LETTER LXVIII TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, November 1, 1775. DEAR SIR, HIC tædæ pingues, hic plurimus ignis Semper, et assiduâ postes fuligine nigri. I shall make no apology for troubling you with the detail of a very simple piece of domestic economy, being satisfied that you think nothing beneath your attention that tends to utility: the matter alluded to is the use of rushes instead of candles, which I am well aware prevails in many districts besides this; but as I know there are countries also where it does not obtain, and as I have considered the subject with some degree of exactness, I shall proceed in my humble story, and leave you to judge of the expediency. The proper species of rush for this purpose seems to be the juncus conglomeratus, 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 à 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 despatch, and seldom failing to strip them with the nicest * In many of the northern parts of Scotland rushes were formerly used in place of cotton for wicks to lamps, which, in Perthshire and the adjoining counties, are termed crozeys. They are much more durable than cotton. In Zetland, a shell, the fusus antiquus of Lamark, suspended horizontally by a cord, was formerly used as a lamp, the canal of the shell serving as a cavity for the reception of the rush-wick. In various places of the same districts, ropes for tethering cattle were formed of rushes by the peasantry during their idle hours, and also by herd boys. If firmly platted, they were pretty durable. We have seen them often used in the north. -ED. 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 fourpence; 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 of still 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 wicks of those have two ribs of the rind, or peel, to support the pith, while the wick of the dipped rush has but The two ribs are intended to impede the progress of the flame, and make the candle last. one. 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 thirtythree entire days, for three shillings. According to this account, each rush, before dipping, costs one thirty-third of a farthing, and one-eleventh afterwards. Thus a poor family will enjoy five and a half hours of comfortable light for a farthing. experienced old housekeeper assures me, that one pound and a half of rushes completely supplies his family the year round, since working people burn no candle in the long days, because they rise and go to bed by daylight. An Little farmers use rushes much in the short days, both morning and evening, in the dairy and kitchen; but the very poor, who are always the worst economists, and therefore must continue very poor, buy a halfpenny candle every evening, which, in their blowing, open rooms, does not burn much more than two hours. Thus have they only two hours' light for their money, instead of eleven. While on the subject of rural economy, it may not be improper to mention a pretty implement of housewifery that we have seen nowhere else; that is, little neat besoms which our foresters make from the stalks of the polytricum commune, or great golden maiden-hair, which they call silk-wood, and find plenty in the bogs. When this moss is well combed and dressed, and divested of its outer skin, it becomes of a beautiful bright chestnut colour; and, being soft and pliant, is very proper for the dusting of beds, curtains, carpets, hangings, &c. If these besoms were known to the brushmakers in town, it is probable they might come much in use for the purpose above mentioned.+ LETTER LXIX TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, December 12, 1775. DEAR SIR,- We had in this village, more than twenty years ago, an idiot boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, shewed a strong propensity to bees; they were his food, his amusement, his sole object. And as people of this cast have seldom more than one point in view, so this lad exerted all his few faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter, he dozed away his time, within his father's house, by the fire-side, in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney corner; but in the summer he was all alert, and in quest of his game in the fields, and on sunny banks. Honey-bees, humblebees, and wasps, were his prey wherever he found them: he had no apprehensions from their stings, but would seize them nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their weapons, and suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he would fill his bosom, between his shirt and skin, with a number of these captives; and sometimes would confine them *These besoms are common in the south of Scotland. From the same substance mats and rugs are plaited. In Ireland large mats of this kind are used by the peasantry for beds. - ED. A besom of this sort is to be seen in Sir Ashton Lever's museum. came out. in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-bird, and very injurious to men that kept bees; for he would slide into their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as they He has been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was making, he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran about, he used to make a humming noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion; and, except in his favourite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no manner of understanding. Had his capacity been better, and directed to the same object, he had perhaps abated much of our wonder at the feats of a more modern exhibiter of bees; and we may justly say of him now, Thou, Had thy presiding star propitious shone, Shouldst Wildman be. When a tall youth, he was removed from hence to a distant village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at manhood. LETTER LXX. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, January 8, 1776. DEAR SIR,- It is the hardest thing in the world to shake off superstitious prejudices: they are sucked in, as it were, with our mother's milk; and, growing up with us at the time when they take the fastest hold, and make the most lasting impressions, become so interwoven into our very constitutions, that the strongest good sense is required to disengage ourselves from them. No wonder, therefore, that the lower people retain them their whole lives through, since their minds are not invigorated by a liberal education, and therefore not enabled to make any efforts adequate to the occasion. Such a preamble seems to be necessary before we enter on the superstitions of this district, lest we should be suspected of exaggeration in a recital of practices too gross for this enlightened age. But the people of Tring, in Hertfordshire, would do well to remember, that no longer ago than the year 1751, and within twenty miles of the capital, they seized on two superannuated wretches, crazed with age, and overwhelmed with infirmities, on a suspicion of witchcraft; and, by trying experiments, drowned them in a horse-pond. In a farm-yard, near the middle of this village, stands, at this day, a row of pollard-ashes, which, by the seams and long cicatrices down their sides, manifestly shew that, in former times, they have been cleft asunder. These trees, when young and flexible, were severed and held open by wedges, while ruptured children, stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures, under a persuasion that, by such a process, the poor babes would be cured of their infirmity. As soon as the operation was over, the tree in the suffering part was plastered with loam, and carefully swathed * up. If the parts coalesced Among the popular superstitions of Britain trees have always held a conspicuous place. There is hardly a county in the kingdom, or indeed a parish, that has not had its witch's thorn, or some such ominously named tree. Among the peasantry of Scotland, the mountain ash, which is termed the rowan tree, was considered a complete antidote against the effects of witchcraft; and, in consequence, a twig of it was very commonly carried in the pocket: but that it might have complete efficacy, it was necessary that it should be accompanied by the following couplet, written on paper, wrapped round the wood, and secured by a red silk thread : Rowan tree and red thread Keeps the witches at their speed. An amber bead was supposed to have precisely the same effect; if the red silk thread was attached to it with the above couplet, only the words "lammar bead" were substituted for rowan tree. Among the higher classes, amber beads were worn, and always strung with red silk thread. The Hindoos have a similar superstition, as remarked by Bishop Heber, near Boitpoor, in Upper Nilia. "I passed a fine tree of the mimosa, with leaves, at a little distance, so much resembling those of the mountain ash, that I was for a moment deceived, and asked if it did not bring fruit? They answered, no; but that it was a very noble tree, being called 'the imperial tree,' for its excellent properties; that it slept all night, and wakened and was alive all day, withdrawing its leaves if any one attempted to touch them. Above all, however, it was useful as a preservative against magic; a sprig worn in the turban, or suspended over the bed, was a perfect security against all spells, evil eye, &c. insomuch that the most formidable wizard would not, if he could help it, approach its shade. One, indeed, they said, who was very renowned for his power (like Loorinite in the Kehama) of killing plants and drying up their sap with a look, had come to this very tree, and gazed on it intently; but,' said the old man, who told me this, with an air of triumph, 'look as he might, he could do the tree no harm;' a fact of which I make no question. I was amused and surprised to find the superstition, which, in England and Scotland, attaches to the rowan tree, was applied to a tree of nearly similar form. Which nation has been, in this case, the |