The Oldest "Candle" Still in Use?

Object: Rush light

Accession #: 1986.0006

Rushlights were made by dipping the pith of the soft rush, Juncus Effusus, in melted fat. This particular iron rush light is a slender iron twisted stem mounted on circular base. The rush is held in place by a clamp which ends in a faceted knob.  According to one historian, rush lights are “the oldest candle-like device to continue in use unchanged well into the nineteenth century.”  This rush light was found in Sussex in Southern England and was believed to have been made there in the first half of the 18th century.

It is learnt from Pliny that the Romans used various kinds of rushes to make candles. Rush lights do not burn in the vertical position until they are dipped enough times to become cylindrical and are then called a rush candle. However, rush lights do not have to be snuffed out like candles do. There was certain folklore connected with rushlights. Particularly if a rushlight in “swealing” curled over it was thought to point to death or if a bright star in the flame of a rushlight was seen it foreshadowed a letter arriving.

Gilbert White in his Natural History of Selbourne¹ (1789) describes the Juncus Effusus, its harvest and preparation toward eventually becoming a rush light:

Juncus Effusus by Otto Wilhelm Thomé²

 

The proper species is the common soft rush, found in most pastures by the sides of streams and under hedges. Decayed labourers, women, and children gather these reeds in late summer. As soon as they are cut, they must be flung into water, and kept there, otherwise they will dry and shrink, and the peel will not run. When peeled they must lie on the grass to be bleached, and take the dew for some nights, after which they are dried in the sun.

The rushes referred to are the Juncus Effusus, or Common Rush, which is native to most continents.  The plant referred to here is the Juncus Interior, or interior rush in North America, and grows inland (native to Virginia as well as other states) in moist areas such as meadow and spring prairies.

In the 18th-19th century in Northwest England as well as some southern parts, the rush light was an important supply of light. According to Mr. White, “a pound and a half of rushes will supply a family all the year round. A rushlight a little over two feet long will burn almost an hour”. The Randolph family may have taken advantage of the access they had to the Juncus Interior to have rush candles made or owned several rush lights. These could have lit up the rooms of Wilton for many long hours of the winter. However, rush lights were known for being inexpensive, so for the Randolphs these would not have been as necessary a source of light for Wilton as to a poor family of little means.

¹ an Hampshire village in Southern England

² German Botanist and botanical artist from Cologne best known for his compendium of botanical illustrations Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz in Wort und Bild für Schule und Haus (Flora of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in Word and Picture for School and Home) first of 4 volumes with a total of 572 botanical illustrations, published in 1885 in Gera, Germany.

Bibliography

Burton, Alfred. Rush-bearing: an account of the old custom of strewing rushes; carrying rushes

to church; the rush cart; garlands in churches; morris-dancers; the wakes; the rush.

Manchester. Brook & Chrystal, 1891.

Thwing, Leroy Livingstone. Flickering Flames: A History of domestic lighting through the ages.

C.E. Tuttle Co. Rutland, 1958.

“Otto Wilhelm Thomé” Wikipedia. 13 April 2013.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Wilhelm_Thom%C3%A9>

Image Credit

http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/england-sussex.htm

http://luirig.altervista.org/naturaitaliana/viewpics.php?title=Juncus+effusus