1/2 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



is probable they might come much in use for the purpose 

 above-mentioned.^ 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXVII 

 TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, Dec. 12, 1775. 



Dear Sir, 



We had in this village more than twenty years ago an 

 idiot-boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, 

 showed a strong propensity to bees ; they were his food, 

 his amusement, his sole object. And as people of this 

 cast have seldom more than one point in view, so this lad 

 exerted all his few faculties on this one pursuit. In the 

 winter he dosed away his time, within his father's house, 

 by the fire-side, in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing 

 from the chimney-corner ; but in the summer he was all 

 alert, and in quest of his game in the fields, and on sunny 

 banks. Honey-bees, humble-bees, and wasps, were his 

 prey wherever he found them : he had no apprehensions 

 from their stings, but would seize them nudis manibus^ and 

 at once disarm them of their weapons, and suck their 

 bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he 

 would fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin with a 

 number of these captives ; and sometimes would confine 

 them in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster^ or bee- 

 bird ; and very injurious to men that kept bees ; for he 

 would slide into their bee-gardens, and, sitting down 

 before the stools, would rap with his finger on the hives, 

 and so take the bees as they came out. He has been 

 known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which 

 he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was making 

 he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a 

 draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran about he 



*A besom of this sort is to be seen in Sir Ashton Lever's Museum. 



