Posted by sydney on Oct 31st, 2008
- 1791: October 31, 1791 – The young martins not seen in their nest; dams about.
- 1785: October 31, 1785 – 21 cocks of hay lying still in Baker’s hill.
- 1784: October 31, 1784 – Many people are tyed-up about the head, on account account of tooth-aches, & face-aches.
- 1781: October 31, 1781 – The water is so scanty in the streams, that the millers cannot grind barley sufficient for mens hogs. Dairy-farms cannot fill the butter-pots of their customers.
- 1778: October 31, 1778 – Great field-fares abound. My well rises.
- 1775: October 31, 1775 – Leaves fall very fast. The hangers begin to lose their picturesque beauties.
- 1770: October 31, 1770 – Flocks of skie-larks go westward.
- 1769: October 31, 1769 – Swan’s egg-pears in high perfection. This was the last time the Oedecnemus was heard for this year.
Posted by sydney on Oct 30th, 2008
- 1792: October 30, 1792 – Planted 100 of cabbages, in ground well dunged, to stand the winter.
- 1791: October 30, 1791 – The young martins still in their nest; at least some of them. Dr Chandler saw four hawking round the plestor.
- 1790: October 30, 1790 – Large fieldfares, a great flock, seen on the hill. Ravens on the down. Wild wood-pigeons, or stock-doves, are seen at my wood at Holtham.
- 1789: October 30, 1789 – My horses taken into the stable & not to lie out any more a nights. New coped the top of my kitchen-chimney, mended the tiling, & toached the inside of the roofing to keep out the drifting snow.
- 1788: October 30, 1788 – Larches turn yellow; ash leaves fall; the hanger gets thin; my tall hedges finely diversifyed.
- 1787: October 30, 1787 – Bror. Thomas left us, & went to London.
- 1786: October 30, 1786 – Rover springs several pheasants, & some coveys of partridges.
- 1781: October 30, 1781 – The tortoise retires under ground, within his coop.
- 1777: October 30, 1777 – Gluts of rain, much thunder. The trees & hedges are much broken, & the thatch is torn. Much damage done to the shipping: chimneys, & some houses blown down in London.
- 1775: October 30, 1775 – Flocks of large fieldfares. Celeri finely blanched.
- 1773: October 30, 1773 – Grapes are very curious.
- 1772: October 30, 1772 – Grass grows. Medlars shaken off the tree by the wind.
- 1771: October 30, 1771 – White frost, cloudless. Curlews have cryed here within these few days. Haws fail here.
- 1770: October 30, 1770 – Rooks & jays carry away the acorns from the oaks.
- 1768: October 30, 1768 – Fine grey day. Fallows glutted with water, and full of weeds. Wells rise very fast.
Posted by sydney on Oct 29th, 2008
- 1792: October 29, 1792 – Finished piling my wood: housed the bavins; fallows very wet.
- 1791: October 29, 1791 – The young martins remain.
- 1790: October 29, 1790 – Dug & cleansed the border in the orchard, & planted it with polyanths slipped-out.
- 1788: October 29, 1788 – Meridian line & dial accord well.
- 1787: October 29, 1787 – About four o’clock this afternoon a flight of house-martins appeared suddenly over my house, & continued feeding for half an hour & then withdrew. Some thought that there were swallows among them.
- 1785: October 29, 1785 – Snow lies on the hay-cocks in Baker’s hill!
- 1784: October 29, 1784 – Foliage turns very dusky: the colour of the woods & hangers appears very strange, & what men, not acquainted with the country, would call very unnatural.
- 1783: October 29, 1783 – Tortoise begins to bury himself in the laurel-hedge.
- 1781: October 29, 1781 – From the scantiness of the grass I have given for sometime 9 d pr pd. for butter; a price here not know before.
- 1780: October 29, 1780 – Men put their hogs up a fatting. Timothy the tortoise, who in May last, after fasting all the winter, weighed only 6 pds. & four ounces: & in Aug. when full feed weighed 6 pds. & 15 ounces: weighs now 6 pds. 9 oun. & 1/2: & so he did last Oct. at Ringmer. Thus his weight fluctuates, according as he fasts or abstains.
- 1778: October 29, 1778 – The bat is out. Beetles hum.
