes " 

 (Ben Jonson, " Cynthia's Revels," ii. 5), and they helped out 

 conversation : " If you had but so far gathered up your spirits 

 to you, as to have taken up a rush, when you were out, and 

 wagged it, thus, or cleansed your teeth with it" (ibid., iii. i). 

 As to the price, the cost was 3d, per burthen in 1559 (Lytes 

 "Eton College," p. 169).] 



A RUSH dried and put into wine, if there be any water 

 therein, draws it to it (the wine left alone, or together) 

 which is good and profitable for trying of wine. Mizaldus. 



Lupton, " Notable Things," bk. iii. 77. 



Rye. 



As You LIKE IT, v. 3, 23. 



FOR your brown bread, or bread for your hind-servants, 

 which is the coarsest bread for man's use, you shall take of 

 barley, two bushels, of pease, two pecks, of wheat or Rye, 

 a peck, a peck of malt, etc. 



Gervase Markham, " English Housewife's Skill in Baking," 

 p. 187 (1656). 



MEALS for bread are either simple or compound ; simple, 

 as wheat, and Rye, or compound, as Rye and wheat mixed 

 together, or Rye, wheat and barley mixed together. 



Ibid., p. 185. 



