The Natural History of Selborne

• 1791: September 20, 1791 – Some neighbours finish their hops.  The whole air of the village of an evening is perfumed by effluvia from the hops drying in the kilns.  Began to light a fire in the parlor.
• 1789: September 20, 1789 – Blackbirds feed on the elder berries.
• 1787: September 20, 1787 – Saw pheasants at long coppice.  My well sinks much, & is very low.
• 1783: September 20, 1783 – Fungi on the hanger are Clavaria, several sorts: Boleti, several.  Mr & Mrs Richardson came.
• 1782: September 20, 1782 – One little starveling wasp.
• 1781: September 20, 1781 – The Well is now so low, that Thomas found some difficulty in getting water sufficient to Brew with.
• 1777: September 20, 1777 – Some corn abroad: a vast burden of straw, & many ricks.
• 1776: September 20, 1776 – Peaches, & nect. rot.  Wasps are busy still.  *Large earth-worms now abound on my grass-plot, where the ground was sunk more than a foot.  At first when the earth was removed, none seemed to remain: but whether they were bred from eggs that were concealed in the turf, is hard to say.  Worms do not seem to inhabit beneath the vegetable mould.
• 1771: September 20, 1771 – Rain in the night.  Spring sown wheat all housed.
• 1768: September 20, 1768 – A few wasps which spoil ye grapes.

• 1792: September 19, 1792 – Rain.  Hops become very brown, & damaged.  The hop-pickers are wet through every day.
• 1790: September 19, 1790 – On this day Lord Stawell sent me a rare & curious water-fowl, taken alive a few days before by a boy at Basing, near Basingstoke, & sent to the Duke of Bolton at Hackwood park, where it was put into the bason before the house, in which it soon dyed.  This bird proved to be the Procellaria Puffinus of Linnaeus, the Manks puffin, or Shear-water of Ray.  Shear-waters breed in the Calf of Man, & as Ray supposes, in the Scilly Isles, & also in the Orkines: but quit our rocks & shores about the latter end of August; & from accounts lately given by navigators, are dispersed over the whole Atlantic.  By what chance or accident this bird was impelled to visit Hants is a question that can not easily be answered.
• 1789: September 19, 1789 – No mushrooms in the pastures below Buarrant-hangers.  Here & there a wasp.  The furze-seed which Bro. Tho. sowed last may on the naked part of the hanger comes up well.  Some raspberry-trees in the bushes on the common.  Trees keep their verdure well.
• 1787: September 19, 1787 – Nep. Ben, & wife left us, & went to London.
• 1785: September 19, 1785 – No mushrooms: plenty in Rutland.
• 1783: September 19, 1783 – Ivy begins to blow on Nore-hill & is frequented by wasps.  Pd for a wasps nest, full of young.
• 1782: September 19, 1782 – Barley mowing about the country.
• 1780: September 19, 1780 – Hornets settle on the mellow fruit among the honey-bees & carry them off.
• 1778: September 19, 1778 – A lime-avenue in Rotherfield-park has shed all it’s leaves.  Many ponds dry a second time.
• 1777: September 19, 1777 – Ring-ousels on the downs on their autumnal visit.  Lapwings about on the downs attended by starlings: few stone-curlews.  Sweet Italian skies.  The foliage of the beeches remarkably decayed & rusty.
• 1774: September 19, 1774 – A moor-buzzard with a white head was shot some time ago on Greatham-moor.
• 1771: September 19, 1771 – Lapwings congregate on the downs.
• 1770: September 19, 1770 – Stormy all night. Aequnoctial weather.  Wheat begins to sow.
• 1768: September 19, 1768 – First blanched Celeri.  Wheat still abroad: oats & barley much grown.

