The Natural History of Selborne

Marrow-fat pease come in.

Daws come on the cherry-trees, for the fruit. While Mrs J. White & I were at S. Lambeth, we visited a Mrs Delhurst of that place, the wife of a officer, who being at Gibraltar at the time of the siege, underwent all the horrors of that long blockade, & bombardment. Even at this distance of time, somewhat of terror, & uneasiness seem to be imprinted on her features, so as to occasion a lasting impression. Nor is there any room for wonder; for fear is a violent passion, which frequently repeated like other strong emotions, must leave traces behind. Thus, thro’ the transports of inebriation, where men habituate themselves to excess in strong liquors, their faces contract an air of intoxication, even when they are cool and sober. This Lady, with many others, lodged for more than a twelve month in a cave of the rock to avoid the bombs & shot from the gun-boats, which annoyed the Southern part of the Istmus every night, as soon as it began to grow dark.

My brother cuts his first melon, a small cantaleupe.  Barley in bloom, that which was lodged rises a little.

Crop-gardeners sell their pease at market at 20d the sack, & their cauliflowers at 18d per dozen: pease abound so as hardly to pay for gathering.

Mazagan beans come in.  The barley much lodged.  No house-martins appear at S.L., a very few swallows, & only three pairs of swifts that seem to belong to the place.  No wonder then that flies abound so in the autumn as to become a nuisance.

Scarlet strawberries are cried about at six pence the pottle: they are not finely flavoured.

Vines begin to blossom: corn-flags blow.  My brother trenched his field, & sowed it with barley: but the corn seems as if it would be too big, & begins already to lodge.  My brother has set up a may-pole 55 feet in height: it is constructed out of two slender deal-spars, & for support cramped to the corner of a garden wall.

Cauliflowers.  The Opera-house in the Hay-market burnt down.

A patent machine, called a Fire Escape (rather perhaps a ‘Scape fire) was brought along Fleet street.  It consisted of a Ladder, perhaps 38 feet in length, which turned on a pivot, so as to be elevated or depressed at will, & was supported on timber frame-work, drawn on wheels.  A groove in each rail of this ladder-like construction admitted a box or hutch to be drawn up or let down by a pulley at the top round & by a windlass at bottom.  When the ladder is set up against a wall, the person in danger is to escape into the hutch, then drawn to the top.  That the ladder may not take fire from any flames breaking out below, it is defended all the way by a sheathing of tin.  Several people, it seems, had illiberally refused the Patentee the privilege of trying his machine against their houses:  but Mr White, on application, immediately consented; when the ladder was applyed to a sash on the second story, & a man was hoisted up, & let down with great expedition, & safety, & then a couple of boys went together.  Some spectators were of opinion that the hutch or box was too scanty or shallow, & for that security it ought to be raised on the sides and lower end by a treillis of strong wire, or iron-work, lest people in terror & confusion should miss of their aim & fall over to the ground.  This machine was easily drawn by four men only.  The ladder, the owner told us, would reach to a third story, when properly elevated.  The name of the Inventor is Mounsieur Dufour.

My brother’s barley begins to come into ear.  The squirrel is very fond of the cones of various trees.  My niece Hannah’s squirrel is much delighted with the fruit of the coniferous trees, such as the pine, the fir, the larch, & the birch; & had it an opportunity would probably be pleased with the cones of alders.  As to Scotch firs, Squirrels not only devour the cones, but they also bark large boughs, & gnaw off the tops of the leading shoots; so that the pine-groves belonging to Mr Beckford at Basing-park are much injured & defaced by those little mischievous quadroupeds, which are too subtile, & too nimble to be easily taken, or destroyed.  The Cypress-trees, & passion-flowers mostly killed by the late hard winter.