- 1776: October 29, 1776 – Grey crows return. These are winter birds of passage, & are never seen with us in the summer. The flocks are feeding down the green wheat on the downs, which is very forward, & matted on the ground. They sow wheat on the downs sometimes as soon as the end of July provided the season is not showery.
- 1775: October 29, 1775 – Redwings on the hawthorns. Bat appears.
- 1772: October 29, 1772 – Vast quantities of rain has fallen lately.
- 1770: October 29, 1770 – Trees carry their leaves well for the season.
- 1769: October 29, 1769 – North lights every evening. Six martins appeared flying under ye hanger. Thunder & lightening with vast rain.
- 1768: October 29, 1768 – Grapes are very good, but decay apace.
Posted by sydney on Oct 28th, 2008
- 1792: October 28, 1792 – Thomas saw a polecat run across the garden.
- 1791: October 28, 1791 – There are now apparently three young martins in the nest nearly fledged.
- 1790: October 28, 1790 – Wet & uncomfortable.
- 1789: October 28, 1789 – The young men of this place found a stray fallow deer at the back of the village, which they roused, & hunted with grey hounds, & other dogs. When taken it proved to be a buck of three years old.
- 1787: October 28, 1787 – Sam White saw three swallows at Oxford near Folly bridge.
- 1785: October 28, 1785 – Saw seven ring-ouzels on the old hawthorns at Clay’s barn. Part of the hay in Baker’s-hill was cocked & housed: it smells well, & is not so much damaged as might have been expected.
- 1784: October 28, 1784 – Mr John Mulso came.
- 1783: October 28, 1783 – Planted many slips of pinks.
- 1781: October 28, 1781 – The planet Venus, which became an evening star in June, but was not visible ’til lately, now makes a resplendent appearance. On Selborne down are many oblong tumuli, some what resembling graves but larger, supposed by the country people to be the earth of saw-pits. But as they mostly lie one way from S.E. to N.W. & are many of them very near to each other, it is most probably that they were occasioned by some purpose of a different kind. My bro. Tho. ordered two to be dug across; one of which produced nothing extra-ordinary; while in the other was found a blackish substance: but how, & in what quantity it lay, & whether it consisted of ashes & cinders, or of humus animalis, we had no opportunity to examine from the precipitancy of the labourer, who filled up the trench he had opened without giving proper notice of the occurence.
- 1780: October 28, 1780 – Bees begin gathering honey on the bloom of the crocus’s, & finish with the blooms of the ivy.
- 1779: October 28, 1779 – Sheep-ponds on the downs are all filled by rains. A great beast-market this day at Arundel.
- 1776: October 28, 1776 – The month of Oct. has been very dry: mill-ponds begin to want water. Sheep frolick.
- 1769: October 28, 1769 – Mrs J. W. sailed.
- 1768: October 28, 1768 – Some wheat is now sowing.
Posted by sydney on Oct 27th, 2008
- 1792: October 27, 1792 – Some few grapes just eatable: a large crop. Housed all the billet wood. Leaves fall in showers. A curlew is heard loudly whistling on the hill towards the Wadden. On this day Mrs S. Barker was brought to bed of a boy, who advances my nepotes to the round & compleat number of 60.
- 1791: October 27, 1791 – Young martins, & their dams again. Wood-cock on the down. Bro Ben, & wife, & Hannah left us, & went to Newton.
- 1790: October 27, 1790 – Grapes better.
- 1789: October 27, 1789 – Planted out many young laurustines, & Portugal laurels from the old stools.
- 1788: October 27, 1788 – Set up again my stone dial, blown down many years ago, on a thick Portland-slap in the angle of the terrass. The column is very old, came from Sarson house near Amport, & was hewn from the quarries of Chilmarke. The dial was regulated by my meridian line.
- 1785: October 27, 1785 – Water in the well very deep.
- 1784: October 27, 1784 – Dug, trenched, & earthed the asparagus-beds, & filled the trenches with leaves, flower-stalks, etc.
- 1782: October 27, 1782 – Two of my brother Henry’s gold-fish have been sick, & cannot live with the rest in the glass-bowl but in a tin-bucket by themselves they soon become lively, & vigorous. They were perhaps too much crouded in the bowl. When a fish sickens it’s head gets lowest; so that by degrees it stands as it were ont it’s head; ’till getting weaker & losing all poise, the tail turns over; & at last it floats on the water with it’s belly uppermost. Gold & silver-fishes seem to want no aliment, but what they can collect from pure water frequently changed. They will eat crumbs, but do better without; because the water is soon corrupted by the pieced of bread, & turns sour. Tho’ they seem to take nothing, yet the consequences of eating frequently drop from them: so that they must find many animalcula, & other nourishment. With their pinnae pectorales they gently protrude themselves forward or backward: but it is with their strong muscular tails only that Fishes move with such inconceivable rapidity.
