The Natural History of Selborne

• 1792: July 20, 1792 – Simeon Etty brought me two eggs of a Razor-bill from the cliffs of the Isle of Wight: they are large, & long, & very blunt at the big end, & very sharp & peaked at the small.  The eggs of these birds are, as Ray justly remarks, “in omnibus hujus beneris majora quam pro corporis mole.”  One of these eggs is of a pale green, the other more white; both are marked & dotted irregularly with chcolate-coloured spots.  Razor-bills lay but one egg, except the first is taken away, & then a second, & on to a third.  By their weight these eggs seem to have been sat on, & to contain young ones.
• 1791: July 20, 1791 – Mr. Budd’s annuals very fine.  Ground well moistened: after-grass grows.
• 1789: July 20, 1789 – Began to cut my hay, a vast burden, but over-ripe.
• 1784: July 20, 1784 – Bro. Henry and his son Sam came.  Saw an old swift feed it’s young in the air: a circumstance which I could never discover before.
• 1778: July 20, 1778 – Much thunder. Some people in the village were struck down by the storm, but not hurt.  The stroke seemed tho them like a violent push or shove.  The ground is well-soaked.  Wheat much lodged.  Frogs migrate from the ponds.
• 1772: July 20, 1772 – Vast showers about to the S.E. & N.W.  Dust hardly laid in the roads.
• 1770: July 20, 1770 – Spread the hay. Stopped & tacked ye vines.  Cut the tall hedges.
• 1768: July 20, 1768 – Vast aurora borealis.  The white owl has young.  It brings a mouse to its nest about every five minutes beginning at sunset.  Hay in tollerable order.  Cut my little mead.

• 1792: July 19, 1792 – My meadow is begun to be mowed.
• 1791: July 19, 1791 – Alton Rye cut & bound at Clapham.  Wheat looks well, & turns colour. Hay making at Farnham: pease are hacking near the town; hops distempered.
• 1789: July 19, 1789 – When old beech-trees are cleared away, the naked ground in a year or two becomes covered with straw-berry plants, the seed of which must have lain in the ground for an age at lest.  One of the slidders or trenches down the middle of the hanger, close covered over with lofty beeches near a century old, is still called strawberry slidder, though no strawberries have grown there in the memory of man.  That sort of fruit, no doubt, did once abound there, & will again when the obstruction is removed.
• 1788: July 19, 1788 – Poultry begin to moult.
• 1786: July 19, 1786 – Oaks put-out their midsummer shoots, some of which are red, & some yellow; & those oaks that were stripped by caterpillars begin to be cloathed with verdure.  Many beeches are loaded with mast, so that their boughs become very pendulous, & look brown, I see no acorns.  Selborne down is very rusty: the pond still is one part in three in water.
• 1783: July 19, 1783 – Men talk that some fields of wheat are blighted: in general the crop looks well. Barley looks finely, & oats & pease are very well: Hops grow worse, & worse.
• 1781: July 19, 1781 – House-martins abound at Lipock.
• 1780: July 19, 1780 – Puff-balls appear in my grass-plot.
• 1776: July 19, 1776 – Sambucus ebulus.  Dwarf elder blows. Fungi begin to appear.
• 1775: July 19, 1775 – Five wasps nests destroyed this evening: two before.
• 1774: July 19, 1774 – Put part of my meadow-hay in large cock.
• 1772: July 19, 1772 – Some thunder & hail.  Smart showers.
• 1771: July 19, 1771 – Tabanus bovinus.  Trenched out celeri.  Wind tears the hedges & flowers.
• 1768: July 19, 1768 – Young swallows are able to take flies for themselves.

