HENRY G. TOMKINS.
Weston-super-Mare.
Bee Park (Vol. v., p. 322.).
—In this neighbourhood is an ancient farm-house called Bee Hall, where I doubt not that bees were kept in great quantities in bygone ages; and am the more led to believe this because they always flourish best upon thyme, which grows here as freely and luxuriantly as I ever elsewhere observed it. About four miles from said Bee Hall, the other day, I was looking over a genteel residence, and noticing a shady enclosure, asked the gardener what it was for. He told me, to protect the bees from the sun: it was upon a much larger scale than we generally now see, indicating that the soil, &c. suit apiaries. Looking to the frequent mention of honey, and its vast consumption formerly, as you instance in royal inventories, to which may be added documents in cathedral archives, &c., is it not remarkable that we should witness so few memorials of the ancient management of this interesting insect? I certainly remember one well-built "bee-house," at the edge of Lord Portsmouth's park, Hurstbourne, Hants, large enough for a good cottage, now deserted. While on the subject I will solicit information on a custom well known to those resident in the country, viz. of making a great noise with a house key, or other small knocker, against a metal dish or kettle while bees are swarming? Of course farmers' wives, peasants, &c., who do not reason, adopt this because their fathers before them did so. It is urged by intelligent naturalists that it is utterly useless, as bees have no sense of hearing. What does the clamour mean,—whence derived?
B. B.
Pembroke.
Sally Lunn (Vol. v., p. 371.).
—In reply to the Query, "Is anything known of Sally Lunn? is she a personage or a myth?" I refer your inquirer to Hone's Every-day Book, vol. ii. p. 1561.:
"The bun so fashionable, called the Sally Lunn, originated with a young woman of that name at Bath, about thirty years ago." [This was written in 1826.] "She first cried them in a basket, with a white cloth over it, morning and evening. Dalmer, a respectable baker and musician, noticed her, bought her business, and made a song and set it to music in behalf of Sally Lunn. This composition became the street favourite, barrows were made to distribute the nice cakes, Dalmer profited thereby and retired, and to this day the Sally Lunn Cake claims pre-eminence in all the cities of England."
J. R. W.