It has been said that the eyes of fishes are immoveable: but these apparently turn them forward or backward in their sockets as their occasions require. They take little notice of a lighted candle, though applied close to their heads, but flounce and seem much frightened by a sudden stroke of the hand against the support whereon the bowl is hung; especially when they have been motionless, and are perhaps asleep. As fishes have no eyelids, it is not easy to discern when they are sleeping or not, because their eyes are always open.
Nothing can be more amusing than a glass bowl containing such
fishes: the double refractions of the glass and water represent them, when moving, in a shifting and changeable variety of dimensions, shades, and colours; while the two mediums, assisted by the concavo-convex shape of the vessel, magnify and distort them vastly; not to mention that the introduction of another element and its inhabitants into our parlours engages the fancy in a very agreeable manner.
- 1781: October 27, 1781 – My well sinks and is very low. The tortoise begins to dig into the ground. Mr Yalden fetches water from Well-head. The bat is out this warm evening.
- 1776: October 27, 1776 – Larks frolick much in the air: when they are in that mood the larkers catch them in nets by means of a twinkling glass: this method they call daring.
- 1773: October 27, 1773 – Hares abound, but pheasants are very scarce this year. One of the vines to the S.W. casts its leaves & looks sickly.
- 1772: October 27, 1772 – Grapes decay with rain: are most highly ripened.
- 1770: Octber 27, 1770 – Ice. Cobwebs float in the air & cover the ground.
- 1769: October 27, 1769 – The weather has been dry just a month this day, one wet day excepted. The fields are so dry that farmers decline sowing. The lapwing, vanellus, congregates in great flocks on the downs, & uplands.
- 1768: October 27, 1768 – People are now housing corn after 27 days interruption.
Posted by sydney on Oct 26th, 2008
- 1792: – Hired two old labourers to house my cleft billet wood, which is still in a dam, cold condition, & should have been under cover some months ago, had the weather permitted.
- 1791: October 26, 1791 – No young martins to be seen in the nest, nor old ones around it.
- 1790: October 26, 1790 – This morning Rear Admiral Cornish, with six ships of the line, & two smaller ships of war, sailed from St. Hellen’s.
- 1789: October 26, 1789 – Bror Th. W. sows laburnum seed on the hanger, & down. A wood-cock killed in the high wood.
- 1788: October 26, 1788 – Some woodcocks shot on the Barnet lately.
- 1786: October 26, 1786 – Several wet, floated fields are now sown, that must have missed their wheat-crop, & have lain ’till spring, had not this fine dry season drained them, & rendered them fit for sowing.
- 1784: October 26, 1784 – Horses begin to lie within.
- 1783: October 26, 1783 – If a masterly lands-cape painter was to take our hanging woods in their autumnal colours, persons unacquainted with the country, would object to the strength & deepness of the tints, & would pronounce, at an exhibition, that they were heightened & shaded beyond nature. Wonderful & lovely to the Imagination are the colourings of our wood-land scapes at this season of the year!
“The pale descending year, yet pleasing still,/A gentler mood inspires; for now the leaf/Incessant rustles from the mournful grove,/Oft startling such as, studious, walk below,/And slowly circles thro’ the waving air./But should a quicker breeze amid the boughs/Sob, o’er the sky the leafy deluge streams;/Till chak’d & matted with the dreary shower,/The forest-walks, at every rising gale,Roll wide the wither’d wast, & whistle bleak.” — Thompson’s Autumn
- 1781: October 26, 1781 – Men sow their wheat in absolute dust. Bro. T. and M. went away.
- 1780: October 26, 1780 – Planted two rows of small lettuces under the fruit-wall to stand the winter: the ground works very fine. The rows reach the whole length of the wall.
- 1774: – The air swarms with insects, & yet the hirundines have disappeared for some time: hence we may infer that want of food alone cannot be the motive that influences their departure. * many little insects, most of which seem to be tipulae continue still to sport & play about in the air, not only when the sun shines warm; but even in fog & gentle rain, & after sunset. They appear at times the winter thro’ in mild seasons; & even in frost & snow when the sun shines warm. They retire into trees, especially ever-greens.
