The Natural History of Selborne

Meadowsweet.

• 1792: December 2, 1792 – This dry fit has proved of vast advantage to the kingdom; & by drying & draining the fallows, will occasion the growing of wheat on many hundred of acres of wet, & flooded land, that were deemed to be in a desperate state, & incapable of being seeded this season.
• 1786: December 2, 1786 – Several white gulls, as usual, wading about in the stream beyond Alresford.
• 1785: December 2, 1785 – Mem: to send Thomas on this day to Mr Collins collector of the excise.  Bror Thomas White, & Tho: Holt White left us.  Mrs & Miss Etty came home.
• 1784: December 2, 1784 – Timothy is buried we know not where in the the laurel hedge.
• 1780: December 2, 1780 – The well is risen two rounds.  Planted about a doz. of the roots of the Spiraea filipendula sent me from Lyndon.  Sr George Baker directed Mrs Barker to take these roots powdered for the gravel.  This plant does not grow with us, but is common at Salisbury plain, & the downs about Winton, & Andover, appearing among the bushes, & flowering about midsummer.
• 1779: December 2, 1779 – Vast condensations in the great parlor: the grate, the marble-jams, the tables, the chairs, the walls are covered with dew. This inconvenience may be prevented by keeping the window shutters, & door close shut in such moist seasons.
• 1777: December 2, 1777 – There is now in this district a considerable fight of woodcocks.  Large flocks of wood-pigeons now appear: they are the latest winter-birds of passage that come to us.
• 1776: December 2, 1776 – When the thermr is at 50 flies & phalaenae come-out, & bats are often stirring.  Beetles flie.
• 1773: December 2, 1773 – Not one wheat-ear to be seen on the downs.  The grubs of the scarabaeus solstitialis abound on the downs: the rooks dig them out.  On what do they feed when they come forth?  for there are no trees on the South downs.
• 1772: December 2, 1772 – Trimmed the vines.  Their shools were by no means good, nor well-ripened, notwithstanding the hot summer.
• 1771: December 2, 1771 – Cole-mouse roosts in the eaves of a thatched house.
• 1770: December 2, 1770 – The earth in a sad wet condition.  Wells strangely risen: one well runs over: our wells are about ten fathoms deep.
• 1768: December 2, 1768 – Thunder and hail.  Incredible quantities of rain have fallen this week.

Spiraea filipendula, now classified Filipendula ulmaria, or meadowsweet, contains a chemical similar to the anti-inflammatory salicylic acid in willow bark. The word “aspirin” was coined from ‘Spiraea’