• 1792: July 18, 1792 – Men cut their meadows.  Mr Churton came.
• 1790: July 18, 1790 – Mrs Clement & daughters came.
• 1788: July 18, 1788 – Fly-catcher feeds his sitting hen, Mrs H.W., Bessy, & Lucy came.
• 1786: July 18, 1786 – Gathered & preserved some Rasps.
• 1785: July 18, 1785 – Savoys & artichokes over-run with aphides.  The Fly-catcher in the vine sits on her eggs, & the cock feeds her.  She has four eggs.
• 1781: July 18, 1781 – Bramshot-place Lapwings haunt the uplands still.  Farmers complain that their wheat is blited.  At Bramshot-place, the house of Mr Richardson, in the wilderness near the stream, grows wild, & in plenty, Sorbus aucuparia, the quicken-tree, or mountain-ash, Rhamnus frangula, berry-bearing alder; & Teucrium scorodonia, wood-sage, & whortle-berries.  The soil is sandy.  In the garden at Dowland’s, the seat, lately, of Mr Kent, stands a large Liriodendrum tulipifera, or tulip-tree, which was in flower. The soil is poor sand; but produces beautiful pendulous Larches.  Mr R’s garden, tho’ a sand, abounds in fruit, & in all manner of good & forward kitchen-crops.  Many China-asters this spring seeded themselves there, and were forward; some cucumber-plants also grew-up of themselves from the seeds of a rejected cucumber thrown aside last autumn.  The well at Downland’s is 130 feet deep; at Bramshot place..  Mr R’s garden is at an average a fortnight before mine.
• 1778: July 18, 1778 – We have never had rain enough to lay the dust since saturday June 13: now five weeks.  By watering the fruit-trees we have procured much young wood.  The thermometer belonging to my brother Thomas White of South Lambeth was in the most shady part of his garden on July 5th & July 14th: up at 88, a degree of heat not very common even at Gibraltar!! July 5: Thermr at Lyndon in Rutland 85.
• 1777: July 18, 1777 – Swifts dash & frolick about, & seem to be teaching their young the use of their wings.  Thatched my rick of meadow-hay with the damaged St foin instead of straw.  Bees begin gathering at three o’clock in the morning: Swallows are stirring at half hour after two.
• 1773: July 18, 1773 – Lound thunder shower.  Mrs Snooke of Ringmere near Lewes had a coach-horse killed by this tempest: the horse was at grass just before the house.
• 1772: July 18, 1772 – Frequent sprinklings, but not enough all day to lay the dust.  The dry fit has lasted six weeks this day.
• 1769: July 18, 1769 – Moor-buzzard, milvus aeruginosus, has young.  It builds in low shrubs on wild heaths.  Five young.
• 1768: July 18, 1768 – The country is drenched with wet, and quantities of hay were spoiled.

Happy Birthday Gilbert White!

