The Natural History of Selborne

• 1790: November 16, 1790 – Paths greazy from the frost.  Raked, & swept up the leaves in my outlet.  The hanger naked.
• 1789: November 16, 1789 – Few woodcocks; & few pheasants left.  Many hares have been found on our hill: the wetness of the season, it is supposed, induces them to leave the vales, & to retreat to the uplands.  Reb. & Hannah White came from Newton.
• 1787: November 16, 1787 – The stream at Fyfield encreases very fast.  Spent three hours of this day, viz. from one o’ the clock till four, in the midst of the downs between Andover & Winton, where we should have suffered greatly from cold & hunger, had not the day proved very fine, & had not we been opposite to the house of Mr Treadgold’s down farm, where we were hospitably entertained by the labourer’s wife with cold sparerib, & good bread, & cheese, & ale, while the driver went back to Andover to fetch a better horse.  The case was, the saddle-horse being new to his business, became jaded and restiff, & would not stir an inch; but was soon kept in countenance by the shaft-horse, who followed his example: so we were quite set-up ’till four o’ the clock, when an other driver arrived with an other lean jaded horse, & with much difficulty assisted in dragging us to Winton, which we did not reach toll six in the evening.  We set out from Fyfield at eleven; so were were seven hours in getting 19 miles.  During our long conversation with the dame, we found that this lone farm-house & it’s buildings, tho’ so sequestered from all neighbourhood, & so far removed from all streams & water, are much annoyed with Norway rats: the carter also told us that about 12 years ago he had seen a flock of 18 bustards at one time on that farm, & once since only two.  This is the only habitation to be met with on theses downs between Whorwel & Winchester.
• 1785: November 16, 1785 – Found some rasp-bushes on the down among the furze: & some low yew-trees, gnawn down by the sheep, among the bushes.
• 1783: November 16, 1783 – Winter is established.
  “Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields;And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race/Their sunny robes resign. E’en what remain’d/Of stronger fruits falls from the naked tree/And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all around/The desolated prospect thrills the soul.”
  Thomson’s Autumn
• 1773: November 16, 1773 – Two grey crows flew over my garden to the hanger: a sight I never saw before.
• 1772: November 16, 1772 – Appears in my fields:  Elvela pileo deflexo, adnato, lobato, difformi: Linn. flo Suec: Elvela petiloata, lamina in formam capituli deorsum plicato-laciniata & crispa; petiolo fistuloso, striato, & rimoso: Gleditsch methodus fungorum.

Notes:
The 1772 entry: “The elvella grows with a bent, lobed, and misshapen cap. This fungus grows upon a stalk and has a jagged and curled gill which is folded down into the shape of a pileus. The stalk is grooved and full of holes and cracks.” Refers to the Helvella fungus.

This is a good time to mention why White made his observations from so many locations: as a a curate, he was expected to take on clerical duties over a fairly wide area, hence his continual riding out over the downs and through the woods. The incident of the balking horses which stranded him on the Downs occurred when White was 67 years old.