The Natural History of Selborne

Roses make a beautiful show.  Orange-lillies blossom.  Sr George Wheeler’s tutsan blows.

Thermometer at Mr Alexander’s– 87 on a N. wall; at S. wall near.  Fruit-walls in the sun are so hot that I cannot bear my hand on them.  Bror Thos’ thermr was 89 on an E. wall in the afternoon.

*Much damage done, & some persons killed by lightening on this sultry day.  My Bro. Thos’s thermr in Blackfriars road against an eastern wall in the afternoon was 89.  My thermomr after the sun was got round upon it, was 100: Thomas forgot to look in time.

Scarlet-straw-berries good. A small praecox melon. The longest day:

“The longest daye in time resignes to nighte;
The greatest oke in time to duste doth turne;
The Raven dies; the Egle failes of flighte;
The Phoenix rare in time herselfe doth burne;
The princelie stagge at lenghte his race doth ronne;
And all must ende that ever was begonne.”

Geffrey Whitney’s Emblemmes; p. 230, 1586

Muck laid on a gardener’s field poisons my Brother’s outlet.  A martin at Stockwell chapel has built its nest against the window: it seems to stick firmly to the glass, and has no other support.  In former summers I remember similar instances.

My brother finishes a large rick of hay in very nice order.

Sweet hay-making weather.

Aritchokes, & chardons, come into eating.  Cucumbers abound.

Cauliflowers abound.  Pease sold for ten pence the peck.

Went to London by Guilford & Epsom.  Spring-corn & grass look well.  Hay making near town.

After ewes & lambs are shorn there is great confusion & bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to distinguish one another as before. This embarassment seems not so much to arise from the loss of the fleece, which may occasion an alteration in their appearance, as from the defect of that notus odor, discriminating each individual personally: which also is confounded by the strong scent of the pitch & tar wherewith they are newly marked; for the brute creation recognize each other more from the smell than the sight; & in matters of Identity & Diversity appeal much more to their noses than to their eyes. Thus dogs smell to persons when they meet, when they want to be informed whether they are stranger or not. After sheep have been washed, there is the same confusion, for the reason given above.