Men have taken advange of this dry season, & have chalked their hop-gardens, & fields. The chalk at the foot of the hill is called marl, but it is only a hard grey chalk. This chalk is of service on the malms.
Planted 10 roses, 2 cypresses, 6 violae tricolores, 3 sent from S. Lambeth by Bro. Ben.
Bro. Tho. & T.H.W. left us, & went to London.
Swarms of sporting gnats come streaming out from the tops of the hedges, just as at Midsumr. On this soft summer-like day some h. martins might have been expected along the hanger; but none appeared.
Bro. Tho. sowed many acorns, & some seeds of an ash in a plot dug in Baker’s hill. The King’s hounds tryed our coverts for the stag, but with no success.
Planted on the bank in the garden several dames violets raised from cutting under hand-glasses. Sowed some seeds of the Zizania aquatica in Comb-wood pond. The King’s stag-hounds came down to Alton, attended by a Huntsman & six yeoman prickers with horns, to try for the stag that has haunted Hartley wood, & it’s environs for so long a time. Many hundreds of people, horse & foot, attended the dogs to see the deer unharboured: but tho’ the huntsmen drew Hartley wood, & Temple hangers, yet no Stag could be found. Lord Hinchinbroke, the master of the hounds, & some other Nobleman attended. The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned-out before them, never drew the coverts with any address or spirit, as many people that were present observed; & this remark the event has proved a just one. For as Harry Bright was lately pursuing a pheasant that was wing-broken in Hartley wood, he stumbled upon the stag by accident, & ran in upon him as he lay concealed amidst a thick brake of brambles, & bushes.
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