The Natural History of Selborne

• 1792: September 30, 1792 – There is a remarkable hill on the downs near Lewes in Susses, known by the name of Mount Carburn, which over-looks that town, & affords a most engaging prospect of all the country round, besides several views of the sea.  On the very summit of this exalted promontory, & amidst the trenched of its Danish camp, there haunts a species of wild Bee, making it’s nest in the chalk soil.  When people approach the place, these insects begin to be alarmed, & with a sharp & hotile sound dash, & strike round the heads & faces of intruders.  I have often been interrupted myself while contemplating the grandeur of the scenery around me, & have thought myself in danger of being stung:– and have heard my Brother Benjamin say, that he & his daughter Rebecca were driven from the spot by the fierce menaces of these angry insects.  In old days Mr Hay of Glynd Bourn, the Author of Deformity, & other works, wrote a loco-descriptive poem on the beauties of Mount Carburn.
• 1790: September 30, 1790 – Cut 81 cucumbers. On this day Mrs Brown was brought to bed at Stamford of twins, making my nephews & nieces 58 in number.  The night following this poor, dear woman dyed, leaving behind her nine young children.
• 1788: September 30, 1788 – Gathered such of the Cadillac pears, as could readily be reached by ladders.  Thomas says there are 13 bushels on my only tree.
• 1785: September 30, 1785 – Will Tanner thinks he saw in the high wood marks where a wood-cock had been boring.  Mr Barker, who rode this day to Rake, Rogate, & Furley-hill, saw much grass, & clover cut, & cutting.  Some barley out.
• 1783: September 30, 1783 – Lovely weather, red even.  True Michaelmas summer.
• 1782: September 30, 1782 – Many wasps at Lydon in Rutland, tho’ none in the great heats of autumn 1781. So there is some mystery in their breeding that we do not understand. * At the autumnal aequinox, the evenings are remarkably dark, because the sun at that time sets more in a right angle to the horizon, than at any other season. But of late these uncomfortable glooms have been much softened by frequent N. Auroras. This circumstance of autumnal darkness did not escape the poet of nature: who says,
  “Now black, & deep the night begins to fall,/A shade immense. Sunk in the quenching gloom/Magnificent & vast are heaven & earth/Order confounded lies; all beauty void;/Distinction lost; & gay variety/One universal blot: such the fair powerOf light, to kindle, & create the whole.”
  Thompson’s Autumn
• 1781: September 30, 1781 – Men put-up their hogs to fat.  House-flies muscae domesticae, now croud about the fire-place, run on hearths, & sport in the chimney-corner.
• 1774: September 30, 1774 – Rooks begin to frequent the wall-nut & carry-off the fruit.
• 1773: September 30, 1773 – Some barley abroad that has been cut a month.  Earwigs cast their skins & come forth white.  10 or 12 ring-ouzels appear on their autumn migration round Noar hill.  Martins are seldom seen at any distance from  neighbourhoods.  They feed over waters or under the shelter of an hanging wood.  Swallows often hawk about on naked downs & fields, even in very windy seasons at a great distance from houses.
• 1769: September 30, 1769 – The ring-ouzels, merulae torquatae, are most punctual about their migration, & appear again in a considerable flock.
• 1768: September 30, 1768 – Stares flock at Chilgrove.  Oedicnemus does not flock yet.

• 1791: September 29, 1791 – A gale rises every morning at ten o’ the clock & falls at sunset.
• 1789: September 29, 1789 – Swallows not seen: they withdraw in bad weather, & perhaps sleep most of their time away like dogs & cats, who have a power of accululating rest, when the season does not permit them to be active.
• 1788: September 29, 1788 – Mr Churton left us.  T.H. White came from Fyfield.
• 1787: September 29, 1787 – Vast flock of ravens on the down.
• 1784: September 29, 1784 – Took possession of Selborne curacy.
• 1783: September 29, 1783 – Gathered-in the apples, knobbed russets, & non-pareils.  Royal russets none.  All the baking pears were blown down.  No dearlings.
• 1782: September 29, 1782 – It is remarkable that this wet cold weather produces no good mushrooms.  A great plenty of the pale, coarse sort appeared early in the autumn, but I have seen none with the salmon-coloured laminae, wich are the only edible sort.
• 1781: September 29, 1781 – My well has now only three feet in water: it has never been so low, since my father sunk it, more than forty years ago.
• 1778: September 29, 1778 – Herrings come into season.   The after-grass in this grazing-country is very short, & scanty.
• 1776: September 29, 1776 – Nothing left abroad but seed-clover, & a few beans.
• 1774: September 29, 1774 – Hops in some places not yet gathered.  Grapes begin to be good: the crop is scanty, & the branches & berries small.
• 1773: September 29, 1773 – Multitudes of martins, but I think not many swallows.  Grapes are eatable, but not curious yet; are damaged by the wasps.
• 1771: September 29, 1771 – Woodcock, Scolopax, appears early.   Glow-worms shine.
• 1769: September 29, 1769 – Swallows and martins all the way on the downs.
• 1768: September 29, 1768 – Swallows cluster on the bushes in the barnet.  Redstart.

