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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 ^ of a farthing, and ^ afterwards. Thus 

 a poor family will enjoy 5j hours of comfortable light for a 

 farthing. An experienced old housekeeper assures me that one 

 pound and an half of rushes completely supplies his family the year 

 round, since working people burn no candle 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 always the worst oeconomists, and therefore must continue 

 very poor, buy an halfpenny candle every evening, which, in 

 their blowing open rooms, does not burn much more than two 

 hours. Thus have they only two hours light for their money 

 instead of eleven. 1 



While on the subject of rural oeconomy, it may not be improper 

 to mention a pretty implement of housewifery that we have seen 

 no where else ; that is, little neat besoms which our foresters 

 make from the stalks of the polyiricum commune or great golden 

 maiden-hair, which they call silk-wood, and find plenty in the bogs. 

 When this moss is well combed and dressed, and divested of it's 

 outer skin, it becomes of a beautiful bright-chestnut colour ; and, 

 being soft and pliant, is very proper for the dusting of beds, 

 curtains, carpets, hangings, &c. If these besoms were known 

 to the brushmakers in town, it is probable they might come 

 much in use for the purpose above-mentioned. 2 



I am, &c. 



1 [White does not mention the " rush-burners" used to keep the draughts from 

 wasting the rush-lights. Dickens describes the contrivance thus : "As I had asked 

 for a night -light, the chamberlain had brought me in, before he left me, the good 

 old constitutional rush-light of those virtuous days an object like the ghost of a 

 walking-cane, which instantly broke its back if it were touched, which nothing could 

 ever be lighted at, and which was placed in solitary confinement at the bottom of a 

 high tin tower, perforated with round holes that made a staringly wide-awake pattern 

 on the walls" (Great Expectations, chap. xlv.). The pattern was a frequent cause 

 of night-fears to children a hundred years ago. A rush-burner may be seen in the 

 museum at Kew Gardens. Rush-holders of various constructions, spring clips, 

 sockets, etc., are still preserved. Some are figured in the Illustrated Archceologist, 

 September, 1894, p. 99, and in Trans. Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiq. Soc. t 

 vol. xii.] 



2 A besom of this sort is to be seen in Sir Ashton Lever's Museum. 



