184 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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, arid seldom failing to strip them with the 

 nicest regularity. When these junci are thus far prepared, 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 scald- 

 ing fat or grease ; but this knack also is to be obtained by prac- 

 tice. The careful wife of an industrious Hampshire labourer 

 obtains all her fat for nothing ; for she saves the scummings 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 

 four pence ; 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 ;" 

 but then the wicks of those have two ribs of the rind, or peel, to 

 support the pith, while the wick of the dipped rush has but one. 

 The two ribs are intended to impede the progress of the flame, 

 and make the candle last. 



In a pound of dry rushes, avoirdupois, which I caused to be 

 weighed and numbered, we found upwards of one thousand six 

 hundred individuals. Now suppose each of these burns, one 

 with another, only half an hour, then a poor man will purchase 

 eight hundred hours of light, a time exceeding thirty-three entire 

 days, for three shillings. According to this account each rush, 