• 1791: September 28, 1791 – Linnets congregate in great flocks.  This sweet autumnal weather has lasted three weeks, from Septr. 8th.
• 1785: September 28, 1785 – Several ring-ouzels on Nore hill.  Farmer Tull mows mill-mead, a second crop, which it is expected will prduce near 3 tuns on an acre.  Men mow also clover, hoping to get some hay at last.  Timothy the tortoise spends all the summer in the quarters of the kitchen-garden among the asparagus, &c. but as soon as the first frosty mornings begin, he comes forth to the laurel-hedge, by the side of which he spends the day, & retires under it at night; ’till urged by the encreasing cold he buries himself in Novr amidst the laurel-hedge.
• 1781: September 28, 1781 – Dug up potatoes, & carrots.
• 1780: September 28, 1780 – The China hollycocks in my strong soil grow too tall, & are just beginning to blow.  Began to light fires in the parlor.
• 1779: September 28, 1779 – Grapes are rich, & sweet.
• 1774: September 28, 1774 – All things in a drowning condition!
• 1773: September 28, 1773 – Stoparola, flycatcher, still appears.
• 1772: September 28, 1772 – Swallows & martins.  Gathered the first grapes: large & good.
• 1768: September 28, 1768 – These ring-ouzels are seen again in the spring in their return to the north.

• 1792: September 27, 1792 – Strong, cold gale.
• 1790: September 27, 1790 – The innoculated at Hartley sicken.
• 1789: September 27, 1789 – A man brought me a land-rail or daker-hen, a bird so rare in this district, that we seldom see more than one or two in a season, & those only in autumn.  This is deemed a bird of passage by all the writers; yet from it’s formation seems to be poorly qualifyed for migration; for its wings are short, & placed so forward, & out of the center of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy & embarrassed manner, with it’s legs hanging down; & can hardly be sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, & seems to depend more on the swiftness of it’s feet than on it’s flying.  When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft & tender, that inappearance they might have been dressed like the ropes of an woodcock.  The craw or crop was small & lank, containing a mucus; the gizzard thick & strong, & filled with many shell-snails, some whole, & many ground to pieces thro’ the attrition which is occasioned by the muscular force & motion of that intestine.  We saw no gravels among the food: perhaps the shell-snails might perform the functions of gravels or pebbles, & might grind one another.  Land-rails used to abound formerly, I remember, in the low, wet bean-fields of Xtian Malford in North Wilts; & in the meadows near Paradise-Gardens at Oxford, where I have often heard them cry Crex, Crex.  The bird mentioned above weighed seven ounces & an half, was fat & tender, & in flavour like thesh of a woodcock.  The liver was very large & delicate.
• 1785: September 27, 1785 – My well, notwithstanding the rains is very low still, so that we let out all the rope to draw a bucket of water.
• 1784: September 27, 1784 – Nep. Ben White left me: me stayed a few days.
• 1782: September 27, 1782 – Bro. Thomas White, his daughter, & two sons left Selborne.
• 1781: September 27, 1781 – Gathered-in Cadilliac-pears, dearlings, & royal russets.
• 1780: September 27, 1780 – Finished a Bostal, or sloping path up the hanger from the foot of the zigzag to the corner of the Wadden, in length 414 yards. A fine romantic walk, shady & beautiful.  In digging along the hanger the labourers found many pyrites perfectly round, lying in the clay; & in the chalk below several large cornua Ammonis.
• 1779: September 27, 1779 – Gathered-in the pears.  The Cardillac-tree bore five bushels.  Apples are few; & the crop of grapes small.
• 1777: September 27, 1777 – Distant lightening.  We had but little rain, only the skirts of the storm.  The dry weather, which was of infinite service to the country after so wet a summer, might fairly be said to last eight weeks: three of which had no rain at all, & much sun-shine.
• 1775: September 27, 1775 – Gathered-in the royal russets, & knobbed russets.  Tyed-up endive.  *My Arundo donax, which I receied from Gibraltar, is grown this year eight or nine feet high: I therefore opened the head of one stalk to see what approaches it had made towards blowing after so hot a summer.  When it was cut open we found a long series of leaves enfolded one within the other to a most minute degree, but not the least rudiments of fructification; so that the plant must have extended itself many feet before it could have attained to it’s full stature: and must have required many more weeks of hot weather before it could have brought any seeds to maturity.
• 1774: September 27, 1774 – Mr Yalden mows a field of barley.  Much barley abroad.
• 1773: September 27, 1773 – Gathered the last nectarines: very good.  Large aurora: very vivid in the S.W.
• 1771: September 27, 1771 – Black cap.  Few martins over oak-hanger ponds.  Woodlark whistles.
• 1770: September 27, 1770 – Gardens are torn to pieces, & great boughs off trees.
• 1768: September 27, 1768 – People are now housing corn after 27 days interruption.