• 1791: July 17, 1791 – Small shower: heavy rain at Clapham, & Battersea.  On this day Mrs Edmd White was brought to bed of a daughter, who encreases my nephews & nieces to the number of 58.
• 1790: July 17, 1790 – Mr Churton came.  A nightingale continues to sing; but his notes are short and interrupted, & attended with a chur. A fly-catcher has a nest in my vines.  Young swallows settle on the grass-plots to catch insects.
• 1786: July 17, 1786 – Rye, & pea-harvest begins.  Several nightingales appear all day long in the broad walk of Baker’s hill.
• 1785: July 17, 1785 – Newton great pond is almost dry; only two or three dirty puddles remain, which afford miserable water for the village.  My nephew Edmd. White of Newton turns his sheep into five acres of barley, which is spoiled by the drought.  Mr Ponk of Farngdon does the same by a field of oats.
• 1784: July 17, 1784 – Mr. Chr. Etty has taken the young Cuckow, & put it in a cage, where the hedge-sparrows feed it.  No old Cuckow has been seen to come near it.  Mr CHarles Etty brought down with him from London in the coach his two finely-chequered tortoises, natives of the island of Madagascar, which appear to be Testudo geometrica, Linn., and the Testudo tessellat, Raii.  One of them was small, & probably a male, weighing about five pounds; the other , which was undoubtedly a female, because it layed an egg the day after it’s arrival, weighed ten pounds and a quarter.  The egg was round, & white, & much resembling in size & shape the egg of an owl.  Ray says of this species that the shell was “Ellipticae seu ovatae figurae solidae plus quam dimidia pars”: & again, “Ex omnibus quas unquam vidi maxime concava.” Ray’s quadrup: 260.  The head, neck, & legs of these were yellow.  These tortoises in the morning when put into the coach at Kensignton were brisk, & well; but the small one dyed the first night that they came to Selborne; & the other, two nights after, having received, as it should seem, some Injury on their Journey.  When the female was cleared of the contents of her body, a bunch of eggs of about 30 in number was found in her.
• 1783: July 17, 1783 – The jasmine, now covered with bloom, is very beautiful.  The jasmine was so sweet that I am obliged to quit my chamber.
• 1782: July 17, 1782 – The great Portugal-laurel in most beautiful bloom.  Tremella nostoc abounds.
• 1781: July 1781 – The sparrow-hawks continue their depredations.
• 1780: July 17, 1780 – White Jasmine begins to blow. The solstitial chafer now flies: this insect is the food of fern-owls thro’ this month.
• 1775: July 17, 1775 – Some martins are buliding against Mr Yaldens’ windows.  Young martins– perchers on the battlements of the tower, where the old ones feed them. * The young martin becomes a flyer in about sixteen days from the egg: most little birds come into their maturity, or full growth, in about a fortnight: for were they to lie a long time in the nest in a helpless state, few would escape; some mischief or other would destroy the whole breed.  The more forward pulli are out some days before the underlings of the same brood.
• 1771: July 17, 1771 – Sun sultry, seet even. Good dew. Stopp’d the vines.  White cucumbers begin to bear: the green are still barren.  Clouds threaten.
• 1770: July 17, 1770 – First young swallows appear.  Young Goldfinches.  Turned the grass-cocks about the last week of June.  Vine begins to blow very late! in good summers.
• 1768: July 17, 1768 – Succade-melons come in heaps.

• 1792: July 16, 1792 – Farmer Corps brought me two eggs of a fern-owl, which he found under a bush in shrub-wood. The dam was sitting on the nest; & the eggs, by their weight, seemed to be just near hatching. These eggs were darker, & more mottled than what I have procured before.
• 1789: July 16, 1789 – Wall-cherries are excellent.  Lime-trees blossom, & smell very sweet.  Mr & Mrs Sam Barker, & Miss Elizabeth Barker, came from the county of Rutland.
• 1788: July 16, 1788 – Bull-finch eats the berries of the honey-suckle.  Bror Tho. came.
• 1787: July 16, 1787 – The hedge-sparrow feeds the young cuckow in it’s cage.
• 1784: July 16, 1784 – Phallus impudicus, a stink-pot, comes up in Mr Burbey’s asparagus-bed.  Received a Hogsh. of port-wine, imported at Southampton.
• 1782: July 16, 1782 – A covey of young partridges frequents my out-let.  Hops do not cover their poles, nor throw-out any side-shoots.
• 1781: July 16, 1781 – Wheat-harvest begins at Headley.
• 1776: July 16, 1776 – Bees, when a shower approaches, hurry home.  One hive of bees does not swarm; the bees lie in clusters at the mouth of the hive.
• 1775: July 16, 1775 – Some of the forwardest birds of some broods of martins are out, the more backward remain in the nest.
• 1774: July 16, 1774 – Swallows strike at owls, & magpies.  Cut part of my great mead: grass over-ripe.
• 1771: July 16, 1771 – Sultry, sunny day.  Good dew.  Gardens suffer from want of moisture.  Dark clouds round the horizon.
• 1769: July 16, 1769 – Great showers in sight to the E. & N.E.  The ground is very much burnt up, no rain having fallen, very small showers excepted, since June 27.
• 1768: July 16, 1768 – Grasshopper-lark sings at Bradley.

