PKEFACfi. Yii 



it has always stopped short of purchasing a British Lathonia ; and I emphatically 

 recommend all beginners either to procure European specimens for pence, and 

 mark them carefully as foreign, or wait patiently for the chance advent of a British 

 specimen. All scholars will recollect the interdict laid by Juno on Latona an 

 interdict that seems to be still rigidly enforced on British soil : she has no resting- 

 place here. As applicable to this branch of my subject, I may perhaps be allowed to 

 introduce the profound and truthful observation that " angels' visits are few and 

 far between " ; this observation may or may not be original : I am not altogether 

 free from an impression that I have seen it in print. But this is exactly the case 

 with Lathonia's visits, and also with those of Antiopa. The Queen of Amazons 

 will favour us now and then, but always without rule and without notice : nothing 

 can be more capricious than her conduct. She will sometimes vouchsafe an 

 appearance on a heaven-kissing hill, sometimes on a desert plain ; sometimes she 

 will settle in one of those roadways which intersect the thickest forestry; sometimes 

 she may be seen basking on the cossus- eaten trunk of a pollard willow overhanging 

 a river's brim j sometimes even in a walled garden, imbibing the luscious juices of 

 a fallen plum ; but always regardless of degrees of latitude or longitude, or the laws 

 of altitude, or the conditions of atmosphere and soil: to these she has never 

 acknowledged fealty or declared herself amenable. 



Need I give any instruction how to catch the common Butterflies? In France, 

 in Switzerland, almost every educated boy or girl is far more accomplished in this 

 art than I : their instrument is simply a bag of green muslin or gau/e thirty inches 

 deep, twelve inches wide on the top, and tapering almost to a point at the bottom; 

 round the top there must be a hem of brown holland, and a cane or wire in fcho 

 form of a ring must be run through the hem and form a hoop, the lighter the 

 better : the hoop must then be fastened by means of a ferule, or a screw, or any 

 other simple contrivance, to the top of a walking-stick, and then the implement 

 is complete. Such a net can be bought at any shop in London where insects are 

 eold; for instance, at Ashmead's in Bishopsgate Street, Gardener's in Holborn, 

 Cooke's in New Oxford Street, and a great many others ; the same tradesmen 

 will also supply you with suitable pins to pin your Butterflies, and with pocket 

 boxes in which to place them when pinned. I cannot strongly recommend articles 

 that are made rather for sale than for use ; but it is necessary to buy in the first 

 instance, and very soon you will get into the way of making the apparatus for 

 yourself, and making it to your own taste and of durable materials. It is very 

 difficult to lay down any rule on the subject of making nets, so I give this advice 

 to purchase in the first instance, that you may gain a preliminary idea of what 

 to use; practice and experience will teach you everything in the course of a few 

 months, and there are no lessons so good or so perfectly remembered as those 

 which practice and experience t~"Ji, 