• 1791: September 26, 1791 – My potatoes come in, and are good.
• 1789: September 26, 1789 – Multitudes of Hirundines.  Sweet Mich. weather.
• 1787: September 26, 1787 – Many ravens on the hill, & a flight of starlings.
• 1786: September 26, 1786 – Saw a nest full of young swallows, nearly fledged, in their nest under Captain Dumaresq’gate way at Pilham-place.  Saw the same day many martins over Selborne village.  I have often seen young house-martins in their nests in the Mich. week; but never swallows before.
• 1784: September 26, 1784 – Mr Taylor took possession of Selborne vicarage.
• 1781: September 26, 1781 – Dug up potatoes: earthed up celeri.  Gathered knobbed russetings, a large crop.  Our building-sand from Wolmer-forest seems pure from dirt: but examined thro’ a microscope proves not to be sharp, & angular, but smooth as from collision.  It is of a yellow colour.  “The amazing number of swallows that at this time are flying in London, is a very uncommon appearance.  They seem greatly affected by the severe cold weather we have experienced for some days past, since the wind has been northerly; they fly in at windows, & are so tamed or numbed, that boys beat them down, as they fly in the streets.”  The Gazetteer
• 1780: September 26, 1780 – Moles live in the middle of the hanger.
• 1778: September 26, 1778 – Mrs Snooke has gathered-in all her apples, & pears: her fruit is finely flavoured in such hot years.  Mrs Snooke’s black grapes begin to ripen.  No wasps here.  The distress in this place for want of water is very great:  they have few wells in this deep loam; & the little pits & ponds are all dry; so that the neighbours all come for water to Mrs Snooke’s ponds.
• 1775: September 26, 1775 – Gathered in the golden-rennets.  Apples are too large from the much wet.
• 1774: September 26, 1774 – Planted numbers of brown Dutch lettuces under the fruit-wall to stand the winter.  *These proved very fine the spring following.
• 1772: September 26, 1772 – Apples & pears large & fine.  Chilly air.  Swallows and martins.  The tempest on thursday night did considerable damage in London, & at Oxford, & in many parts of the kingdom.
• 1771: September 26, 1771 – Ring-ouzels, merula torquata, begin to apear on their autumnal migration.
• 1770: September 26, 1770 – Annuals are spoiled in the gardens.
• 1769: September 26, 1769 – Sweet day.  The sheep about Lewes are all without Horns: & have black faces & legs.  Sheep have horns & white faces again west of Bramber.
• 1768: September 26, 1768 – I saw a small Ichneumon-fly laying its eggs on, or in the aurelia of a papilio.

