[We have never met with the word, and can only guess at random
that it is _quasi_ "the bee-croft," the enclosure where the bees
were kept; always remembering that formerly, when honey was an
article of large consumption, immense stores of these insects must
have been kept. In royal inventories we have "honey casks"
enumerated to an immense amount.]
_A great Man who could not spell._--Of what great historical character
is it recorded, that though by no means deficient in education, he never
could succeed in spelling correctly? I have an impression of having read
this in some biography a few years since, and I think it was a great
military commander, who always committed this error in his despatches,
though a man of acknowledged high talents and well-informed mind, and
conscious of this defect, which he had endeavoured in vain to overcome.