96 RIVERSIDE LETTERS xil 



and association, such as can only be found in 

 our own dear country. Such views as these 

 always cause me to feel rather sad, possibly 

 because one cannot help the foreboding that, 

 all this simple character, these hedge-rows, 

 thatched cottages, barns, and all the rest of 

 the picturesque and lovable features of old- 

 fashioned agriculture, must before long give 

 way, that the inevitably slate roof and tall 

 chimney will take their place, and that, be- 

 yond market gardening beneath glass, and 

 some dairy farming, agriculture will cease to 

 exist for us in England. 



A lady reader of my former letters sends 

 me some interesting notes about bees ; per- 

 haps you may remember when you and I 

 were at Ramsbury Manor house, the bees 

 had taken possession of the roof of an 

 old out-of-the-way garden summer house, 

 and that an old man told us that these bees 

 had forsaken their regular hives for this place, 

 because the bee master had neglected to 

 inform them on the occasion of a death in 



