“174 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 
curtains, carpets, hangings, etc. If these besoms were known 
to the brush-makers in town, it is probable they might come 
much in use for the purpose above-mentioned. 
LETTER XXVII. 
SELBORNE, Dec. 12th, 1775. 
We had in this village more than twenty years ago an idiot 
boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed a strong 
propensity to bees; they were his food, his amusement, his 
sole object. And as people of this cast have seldom more than 
one point in view, so this lad exerted all his few faculties on 
this one pursuit. In the winter he dozed away his time, 
within his father’s house, by the fireside, in a kind of torpid 
state, seldom departing from the chimney-corner; but in the 
summer he was all alert, and in quest of his game in the fields, 
and on sunny banks. MHoney-bees, humble-bees, and wasps, 
were his prey wherever he found them; he had no apprehen- 
sions from their stings, but would seize them with bare hands, 
and at once disarm them of their weapons, and suck their 
bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he would 
fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin with a number of 
these captives, and sometimes would confine them in bottles. 
He was a very bee-bird, and’ very injurious to men that kept 
bees; for he would slide into their bee-gardens, and sitting 
down before the stools, would rap with his finger on the hives, 
and so take the bees as they came out. He has been known 
to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was 
passionately fond. Where metheglin was making he would 
linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what 
he called bee-wine. As he ran about he used to make a hum- 
ming noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. This 
