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Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20084, 13 November 1930, Page 16

There was a curious incident at the funeral of Mr E. H. Bellairs, of Bransgore, "which lately took place in the private cemetery of Lord Manners, at Brimsgore,. near Bournemouth England. While tlie service was in progress in the chapel a swarm of bees settled on a rosebush at the entrance. It is a coincidence that Mr Bellairs was an enthusiastic apiarist. He founded, 50 years ago, the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Beekeepers' Association, and was a lecturer on beekeeping. ' He himself kept over" 50 hives. The incident recalls a wellknown Welsh and West country custom which has not, even yet, entirely died out. This is that the next of kin after a death must go to the hives and tell the bees about it. Not to do so results, it is stated, in ill-luck befalling the survivors. Scientists are still at a loss to explain why the common musk, once the favourite perfume flower in every country cottage in England, has lo6t its scent. Every ton of coal burned in a locomotive's firegrate boils eight tons of water. Four tons of coal are required to take an express train from London to Plymouth.