• 1792: September 26, 1792 – Men begin to bag hops.  Celeri comes in.  Vine-leaves turn purple.
• 1791: September 25, 1791 – Several wells in the village are dry: my well is very low; Burbey’s Turner’s, Dan Loe’s hold out well.
• 1790: September 25, 1790 – A vast flock of lapwings, which has forsaken the moors & bogs, now frequents the uplands.  Some ring-ouzels were seen round Nore-hill.
• 1789: September 25, 1789 – Men bag their hops; & house seed-clover.  A fern-owl plays round the Plestor.  As we were walking this day, Sept. 22nd: being the King’s coronation, on Nore-hill at one o’ the clock in the afternoon, we heard great guns on each side of us, viz. from the S. & from the N.E., which undoubtedly were the cannons of Portsmouth & Windsor: the former of which is at least 26 miles distant, & the latter 30.  If the guns heard from the N.E. were not from Windsor, they must be those of the Tower of London.
• 1786: September 25, 1786 – Niece Betsey came from Fyfield.
• 1785: September 25, 1785 – Vast rain.  Violent current in the street.
• 1784: September 25, 1784 – Sister Henry White, & her daughter came.
• 1783: September 25, 1783 – My wall-nut tree near the stable, which is usually barren, produces this year 5, or 600 nuts: the sort is very fine.  The vast tree at the bottom of the garden bears every year, but the nuts are bad.  Charles White, & Harry Woods came from Fyfield.
• 1782: September 25, 1782 – Sad hop, & harvest weather.
• 1781: September 25, 1781 – Gathered swan’s egg pears, a large crop.  Surprising Auroras, very red in the W!!!  The young swarms of bees this summer are light; the old stocks are heavy.
• 1780: September 25, 1780 – When people walk in a deep white fog by night with a lanthorn, if they will turn their backs to the light they will see their shades impressed on the fog in rude, gigantic proportions.  This phenomenon seems not to have been attended to; but implies the great density of the meteor that juncture.
• 1779: September 25, 1779 – Full moon.  No mushrooms have appeared all this month.  I find that the best crop is usually in Aug. & if they are not taken then, the season catchup is lost.  Many other fungi.
• 1776: September 25, 1776 – Fine young clover & fine turneps about the country.  * The quantities of haws, & sloes this year are prodigious.  Those hives of bees that have been taken have proved deficient in wax, & honey.  In shady wet summers bees can scarce procure a store sufficient to carry them thro’ the winter: if not fed they perish.
• 1775: September 25, 1775 – Gathered-in the swan’s eggs, & autumn burgamot-pears: a vast crop of the former.
• 1774: September 25, 1774 – Wood-lark sings.
• 1773: September 25, 1773 – Much barley abroad.  Wet fit ever since the first of Sepr.  Wall-fruit fine still.
• 1772: September 25, 1772 – Vast tempest in the night that b roke boughs from the trees, & blowed down much of the apples & pears.  Gathered some apples.
• 1771: September 25, 1771 – Hedge-sparrow begins its winter note.
• 1770: September 25, 1770 – Barley grows in the swarth.   Thunder, lightening, hail.
• 1768: September 25, 1768 – A few of these rare birds (rock-ouzels) appeared, just this time twelve months, in orchards about yew-trees.  I have not been able yet to procure a cock.

• 1791: September 24, 1791 – Young martins, & swallows come-out, & are fed flying.  Endive well-blanched comes in.  Bottled-off half hogsh. of port wine.  The port ran elevn doz. & 7 bottles.  Nep. Ben White & wife, & little Ben, came.
• 1790: September 24, 1790 – Thomas cut 130 cucumbers.
• 1789: September 24, 1789 – Mr & Mrs Ben White came from London.
• 1787: September 24, 1787 – Many swallows, & some bank-martins at Oakhanger-ponds.  A multitude of swallows at Benes-pond; and some few house-martins, which probably roost in the willows at the tail of that pond.  The swallows washed much; a sure sign that rain was at hand.
• 1786: September 24, 1786 – Dame Loe came.
• 1785: September 24, 1785 – Bror. Henry left us.
• 1781: September 24, 1781 – The wind blows down apples and pears.  Vivid aurora.
• 1778: September 24, 1778 – No stone-curlews congregate this autumn at Chilgrove.
• 1777: September 24, 1777 – The walks begin to be strewed with leaves.  Vivid Northern Aurora.
• 1772: September 24, 1772 – Great rain, stormy.  Some swallows & many martins under the hanger.
• 1771: September 24, 1771 – Hardly any swallows have appeared since sunday.
• 1768: September 24, 1768 – Much weat still out, & spoiled.  Much barley and oats spoiled.  Young martins still in their nest.

