190 RUSHLIGHTS BESOMS IDIOT BOY. 



morning and evening, in the dairy and kitchen ; but the very 

 poor, who are always the worst economists, and therefore must 

 continue very poor, buy a 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. 



While on the subject of rural economy, it may not be 

 improper to mention a pretty implement of housewifery that 

 we have seen nowhere else ; that is, little neat besoms which 

 our foresters mase from the stalks of the polytricum 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 its 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, f 



LETTER LXIX 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, December 12, 1775. 



DEAR SIR, We had in this village, more than twenty 

 years ago, an idiot boy, whom I well remember, who, from a 

 child, shewed a strong propensity to bees ; they were his food, 

 his amusement, his sole object. And as people of this cast 

 have seldom more than one point in view, so this lad exerted 

 all his few faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter, he 

 dozed away his time, within his father's house, by the fire-side, 

 in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney 

 corner ; but in the summer he was all alert, and in quest of his 

 game in the fields, and on sunny banks. Honey-bees, humble- 

 bees, and wasps, were his prey wherever he found them : he 

 had no apprehensions from their stings, but would seize them 

 nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their weapons, and 

 suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes 

 he would fill his bosom, between his shirt and skin, with a 

 number of these captives ; and sometimes would confine them 



* These besoms are common in the south of Scotland. From the 

 same substance mats and rugs are plaited. In Ireland large mats of this 

 kind are used by the peasantry for beds. ED. 



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



