May 8

Posted by sydney on May 8th, 2009
  • 1792: May 8, 1792 – On this day 26 houses, besides a number of barns, stables, granaries, &c. were burnt down at Barton-Stacey near Winchester.  Only ten or twelve houses were preseved, among which is the parsonage, a large farm house, & some others out of the line of the street.  The people of Selborne subscribed 6 ae. 1 s. 0 d. on this occasion: the county collection was very large & ample.
  • 1790: May 8, 1790 – Began to mow the orchard for the horses.
  • 1789: May 8, 1789 – Cut the first mesh of asparagus.  The bloom of plums is very great.  Peat-carting begins.
  • 1786: May 8, 1786 – Plolyanths make a fine show.  Pastures yellow with bloom of dandelion, & with cowslips.
  • 1785: May 8, 1785 – There is a great want of rain in France as well as in England.  A cuckow haunts my brother’s fields; so that probably there will be a young cuckow hatched in the quickset-hedge.  Millions of empedes, or tipulae, come forth at the close of day, & swarm to such a degree as to fill the air.  At this juncture they sport & copulate: as it grows more dark they retire.  All day they hide in hedges.  As they rise in a cloud they appear like smoke: I do not remember to have seen such swarms except in the fens of the Island of Ely.  They appear most over grass-mounds.
  • 1784: May 8, 1784 – Auricula’s blow finely in the natural ground.  Owls have eggs.  The hanger almost all green.  Many trees in the Lythe in full leaf.  Beeches on the common hardly budding.
  • 1783: May 8, 1783 – Apple-trees in high bloom; in danger from the frost.
  • 1781: May 8, 1781 – Timothy lies close this cold weather.
  • 1780: May 8, 1780 – The Lathraea squammaria grows also on the bank of Trimming’s orchard, just above the dry wall, opposite Grange-yard.
  • 1779: May 8, 1779 – A good crop of rye-grass in the field sown last year; but the white clover takes only in patches.  Sowed 4 pounds more of white clover, & a willow basket of hay-seeds. [Later note] The white clover since is spread all over the field.
  • 1778: May 8, 1778 – Sowed the Ewel-close, now barley, with 12 pounds of white clover, two bushels of Rye-grass, & a quarter of meadow-grass seeds from a farmer’s hay-loft.  The ground is too wet, & will not harrow well.  Strong wheat-land.
  • 1774: May 8, 1774 – White-throat warbles softly.  Mistake: it was the black-cap: whitethroats are always harsh & unmusical.
  • 1772: May 8, 1772 – Fields & gardens suffer by the severe harsh winds.  Farmers in stiff ground can sow no barley: not one grain is yet sown on Newton great farm.
  • 1771: May 8, 1771 – Asparagus begins to sprout.
  • 1769: May 8, 1769 – Green goose-berries.  Lapwing’s eggs at the poulterers.

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