SPOKT OF BUTE. 135 



our gas-lustres every warm, dark night, as both 

 sides of our glass door into the garden were left 

 open, when the gas was lit, and long after dark- 

 ness set in. 



In the summer of 1864, wasps' nests were not 

 only more numerous than I ever saw them any- 

 where else, "but their size was also enormous. 

 There were at least a dozen close to the castle and 

 garden. I have long had in my little museum 

 what I considered as fine a specimen of the wasps' 

 hive as it was possible to procure ; but two of 

 these from Bute (one built in a hedge adjoining 

 the garden, the other fixed to a currant bush in 

 the very midst of the fruit) were nearly double 

 the circumference of my preserved paragon. This 

 year, although the fruit has been fully as plenti- 

 ful, and the season equally fine, there have been 

 scarcely any wasps' nests, and the few we have dis- 

 covered are wretched weedy productions, scarcely 

 deserving the name. 



As if in contrast to the wasps of the present 

 year, the wild bees have thriven amazingly. My 

 boys found no less than nine " binks " along the 

 banks of the brooklet that feeds the duck pond. 



