328 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 28, 1860. 
with all liis wealth, his influence, and his knowledge of 
London, failed in procuring anything so effectual, and at 
the same time so cheap as the lamps, for the space of full 
two years before you manufacturers, and we ‘ gentlemen 
writers,’ ever thought of dipping our fingers in oil or 
grease, or stearine compounds ? And if you had taken 
my advice last May (see Cottage Gardener, Yol. XXII., 
page 93), and ‘ allowed the candle to rest under the 
bushel ’ till certain ladies, therein named, had certified, or 
reported on the merits of such candles, you would have 
saved all this bother, and be pounds in pocket.” 
Mr. West freely owned that he was considerably the 
loser by the change in the mode of heating ; and I knew 
months back that the candles which were sold in printed- 
labelled parcels, “as recommended by Mr. Shirley Hib- 
berd,” had failed. I knew, also, that Mr. Wilson, the 
manager of “ Price’s Patent Candle Company,” came 
down to Surbiton to see the candles tested, or to learn, 
rather, how the tests had succeeded ; and, as luck would 
have it, Mr. Wilson found Mrs. West in her conservatory, 
hoping against hope, and humouring the candles more 
than ever she did any of her own children ; but all would 
not do, and Mr. Wilson saw with his own eyes, and be¬ 
lieved what he did see, that the candle—out of seven 
kinds of candles which were made after the suggestion of 
Mr. Ilibberd—had completely failed. “ I consider the 
essentials,” says Mr. H., “to be a candle eight inches 
long, to burn twelve hours, and to heat the Case to at 
least 80°. ” Again, “ Messrs. Price & Co. have very 
kindly complied with every wish I have expressed, and 
made no less than eight different kinds of candles, all of 
them suitable except one.” There must be, therefore, 
some peculiarity about the No. 7. Perhaps spells against 
witchcraft have no effect on things seven in number, 
because so many things are mentioned in the Scriptures 
by sevens. The whole seven candles were bewitched as 
surely as anything else was ever bewitched, for none of 
them would do. 
I promised (Cottage Gardener, Yol. XXII., p. 93), 
that if the candles suited, Mr. Ilibberd should receive 
the credit entirely to himself, although he was only third 
violin in the concert. Mr. Walton played first fiddle, 
Mr. West the big bass, and Mr. Ilibberd, with Price & 
Co. following, with fiddlesticks; as it would appear in 
reality to have been the very order, or being myself out 
of order, begging their pardon, or programme of “that 
ther ” concert. But that the candles failed I said nothing 
about. 
Mr. Wilson and Mr. West left the good lady in blacks ; 
and the blacks left her, also, short of sundry aprons and 
morning gowns. After putting their heads together, and 
after seeing that candles would not do the thing, “Now 
how they could fix them.” Mr. West suggested his 
original motion of a “ light ” instead—a magnified Price’s 
Patent Night Light. “ You accomplish the * light,’ 
and I shall alter the lamp-stage to suit the new kind of 
burner.” “ Done,” said Mr. Wilson ; and to work he 
went on moulds and night lights in earnest; and by about 
Christmas he succeeded in making just the very tiling, 
and called the tiling by a new name—“ Shearwood,” to 
heat Waltonian Cases in Mr. West’s name this time. 
In trade a name is everything, and the name under which 
these candles failed would not be safe under these cir¬ 
cumstances ; but now, in the very dead of winter, who 
could test the Shearwood lights?—no one, of course. 