• 1792: September 23, 1792 – My Bantam chickens, which have been kept in the scullery every night for fear of the rats, that carried away the first brood from the brew-house, went up last week to the beam over the stable.  The earnest & early propensity of the Gallinae to roost on high is very observable; & discovers a strong dread impressed on their spirits respecting vermin that may annoy them on the ground during the hours of darkness.  Hence poultry, if left to themselves & not housed, will perch, the winter through on yew-trees & fir-trees; & turkies & Guinea-fowls, heavy as the are, get up into apple trees; pheasants also in woods sleep on trees to avoid foxes: — while pea-fowls climb to the tops of the highest trees round their owner’s house for security, let the weather be ever so cold or blowing.  Partridges, it is true, roost on the ground, not having the faculty of perching; but then the same fear prevails in their minds; for through apprehensions from pole-cats, weasels, & stoats, they never trust themselves to coverts; but nestle together in the midst of large fields, far removed from hedges & coppices, which the love to haunt in the day; & where at that season they can skulk more secure from the ravages of rapacious birds.  As to ducks, & geese, their aukward splay web-feet forbid them to settle on trees: they therefore, in the hours of darkness & danger, betake themselves to their own element the water, where amidst large lakes & pools, like ships riding at anchor, they float the whole night long in peace & security.
• 1790: September 23, 1790 – Coss-lettuce finely loaved & bleached!  Nep. B. White left us, & went to London.
• 1789: September 23, 1789 – We find no mushrooms on the down, nor on Nore hill.  Women continue to glean, but the corn is grown in the ears.  Will Trimming has wheat still abroad.  Gathered-in the white pippins, a large crop.
• 1787: September 23, 1787 – Began to use the spinage sown the first week in August: very fine and abundant.
• 1786: September 23, 1786 – Gathered berberries.  Bro. Thomas & sons came.
• 1783: September 23, 1783 – Black snails lie out, & copulate.  Vast swagging clouds.
• 1782: September 23, 1782 – Many swarms of bees have dyed this summer: the badness of the weather has prevented their thriving.
• 1781: September 23, 1781 – Began to light fires in the parlor.  Aurora.
• 1778: September 23, 1778 – Ring-ouzels appear on their autumnal visit.
• 1776: September 23, 1776 – Wasps still go into the hives.  Gathered-in some of the early pippins: fine baking apples.
• 1773: September 23, 1773 – Wh. frost, showers.
• 1772: September 23, 1772 – A miserable crop of barley round these parts.  Grapes eatable.
• 1771: September 23, 1771 – Sprinkling rain & rumbling wind.
• 1768: September 23, 1768 – The whame, or barrel-fly, Oestrus bovis, still lays it’s nits on the horses sides.

