The Natural History of Selborne

• 1788: December 18, 1788 – Most of the wells  in the street are dry! Among the rest my own is so shallow as not to admit the bucket to dip!  Moved some apples & pears into the kitchen-closet.  The horse-roads are dusty.
• 1785: December 18, 1785 – Sweet weather.
• 1783: December 18, 1783 – Hares make sad havock in the garden: they eat-up all the pinks; & now devour the winter cabbage-plants, the spinage, the parsley, the celeri, &c.  As yet they do not touch the lettuces.
• 1774: December 18, 1774 – Rooks resort to their nest-trees.
• 1772: December 18, 1772 – Thrush whistles.
• 1769: December 18, 1769 – Roses bud in hothouses; french beans thrive: Ananas carry some late fruit.

• 1791: December 17, 1791 – Hard frost, very white, boys slide.  Snipes come up from the forest along the meads by the sides of the stream.  Hardly here & there a woodcock to be seen.
• 1785: December 17, 1785 – Antirrhinum cymbalaria thrives still, & is in full bloom, & will so continue ’till severe frosts take place.  Planted several firs from S. Lambeth & several seedlings for the Helleborus foetidus.
• 1781: December 17, 1781 – Heard’s well is now dry: it is of a vast depth.
• 1780: December 17, 1780 – My well has risen lately, notwithstanding the long dry season.
• 1775: December 17, 1775 – People recover from the epidemic disorder.
• 1774: December 17, 1774 – Mrs Snooke’s tortoise, after it had been buried more than a month, came forth & wandered round the garden in a disconsolate state, not knowing where to fix on a spot for it’s retreat.
• 1773: December 17, 1773 – Chaffinches– many cocks among them. Black rabbits are pretty common the Chilgrove warren.  The parish-well in Findon-village is 200 feet-deep: at Moontham on the down the well is full 350 feet.  Mr Wood’s well at Chilgrove is 156 feet deep; & yet in some very wet seasons is brimfull: his cellars are some times full.
• 1770: December 17, 1770 – Young lambs begin to fall on the sands round the forest.

Mistletoe from Kohler’s Medicinal Plants, 1887

• 1792: December 16, 1792 – The season has been so mild that the Antirrhinum Cymb. still flourishes, & continues in bloom.
• 1791: December 16, 1791 – Swept-up the leaves in the walks.
• 1790: December 16, 1790 – Thatch torn by the wind.
• 1786: December 16, 1786 – The walks in my fields are strewed with the berries of misseltoe, blown from the hedges.
• 1784: December 16, 1784 – Titmice pull the moss off the from trees in search for insects.
• 1782: December 16, 1782 – A hare frequents the garden, & eats the celeri-tops, the spinage, young cabbages, pinks, scabious’s, &c.
• 1780: December 16, 1780 – A plant of missel-toe grows on a bough of the medlar: it abounds on my hedges on the maple.  The air is full of Insects.  Turkies strut & gobble.  Many young lambs at the Priory.
• 1777: December 16, 1777 – One black rat was killed at Shalden some months ago, & esteemed a great curiosity.  The Norway rats destroy all the indigenous ones.
• 1773: December 16, 1773 – They, the shepherds, do not take any wheatears W. of Houghton bridge.
• 1772: December 16, 1772 – Missel-thrush, or storm cock sings.  Polyanth and annual stock blow.

• 1792: December 15, 1792 – Grey, sun, pleasant, yellow even.
• 1788: December 15, 1788 – Thermr 20, 23, 17.  Many have been disordered with bad colds & fevers at Oxford.  The water in the apparatus for making mineral water froze in the red room.  The wind is so piercing that the labourers cannot stand to their work.  Ice in all the chambers.  The perforated stopple belonging to the apparatus broke in two by the frost.  Apples preserved with Potatoes & carrots in the cellar.  Shallow snow covers the ground, enough to shelter the wheat.
• 1787: December 15, 1787 – Began to cut my new hay-rick.
• 1786: December 15, 1786 – A cellar in the back-street Faringdon is full of water.
• 1784: December 15, 1784 – Deep snow still. Snow drifts on the down, & fills up the path which we shoveled.
• 1774: December 15, 1774 – The air abounds with insects dancing about over the evergreen trees.  They seem to be of the genus tipula, & empis.  Phalaenae come out in the evening they seem to be much hardier than the papiliones, appearing in mild weather all the winter through.  Full moon.
• 1773: December 15, 1773 – Large gulls on the downs.  Some bustards are bred in the parish of Findon. Fieldfares.
• 1771: December 15, 1771 – Song thrush sings.  Daisey, wallflower, hepatica, mesereon, pot-marigold, spring flower blow.  Thrush sings.
• 1768: December 15, 1768 – Still, but very sharp air.  Immundi miminere sues jactare maniplos.  The thermometer which was at 27 in the dining room, rose to 44 1/2 in the wine vaults.