• 1790: September 18, 1790 – My tall beech in Sparrow’s hanger, which measured 50 feet to the first fork, & 42 afterwards, is just 6 feet in girth at 2 feet above the ground.  At the back of Burhant house, in an abrupt field which inclines towards nightingale-lane, stand four noble beech-trees on the edge of a steep ravin or water gully the largest of which measures 9 ft. 5. in. at about a yard from the ground.  This ravin runs with a strong torrent in winter from nightingale-lane, but is dry in the summer.  The beeches above are now the finest remaining in the neighbourhood, & carry fine heads.  There is a romantic, perennial spring in this gully, that might be rendered very ornamental was it situated in a gentleman’s outlet.
• 1789: September 18, 1789 – Began to light fires in the parlors.  Some young martins in a nest at the end of the brew-house.  Small uncrested wrens, chif-chaffs, are seen in the garden.
• 1787: September 18, 1787 – Mr Churton came from Chesire.
• 1785: September 18, 1785 – A ring-ouzel shot in Hindhead.
• 1782: September 18, 1782 – The woods & hangers still look very green: the tops of the beeches are scarcely tinged.
• 1781: September 18, 1781 – Fly-catchers seem to be gone; they breed but once.
• 1780: September 18, 1780 – Timothy eats heartily.
• 1777: September 18, 1777 – Deep, wet fog.  Sweet day.
• 1776: September 18, 1776 – Wagtails join with hirundines, & pursue an hawk high in the air: the former shew great command of wing on the occasion.
• 1773: September 18, 1773 – Linnets begin to congregate: they feed on the seeds of centaurea jacea.
• 1772: September 18, 1772 – Ivy begins to blow: & is the last flower which supports the hymenopterous, & dipterous, Insects.  On sunny days, quite on to Novr. they swarm on the trees covered with this plant; & when they disappear probably retire under the shelter of it’s leaves, concealing themselves between it’s fibres, & the tree that it entwines.
• 1770: September 18, 1770 – Heavy showers after ’tis dark.
• 1769: September 18, 1769 – Bustards on the downs.

• 1792: September 17, 1792 – Gathered-in the white pippins, about a bushel; many were blown down last week.  Oats housed.
• 1790: September 17, 1790 – Martins congregate on the weather-cock, & vane of the may-pole.  The boys brought me their first wasps nest from Kimber’s; it was near as big as a gallon.  When there is no fruit, as is remarkably the case this year, wasps eat flies, & suck the honey from flowers, from ivy blossoms, & umbellated plants: they carry-off also flesh from butcher’s shambles.
• 1789: September 17, 1789 – No mushrooms on the down.
• 1786: September 17, 1786 – Much damage has been done at sea & land by the late strong winds; in particular about London.  The vines were very forward in June: but now the grapes are quite backward, having made no progress in ripening for some weeks, on account of the blowing, black, wet weather.  The bunches are of a good size, & the grapes large, & much want hot sunshine to bring them to perfection. My potted balsoms, which stand within, are still in beauty,  tho’ they have been blowing now more than three months.  One in particular is more showy now than ever, & has such double flower that they produce no seed.  The blossoms are as large as a crown piece.
• 1784: September 17, 1784 – Nep. Ben White left me: he stayed a few days.
• 1783: September 17, 1783 – Planted from Mr Etty’s garden a root of the Arum dracunculus, or Dragons; a species rarely to be seen; but has been in the vicarage-garden ever since the time of my Grandfather, who dyed in spring 1727/8.
• 1780: September 17, 1780 – When we call loudly thro’ the speaking-trumpet to Timothy, he does not seem to regard the noise.
• 1777: September 17, 1777 – The sky this evening, being what they call a mackerel sky, was most beautiful, & much admired in many parts of the country.  * As the beautiful  mackerel sky was remarked & admired at Ringmer, near Lewes, London, & Selborne at the same time; it is a plain proof that those fleecy clouds were very high in ye atmosphere.  These places lie in a triangle whose shortest base is more than 50 miles.  Italian skies!  Full moon.  The creeping fogs in the pastures are very picturesque & amusing & represent arms of the sea, rivers, & lakes.
• 1769: September 17, 1769 – Gryllus gryllotalpa works.  Rooks frequent their nest-trees & repair their nests.
• 1768: September 17, 1768 – Wheat still abroad.  The fields are drencehd with rains, and almost all the spring corn is abroad.  Sheep die.

• 1792: September 16, 1792 – Dr Chandler’s Bantam sow brought him this last summer a large litter of pigs, several of which were not cloven-footed, but had their toes joined together.  For tho’ on the upper part of the foot there was somewhat of a suture, or division; yet below in the soles the toes were perfectly united; and on some of the hind legs there was a solid hoof like that of a colt.  The feet of the sow are completely cloven.  Mr Ray in his Synopsis animalium quadrupedum, takes on notice of this singular variety; but Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae says, “Varietas frequens Upsaliae Suis domestici semper monunguli: in ceteris eadem species.”
• 1790: September 16, 1790 – Cut 100 cucumbers. Sweet autumnal weather.
• 1789: September 16, 1789 – Timothy the tortoise is very dull, & inactive, & spends his time on the border under the fruit-wall.
• 1784: September 16, 1784 – Martins cling, & cluster in a very particular manner against the wall of my stable and brew-house; also on the top of the may-pole.  This clinging, at this time of year only, seems to carry somewhat significant with it.
• 1782: September 16, 1782 – The hops are very small; but the halum is clean & free from insects.
• 1781: September 16, 1781 – The boys destroyed a hornets nest: it was but small.  Ophrys spiralis, ladies traces, seed.
• 1780: September 16, 1780 – The Antirrhinum cymbalaria is grown to an enermous size, extending itself side-ways 15 or 16 feet, & 7 or 8 in height!!  It grows on the water-table of a N.W. wall of my house, & runs up among the shoots of a Jasmine.
• 1778: September 16, 1778 – Many ponds are dry a second time.
• 1775: September 16, 1775 – Wasps begin to abate.  *On friday, Sepr. 8th, at 10 at night a considerable earthquake was felt at Oxford, Bath, & several other towns.
• 1774: September 16, 1774 – Much barley & oats is housed, but in poor condition.  Peaches & nect: good, but much eaten by wasps, & honey-bees.  Bees are hungry some autumns, & devour the wall-fruit.
• 1773: September 16, 1773 – Gathered first grapes: small but good.  Last wheat housed.
• 1772: September 16, 1772 – Vast dews.  Chrysomeleae oleraceae still abound on the cabbages.  Some corn housed.

