§ XI.] BEE-KEEPING IN LONDON. 323 



Middle Row lately stood. He was not only a trades- 

 man, but was also the apiarian of his day. He kept 

 hives of thriving bees on the roof of his house in 

 Holborn, and many of the nobility and gentry used to 

 mount thither in order to inspect the apiary. At that 

 period St. Pancras was a "village two miles north-west of 

 London, '' and what is now the Regent's Park was open 

 country. It was then much easier for London bees to 

 find their favourite forage, but Mr. Wildman believed 

 that his hives were filled with stores from a considerable 

 distance. Whilst enjoying his country rambles 01^ 

 Hampstead Heath, he had a shrewd suspicion that many 

 of the bees he there observed gathering honey were 

 labourers from his own apiary. In order to identify his 

 own flock amongst the rest he hit upon a homely but 

 very effective expedient. Having borrowed Mrs. Wild- 

 man's "dredging box," he stationed himself near the 

 entrance of his hives, and gently dusted his bees with flour 

 as they issued forth. He then betook himself to Hamp- 

 stead, where he found his previous surmise confirmed, 

 for there were numbers of his bees in their livery of white. 

 Wildman became noted for the remarkable control he 

 obtained over his bees, many instances of which he ex- 

 hibited before the public. Several of his operations with 

 them were regarded as feats of legerdemain by the un- 

 initiated, as when he appeared before King George III., 

 with a swarm of bees hanging in festoons from his chin, _ 

 or suspended in a cluster at arms' length. The journal 



