8o 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
used, but useless for their assigned purpose, we get 
the phrases : 
Our gates, 
Which yet seem shut, we have but pinned with rushes; 
They’ll open of themselves.— Coriolanus , I. iv. 16. 
A rush will be a beam 
To hang thee on .—King John , IV. iii. 129. 
But a rush against Othello’s breast 
And he retires.— Othello , V. ii. 270. 
Rings were made from the rush for rustic be¬ 
trothals, a custom much abused, so much so that 
as early as 1217 Richard, Bishop of Salisbury, issued 
a decree against the use of annulum de junco 
(Ellacombe, p. 279). Rings of the same character 
are made to the present day in parts of Norfolk. 
Shakespeare refers to them : 
As fit as Teb’s rush for Tom’s forefinger. 
All’s Well that Ends Well , II. ii. 24. 
Rings she made 
Of rushes that grew by, and to ’em spoke 
The prettiest posies. 
Two Noble Kinsmen , IV. i. 109. 
But their principal use lay in strewing the halls 
of the wealthy and churches. Brand tells us that 
rushes intermingled with flowers—primroses, maidens’ 
blushes and violets—were strewn at weddings, and 
that in summer-time “ many in the country do use 
them to strowe their parlors and churches, as well for 
coolness as for their pleasant smell.” Churches were 
certainly so strewn on the feast of their respective 
patron saints, and the ceremonial rush-bearing on 
the occasion is thus described by Brand : 
“ They cut hard rushes from the marsh, which 
they make up into long bundles, and then dress them 
in fine linen, silk ribbons, flowers, etc. Afterwards 
the young women of the village, who perform the 