- 1772: October 26, 1772 – Swallow appears still. Vast rains.
Posted by sydney on Oct 25th, 2008
- 1791: October 25, 1791 – There are two young martins in the nest.
- 1790: October 25, 1790 – A flock of 46 ravens over the hanger. Slipped-out pinks, & fraxinals; planted out dames violets from cuttings.
- 1783: October 25, 1783 – The firing of the great guns at Portsmouth on this day, the King’s accession, shook the walls & windows of my house.
- 1782: October 25, 1782 – The gold & silver-fish lie sleeping all day in their silver-bowl towards the surface of the water: people that have attended to them suppose this circumstance prognostic of rain. Jupiter & Saturn approach to each other very fast.
- 1781: – Acorns abound, & help poor men’s hogs. “There has lately been felt in diverse parts of Hungary so extraordinary a heat, that the husband-men could only work in the night. All the snow that has covered the Carpathian mountains for more than a century is entirely melted.” St. James Chronicle
- 1780: – No beech-mast; many acorns. Many wall-nuts. My great tree produced, when measured in their husks, eight bushels
- 1778: October 25, 1778 – Truly winter-weather. Red-wings abound.
- 1777: October 25, 1777 – Hogs are put-up in their fatting pens. The hanging woods are beautifully tinged.
- 1776: October 25, 1776 – One bunting in the northfield: a rare bird at Selborne. * There is this year a remarkable failure of mushrooms: & the more to be wondered at, since the autumn has been both moist & warm. There is a great failure also of trufles in my Brother’s outlet at Fyfield, notwithstanding in simular weather they abounded last year. So that some secret cause influences alike these analogous productions of nature.
- 1775: October 25, 1775 – The arbutus casts it’s blossoms & discloses the rudiments of its fruit. In thses two instances fructifcation goes on the winter through. Three martins in the street. Gossamer on every bent. *Bynstede, the name of a parish near us, signifies locus cultus, vel habitatus. This barish abuts on a wild woodland district, which is a royal forest, & is called the Holt. This parish was probably cultivated when all around were nothing but woodlands, & forests.
- 1774: October 25, 1774 – Beautiful season for sowing of wheat. Much wet ground sown.
- 1773: – Began levelling my grass-plot & walks at the garden-door, & bringing them down to the level of the floor of my house.
- 1771: October 25, 1771 – White frost, sun, tempest. Vast rain & wind.
- 1770: October 25, 1770 – A young swallow appears.
- 1769: October 25, 1769 – A vivid aurora borealis, which like a broad belt stretched across the welkin from East to West. This extraordinary phenomenon. This extraordinary was seen the same evening in Gibraltar.
Posted by sydney on Oct 24th, 2008
- 1791: October 24, 1791 – The dams continue to feed the poor little martin in the nest at Burbey’s with great assiduity!
- 1790: October 24, 1790 – Dr Chandler buys of the Holiburne trufle-man one pound of trufles; price 2s. 6d.
- 1788: October 24, 1788 – Gave away many stone-less berberries: the tree every year bears vast burdens.
- 1785: Octber 24, 1785 – Dug up my potatoes, a poor crop: many of them are rotten.
- 1784: October 24, 1784 – I have seen no ants for some time, except theJet-ants, which frequent gate-posts. These continue still to run forwards, & backwards on the rails of gates, & up the posts, without seeming to have anything to do. Nor do they appear all the summer to carry any sticks or insects to their nests like other ants.
- 1782: October 24, 1782 – Grapes at this place eatable: the sort, black cluster, come from Selborne.
- 1781: October 24, 1781 – The tortoise is very torpid, but does not bury itself.
- 1778: October 24, 1778 – Farmers put-up their fatting hogs.
- 1773: October 24, 1773 – Woodlark sings. Great titmouse reassumes it’s spring note.
Posted by sydney on Oct 23rd, 2008
- 1792: October 23, 1792 – Dr Bingham & family left Selborne.
- 1789: October 23, 1789 – The quantity of haws is prodigious!
- 1788: October 23, 1788 – Much peat carried thro’ the village.
- 1787: October 23, 1787 – The number of partridges remains very great. Pheasants do not abound.
