1901-1902. j 55 



a fair damsel who was engaged in her household avocations of 

 milking, drawing water, and cutting rushes with a sharp 

 hook, the long green ones suitable for lighting purposes, and 

 the others for strewing the floor. One version of the story 

 tells us that when he revealed himself to her and questioned 

 her about cutting the rushes, she told him tha^ it was the 

 work of the women to cut and peel the rushes, as women are 

 the light of the house. Captivated by her beauty and her 

 aptitude for house-keeping, he made her his Queen." After 

 that story I think that those who still have specimens of the 

 rush-light candlesticks should not be ashamed to own them, for 

 too often when making enquiries for them at farm houses you 

 are told, " Oh, yes, we had one, but threw it out. What use 

 was it ?" Many fine specimens have been sent to Belfast from 

 the surrounding country towns as scrap iron and shipped 

 away as such. Three years ago I exhibited several speci- 

 mens at a local loan collection of antiquities, etc., and it was 

 with surprise and pleasure I saw quite a number of visitors 

 gather round the pieces of rusty iron, for they brought back 

 to the memory of many of those present happy evenings and 

 nights spent round the great peat fires in the country, for 

 there the possession of a few pounds more or less does not form 

 such a barrier to social intercourse as it does in the town or 

 city, for the squire enjoys dropping in to hear the village 

 politician or the good story-teller. The iron candlestick must, 

 of course, be chiefly identified with the peasantry, though the 

 more ornamental specimens had evidently been made for 

 tradesmen and well-to-do farmers. Great numbers of these 

 must have been made in Ulster during the eighteenth and the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century. The general construc- 

 tion of the majority of the specimens that I show is very 

 similar to the tripod lamp-stands found at Pompeii. But 

 the Ulster artificers were evidently no servile imitators, for 

 rarely do you find two specimens alike. Some have only the 

 necessary parts required for their utility, while others with a 

 very little additional ornament display a thorough knowledge 

 by the maker of what is beautiful yet simple. Mr. William 



