KENILWORTH CASTLE.

KENILWORTH Castle, situated in the most beautiful part of the county of Warwick, presents only the picturesque and antique remains of its former state. It was founded in the reign of Henry I. but extended and adorned by John of Gaunt, and remained with the princes of the house of Lancaster till they were deprived of it by the triumph of the house of York. It continued thenceforth a royal possession, and was bestowed by Queen Elizabeth on her favourite, the Earl of Leicester, who entertained her there for several days. The queen, we are told, visited him in state, attended by thirty-one barons, besides the ladies of her court, who, with four hundred servants, were all lodged in the castle. The festival continued for about a fortnight, at an expense estimated at a thousand pounds a day. The waiters upon the court, as well as the gentlemen of the barons, were all clothed in velvet; ten oxen were slaughtered every morning; and the consumption of wine is said to have been sixteen hogsheads, and of beer forty hogsheads daily.

The castle was a splendid and gigantic structure, standing in the midst of an extensive park, full of red deer, fallow deer, roes, and every species of game, and abounding with lofty trees. But of this lordly palace, where princes feasted and heroes fought, all is now desolate. During the wars it was seized by Cromwell, and by him given to some of his officers. These rapacious plunderers, who had no sort of feeling for what was beautiful and majestic, soon reduced it to what it now is, a pile of ruins. They drained the lake, ravaged the woods, beat down the walls, choked up its walks, and rooted out its pleasant gardens: it is now abandoned to total neglect: and its massive ruins only serve to show what its former magnificence must have been.

FOURTH LETTER TO BEE-KEEPERS.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,-One of the reasons I mentioned why double hives are better than single ones, was, that the double hives furnish the means of feeding the bees in

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winter, far better than the common hives do. I shall now try to explain how this is, and also give you some hints about the management of your bees in winter, which may enable you to preserve them with greater certainty.

How to feed the bees.

When you have taken the top-hive full of honey, as described in a former letter, you should empty it, and put it back again into its place on the wooden top of the other. There it is to remain all the winter, with the holes in the wooden top open. To keep out the wind and rain, you may hang a tarred cloth over the hives, or shelter them in any other way you can; but do not fasten the top-hive down to the lower one, because you will sometimes want to lift it off.

As soon as the gathering season is quite over, you should find out as near as you can how much your hives weigh, so that you may make a pretty good guess how much honey they contain for the winter. A good strong stock will want 10 or 12 pounds of food from the time they leave off gathering in the autumn till they can begin again in the spring. Now, as a straw hive with a wooden top will weigh about 5lbs., and the bees themselves 3 or 4lbs., a stock ought to weigh altogether, not less than 20lbs. to stand the winter. If it weighs more, so much the better: bees are good managers, and will waste nothing. If it weighs less, you must feed up to that weight, or your bees will suffer.

The common way of feeding is thus: about November cottagers lift up the side of the hive, and push under it a pound or two of brown sugar, and let the bees carry it all up at once into the combs: and then in March, a little more in the same way. This is much better than letting them hunger: but the sugar is apt to get candied and hard, and in that state is not good for them. And the reason why it is given all at once, is, because it is not good for the bees to come down for it in cold weather, as they are liable to get chilled, and die.

To avoid these inconveniences, and at the same time give them plenty of food, and of a better kind, do thus:

take a sufficient quantity of brown sugar, and boil it with a little water into a syrup about the thickness of new honey. Skim it well as it boils, and when it is quite clear, put it by for use. Some put beer with it, but this is quite unnecessary. Take a piece of empty comb, and pour some of the syrup into it, as much as it will hold: lift off the top-hive, and lay the comb on the wooden top. The bees will presently come up and empty the comb in a very short time; and you can fill it again and again as often as you like. In very cold weather the bees do not want feeding at all: because they are then asleep and torpid, and lie close in the combs. But as soon as you see them moving, they require food: and if they have none of their own, you must take care to give them

some.

The best way is to give them a good quantity in November, while the weather is still mild and open, and let them store it up in the cells. Use your own judgment as to how much they will want before March, and give them enough, too much rather than too little, either all at once, or from time to time, when the weather is mild. is better not to disturb them by enticing them to come out for food in the winter: only take care that they have enough in their cells.

It

About the month of March the bees begin to bestir themselves; or even earlier, if the sun shines warm and inexperienced bee-keepers are apt to think that their stocks are now past danger, and so take no more care of them. But the truth is, that the early spring months are the most dangerous of all. Many stocks which have stood the winter die in spring: and why? Just because they have eaten up all their provisions, and so starve. There is nothing to be gathered in the fields till April: and in a cold late season not much before even May. But during all this time the bees must eat, though they cannot yet do much work. If you would keep your stocks safe and strong, watch them well in spring. Feed them liberally as soon as they begin to stir, as early as the middle of February if the weather is mild: and keep on feeding them till they will take no more. By giving them

a little every other day, or thereabouts, you will secure them from hunger, and at the same time see when to leave off: for they will neglect the syrup as soon as they can gather honey.

By this way of feeding from above, instead of from below, you are in no danger of bringing the bees down to get chilled on the block: and in any weather when they can want food, you can safely give it them in any quantity.

If the summer has been cold, wet, or ungenial, the bees will of course want more feeding than if the weather has been fine: because they cannot gather so much for themselves.

It is commonly supposed that the severity of the cold and frost is what kills the bees in winter: but this is a mistaken notion. On the contrary, severe frosty weather is good for bees: it keeps them at home, and prevents them from getting out and being chilled so that they perish out of doors. And it is probable that the torpid state in which they remain in hard frost is as good for a bee, as a good night's sleep is for a man. Bees thrive very well in countries where the winters are a great deal more severe than any weather we ever have in England: and some of the finest honey in Europe is brought from the high mountains called the Alps, where the ground is covered with snow five or six months in the year. This shows that it is not cold which kills the bees in their hives, though they very soon die of cold out of doors: but in nine out of ten cases when stocks die in the winter, they die of hunger. Damp will sometimes destroy them: and therefore they should be carefully kept dry. If the wet has got into the hive at all, watch the first opportunity of a dry day to take off the covering, and give the hive a good airing. This will greatly help to keep your bees dry and healthy. But you need never be afraid of cold, if you take care to keep them from hunger.

Your sincere friend,

A BEE-KEEper.