Posted by sydney on Aug 21st, 2008
- 1792: August 21, 1792 – My large American Juniper, probably Juniperus Virginiana, has produced this summer a few few small blossoms of a strong flavour like that of the juniper-berries: but I could not distinguish whether the flowers were male, or female; so consequently could not determine the sex of the tree, which is dioecious. The order is dioecia monadelphia.
- 1791: August 21, 1791 – Many creatures are endowed with a ready discernment to see what will turn to their own advantage & emolument; & will often discover more sagacity than could be expected. Thus Benham’s poultry watch for waggons loaded with wheat, & running after them pick up a number of grains which are shaken from the sheaves by the agitation of the carriages. Thus when my brother used to take down his gun to shoot sparrows, his cats would run out before him to be ready to pick up the birds as they fell.
- 1786: August 21, 1786 – Kidney-beans bear by heaps; & cucumbers abound. Coveys of partidges are said to be very large. Butchers meat keeps badly.
- 1782: August 21, 1782 – Hay, of cow-grass, is housing. Wheat-sheaves are bound in single bands.
- 1781: August 21, 1781 – No wasps; but several hornets, which devour the nectarines. The wasps are probably kept down by the numbers of breeders that the boys destroyed for me in the spring.
- 1779: August 21, 1779 – Sun, brisk air, sweet even. Many people have finished wheat-harvest.
- 1774: August 21, 1774 – Sun, sweet day, full moon.
- 1773: August 21, 1773 – Sweet harvest day. Wheat housed all this afternoon. With respect to the singing of birds Aug. is much the most silent month: for many species begin to reassume their notes in September. The goldfinch sings now every day.
- 1772: August 21, 1772 – Young swallows come forth. Orleans plums begin to change color. Dark clouds in the S.E.
- 1770: August 21, 1770 – Sowed spinnage, & lettuces to stand the winter.
- 1769: August 21, 1769 – Vast showers about. People here housed all day. Vine-leaves begin to turn purple.
Posted by sydney on Aug 20th, 2008
- 1792: August 20, 1792 – Thomas, in mowing the walks, finds that the grass begins to grow weak, & to yield before the scythe. This is an indication of the decline of heat. Yucca filamentosa, silk grass, glows with a fine large white flower. It thrives abroad in a warm aspect. Habitat in Virginia.
- 1791: – John White called in his way from Funtington to Salisbury. The whole country is one rich prospect of harvest scenery!! Fern-owl glances along over my hedges.
- 1790: August 20, 1790 – On this day farmer Spencer built a large wheat-rick near his house the contents of which all came from a field near West-croft barn at the full distance of a mile. Five waggons were going all day.
- 1788: August 20, 1788 – Nep. Ben returned to London.
- 1787: August 20, 1787 – Nep. T.H. Wh. came from Fyfield.
- 1785: August 20, 1785 – Men house, & rick wheat in cold, damp condition.
- 1784: August 20, 1784 – On this day my Niece Brown was delivered of her 4th child, a girl, which makes the 41st of my nephews & nieces now living. Boiled up some apricots with sugar to preserve them.
- 1776: August 20, 1776 – Timothy, the tortoise weighs just six pounds three quarters & two ounces & an half: so is encreased in weight, since Aug. 1775, just one ounce & an half.
- 1775: August 20, 1775 – Hops are uneven some grown large, some just blown.
- 1774: August 20, 1774 – Vast dew, sweet day. Aster chinensis.
- 1773: August 20, 1773 – Wasps begin to appear. No swifts since last week.
- 1772: August 20, 1772 – Barometer falls very fast. Vast rock-like clouds abound. The drought lasted 10 weeks & four days.
Posted by sydney on Aug 19th, 2008
- 1792: – My shrub, Rhus cotinus, known to the nursery-men by the title of Cocygria, makes this summer a peculiar shew, being covered all over with it’s “bracteae paniculae filiformes,” which give it a feathery plume-like appearance, very amusing to those that have not seen it before. On the extremities of these panicles appear about midsumer a minute white bloom which with us brings no seeds to perfection. Towards the end of August the panicles turn red & decay.
- 1791: August 19, 1791 – The young men left us, & went to Funtington. A second crop of beans, long pods, come in. Sweet day, golden eve, red horizon. Some what of an autumnal feel.
- 1790: – Mrs Barker & her daughters Mary & Elizabeth, & Mrs Chandler, & her infant daughter and nursemaid went all in a cart to see the great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr Marsham of Stratton to be the biggest on this Island. Bro. Thos. & Dr Chandler rode on horse-back. They all dined under the shade of this tree. At 7 feet from the ground it measures in circumference 34 feet: has in old times lost several boughs, & is tending towards decay. Mr Marsham computes that at 14 feet length this oak contains 1000 feet of timber.