• 1788: December 14, 1788 – The navigation of the Thames is much interrupted thro’ the want of water occasioned by the long dry season.
• 1784: December 14, 1784 – Finished shovelling the path to Newton. Dame Loe came to help.
• 1781: December 14, 1781 – Some of my friends have sported lately in the forst they beat the moors & morasses, & found some jack & whole snipes, most of which they killed, with a teal, a pheasant, & some partridges.  The flight of snipes is but small yet.  There is now, I hear, a flight of woodcocks in the upland coverts.
• 1774: December 14, 1774 – Dark & mild, spiting rain, great rain.  Earth-worms are alert, & throw-up their casts this mild weather.
• 1772: December 14, 1772 – Nasturtiums blow still.
• 1771: December 14, 1771 – Glass sinks all day.
• 1769: December 14, 1769 – Night phalaenae.  Flood.
• 1768: December 14, 1768 – Milk freezes within.  Some snow all day.

• 1790: December 13, 1790 – Blowing, rough day.
• 1789: December 13, 1789 – One of my neighbours, shot a ring-dove on an evening as it was returning from feed, & going to roost. When his wife had picked & drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most nice & tender tops of turnips. These she washed & boiled, & so sate down to a choice & delicate plated of greens, culled & provided in this extraordinary manner. Hence we may see that granivourous birds, when grain fails, can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to suppose that they would not long be healthy without; for turkies, tho’ corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, lettuce, endive, &c., & poultry pick much grass while gees live for months together on commons by grazing alone.
  “Nought is useless made;…/… On the barren heath/The shepherd tends his flock, that daily crop/Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf/Sufficient: after them the cackling Goose/Close-grazer, finds wherwith to ease her want.”Philips’s Cyder
• 1788: December 13, 1788 – The Stag seen again about Oakhanger. He some times haunts about Hartley wood, & some times about the Holt.
• 1786: December 13, 1786 – Peter Well’s well is 36 feet deep, my own 63.  Peter Well’s well runs over: when this is the case, the springs are very high.  This overflowing lasted only two or three days.
• 1784: December 13, 1784 – Shoveled out the bostal.  Snow very deep still.
• 1779: December 13, 1779 – Much thunder.  Great hail at Faringdon.
• 1778: December 13, 1778 – Peter Wells’s well at Gracious street begins to run over.  The lavants rise at Faringdon.
• 1776: December 13, 1776 – Missel thrush sings merrily every morning.  Song thrush very loud.  A new magpie’s nest, near finished was found in a coppice: this soft season reminds birds of nidification.
• 1775: December 13, 1775 – Ice bears: boys slide.
• 1774: December 13, 1774 – The frost seems to have done no harm.
• 1772: December 13, 1772 – Female chaffinches congregate.
• 1768: December 13, 1768 – Wood-pigeons appear in flocks.  Ground very hard.

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• 1785: December 12, 1785 – Young crickets of all sizes in my kitchen-chimney.
• 1781: December 12, 1781 – Larby now digs & double trenches a weedy spot in the great meadow.  The ground is black, & mellow, & fit for carrots, for which it is intended.
• 1780: December 12, 1780 – Bees play out from their hives.  Spring-like.  The Barometr at S. Lambeth was this day at 30-6-10: a sure token that S. Lambeth is much lower than Selborne.
• 1776: December 12, 1776 – Baromr 30.  Still, dark, & spitting, deep fog.  When the baromr gets very high, it is often attended with black spitting weather.
• 1772: December 12, 1772 – Bats appear, & many phalaenae.
• 1769: December 12, 1769 – Shell-less snails crawl forth.  Red-breast, hedge-sparrow, wren sing.  Worms come out on the turf by night.  Great rain.
• 1768: December 12, 1768 – Moles work.  The ground was very white in the morning.  Ice bears.

