INTRODUCTION 15 
familiarity, they make the most charming of 
companions. Then they are ever ready to talk 
about their bees, or discuss the latest improvements 
in apiculture; to explain the intricacies of bee-life, 
as revealed by the foremost modern observers, or 
to dilate by the hour on the astounding delusions 
of medieval times. But they all seem to possess 
one invariable characteristic—that of whole-hearted 
reverence for the customs of their immediate ances- 
tors, their own fathers and grandfathers. In a long 
acquaintance with bee-men of this class, I have 
never yet met with one who could be trapped into 
any decided admission of defect in the old methods, 
which—to say truth—were often as senseless as they 
were futile, even when not directly contrary to the 
interest of the bee-owner, or the plain, obvious dic- 
tates of humanity. In this they form a refreshing 
contrast to the ultra-modern, pushing young 
apiculturist of to-day; and it is as a type of this 
class that the Bee-Master of Warrilow is presented 
to the reader. 