Hop-pickers, W.F. Witherington

• 1792: September 15, 1792 – Hop-women complain of the cold.
• 1791: September 15, 1791 – The springs are very low: the water fails at Webb’s bridge.
• 1789: September 15, 1789 – The hops at Kimbers grow dingy & lose their colour.  T.H.W. left us, & went to Fyfield.
• 1788: September 15, 1788 – Gathered many of the baking pears to disburthen the boughs, & keep them from breaking.
• 1787: September 15, 1787 – Women make poor wages in their hop-picking.  Housed all my potatoes, & tyed-up many endives.
• 1786: September 15, 1787 – The golden-crowned wren, & the creeper, certhia, seen in my fields.
• 1785: September 15, 1785 – The dripping weather has lasted this day nine weeks, all thro’ haying, & harvest: much hay is also spoiled of the second cutting: so that men, having lost both crops, will in many parts be very short of fodder, especially, as turnips have missed in many places.
• 1784: September 15, 1784 – Mr Randolph left us.  The autumn-sown spinage turns-out a fine crop: but it is much too thick. We draw it for use.
• 1781: September 15, 1781 – Thunder & lightening in all quarters round.  The spring called Well-head sends forth now, after a severe hot dry summer, & dry spring & winter preceeding, nine gallons of water in a minute; which is 540 in an hour; & 12960, or 216 hogsh. in 24 hours, or one natural day.  At this time the wells are very low, & all the ponds in the vales dry.
• 1778: September 15, 1778 – Just at the close of day several teams of ducks fly over the common from the forest: they go probably to the streams about Alresford.
• 1776: September 15, 1776 – Swallows catch at walls as they flie about.
• 1774: September 15, 1774 – Ring-ouzels appear on their autumnal migration.  Were seen first last year on the 30th: the year before on the 11th.
• 1772: September 15, 1772 – Papilio Atalanta abounds.
• 1771: September 15, 1771 – Muscae & papiliones abound on on the asters.
• 1768: September 15, 1768 – Black warty water-efts with fin tails & yellow bellies are drawn up in the well-bucket.

Notes:
Seasonal hop-pickers are sufficiently a part of English rural life to feature in a historical pageant. Here is a picture of turn-of-the-20th-century/a>hop-pickers in the Alton area, not far from Selborne.

