Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/267

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  • 3* T HE FITS TORY ; : BogkL

accuftomed to make, and which many of the nearer Britons had been long inftredted to make after them 8 . The Britons muft in all probability have previoufly planted %ee-hives near the abode's of their chiete, the mofctttain-bees being traHflated in eoiomes with iftieir quteens from the mmoft woods, atid meddyglin or. metheglin beiwg made *of tfeeir hot- key *. The Britons muft affuredly have planted them neat toeir fartn-hoofes at prefent, *nd have conftru&ed thefe as wefl

  • s other implements of that netft conte#ttire 'of willows, for

which they were peculiarly famous, and to which they gave the 'appellation of ©afcaud Basket or platted wetfk ,0 . Such a hivfe was found about eighteen years ago in the wide and fullen-look- ing extent of Chatmofe, two yards below the Surface, and at

  • he bottom of a new turf-pit. h was a cone two yards and a

Wf in height and one in diameter 4t the bafe, and confifted not of a fingle hive but of four ftories of hives, one liive taking Wp the whole of one ftory. It was made of unpeeled willows, <Oid had doors lajge enough to admit a full-grown hand into •the hives, and contained compleat combs and perfe& bees within them. Both the combs and the bees foon mouldered into duft tipoti the admiiTtoa of the air to them. But one 'remarkable obfervation had pretridufly forced irfelf upon the tminteRigent .*nifid of the difcoveter, that the bees we*e not df the-ftme fize m the pitefent, but very plainly of a larger body " Kear the houfe muft have b&ti The <:lamou rs of domeftic poultry, parading ia companies about the cxteniive precinAs of it; and fpeaking the *tftiisal effoiitit>s df animal contentmerit. Thefe the Mancunian chieftains had kept around their teats be- fore, not at all for the purpofes of food, bat for the mere fiitif- tfa&ioa which they had in their ibcial s2pe& astdffot- the mere fpleafitfe which they received from their domeftic Jiote* * • Nfear -the houfe mnft alio have been the gwddn of it. Stodh the Up- tons of the fouthern counties had hud out bear their houfes be- fore ,J . But at this period, and for inany centuries <affeer it, tthe European garden was the flower-garden the ordhaid and the < kitchen-garden of the prefent times ail imped tin one. The flower-