NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 95 



procure and prepare them. As soon as they are cut, they 

 must be flung into water, and kept there ; for otherwise 

 they will dry and shrink, and the peel will not run. At 

 first a person would find it no easy matter to divest a rush 

 of it's 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 become familiar even to children; 

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

 this business with great dispatch, and seldom failing to 

 strip them with the nicest regularity. When these juncz are 

 thus far prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be 

 bleached, and take the dew for some nights, and after- 

 wards 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 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, " dark- 

 ness visible ; " but then the wick of those have two ribs of 

 the rind, or peel, to support the pith, while the wick of the 



