The Natural History of Selborne

The Passion-flower buds for bloom: double-flowering pomegranade has had bloom.

 S. Lambeth
Some swallows in this district, & only two pairs of swifts, & no martins.  No wonder then that they are overrun with flies, which swarm in the summer months, & destroy their grapes.

When the Baromr is at 30 in S. Lambeth, it is 29-7 at Selborne, and 29-4 at Newton. My brother cut a good Romagna melon.

Timothy Turner cuts my grass for himself, a small crop.  Scarabaeus solstitialis first appears in my brother’s outlet: they are very punctual in their coming-out every year.  They are a small species, about half the size of the May chafer, & are known in some parts by the name fern-chafer.

Fifteen Whites dines this day at my Bro. B. White’s table; as did also a Mr Wells, a great, great, great grandson of the Revd John Longworth, in old times vicar of Selborne, who dyed about the year 1678.  Dr & Mrs Chandler returned to Selborne.

My brother’s straw-berries well-flavoured.  The vines here in bloom, & smell very sweet.

Meadows not cut.  Nymphaea lutea in bloom in a watry ditch.  Went to see the village of Compton, where my father lived more than sixty years ago, & where seven of his children were born.  The people of the village remember nothing of our family.  Mr. Fulham’s conservatory richly furnished; & the grounds behind his house engaging, & elegant.  The romantic grounds, & paddock at the west end Godalming town are very bold & striking.  The hanging woods very solemn, & grand; & many of the trees of great age & dimensions.  This place was for many years inhabited by General Oglethrope.  The house is now under a general repair being with it’s grounds the property of Mr Godbold a quack Doctor.  The vale & hanging woods round Godalming are very beautiful: the Wey a sweet river, & becomes navigable at this town.  One branch of the Wey rises at Selborne.  At the entrance to the avenue leading to Bramshot-place are three great, hollow oaks, the largest of which measure 21 feet in girth.  We measure this tree at about 5 feet from the ground, & could not come at it lower on account of a dr stone-wall in which it stands.  We measure also the largest Sycamore in the front of the house, & found the girth to be 13.  They are very tall, & are deemed to be 80 feet in height: but I should suppose they do not exceed 74 feet.  I hear much of trees 80 or 90 feet high; but have never measured anay that exceed the supposed height of the Sycamores above.

Went to visit Mr Edmund Woods Senr. Swifts abound at Godlaming.

Mr. Richardson’s straw-berries very dry, & tasteless.

Went round by Petersfield. Foxgloves blow. By going round by Petersfield we make our journey to Bramshot 23 miles. After we had been driven 20 miles we found ourselves not a mile from Wever’s down, a vast hill in Wolmer forest, & in the parish of Selborne. Bramshot in a direct line is only seven miles from Selborne.