OcrroitKK, liij'i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



653 



The particular copy offered in the modern 

 list of Old Time Bee Books bears the book- 

 plate of Jolin Phin — which starts our won- 

 der again as to Mr. Phin! Was he a lover 

 of books or a lover of beesV Was he — ah, 

 what mightn't he have been! Anyway he 

 had a library with a book in it about bees- — 

 lie must have been something verv likable. 



The iLHh edition of Daniel Wildmau's 

 work, "A Complete Guide for tlie Manage- 

 ment of Bees Throughout tlie Year," was 

 publislied in London in Z792 (the year Gil- 

 bert White died); bound in one volume with 

 "Hints for Promoting a Bee Society." I 

 do wonder if they promoted it! And had 

 conventions! And field meets! And short 

 courses! The particular copy listed has the 

 book-label of — mark j-^ou — Bernard Edward, 

 Duke of Norfolk, a lover, perhaps, of both 

 books and bees. Surely his library was 

 oak-panelled, the halls leading to it were 

 hung with portraits of ancestral dukes and 

 duchesses in ruffs and powdered wigs; and 

 somewhere among the hedgerows and climb- 

 ing roses of his Park were pietures(|ue bee 

 skeps — perhaps with primroses and English 

 may blooming near, or the hawthorn dash- 

 ing dews over them from its wliite blossom 

 sprays. And he had Wildmau's book on 

 bees in his ducal library. 



Ah, the poor idiot boy, who under a luck- 

 ier star, more propitious in its shining, might 

 have been a very Wildman! — with his 

 Treatise on Bees, or his Guide to their Man- 

 agement listed in later centuries among Old- 

 Time Bee Books — Eare and Interesting! — 

 casting a glamour over dead unknown men 

 merely because their bookplates were on the 

 inner covers! 



That List. 



It is a thing of fascination, a thing of 

 great temptation. How can one be a lover 

 of "The Amenities of Book Collecting," 

 ft'ithout harboring the secret longing to do 

 some Avee bit collecting oneself? Then here 

 comes this especial list, sent direct into one's 

 hands, to lie day after dav on one's red- 

 topped writing table, finallv puslied sternly 

 out of sight under a heap of unanswered let- 

 ters, so that it maynot be found for a long, 

 long time, perhaps never. But because one 

 never forgets where he hides a thing from 

 liimself, it is forever getting itself pushed 

 out in plain sight, to tease and tempt, yet 

 somehow never to land in the waste-paper 

 basket, as it ought. 



Yes, surely that Bernard Edward, Duke of 

 Xorfolk, must have been a lover of bees as 

 well as of books, for that famous old book, 

 "The Feminine Monarchic; Or, The His- 

 torie of Bees," by Charles Butler, lfi23. 

 bears this same book-label. Ah, that must 

 be the great book. Do you remember how 

 the Beekeeper's Wife ('Gleanings, 1917) 

 wrote about it in one of those letters that 

 we all enjoyed the more because we knew 

 who wrote them? Some day maybe I'll go 

 visiting Rob's library there in — you know 

 where — and beg the loan of his copy for an 

 hour or so, to read its qunirit old pnges for 



myself. "In u word, thou must be chaste, 

 cleanly, sweet, sober, quiet and familiar so 

 they will love thee, and know thee from all 

 others.' ' 



Then there is "Systenia Agriculturae" — 

 with a section devoted to bees, 1681 — with 

 a bookplate of Sir Something or Other. 

 Can't you just see the scholarly Worlidge 

 writing it all down with his quill pen? And 

 there's Moses Rusden's "A Further Discov- 

 ery of Bees, ' ' 1679. ' ' Rob ' ' has Moses Rus- 

 den, "Bee-Mafter to the King's moft e.xcel- 

 lent Majefty." He is that away-before- 

 his-time beekeeper, who denied .so many 

 "falfe proverbial fayings about bees. 

 There are a dozen or more printed in the 17- 

 hundreds — that sounds further back than 

 the 18th century, doesn't it? — besides those 

 by the Wildmans. The very titles are al- 

 luring — "The True Amazons" — "The Fe- 

 male Monarchy"— "A Theatre of Politieall 

 Flying Insects"— "The Compleat Bee-Mas- 

 ter"— "The Antient Bee Master's Fare- 

 well." No, I am not advertising them, I 

 am only enjoying them by the title method. 

 And I am folding the list away, putting it 

 back under the pile of unanswered letters 

 that it may not tempt me again for a long, 

 long time. And I am putting away, too, 

 "The Natural History of Selborne," in its 

 place in the bookcase, between "The Re- 

 public" of Plato and "The Fall of the 

 Nibelungs." For even more enthralling than 

 any list could be are the glowing pages of 

 a real book — a live book — -albeit a gentle 

 mild one, like Gilbert's White's. Which is 

 why it takes so long for some of us to 

 verify quotations, or turn an idle page, or 

 dust books. Did you ever try dusting them? 

 Don't, if you would make an early end to 

 your dusting. 



It Will Not Do. 

 When .some swift day piles task on task 

 And, bowing, hands them all to yon. 

 Who did not ask 



Nor in the least desire the gift — 

 It will not do 



To let your littlest finger lift 

 One page of the one old book. on_ fire 

 With noble charm or high desire — 

 It will not do. 



(Ah me. how sadly well T know 

 It will not do!) 



For when sorcery has bound you. 

 Helpless, where the first page found you. 

 And you drift beneath old magic 

 Down the beauty-haunted hours 

 Of woven spells and ancient powers — 

 Ah. the end it is so tragic! 



For every task in every pile 



.A.t last will squirm and raise its head 



And smile a demon sort of smile 



That fills your soul with .sudden dread 



And tightens something round your heart, 



Something sick and cold, 



And tears your conscience all apart 



And makes you feel all tired and old. 



And freezes all your hot replies 



By looking at you with its eyes. 



Horrid eyes that mock at you — r 



.\h no I — if will not do I 