- 1789: August 19, 1789 – Timothy Turner’s brew-house on fire: but much help coming in & pulling off the thatch, the fire was extinguished, without any farther damage than the loss of the roofing. The flames burst thro’ the thatch in many places. We are this day annoyed in the brown parlor by multitudes of flying ants, which come forth, as usual, from under the stairs.
- 1788: August 19, 1788 – Farmer Lasham has much wheat out, which was not ripe when other people cut, & housed.
- 1787: August 19, 1787 – Showers about: Rain-bows. Vivid Aurora.
- 1786: August 19, 1786 – Mushrooms come in Mr White’s avenue at Newton.
- 1785: August 19, 1785 – Sam & Charles leave us. Gleaners get much wheat.
- 1781: August 19, 1781 – Mr Pink’s turnips are infested with black caterpillars; he turned 80 ducks into the field, hoping they would have destroyed them; but they did not seem much to relish this sort of food. I have known whole broods of ducks destroyed by their eating too freely of hairy caterpillars.
- 1775: August 19, 1775 – Wheat-harvest in general seems to be finished, except where there is turnep wheat. Fifteen wasps nests have been destroyed round the village; yet those plunderers devour the plum, & eat holes in the peaches & nectarines before they are ripe; & will soon attack the grapes. Grapes begin to turn colour: they are forward this year. Harvest-weather was much finer at Ringmer than Selborne. Some wheat a little grown at Newton.
- 1773: August 19, 1773 – Terrible storm all night, which made sad havock among the hops, & broke off boughs from the trees.
- 1772: August 19, 1772 – All the pastures are burnt up, & scarce any butter made. Wheat in fine order, & heavy.
- 1771: August 19, 1771 – Swifts abound. Swallows & martins bring out their second broods which are perchers. Thunder: wind.
- 1770: August 19, 1770 – Ponds begin to fail. Hops are perfectly free from lice.
- 1769: August 20, 1769 – Bulls begin to make their shrill autumnal note.
- 1768: August 19, 1768 – White wheat begins to grow. Plums ripe.
Posted by sydney on Aug 18th, 2008
- 1792: August 18, 1792 – Blackcaps eat the berries of the honey-suckles. Mrs J. White, after long & severe campaign carried on against the Blattae molendinariae, which have of late invaded my house, & of which she has destroyed many thousands, finds that at intervals a fresh detachment of old ones arrives; & particularly during the hot season: for the windows being left open in the evenings, the males come flying in at the casements from the neighbouring houses, which swarm with them. How the females, that seem to have no perfect wings that they can use, can contrive to get form house to house, does not so readily appear. These, like many insects, when they find their present abodes over-stocked, have powers of migrating to fresh quarters. Since the Blattae have been so much kept under, the Crickets have greatly encreased in number.
- 1791: August 18, 1791 – Timothy grazes. John White came from Salisbury. Cut 133 more cucumbers. Michaelmas daisies begin to blow. Farmer Spencer, & Farmer Knight make each a noble wheat-rick: the crop very good, & in fine order.
- 1789: August 18, 1789 – Many pease housed. Harvest-scenes are now very beautiful! Turnips thrive since the shower.
- 1785: August 18, 1785 – Colchicum, autumnal crocus, emerges, & blows.
- 1784: August 18, 1784 – Spinage very thick on the ground. Men hoe turnips, stir their fallows, & cart chalk.
- 1783: August 18, 1783 – The Colchicum, or autumnal crocus blows. On the evening of this day, at about a quarter after nine o’the clock, a luminous meteor of extraordinary bulk, & shape was seen traversing the sky from N.W. to S.E. It was observed at Edinburg, & several other Ern. parts of this Island. No accounts of it, that I have seen, have been published from any of the western counties. It was also taken notice of at Ostend. This meteor, I find since, was seen at Coventry, & Chester. 4 swifts at Guildford; 1 swift at Meroe; 1 swift at Dorking.
- 1782: – Linnets congregate & therefore have probably done breeding. Saw a Papilio Machaon in my garden: this is only the third of this species that ever I have seen in this district. It was alert, & wild. It is the only swallow-tailed fly in this island.
- 1781: August 18, 1781 – Some wasps at the butcher’s shop.
- 1775: August 18, 1775 – Grey. Sweet afternoon.
- 1774: August 18, 1774 – Two swifts were seen again on this day at Fyfield: none afterwards. Two last swifts seen at Blackburn in Lancashire.
