*
(*A besom of this sort is to be seen in Sir Ashton Lever's Museum.)
I am, etc.
Letter XXVII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, December 12, 1775.
Dear Sir,
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 dosed 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. Honeybees, humble-
bees, and wasps, were his prey wherever he found them: he had no
apprehensions from their stings, but would seize them nudis
manibus, 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.
Pages:
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314