• 1792: September 14, 1792 – From London three gallons of French brandy, & two gallons of Jamaica rum.
• 1791: September 14, 1791 – Hop-picking goes on without the least interruption. Stone-curlews cry late in the evenings.  The congregating flocks of hirundines on the church & tower are very beautiful, & amusing!  When they fly-off altogether from the Roof, on any alarm, they quite swarm in the air.  But they soon settle in heaps, & preening their feathers, & lifting up their wings to admit the sun, seem highly to enjoy the warm situation.  Thus they spend the heat of the day, preparing for their emigration, &, as it were consulting when & where they are to go.  The flight about the church seems to consist chiefly of house-martins, about 400 in number: but there are other places of rendezvous about the village frequented at the same time.  The swallows seem to delight more in holding their assemblies on trees. 
  “When Autumn scatters his departing gleams,/Warn’d of appraching winter gathered play/The swallow people; & toss’d wide around/O’er the calm sky in convulsion swift,/The feather’d eddy floats: rejoicing once/Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire,/In clusters clung beneath the mouldring bank,/And where, unpierced by frost, the cavern sweats./Or rather to warmer climes convey’d,/With other kindred birds of season, there/They twitter chearful, till the vernal months/Invite them welcome back:– for thronging now/Innumberable wings are in commotion all.”
• 1790: September 14, 1790 – Onions rot.  Barley round the village very fine.
• 1788: September 14, 1788 – The gale snapped-off a large bough from my Cadillac pear-tree, which is heavily laden with fruit. 
• 1785: September 14, 1785 – Turned the horses into the great meadow: there is a vast after grass, more than when the meadow was mowed in the summer.
• 1784: September 14, 1784 – The heats are so great, & the night so sultry, that we spoil joints of meat, in spite all the care that can be taken.
• 1783: September 14, 1783 – Mr Yalden’s tank is full.  Brought down by Brother Thomas White from South Lambeth & planted in my borders:  Dog toothed violets.  Persian Iris.  Quercus cerris.  Double ulmaria.  Double filipendula.  Callis.  White fox-glove.  Iron fox-glove.  Double wall-flower.  Double scarlet lychinis.
• 1781: September 14, 1781 – Timothy the tortoise dull & torpid.
• 1777: September 14, 1777 – Black cluster-grapes begin to turn colur.  A trenendous & awful earthquake at Manchester, & the district round.  The earthquake happened a little before eleven o’ the clock in the forenoon, when many of the inhabitants were gathered in their respective places of worship.
• 1776: September 14, 1776 – Swallows cluster, & hang about in a particular manner at this season of the year.  Honey-bees swarm by thousands, & devour the peaches, & nectarines.
• 1775: September 14, 1775 – Little barley housed towards Winton & Andover.  Many crops not ripe.
• 1774: September 14, 1774 – Ring-ouzels feed on our haws, & yew-berries in the autumn, & ivy-berries in the spring.
• 1773: September 14, 1773 – Young swallows come out.  Barley & oats housed.  Some wheat out still.
• 1772: September 14, 1772 – Oats rot as they lie: a very poor scanty crop.  Little barley cut, but dead ripe.
• 1771: September 14, 1771 – Great rain in the night.  Spring sown wheat still standing.  Regulus non cristatus minimus chirps.
• 1770: September 14, 1770 – Several fields of wheat unhoused.
• 1769: September 14, 1769 – Papilio Machaon is found here in May.

• 1792: September 13, 1792 – The stream at Gracious Street, which fails every dry summer, has run briskly all this year; & now seems to be equal to the current from Well-head.  The rocky channel up the hollow-lane towards Rood has also run with water for months: nor has my great water-tub been dry the summer through.
• 1791: September 13, 1791 – My well is very low, & the water foul!  Timothy eats voraciously.  Winged female ants migrate from their nests, & fill the air.  These afford a dainty feast for the hirundines, all save the swifts; they being gone before these emigrations, which never take place till sultry weather in August, & September.
• 1790: September 13, 1790 – Cut 158 cucumbers.  Nep. Ben White, & wife, & little Ben & Glyd came from Fyfield.
• 1789: September 13, 1789 – After a bright night, & vast dew, the sky usually becomes clouded by eleven or twelve o’clock in the forenoon;  & clear again towards the decline of the day.  The reason seems to be, that the dew, drawn-up by evaporation, occasions the clouds, which towards evening, being no longer rendered buoyant by the warmth of the sun, melt away, & fall down again in dews.  If clouds are watched of a still, warm evening, they will be seen to melt away, & disappear.  Several nests of gold-finches, with fledged young, were found among the vines of the hops: these nestlings must be second broods.
• 1788: September 13, 1788 – Gathered-in my golden pippins, a small quantity.  Mr Churton came from Cheshire.
• 1787: September 13, 1787 – Gathered-in my early white pippins.
• 1783: September 13, 1783 – Began to mend the dirty parts of the bostal with chalk.
• 1782: September 13, 1782 – Some few orleans-plums.  Ravens about the hill.  All the Selborne wheat in, except fome turnip-wheat at the priory.
• 1781: September 13, 1781 – Beans heavy.
• 1779: September 13, 1779 – Gathered-in the filberts, a large crop.
• 1776: September 13, 1776 – My muscle-plums are in much more perfection this year than any other fruit.
• 1775: September 13, 1775 – Good grapes every day, but not delicate.  Bag-ed more grapes.
• 1773: September 13, 1773 – Young swallows in nest.  Hops very ordinary: very small.
• 1771: September 13, 1771 – Grapes begin to turn colour.  Mild.
• 1770: September 13, 1770 – Fly-catcher & white-throat appear.
• 1768: September 13, 1768 – Nectarines rot on ye trees.  Ravens are continually playing by pairs in the air.