- 1773: August 18, 1773 – Wheat lies in a bad way. Much cut, little bound, & scarce any housed.
- 1772: August 18, 1772 – The swifts seem for some days to have taken their leave. Apricots. None seen after that time.
- 1771: August 18, 1771 – No dew, rain, rain, rain. Swans flounce & dive. Chilly & dark.
- 1769: August 18, 1769 – Martins congregate on the roofs of houses.
- 1768: August 18, 1768 – Martins continue to hatch new broods. Flies begin to abound in the windows.
Posted by sydney on Aug 17th, 2008
- 1791: August 17, 1791 – Holt White, & Harry Woods came from Fyfield.
- 1789: August 17, 1789 – Cool air. Wheat gleaned.
- 1785: August 17, 1785 – Few mushrooms to be found. Sowed second crop of white turnip-radishes. Abram Loe came the second time
- 1784: August 17, 1784 – Farmer Spencer, & farmer Knight are forced to stop their reapers, because their wheat ripens so unevenly.
- 1782: August 17, 1782 – Cranberries, but not ripe.
- 1781: August 17, 1781 – The small pond in Newton great farm field, near the verge of the common, is full nearly of good clear water! while ponds in vales are empty. One swift! The crevice thro’ which the swift goes up under the eaves of the church is so narrow as not to admit a person’s hand.
- 1780: August 17, 1780 – Fell-wort blows on the hanger.
- 1779: August 17, 1779 – Much wheat housed. Drank tea at the hermitage.
- 1777: August 17, 1777 – White butter-flies settle on wet mud in crowds. *No swift seen after August 14: so punctual are they in their migrations, or retreat! The latest swift I ever saw was only once on Aug. 21, but they often withdraw by the 10.
- 1775: August 17, 1775 – Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not only bite closer than larger quadrupeds; but they allow no bents to rise: hence warrens produce much the most delicate turf for gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses.
- 1774: August 17, 1774 – Wheat harvest general. Large sea-gulls.
- 1773: August 17, 1773 – Swifts seem to be gone; very early. Vast clouds on the horizon. Wheat bound.
Posted by sydney on Aug 16th, 2008
- 1791: August 16, 1791 – Colchicums, or naked boys appear.
- 1790: August 16, 1790 – Cut 43 cucumbers. Wheat is binding. Blackstonia perfoliata, yellow centory, blossoms, on the right hand bank up the North field hill. The Gentiana perfoliata Lannaei. It is to be found in the marl-dell half way along the N. field lane on the left; on the dry bank of a narrow field between the N. field hill, & the Fore down; & on the banks of the Fore down.
- 1787: August 16, 1787 – Mr & Mrs R left us. Farmer Parsons harvests wheat. Gleaners carry home large loads.
- 1786: August 16, 1786 – Colchicum blows.
Say what retards, amidst the summer’s blaze/ Th’autumnal bulb, ’till pale, declining days?
- 1785: August 16, 1785 – My goose-berries are still very fine, but are much eaten by the dogs.
- 1783: August 16, 1783 – Farmer Knight of Norton finishes wheat-harvest. Farmer Lassam of Priory Do. Farmer Hewet of Temple finishes Do.
- 1781: August 16, 1781 – Sowed a crop of winter-spinage, & pressed the ground close with the garden-roller. The ground turned-up very dry, & harsh.
- 1780: August 16, 1780 – Lord Cornwallis gained a signal victory over General Gates in South Carolina, near Camden.
- 1775: August 16, 1775 – Generation seems to be pretty well over among cimices lineares. Minute young abroad.
- 1773: August 16, 1773 – Wind covers the walks with leaves, & blows down the annuals.
- 1772: August 16, 1772 – Several birds begin to resume their spring notes, such as the wren, redbreast
- 1771: August 16, 1771 – Rain, driving rain, dry. Four swifts still.
- 1770: August 16, 1770 – Nuthatch chirps much.
Posted by sydney on Aug 15th, 2008
- 1791: August 15, 1791 – Lightening every moment in the W. & the N.W. Cut 114 cucumbers. Harvesters complain of the violent heat.
- 1790: August 15, 1790 – The last gathering of wood-strawberries. Bull-finches & red-breasts eat the berries of the honey-suckles.
- 1786: August 15, 1786 – Planted cuttings of dames violets, & slips of pinks under hand-glasses: planted also more sweet williams, & polyanths.
- 1785: August 15, 1785 – Sam & Charles came from Fyfield. The harvest seasons are very beautiful! Farmer Spencer makes a hay-rick. Wheat very fine and heavy.
- 1784: August 15, 1784 – Women bring cran-berries, but they are not ripe.
