MP:MOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 39 



had confidence as to my keeping any secrets he 

 might impart to me. He kept a few sheep on the 

 fell ; but his secret and main business there was 

 looking after his bees. He had a great number 

 of hives placed in very hidden and curious situa- 

 tions. Some of them were concealed under the 

 boundary hedge of the common, and were sur- 

 rounded by a great extent of whin bushes. Other 

 hives were sheltered under the branches of old 

 thorns, and almost covered or overhung by 

 brambles, woodbine, and hip briars, which, when 

 in blossom, looked beautifully picturesque, while 

 at the same time they served to keep the eye 

 from viewing the treasures thus concealed beneath. 

 Others, again, were placed in the midst of a 

 "whin rush" that is, a great extent of old whins, 

 the stems of which were about the thickness of a 

 man's arm. The entrance to these last was 

 always by a " smout hole," or small opening, 

 through which we crept on hands and knees to 

 the hives, and which, on leaving, was stopped up 

 by a bushy-topped whin. By way of taking off 

 the attention of the " over-inquisitive" as to his 

 stock of honey, he kept hives in his garden at 

 home, and sold the produce of these to his neigh- 

 bours ; but the greater part of his stock was sold 

 at distant parts of the country. In this way, 

 and by his industry and good management, he 

 became what was accounted very rich ; and, as 

 prosperity excites envy, some people, in a kind 

 of derision (his mother being a midwife), called 

 him "Tom Howdy." 



I might swell the list of such like characters 

 (among the unnoticed poor) as those I have de- 

 scribed, but it would perhaps be tedious, although, 



