366 



THE VILLA GARDENER. 



217 





the process of collecting and 

 storing up honey goes on with- 

 out much reference to tempera- 

 tiu'e, provided the sun shines. 

 Nutt's hive requires to be placed 

 under some description of co- 

 ver or bee-house. This should, 

 in general, be so contrived as 

 to leave free access to the hive 

 behind, and hence it can never 

 be placed against a wall or 

 against a house. It may be 

 in a detached building, consist- 

 ing of a rustic structure cover- 

 ed with bark; or it may be 

 placed under a roof open on 

 every side, the props being 

 rustic pillars, and the roof being 

 covered with thatch, reeds, 

 woodman's chips, spray, bark, 

 heath, or similar materials. 

 Fig. 217. shows a handsome 

 bee-canopy of this kind, cover- 

 ing one of Nutt's hives, which stands in a recess in the pleasure-ground at 

 Chipstead Place, in Kent. At Bayswater, our Nutt's hive is placed in the 

 front of a veranda (see fg. 218.), in a line with its pillars, and is consequently 

 protected from perpendicular 



rain; but as the excessive heat .==,,,m(I!iiiiiiIIII!iII1i||!I,1!11II11I1IIIII1IIIiiii„i,„,= 218 



of summer is equally injurious 

 with rain, it is protected from 

 that, and from the sudden in- 

 fluence of either heat or cold 

 in winter, by a casing of broom 

 and heath. The back of the 

 hive, where the doors are, on 

 opening which the bees may 

 be seen at work, is most con- 

 veniently examined from the 

 veranda. 



453. The fishponds. — The 

 custom of keeping fish in the 

 grounds of country residences 

 is much less common now than 

 it was in the days when, from 

 the whole country being Ca- 

 tholic, fish was essential as an 

 article of food two days in every 

 week ; and when the commu- 

 nication between the interior 

 and the sea was so slow, as to 



