02 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
Hellenic mythology received its finest finishing touches 
in his hands through the help of the sheep, and goats, 
and bees, that bleated and buzzed in the brightest of his 
sublime pictures. Then the goat was intimately mixed 
up with the origin of the drama: for tragedy, which was 
at first called trugcedia, or “ the song of the cask,” came 
to be known as tragoedia , or “ the song of the goat,”— 
the cask of wine giving place to the higher prize of a 
goat in the public festivals. 
Are you fond of bees ? Here I have them in a house 
to themselves, aspect south-east, a causeway cut for them 
through the belt; of shrubs that screens them from the 
July sun, along which they pass in buzzing streams to 
the bramble-hedges and clover-fields, that divide and 
splash the landscape round. I am passionately fond of 
my bees. Many a dreamy hour of joy do I find in 
sitting beside them on a summer afternoon, to watch 
them go and come, to note the several labours on which 
they are engaged, every one of which I can determine as 
well as a master who keeps a rigid register of the labours 
of his workmen. Some of my hives are made of glass, 
some of wood, or straw, with glass windows; and in times 
of commotion, when the bees insist on non-interference, 
I can retire to the rear of my hive-board, and watch all 
that takes place within the several abodes of concord and 
industry. You will not doubt the difficulty I have in 
determining the exact number of the members of my 
family, if I tell you that my hive-board now contains 
ten strong stocks, every stock numbering not less than 
fifteen thousand bees — some, indeed, containing as 
many as five-and-twenty or thirty thousand, as 1 could 