- 1786: – Red-wings are late this autumn. Perhaps the vintage was late this year in Germany; so that these birds were detained by the grapes, which they did not wish to exchange for our hips & haws. Red-wings do much damage in vineyards, when the grapes are ripe. My tall hedges, & the hanging woods, do not shew their usual beautiful tints & colours: the reason is because the foliage was so much torn & shattered by the rain & tempests.
- 1783: – The poor make quite a second harvest by gathering of acorns. Timothy Turner has purchased upwards of 40 bushels. Two truflers came with their dogs to hunt our hangers, & beechen woods in search of truffles; several of which they found in the deep narrow part of the hill between coney-croft-hanger, & the high wood; & again on each side of the hollow road up the high-wood, known by the name of coach-road.
- 1782: – My brother’s children & plantations strangely grown in two years. On the downs the green wheat looked very chearful & pleasant. Some wheat & turnips covered with charlock in full bloom. This proves, it seems, but a poor trufle-year at Fyfield; so they fail some times in very wet years, as well as in very dry ones.
- 1781: October 23, 1781 – Farmer Eaves of Old-place fetches his water from Well-head. Jupiter is now very low in the S.W. at sunset.
- 1779: October 23, 1779 – Whitings, & herrings. timothy, the old tortoise at this house, weighs 6 pounds 9 ounces & an half averdupoise. It weighed last year, Oct. 2, and ounce & an half more. But perhaps the abstemious life that it lives a this season may have reduced it’s bulk: for tortoises seem to eat nothing for some weeks before they lay-up. However this enquiry shews, that these reptiles do not, as some have imagined, continue to grow as long as they live. This poor being has been very torpid for some time; but it does not usually retire under ground ’til the middle of next month.
- 1774: – Snipes begin to quit the moors, & to come up into the wet fallows.
- 1772: October 23, 1772 – The martins about. Glow-worms shine.
- 1771: October 23, 1771 – Sprinkling rain & rumbling wind.
- 1768: October 23, 1768 – Fallows in a sad, wet, weedy condition: scarce any wheat sown.
Posted by sydney on Oct 22nd, 2008
- 2010: Welcome – This project is now finished, and contains a fairly complete transcription of forty years of the personal journals of Gilbert White. If you enjoy them, be sure to read his book, The Natural History of Selborne – you can download it for free from Project Gutenberg.
If you wish to see the entries for a particular day, use the search box in the upper right corner of this page. Months should be spelled out, and days entered as plain numerals, for instance, “September 14” if you want the aggregate for all years, or “November 1 1776” for a specific date.Enjoy!
- 1791: October 22, 1791 – One young martin in one of Burbey’s nests, which the dams continue to feed. Gracious stream now runs a little.
- 1789: October 22, 1789 – Mended the planks of the zigzag. Bro. Tho. White sowed the naked part of the hanger with great quantities of hips, haws, sloes, & holly-berries. In May last he sowed a pound of furze seeds on the same naked space; many of which appear to have grown: & lately he sowed two pounds more. *added note: Decembr 1790. As fast as any of these seeds have sprouted, they have constantly been brouzed off, & bitten down by the sheep, which lie very hard on them, & will not suffer them to thrive.
- 1788: October 22, 1788 – Much wheat is sown. The fallows are very dry; & the roads as clean as in summer.
- 1786: October 22, 1786 – Bror. & Sister Benj. left us.
- 1785: October 22, 1785 – My well is risen six or seven yards.
- 1781: October 22, 1781 – Men continue to fetch peat from the forest.
- 1776: – The nuthatches are busy rapping with their bills about the wallnut trees: & as I find wall-nuts fallen down there, with holes picked in their shells; no doubt they were made by those birds.
- 1775: October 22, 1775 – My autumn crop of spinage this year runs much to seed.
- 1773: October 22, 1773 – Fog, rain, fog, fog. Saw several martins at Dorchester in Oxfordshire round the church. It is remarkable that the swallow kind appear full as late in the midland counties, as in the maritime: a circumstance this more favourable to hiding than to migration. As it proved these martins were the last that I saw.
- 1772: October 22, 1772 – This morning the young martins forsook their nest & were flying round the village. Grapes delicate, & plenty.
- 1768: October 22, 1768 – French-beans are planted in the hot-house at Hartley. Pines are still cutting.
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