GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



than they could use in the church during the 

 whole year; but that the country, not being fit 

 for the growth of vines, they had a great dearth 

 of wines. "And we, on the contrary," said St. 

 Germain (bishop of Paris), "have vineyards in 

 abundance, and a much greater quantity of wine 

 than is wanted for the supply of the monastery; 

 but we are obliged to buy wax for the church. 

 If it pleases you we will give you every year the 

 tenth part of our wine and you shall furnish us 

 with wax to light our church." Samson accept- 

 ed the offer, and the two monasteries mutually 

 accommodated each other during the life of the 

 saints. 



I have gone to some length to quote this agree- 

 ment, because it illustrates very well what must 

 have been the custom in most Celtic monasteries 

 of that period, not excepting Buckfast Abbey, as 

 the extant records would imply; for this old ab- 

 bey had a Celtic origin, and is believed to have 

 been founded in the sixth century by the great 

 British saint, Petrock, son of a Welsh king. St. 

 Samson, spoken of above, was a compatriot and 

 an intimate friend of our founder, and on his 

 way to Armorica came to Devonshire to spend 

 a few days with St. Petrock, when, I feel sure, 

 the bees formed an item of their conversation, 

 just as it happens now when two bee-keepers 

 meet. Another British monk of the same period 

 (sixth century) was so celebrated as a bee-keeper 

 that popular tradition invested him with the glory 

 of having introduced bees into Ireland. This 

 predilection for bees went so far that in monas- 

 teries, which, by the will of their founder, were 

 sometimes to remain without earthly possessions, 

 yet was there an exception made in favor of bees, 

 of which they could have an auilimited number. 

 This should not astonish us if we bear in mind 

 that monks like to consider their monastery as a 

 " Holy Land " where floweth the milk and honey 

 of spiritual graces and consolations; and the anal- 

 ogy is brought home to them more forcibly by 

 the presence and taste of the material honey. An- 

 cient writers even compare the monastic home to 

 the bee-hive, because, as says Virgil, " Innatus 

 apes amor urget habendi," so "the monastery 

 was a hive of piety and industry wherein the 

 monks gathered in abundance the richest honey 

 of religion, literature, and science, to be freely 

 dispensed to those around them." 



But, besides such mystical considerations, 

 there was, as I said, the reason of necessity. You 

 are aware, no doubt, that in the Catholic Church 

 beeswax candles are extensively used for divine 

 services, and their liturgical meaning is to repre- 

 sent Christ, the light of the world. No other 

 material could replace beeswax, which has a noble 

 and beautiful mystical signification; for, being 

 produced by a virgin insect, it represents the 

 body of Christ produced by a virgin mother; 

 hence the great consumption made of that precious 

 substance for church purposes. It is marvelous 

 to read what Anglo-Saxon writers tell of the 

 splendor of divine worshjp at the times when 

 Briton and Saxon alike flocked to St. Mary's Ab- 

 bey on great festivals; of the countless waxlights 

 that made night as bright as day; and well may 

 we ask from what source they did draw all that 

 beeswax. I believe it was produced in great 

 quantities by clergymen themselves, as the instance 

 of St. Samson mentioned above testifies. This 



was so well known that the ancient laws of Spain 

 made the provision that clergymen might pay 

 their taxes in wax instead of money if they chose 

 to do so. 



An instance somewhat similar is connected with 

 this abbey. By a charter (of which the original 

 is still extant) given to the monks of Buckfast in 

 the year 1216 we learn that the (then) abbot agreed 

 to give on the patron feastof our abbey one pound 

 of beeswax to all our knightly benefactors in or- 

 der to keep alive the memory of their gifts. The 

 distinguished company, before signing that charter 

 in our chapter room, had, no doubt, visited our 

 garden and had seen a good range of bee-hives as 

 now, and nothing, therefore, more natural than 

 that they should suggest an annual pound of bees- 

 wax as a recognition for their liberalities. We 

 are not left to ignore, however, that a lady disa- 

 greed to this, and, when the document was brought 

 to her to be singed in the guest-house (for, ac- 

 cording to monastic customs, ladies are not ad- 

 mitted within the enclosure), she asked to have a 

 pair of white gloves instead of the beeswax, which 

 request was easily granted, as Buckfast Abbey 

 was then the great center of woolen manufactures 

 in Devonshire. Perhaps the reason that beeswax 

 can now be gotten so easily causes us to cultivate 

 bees on less extensive lines. But still, even now 

 I know of more than one Lord Abbot who does 

 not think it below his dignity to look after these 

 interesting little creatures, and within the last 

 two years it has been my own privilege to help 

 in introducing bees into two newly established 

 monasteries. 



The follo\^ing is a curious example of what 

 may be done with bees. I know of a clergyman 

 who set twelve stocks of bees on a piece of land 

 granted to him on lease. They prospered so 

 well that in a remarkably short time he not only 

 paid for the land, but also built on it a nice pa- 

 rochial church almost entirely with profits deriv- 

 ed from his bees. This has set me thinking how 

 much I wish we could do the same here, for we 

 have just started rebuilding our old monastic 

 church to the memory of the late Lord Abbot 

 who perished last August in the wreck of an Ital- 

 ian steamer while on his way to visit our Ameri- 

 can brethren. He loved the bees so much that, 

 on his tour to the United States two years ago, he 

 brought us some seeds of your bee flora. This 

 will explain why the present writer is anxious, 

 that, in their turn, these sweet pets should contrib- 

 ute in some way their little quota to the erection 

 of the monument in memory of the popular and 

 beloved deceased. But sharing not in their capa- 

 bilities the same confidence as the above-mention- 

 ed clergyman, he has deemed it more prudent to 

 exchange temporarily the fragrant air of the api- 

 ary for the dusty studio, as illustrated in the en- 

 closed photo. 



Our apiary is beautifully situated in a valley, 

 and a more ideal place could scarcely be found 

 for bees. It is protected on all sides against the 

 wind, and is, during spring and summer, like one 

 of nature's Edens. One side of its secluded pre- 

 cincts is wooded with the fragrant thuja; on the 

 west and north is a long low wall of which the 

 stones are intermixed with Arabis Alpitia and 

 Aubrictias, which, forming a solid mass from end 

 to end, descend to the ground like a graceful car- 

 pet, while their snow-white cross-shaped flowers 