That is the whole and sole truth for the delay in delivering 
the Cases and the loss of trade to Mr. West, through 
“ we ” gentleman writers, and through no fault or failing 
on his part; he often expressed to me his anxiety to have 
the proofs of the candles and of the lights as speedily as 
possible. He went into a considerable outlay in enlarging 
his factory, and in taking in more hands to get up a good 
stock of ready-made Cases by the beginning of this pro¬ 
pagating season. Indeed, I took one of the Editors of 
The Cottage Gardener over the new works when they 
were in progress, the master and mistress being out at 
the time; but, having their permission as a standing 
order, I often take friends over the works. Yet I have 
more cause for regret than you may think owing to this 
delay in the proof of the Shearwoocls; for I had some 
experiments of my own which I wanted to test before 
Christmas, and ordered Mr. West to get me a set of four- 
inch pipes and other pipes, stops, and syphons, which he 
did long before Christmas ; and there they are now 
standing in his manufactory-yards, and, like the shoe¬ 
maker’s wife, here I am without a shoe to my foot for 
experiments this spring. Every spare moment from 
other departments must be spent on these Waltonians, 
till all the orders are off at the least. 
Well, then, at the beginning of this Eebruary, Mr. 
Hibberd wrote to Dr. Lindley that he had “just received 
from Mr. West a Case made on the new pattern;” by 
which we learn that he too was still trying “ experiments 
with candles during several weeks, and the loss of the 
season in regard to the publication of the result was 
unavoidable.” But the loss of credit for the failure of 
seven kinds of candles which he approved of, and must 
have been up to the mark of his approbation “in the 
essentials,” is passed over in silence : and not only that, 
but his love of inventor’s fame pushed him into a wrong 
position ; for he tells the Doctor as plain as Punch that 
the “new pattern was made to carry out his plan of 
heating” with candles eight inches long, of course—every 
word of which is as far from the truth as I am from the 
north pole. All his “plan of heating” was done in 
spring-box candlesticks, with candles eight inches long—- 
the very essence of his own fancy. After that he gave 
the Doctor such a thorough-going eulogy on the facts, 
feats, and capabilities of the Waltonian, that Mr. West 
resolved to send out sixteen Cases that week, ten the 
next, and the rest in the order in which they stood on the 
books. But it appears that Mr. Hibberd wrote to the 
Doctor from his fancies, and from a fear that he should 
not be up at the death, rather than from any practical 
knowledge gained from the “ new pattern ” itself. 
Just then, as if on purpose to dispel the best ideas, a 
correspondent of The Cottage Gardener writes com¬ 
plaining of the delay in the delivery of the Waltonian 
Cases, and the mode of heating them by candles, and 
was told the candles had failed—that is, the seven kinds 
which Mr. Hibberd said last May were “ up to all the 
essentials he insisted on.” Here the difficulty took a fresh 
turn; and as Mr. West was on the point of sending off 
all the Cases which were then on his order-book, I called 
at his shop, and was shown the new“ Shearwood” lights 
which were to heat them, and I left word with the fore¬ 
man to tell Mr. West these Shear woods could not be of 
sufficient power to heat the Cases so early in the season ; 
and Mr. West stopped the packers, having luckily sent 
off but one Case with a box of Shearwoods. On the 
17th of Eebruary Mr. West received the following letters 
—one from Mr. Hibberd and one from Mr. Wilson :— 
“ Price’s Patent Candle Company, Limited. 
“Belmont, Vauxhall, London, S., 17th Feb., 18C0. 
“ Dear Sir,—T he present night lights, if two be used at once, 
keep up, I believe, the heat you require for twelve hours or more. 
What I wished to consult you upon was whether nine hours’ 
watches would not do, as I thought the light for that time could 
bo made more certainly regular, and one would keep sufficient 
heat for ordinary use. 
“ I would not keep back orders, but only suggest two of the 
present size being used at once. I understood The Cottage 
Gardener’s condemnation to apply to candles, not to the 
new lights. 
“We shall try to make one which will give larger light for 
twelve hours : in that case, probably, putting only nine in a box. 
“ Yours truly, 
“ Geo. Wilson.” 
“Stoke Newington, N.,Fcb. 17, 1SG0. 
“ Dear Sir,— Do not send out any more of these horrid 
Shearwoods ; they are no use at all. Mr. Wilson will make them 