• 2008: July 15 – <?php OTDList(); ?>
• 1790: July 15, 1790 – Continual gales all thro’ this month, which interrupt the cutting my tall hedges.
• 1789: July 15, 1789 – We have planted-out vast quantities of annuals, but none of them thrive.  Grapes do not blow, nor make any progress.  The wet season has continued just a month this day.  Dismal weather!
• 1787: July 15, 1787 – Mr White of Newton finds mushrooms in his fir-avenue.  Tremella abounds in my grass-walks.
• 1786: July 15, 1786 – Made jellies, & jams of red currans.  Gathered broad beans.  Mushrooms begin to come in Mr Edmd White’s avenue, under the Scotch firs.  The cat gets upon the roof, & catches young bats as they come forth from behind the sheet of lead at the bottom of the chimney.
• 1785: July 15, 1785 – Boys brought the fourth wasp’s-nest.
• 1783: July 15, 1783 – No rain since June 20th at this place; tho’ vast showers have fallen round us, & near us.
• 1781: July 15, 1781 – The farmers complain of smut in their wheat.
• 1777: July 15, 1777 – Rye, which blows early, in a bad state; no promise of a crop.
• 1774: July 15, 1774 – No young martins out yet.  Creeping white mist.
• 1772: July 15, 1772 – Scarabaeus solstitialis. The fern-owl preys on the fern-chafer.
• 1771: July 15, 1771 – Lovely weather for the blowing of wheat.
• 1770: July 15, 1770 – Heavy showers.  Young frogs migrate from their ponds.  Young partridges.

• 2008: July 14 – <?php OTDList(); ?>
• 1790: July 15, 1790 – Continual gales all thro’ this month, which interrupt the cutting my tall hedges.
• 1789: July 15, 1789 – We have planted-out vast quantities of annuals, but none of them thrive.  Grapes do not blow, nor make any progress.  The wet season has continued just a month this day.  Dismal weather!
• 1787: July 15, 1787 – Mr White of Newton finds mushrooms in his fir-avenue.  Tremella abounds in my grass-walks.
• 1786: July 15, 1786 – Made jellies, & jams of red currans.  Gathered broad beans.  Mushrooms begin to come in Mr Edmd White’s avenue, under the Scotch firs.  The cat gets upon the roof, & catches young bats as they come forth from behind the sheet of lead at the bottom of the chimney.
• 1785: July 15, 1785 – Boys brought the fourth wasp’s-nest.
• 1783: July 15, 1783 – No rain since June 20th at this place; tho’ vast showers have fallen round us, & near us.
• 1781: July 15, 1781 – The farmers complain of smut in their wheat.
• 1777: July 15, 1777 – Rye, which blows early, in a bad state; no promise of a crop.
• 1774: July 15, 1774 – No young martins out yet.  Creeping white mist.
• 1772: July 15, 1772 – Scarabaeus solstitialis. The fern-owl preys on the fern-chafer.
• 1771: July 15, 1771 – Lovely weather for the blowing of wheat.
• 1770: July 15, 1770 – Heavy showers.  Young frogs migrate from their ponds.  Young partridges.

• 1792: July 13, 1792 – Whortle-berries offered at the door.  Cherries have little flavour.
• 1791: July 13, 1791 – My brother gathered a sieve of mush-rooms: they come up in the flower-borders, which have been manured with dung from the old hot beds.
• 1787: July 13, 1787 – The apricots drop off in a surprizing manner.  Planted a bed of Savoys.
• 1784: July 13, 1784 – Finished ripping, furring, & tiling the back part of my house; a great jobb.  Garden-beans come in.
• 1783: July 13, 1783 – Five great white sea-gulls flew over the village toward the forest.
• 1779: July 13, 1779 – Therm. 79!  The grass-mowers complain of the heat.
• 1778: July 13, 1778 – Bestowed great waterings in the garden.
• 1777: July 13, 1777 – The backward wheat is in beautiful bloom: the fields look quite white with blossoms.  The forward wheat is out of bloom, & therefore from the late weather not likely to be so good.
• 1774: July 13, 1774 – Martins hover at the mouth of their nests, & feed their young without settling.
• 1773: July 13, 1773 – Finished stopping the vines: much bloom & much fruit set.  Finished cutting the tall hedges.
• 1772: July 13, 1772 – Lime blows, & smells sweetly, & is much frequented by bees.
• 1770: July 13, 1770 – Cut my great mead, a good crop.  Young bank-martins are flyers: this species every year is the first that brings forth it’s young.  Quer: Do they feed their young flying, or not?
• 1769: July 13, 1769 – Oxford Vast flocks of young wag-tails on the banks of the charwel.
• 1768: July 13 – Truffles began to be taken for ye first time in my Brother Henry White’s grove; & will continue to be found in great abundance every fort-night till about Lady-day.

