xii RIVERSIDE LETTERS 99 



" Hants is especially a county for bees, the 

 immense clover fields yielding them glorious 

 feeding grounds. The Rev. E. Hawkins, 

 late rector of Overton, Hants, used to have a 

 bee-carriage into which he lifted his hives, and 

 drove with them many miles to pasture them ; 

 camping out with them several days. The 

 bees would return at nightfall to their own 

 hives in the bee-carriage on the strange 

 camping ground which was eighteen or 

 twenty miles distant from Overton." 



No doubt you remember the swarm of bees 

 that had taken up their abode in the old dis- 

 used chimney in Fred Walker's garden in St. 

 Petersburg Place. Walker used to put a 

 little pan of water for the bees to drink from 

 and would never allow the bees to be disturbed ; 

 there must have been a great many as 

 they had been there many years without ever 

 throwing off any swarms, and were an im- 

 mense time in returning to their hive in the 

 evening. I remember a swarm of bees that 

 hived themselves in the ceiling of a billiard- 



H 2 



