NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 141 



effusus, or common soft rush, which is to be found in most moist 

 pastures, by the sides of streams, and under hedges. These rushes are 

 in best condition in the height of summer ; but may be gathered, so 

 as to serve the purpose well, quite on to autumn. It would be needless 

 to add that the largest and longest are best. Decayed labourers, 

 women, and children, make it their business to 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 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 dispatch, 

 and 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 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 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, <f 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 i of a 

 farthing, and i 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 