• 1791: July 12, 1791 – On this day My Bro. Benj. White began to rebuild his house in Fleetstreet which he had entirely pulled to the ground. His grandson Ben White laid the first brick of the new foundation, & then presented the workmen with five shillings for drink. Ben, who is five years old, may probably remember this circumstance hereafter, & may be able to recite to his grandchildren the occurances of this day.
• 1789: July 12, 1789 – Wag-tails bring their young to the grass-plots, where they catch insects to feed them.
• 1788: July 12, 1788 – Codlins came in for stewing. Wasps encrease & gnaw the cherries. Hung bottles to take the wasps. “Contemplator item, cum se Nux plurima silvis Induet in florem, & ramos curvabit olentis: Si superant foetus, pariter frumenta sequenterur; Magnaque cum mango veniet tritura calore.”* If by Nux in this passage Virgil meant the Wall-nut, then it must follow, that he must also mean that a good wall-nut year usually proves a good year for wheat. This remark is verifyed in a remarkable manner this summer with us; for the wallnut trees are loaded with a myriad of nuts, which hang in vast clusters; & the crop of wheat is such as has not been known for many seasons. The last line seems also to imply, that this coincident, even in Italy, does not befall but only in a dry, sultry summer. Tho’ wall-nut-trees in England blow long before wheat; yet it is probable that in Italy, where wheat is more early than with us, they may blossom together. And indeed unless these vegetables had accorded in the time of their bloom, the Poet would scarce have introduced together as an instance of concomitant fertility.
• 1786: July 12, 1786 – Gathered the wall-cherries, & preserved them with sugar: they are very fine.
• 1785: July 12, 1785 – Bramshot-place My vines are nicely trimmed: not a superflous shoot left.  Cleared the cherry-trees, & took-in the nets.  Mr Richardson’s garden was not so much burnt-up as might be expected.  There was plenty of pease, & kidney-beans; & much fruit, such as currans, gooseberries, melond, & cherries.  The wheat at Bramshot looks well; but the spring-crops are injured by they drought.  Turnips come-up pretty well.  The pair of Fly-catchers in the vine are preparing for a second brood, & have got one egg.  This is the first instance that I remember of their breeding twice.
• 1779: July 12, 1779 – Apricots, the young tree, ripen.  Mossed the hills of the white cucumbers to keep them moist.
• 1777: July 12, 1777 – Ricked the St foin: it lay 12 days washed with continual showers, & yet is not quite spoiled.
• 1775: July 12, 1775 – Five young kestrils, or windhovers almost fledge are taken in an old magpie nest.
• 1774: July 12, 1774 – Martins build nests & forsake them, & now build again.  Much hay spoiled: much not cut.
• 1773: July 12, 1773 – Ricked all my hay.  The st foin has lost all smell: the meadow-hay is most delicate.  A large crop.
• 1772: July 12, 1772 – Barley & pease suffer much. Frogs continue to migrate from the ponds.
• 1771: July 12, 1771 – Vine-bloom smells sweetly.

