NATURAL HISTORY OP 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, "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 