- 1783: August 15, 1783 – Took this morning by bird-lime on the tips of hazel-twigs several hundred wasps that were devouring the goose-berries. A little attention this way makes vast riddance, & havock among these plundering invaders.
- 1782: August 15, 1782 – Potatoes for the first time. Thierteen swifts over the Lythe: seven at Harteley. Do they not at this season move from village to village? The hay is all badly spoiled; & men begin to fear that the wheat will grow as it stands. That which is lodged is in much danger. A fledged young swift was found alive on the ground in the church-yard: it was full of hippoboscae. We gave it two or three flies, & tossed it up on the church. Gathered one handful of kidney beans. The ground is quite glutted with rain.
- 1777: August 15, 1777 – Male & female ants come forth & migrate in vast troops: every ant-hill is in strange commotion & hurry. The pair of martins which began to build on June 21 brought-out their brood this day in part: (the rest remain in the nest, Aug 17)
- 1776: August 15, 1776 – Sun, & clouds, sultry, showers about.
- 1775: August 15, 1775 – Dark & still. Some little farmers have finished wheat-harvest.
- 1774: August 15, 1774 – Showers & sun. Meonstoke a sweet district.
- 1773: August 15, 1773 – Hops visible improved by the thunder. If the swifts are gone, as they seem to be, they can never breed but once in a summer; since the swallows & martins in general are but now laying their eggs for a second brood. As young swifts never perch or congregate on buildings I can never be sure exctly whenthey come forth. The retreat of the swifts so early is a wonderful fact : & yet it is more strange still, that they withdraw full as soon in the summer at Gibraltar! Swifts sat hard Hune 9th.
- 1772: August 15, 1772 – On this day at 10 in the morning some sober & intelligent people felt at Noar hill what they thought to be a slight shock of an earthquake. A mother and her son perceived the house to tremble at the same time while one was aboe stairs & the other below; & each called to the other to know what was the matter. A young man, in the field near, heard a strange rumbling. Notwithstanding the long severe drought the little pond on the common contains a considerable share of water in spite of evaporation, & the multitude of cattle that drink at it. Have ponds on such high situations a power, unkown to us, of recruiting from the air? Evaporation is probably less on the tops of hills; but cattle use a vast proportion of the whole stock of water in a small pond.
- 1768: August 15, 1768 – Young broods of goldfinches appear.
Posted by sydney on Aug 14th, 2008
- 1792: August 14, 1792 – Housed two loads of peat.
- 1791: August 14, 1791 – Hirundines enjoy the warm season. Late this evening a storm of thunder arose in the S., which, as usual, divided into two parts, one going to the S.W. & W. & the greater portion to the S.E. and E., & so round to the N.E. From this latter division proceeded strong, & vivid lightening till late in the night. At Headleigh there was a very heavy shower, & some hail at E. Tisted. The lightening, & hail did much damage about the kingdom. Farmer Spencer’s char-coal making in his orchard almost suffocated us: the poisonous smoke penetrated into our parlor, & bed-chambers, & was very offensive in the night.
- 1790: August 14, 1790 – Young Hirundines cluster on the trees. Harvest-bugs bite the ladies.
- 1788: August 14, 1788 – H.W. & Miss W. left us & went to Newton. Bro. Henry, & B. White, & wife came with little Tom, & Nurse Johnson.
- 1787: August 14, 1787 – Gleaning begins.
- 1784: August 14, 1784 – Plums show no tendency to ripeness. Scalded codlings come in. The wheat that was smitten by the hail does not come to maturity together: some ears are full ripe, & some quite green. Wheat within the verge of the hail-storm is much injured, & the pease are spoiled. A puff-ball, lycoperdon bovista, was gathered in a meadow near Alton, which weighed 7 pounds, & an half, & measured 1 Yard and One Inch in girth the longest way 3 feet two inches. There were more in the mead almost as bulky as this.
- 1782: August 14, 1782 – The lavant runs by the side of Cobb’s court-yard. Swifts about High-Wycombe.
- 1781: August 14, 1781 – The bank-martins at the sand-pit on Short-heath are now busy about their second brood, & have thrown out their egg-shells from their holes. The dams & first-broods make a large flight. When we approached their caverns, they seemed anxious, & uttered a little wailing note. My well is low in water; but a constant spring bubbles up from the bottom. Some neighbouring wells are dry. My well is 63 feet deep.
- 1780: August 14, 1780 – Sope-wort blows. Dwarf elder continues in bloom.
- 1775: August 14, 1775 – Two great bats appear. They feed high: are very rare in Hants, & Sussex. Low fog.
- 1773: August 14, 1773 – Wheat-harvest pretty general. Dark heavy clouds to the N.W. Heat unusually severe all this week! This storm did great damage in & about London.
- 1772: August 14, 1772 – Cloudless, sultry, dark.
- 1770: August 14, 1770 – Pease begin to be hacked. Saw two swifts.
Posted by sydney on Aug 13th, 2008
- 1792: August 13, 1792 – Goose-berries wither on the trees.
- 1791: August 13, 1791 – Farmer Tull makes a wheat-rick at Wick-hill.
- 1787: August 13, 1787 – Mr & Mrs Richardson & son came.
- 1785: August 13, 1785 – My Nephew Edmd White’s tank at Newton runs over. On the first of August, about half an hour after three in the afternoon the people of Selborne were surpried by a shower of Aphides which fell in these parts. I was not at home; but those who were walking the streets at that juncture found themselves covered with these insects, which settled also on the trees, & gardens, & blackened all the vegetables where they alighted. My annuals were covered with them; & some onions were quite coated over with them when I returned on Aug. 6th. These armies, no doubt, were then an a state of emigration, & shifting their quarters; & might come, as far as we know, from the great hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being that day at E. They were observed at the same time at Farnham, & all along the vale to Alton. Of the conveyance of Insects from place to place, see Derhams’s Physico-Theology. p. 367.
- 1783: August 13, 1783 – Farmer Spencer of Grange finished wheat-harvest. Mr Pink of Faringdon finished Do. Mr Yalden finished wheat-harvest. Fermer Vridger of Black-more finished harvest of all sorts.
- 1782: August 13, 1782 – Bro. Tho. White & daughter came.
- 1781: August 13, 1781 – The pond on Selborne down has still some good water in it; Newton pond is all mud. Many annuals are shrivelled-up for want of moisture. The drought is very great. Hops are injured for want of rain.
- 1780: August 13, 1780 – Ponds are very low.
- 1778: August 13, 1778 – There is this year the greatest crop of wheat in the North-field that ever was remembered.
- 1773: August 13, 1773 – Great thunder, & lightening.
- 1772: August 13, 1772 – Some few wasps begin to appear.
- 1770: August 13, 1770 – Swifts to be partly gone. Martins congregate.
- 1768: August 13, 1768 – Sweet harvest weather. Helleborus viridis begins to wither. Brisk gale of wind.
Posted by sydney on Aug 12th, 2008
- 1792: August 12, 1792 – The thermometer for three or four days past has stood in the shade at Newton at 79, & 80.
- 1791: August 12, 1791 – Men bind their wheat all day. The harvesters complain of heat. The hand-glass cucumbers begin to bear well: red kidney beans begin to pod.
- 1790: August 12, 1790 – Sister Barker, & nieces, Mary, & Eliz. came.
- 1789: August 12, 1789 – The planters think these foggy mornings, & sunny days, injurious to their hops.
- 1787: August 12, 1787 – Bull-finches feed on the berries of honey-suckles. B. Hall came.
- 1785: August 12, 1785 – Black-caps eat the berries of the honey-suckle, now ripe. Pheasant-cocks crow.
- 1784: August 12, 1784 – Wheat housing at Heards.
- 1782: August 12, 1782 – Swifts about Windsor.
- 1780: August 12, 1780 – Dust flies. Gardens suffer from want of rain. Much wheat bound. Timothy, in the beginning of May, after fasting all the winter, weighed only six pounds & four ounces averdupoise; is now encreased to six pounds & 15 ounces, averdupoise.
- 1778: August 12, 1778 – My well sinks very much.
- 1775: August 12, 1775 – Full moon. High tides frequently discompose the weather in places so near the coast, even in the dryest, most settled season, for a day or two.
*Cimices lineares are now in high copulation on ponds & pools. The females, who vastly exceed the males in bulk, dart & shoot along the surface of the water with the males on their backs. When a female chuses to be disenegaged, she rears & jumps & plunges like an unruly colt; the lover, thus dismounted, soon finds a new mate. The females as fast as their curiosities are satisfied retire to another part of the lake, perhaps to deposit their foetus in quiet: hence the sexes are found separate except where generation is going-on. From the multitude of minute young of all gradations of size, thses insects seem without doubt to be viviparous.
- 1774: August 12, 1774 – Fly-catchers bring out young broods. Mich. daisy blows. Apricots ripen. Some martins, dispossessed of their nests by sparrows, return to them again when their enemies are shot, & breed in them. Several pairs of martins have not yet brought forth their first brood. They meet with interruptions, & leave their nests.
- 1770: August 12, 1770 – Lapwings flie in parties to the downs as it grows dusk.
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