192 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 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 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 fourpence, and about six pounds of 

 grease will dip a pound of rushes, and one pound of rushes maybe 

 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 wick 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, before 

 dipping, costs -fa of a farthing, and jL- afterwards. Thus a poor 

 family will enjoy five and a half hours of comfortable light for a 

 farthing. An experienced old housekeeper assures me that one 

 pound and a half of rushes completely supplies his family the 

 year round, since working people burn no candles in the long days, 

 because they rise and go to bed by daylight. 



Little farmers use rushes much in the short days both morning 

 and evening, in the dairy and kitchen ; but the very poor, who are 



