SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
81 
ceremony that year, take up the burdens erect, and 
begin the procession (precedence being always given 
to the churchwardens' burden), which is attended 
with music, drums, etc. Setting down their burdens, 
in the church they strip them of their ornaments, 
leaving the heads or crowns of them decked with 
flowers, cut paper, etc. Then the company return 
and cheerfully partake of a cold collation, and spend 
the remaining part of the day and night in dancing 
round a maypole adorned with flowers" (vol. ii. 
p. 14). 
There are several allusions to rush-strewing 
in the plays, viz. : 
Let wantons light of heart 
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels. 
Romeo and Juliet, I. iv. 35. 
She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down. 
1 Henry IV ., III. i. 214. 
Our Tarquin thus 
Did softly press the rushes. 
Cymbeline, II. ii. 12. 
By the light he spies 
Lucretia’s glove . . . 
He takes it from the rushes where it lies. 
Lucrece, 1 . 316. 
One other use is mentioned, that of rush-wicks for 
candles called “ rushlights," now fast dying out, but 
which were extensively made in most farm-houses, 
and called “ dips." The green bark of the rush was 
dexterously peeled by means of a special instrument, 
and the dry pith dipped in melted grease until the 
candle obtained its required thickness and shape. 
The candles so made were burnt in stands of sheet 
iron perforated with holes, which had the weird effect 
of growing bigger as the candle burned down. In 
Wales many varieties of rushlight-stands are still 
used. 
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