CHAPTER IV 



CANDLE-LIGHT AND CANDLESTICKS 



In these clays of cheap matches and lamps for mineral oil, 

 one can hardly realise the troubles and difficulties in the 

 way of procuring and maintaining artificial light for the 

 long dark mornings and evenings of nearly half the year, 

 that prevailed among cottage folk not a hundred years ago. 

 Till well into the third or fourth decade of the nine- 

 teenth century, many labouring families could afford nothing 

 better than the rush-lights that they made at home, and 

 this, excepting fire-light, had been their one means of light- 

 ing for all the preceding generations. 



In the summer, when the common rushes of marshy 

 ground were at their full growth, they were collected by 

 women and children. The rush is of very simple structure, 

 white pith inside and a skin of tough green peel. The 

 rushes were peeled, all but a narrow strip, which was left to 

 strengthen the pith, and were hung up in bunches to dry. 

 Fat of any kind was collected, though fat from salted meat 

 was avoided if possible. It was melted in boat-shaped 

 grease-pans that stood on their three short legs in the hot 

 ashes in front of the fire. They were of cast-iron; made on 

 purpose. The bunches, each of about a dozen peeled rushes, 

 were drawn through the grease and then put aside to dry. 



An old cottage friend told me all about it, and though 

 winter was only just over, and the rushes barely grown, and 



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