The Natural History of Selborne

Crop of apples general.  The parsonage-orchard at Faringdon, that has failed for may years, has now a full burthen.

Mr. Reeve, a master Carpenter in the town of Lambeth, is employed in building a Conservatory for the Queen of Naples, the dimensions of which are 117 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth, 20 feet to the angle of the roof, & 10 feet to the eaves. This noble greenhouse ( the largest that has been constructed yet in this kingdom) Continue Reading »

Met a cart of whortle-berries on the road.

Four women gather my Bror’s gooseberries for sale.

My fly-catchers left their nest this day.

Bro. B. has in his grounds 77 rows of Lucerne, which are each 48 yards in length.  This plot furnishes his three horses with green meat the summer thro’, & is cut at an avarage four times in the year.  His gardener cuts-up three rows at a time several evenings in the week, & observes that one row fodders one horse for 24 hours.  The crop is kept clean at considerable expense; & would soon be over-run with weeds, was not care & attention bestowed.  As soon as the whole rows are gone thro’, those that were cut at first are ready to be cut again.  He has 15 lights of melons, & 16 lights for cucumbers; & 40 hand glasses for ridge-Cucumbers & other purposes.

Muscae domesticae swarm in every room. I have often heard my Brothers complain how much they were annoyed with flies at this place. They are destroyed by a poisonous water called fly-water, set in basons, & by bird-lime twigs laid across pans of water.

Neither the pease or beans have the same flavour, & sweetness as in moist summers.

Cherries turn colour, & begin to be eatable; but are small for want of moisture: are netted.  A cat gets down the pots of a neighbour’s chimney after the Swallows nests.

A double scarlet Pomegranade buds for bloom.  A bunting appears about the walks: this is a very rare bird at Selborne.  The solstitial chafers swarm by thousands in my Brother’s grounds.  They begin to flie about sun-set, but withdraw soon after nine, & probably settle on the trees, to feed & to engender.  My chamber at S. Lambeth is much annoyed with gnats.