October 6, 1775
Just before it was dark a flight of about 12 swallows darted along over my House towards the hill: they seemed as if they settled in the hanger. Now several house-martins appear about the hanger.
* An oak in Newton-lane near the Cross, by the condensation of the fogs on it’s leaves has dripped such quantities for some nights past, that the water stands in puddles, & runs down the ruts. Why this tree should drip so much more than it’s neighbours is not easy to say. No doubt this is one of the means by which small upland ponds are still supported with water in the longest droughts; & the reason why they are never dry. What methods of supply upland ponds enjoy, where no trees over-hang, may not be so easy to determine. Perhaps their cool surfaces may attract a fund from the air when it is loaded with fogs & vapors, especially in the night-time. That they have some never-failing stock at hand to counterbalance evaporation & the waste by cattle, is notorious to the meanest observer. For on the chalks no springs are ever seen on the tops or sides of hills, but in the bottoms alone.
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