• 1792: September 12, 1792 – Began to light fires in the parlor.  J.W. left us.
• 1789: September 12, 1789 – Some wheat is out.  Trimming has a large field not cut.  Gentiana Amarella, autumnal gentian, or fell-wort, buds for bloom on the hill.  Sent 12 plants of Ophrys spiralis to Mr Curtis of Lambeth marsh.
• 1787: September 12, 1787 – Lapwings leave the low grounds, & come to the uplands in flocks.  A pair of honey-buzzards, & a pair of wind-hovers appear to have young in the hanger.  The honey-buzzard is a fine hawk, & skims about in a majestic manner.
• 1785: September 12, 1785 – Wasps much subdued.
• 1783: September 12, 1783 – Tyed-up endives: they are backward this year, & not well-grown. One sowing never came up.  The barley about Salisbury lies in a sad wet condition.
• 1780: September 12, 1780 – Timothy still feeds a little.  Ophrys spiralis, Ladies-traces, blows pentifully in the long lithe, & on the common near the beechen-grove.
• 1776: September 12, 1776 – The wasps, tho’ by no means numberous, plunder the hives, & kill the bees, which are weak & feeble, this wet autumn:  “asper crabro imparibus se emiscuit armis.”
• 1775: September 12, 1775 – Put 50 fine bunches of grapes in crape bags to secure them from wasps.
• 1774: September 12, 1774 – Great hail at Winton.  Wasps abound in woody, wild districts far from neighbourhoods: how are they supported there without orchards, or butcher’s shambles, or grocer’s shops?  * Wasps nesting far from neighbourhoods feed on flowers, & catch flies & caterpillars to carry to their young.  Wasps make their nests with the raspings of sound timber, hornets with what they gnaw from decayed.  These particles of wood are neaded up with a mixture of saliva from their bodies, & moulded into combs.
• 1768: September 12, 1768 – Sheep die frequently on the common, tho’ so wholesome a spot.  Ravens flock on the hanger.

• 1791: September 11, 1791 – Grey crow returns, & is seen near Andover.  Some nightly thief stole a dozen of my finest nectarines.
• 1789: September 11, 1789 – Ophrys spiralis, ladies traces, in bloom the long Lythe, & on top of the short Lythe.  Wasps seize on butter-flies, &, shearing off their wings, carry their bodies home as food for their young: they prey much on flies.
• 1788: September 11, 1788 – Nep. Ben & Wife, & nurse & baby left us, & went to Newton.
• 1787: September 11, 1787 – Cow-grass housed.  Gathered heaps of Cucumbers.
• 1783: September 11, 1783 – Sam White, & Ben Woods returned to Fyfield.  Fly-catcher.  Harvest moon.  Selborne hopping lasts only two days in Farmer Spencer’s, & Master Hale’s gardens;  many gardens afford no pickings at all.  Mr Hale will have only about 200 weight.  The great garden at Hartley, late Sr. Sim. Stuart’s, consisting of 20 acres, produced only about 2 tons.
• 1782: September 11, 1782 – Goody Hammond returned to weed in the garden.  Got-in two loads of wheat at last in good order.  The perfoliated yellow centaury in seed on the bank above Tull’s cottage.  Chlora perfoliata.  On this day Lord Howe sailed from Spithead with 34 ships of the line, as is supposed for the relief of Gibraltar.
• 1781: September 11, 1781 – Bean-harvest & vetch harvest.
• 1779: September 11, 1779 – The rain that fell in my absence was 73.
• 1778: September 11, 1778 – Martins congregate in vast flocks, & frequent trees, & seem to roost in them.  The second brood of Martins near the stair-case window, which were hatched Aug. 8, came-out September 5th.  So that the building a nest, & rearing two broods take up much about four months, May, June, July, & August; during September they congregate, & retire in October.
• 1777: September 11, 1777 – Mrs Snooke’s tortoise devours kidney-beans & cucumbers in a most voracious manner: swallows it’s food almost whole. * Timothy the tortoise weighed six pounds 3 quarters, 2 oz. & a half: so he is not at all encreased in weight since this time last year. The scales were not very exact.
• 1775: September 11, 1775 – Much barley abroad, most of it standing: what is cut lies in a sad way.  Hop-picking becomes interrupted: hops become brown.
• 1774: September 11, 1774 – Martins do not seem to engage much this year in second broods.  Are they discouraged by the cold, wet, season?
• 1773: September 11, 1773 – Wasps encrease, & injure peaches & nect: & begin on the grapes. Young martins come out.
• 1772: September 11, 1772 – Ring-ouzel appears on it’s autumnal visit: several seen.  Stoparolas seem to be gone for three days past.