The latin passage reads: “Observe again, when the walnut clothes herself in the woods with richest bloom and bends to earth her scented branches- If her fruit is plentiful, a plentiful corn crop follows And great will be the threshing in a season of great heat…” Virgil’s Georgics I, l. 187-190, trans. Cecil Day Lewis

• 1791: July 11, 1791 – Chardons are usually blanched, & stewed like celeri: but my Brother boils the heads of his, which are very sweet, & in flavour like artichokes; the chief objection is, that they are very small, & afford little substance in their bottoms.  The heads of chardons are sold in the markets & are thought to be a delicate morsels.  Chardons are strong, vigorous plants, & grow six & seven feet high, & have strong sharp prickles like thistles.
• 1790: July 11, 1790 – Now the meadow is cleared, the brood-swallows sweep the face of the ground all day long; & from over that smooth surface collect a variety of insects for the support of their young.
• 1789: July 11, 1789 – The fly-catchers in the vine bring out their young.
• 1787: July 11, 1787 – Planted a line of kidney-beans
• 1785: July 11, 1785 – The down is so burnt, that it looks dismally.
• 1784: July 11, 1784 – My horses, which lie at grass, have had no water now for about 8 weeks: nor do they seem to desire any when they pass by a pond, or stream.  This method of management is particularly good for aged horses, especially if their wind is at all thick.  My horses look remarkably well.
• 1783: July 11, 1783 – The heat overcomes the grass-mowers & makes them sick.  There was not rain enough in the village to lay the dust.  The water in my well rises!  tho’ we draw so much daily!  watered much.  No dew, sun, & hase, rusty sunshine!  The tempest on friday night did much damage at West-meon, & burnt down three houses and a barn.  The tempests round on thursday and friday nights were very aweful!  There was vast hail on friday night in several places.  Some of the standard honey-suckles, which a month ago were so sweet & lovely, are now loathsome objects, being covered with aphides, & viscous honey-dews.  Gardens sadly burnt.
• 1781: July 11, 1781 – Trenched-out celeriac, & some of the new-advertized large celeri. Planted out some endive. A pair of house-martins, that built under the eaves of my stable, lost their nest in part by a drip, just as most of the young were flown. They are now repairing their habitation in order to rear a second brood.
• 1780: July 11, 1780 – Finished my great parlor, by hanging curtains, & fixing the looking-glass.
• 1779: July 11, 1779 – By the number of swifts round the church which seem to be encreased to more than 30, their young ones must be come out.
• 1778: July 11, 1778 – Finished cutting the hedges. Watered the garden. Many ponds are dry. Much hay ricked. * The young martins that were hatched June 11th began to come-out of their nest July 7th, so that they arrive at their maturity in somewhat less than a month. A colony of black ants comes forth every midsummer from under my stair-case, which stands in the middle of the house; & as soon as the males & females (which fill all the windows & rooms) are flown away, the workers retire under the stairs & are seen no more. It does not appear how this nest can have any communication with the garden or yard; & if not, how can these ants subsist in perpetual darkness & confinement!
• 1777: July 11, 1777 – Bees swarm by heaps.  31 swifts appear: so that if near half of them are not strangers the young broods are out.
• 1776: July 11, 1776 – Tilia europaea. The lime blows, smells very sweetly, & affords much pabulum for the bees. * Bees come & suck the cherries where the birds have broke the skin; & on some autumns, I remember they attack’d & devoured the peaches & Nect. where the wasps had once made a beginning.
• 1775: July 11, 1775 – Destroyed a wasp’s nest which was grown into a considerable bulk, & had many working wasps.
• 1773: July 11, 1773 – Partridges young, flyers.
• 1772: July 11, 1772 – Drought has continued five weeks this day.  Watered the rasp and annuals well. * There is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden-campion for the sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some purpose in the business of nidification.  It is very pleasant to see with what address it strips off the pubes, running from the top to the bottom of a branch, & shaving it bare with all the dexterity of a hoop-shaver.  When it has got a vast bundle, almost as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between it’s chin and it’s forelegs.
• 1770: July 11, 1770 – Vast showers about but no rain.  Turn’d the St. foin twice, & cocked it in a small cock.
• 1769: July 11, 1769 – Whitchurch, Hants. Butomus umbellatus.  The stint, cinclus, Aldro. appears about the banks of the Thames.  At Oxford it is called the summer snipe.
• 1768: July 11, 1768 – Cut my great meadow.

 

Notes: Lots of background on the chardon, or cardoon, a sister to the thistle and artichoke, at ladybugletter.com. The bee observed shaving the hairs off the plants was wool-carder bee, