To realize what artificial lighting was in the days now happily long past, it would be necessary to visit some old-world village, if one could be found, where there had been no attempt at street lighting, and in which not even oil had penetrated. The candles of very early times did not give more than a dim glimmer, and the darkness of mediaeval England can be imagined from the primitive lighting appliances which are preserved. Fortunately the entire story of lighting as science came to the aid of trader and householder is revealed in the lights of former days, which as time went on became more varied and numerous, found in collections of well-authenticated specimens. The suggested caution implied is not unnecessary, for the periods overlap, and there is but little to show when such things as lamps and lanterns were actually made. Rushlights and Holders. In tracing the development of lighting from quite homely beginnings, rushlights, prepared by the cottager and the farm hand for the winter supply, seem to come first on the list. Rushlights, however, were used in this country by many until comparatively recent times side by side with lights much more advanced. But centuries earlier than we have any record of artificial lighting in this country, and equally as long before any of the earliest British curios of lighting were used, lighting engineers, if we may so call them, in Greece, Rome, Egypt, and still earlier in other Eastern countries, were far advanced. None of the lighting schemes of the Ancients, however, produced much more than the dim light of the swinging lamp in which oil was consumed. [Illustration: FIG. 14.--THREE RUSHLIGHT HOLDERS. (_In the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff._)] [Illustration: FIG. 15.--THREE VARIETIES OF OLD OIL LAMPS.] To range side by side a number of rushlight holders taken from districts widely apart, it becomes evident that there was a striking similarity between the earlier types. The smiths everywhere seem to have fashioned a simple contrivance by which the rushlight or early candle could be held upright, and then, to give the "stick" solidity, the iron shaft was fastened securely into a wooden block, which was very often quite out of proportion to the size and weight of the stand, and apparently unnecessarily large and heavy. In the larger examples the holder is often made to slide upon an upright rod so as to be useful at different heights. The sliding rod was needed, for the light so dim could only be of real service when quite close to the person using it, or to the work it was intended to illumine (see Figs. 4 and 5).