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• 1785: December 12, 1785 – Young crickets of all sizes in my kitchen-chimney.
• 1781: December 12, 1781 – Larby now digs & double trenches a weedy spot in the great meadow.  The ground is black, & mellow, & fit for carrots, for which it is intended.
• 1780: December 12, 1780 – Bees play out from their hives.  Spring-like.  The Barometr at S. Lambeth was this day at 30-6-10: a sure token that S. Lambeth is much lower than Selborne.
• 1776: December 12, 1776 – Baromr 30.  Still, dark, & spitting, deep fog.  When the baromr gets very high, it is often attended with black spitting weather.
• 1772: December 12, 1772 – Bats appear, & many phalaenae.
• 1769: December 12, 1769 – Shell-less snails crawl forth.  Red-breast, hedge-sparrow, wren sing.  Worms come out on the turf by night.  Great rain.
• 1768: December 12, 1768 – Moles work.  The ground was very white in the morning.  Ice bears.

• 1792: December 10, 1792 – Mr Taylor brought me a pine-apple, which was, for the season, large, & well-flavoured.
• 1788: December 10, 1788 – Great complaint for want of rain, & water, round Dublin in Ireland.
• 1784: December 10, 1784 – Extreme frost!!!  yet still bright sun.  At 11 one degree below zero.  On the 9th and 10th of Decr when my Thermr was down at 0, or zero; & 1 degree below zero: Mr Yalden’s Thermr at Newton was at 12, & 22.  On Dec, 24, when my Thermr was at 10 1/2 that at Newton was at 22, & 19.  At Newton, when hung side by side, these two instruments accorded exactly.  Thomas Hoar shook the snow carefully off the evergreens.  The snow fell for 24 hours, without ceasing.  The ice in one night in Gracious street full four inches!  Bread, cheese, meat, potatoes, apples all frozen where not secured in cellars under ground.
• 1775: December 10, 1775 – This epidemic disorder falls heavier on adults than children.
• 1768: December 10, 1768 – Paths get firm and dry.  Rooks frequent their nest-trees.  People sow wheat again briskly.

Snow scene, Thomas Bewick

• 1792: December 9, 1792 – Damage by the wind in some places.
• 1790: December 9, 1790 – Mr Richardson left us.  Water-cresses come in.
• 1789: December 9, 1789 – The Emshot hounds kill a leash of hares on the hill.
• 1788: December 9, 1788 – J. Hale clears out the ponds at Little comb.
• 1785: December 9, 1785 – Swans egg pears continue good.
• 1784: December 9, 1784 – Much snow in the night.  Vast snow.  Snow 16 inches deep on my grass-plot about 12 inches at an average.  Farmer Hoar had 41 sheep buried in snow.  No such snow since Jan. 1776.  In some places much drifted.
• 1782: December 9, 1782 – Rime on the hill.
• 1781: December 9, 1781 – George Tanner’s bullfinch, a cock bird of this year, began from it’s first moulting to look dingy; & is now quite black on the back, rump, & all; & very dusky on the breast.  This bird has lived chiefly on hemp-seed.  But T. Dewey’s, & __ Horley’s two bull-finches, both of the same age with the former, & also of the same sex, retain their natural colours, which are glossy & vivid, tho’ they both have been supported by hemp-seed.  Hence the notion that hemp seed blackens bull-finches does not hold good in all instances; or at least not in the first year.
• 1778: December 9, 1778 – Warm fog, small rain.  Vast condensation: the trees on the down, & hanger run in streams down their bodies.  Walls sweat.  The dew this morning was on the outsides of the windows a token that the air was colder within than without.
• 1777: December 9, 1777 – Grey, sunny, & soft.
• 1774: December 9, 1774 – Almost continual frost from Nov. 20: & some snow frequently falling.  Mergus serratus, the Dun-diver, a very rare bird in these parts, was shot in James Knight’s ponds just as it was emerging from the waters with a considerable tench in it’s Mouth.  It’s head, & part of the neck, was of a deep rust-colour.  On the back part of the head was a considerable crest of the same hue.  The sexes in this species, Ray observes, differ so widely, that writers have made two species of them.  It appears from Ray’s description that my specimen with the rust-coloured head was a female, called in some parts the sparlin-fowl; & is, he supposes, the female Goosander.
• 1773: December 9, 1773 – Rooks attend their nest-trees in frost only morning & evening.
• 1770: December 9, 1770 – Hail in the night.  Frost almost constantly succeeds hail.
• 1768: December 9, 1768 – Wells run over at the bottom of the village.