• 1792: September 22, 1792 – As I have questioned men that frequent coppices respecting Fern-owls, which they have not seen or heard of late; there is reason to suspect that they have withdrawn themselves, as well as the fly-catchers, & black-caps, about the beginning of this month.  Where timber lies felled among the bushes, & coverts, wood-men tell me, the fern-owls love to sit upon the logs of an evening: but what their motive is does not appear.
• 1788: September 22, 1788 – The swallows seem to be distressed for food this cold wet weather, & to hawk up & down the street among the houses for flies with great earnestness.  Some of my rasps bear twice in the year, & gave now ripe fruit: these berries the partridges have found out, & have eaten most of them.  Thomas sprung two brace & a half among the bushes this morning.  These birds were hatched in Baker’s hill.  A flood last week at Hedleigh mill. The miller at Hawkley has long been distressed for want of water.  Spinage very fine.  Herrings are brought to the door.
• 1787: September 22, 1787 – Guns are heard much from Portsmouth.
• 1786: September 22, 1786 – Great dew, cold air, cloudless.
• 1785: September 22, 1785 – Charles and Bessy White came.
• 1783: September 22, 1783 – Thunder: rather the guns at Portsmouth.  Splendid rain-bow.  After three weeks wet, this vivid rain-bow preceded (as I have often known before) a lovely fit of weather.  Mr & Mrs Richardson left us.
• 1781: September 22, 1781 – The well at Filmer-hill is 60 yards deep: at Privet, on the top of the hill, they have no wells, & have been greatly distressed for water the summer thro’.  The Warnford, & Meonstoke stream as full, & bright, as if there had been no drought.
• 1778: September 22, 1778 – Bee-stalls are  very heavy this year: this hot dry summer has proved advantageous to bees.  Vast N. Aurora, very read, & coping over in the zenith
• 1775: September 22, 1775 – Ring-ouzels appear on the common on their autumnal migration.  * The large female wasps begin to come in at a door, & seem as if they were just going to hide, & lay themselves up for the winter.  The common wasps are much abated in number.  On wednesday the 20 there was a violent storm of thunder & lightening at Fyfield between ten & eleven at night.
• 1774: September 22, 1774 – The oestrus curvicauda is found in Lancashire: probably the kingdom over.  It lays it’s nits on horses legs, flanks, &c. each one on a single hair.  The maggots when hatched do not enter the horses skins, but fall to the ground.  On what & how are they supported?  * Earthworms obtain & encrease in the grass-walks, where in levelling they were dug down more than 18 inches.   So that they were either left in the soil, deep as it was removed: or else the eggs or young remained in the turf.  Worms seem to eat the earth;   also brick-dust lying among the earth, as appears by their casts.   They delight in slopes, probably to avoid being flooded, & perhaps supply slopes with mould, as it is washed away by rains.  They draw straws, stalks of vine-leaves, &c. into their holes, no doubt for the purpose of food.  Without worms perhaps vegetation would go on but lamely, since they perforate, loosen, & meliorate the soil, rendering it pervious to rains, the fibres of plants, & c.  Worms come out all the winter in mild seasons.
• 1773: September 22, 1773 – Stormy, with rain, sun, shower, windy.
• 1772: September 22, 1772 – Began parlour-fires.  Martins abound under the hanger.  No swallows.
• 1771: September 22, 1771 – Swallows abound.  Tops of the beeches are fringed with yellow.  This morning the swallows rendezvoused in a neighbour’s wallnut tree.  At the dawn of the day they arose altogether in infinite numbers occasioning such a rushing with the strokes of their wings as might be heard to a considerable distance.  *Since that no flock has appeared, only some late broods, & stragglers.

10 August 1792 Paris Commune – The Storming of the Tuileries Palace.

• 1792: September 21, 1792 – On this day Monarchy was abolished at Paris by the National Convention; and France became a republic!
• 1790: September 21, 1790 – Mrs Clement, & six of her children, four of which are to inoculated, & Mrs Chandler, & her two children the youngest of which is also to undergo the same operation, are rettired to Harteley great house.  Servants & all, some of which are to be inoculated also, they make 14 in a family.
• 1789: September 21, 1789 – Myriads of Insects sporting in the sunbeams.
• 1787: September 21, 1787 – Vast halo round the moon.  Began fires.
• 1785: September 21, 1785 – Bror. Henry came.
• 1784: September 21, 1784 – Gathered-in the early pippins, called white apples: a great crop.
• 1783: September 21, 1783 – Green wheat in the N. field.  Stormy wind all night, which has blown down most of my apples & pears.
• 1781: September 21, 1781 – Hooker’s-hill mended by Tom Prior: the ditch below which was made about fifty years ago, is now open’d and cleaned.
• 1778: September 21, 1778 – Gathered-in the large white pippins.  There are now some wasps.
• 1775: September 21, 1775 – Showers, rainbow, bright.  Barley in a sad condtion about Basingstoke.  Rams begin to pay court to the ewes.
• 1774: September 21, 1774 – Swallows hawking about very briskly in all the moderate rain. Martins about.
• 1772: September 21, 1772 – Few swallows about.
• 1768: September 21, 1768 – Nectarines all water.  Great rain in the night.

Notes: Smallpox innoculation was brought to England from Turkey by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in the early part of the century, and trickled slowly down from the upper to the lower classes throughout the country.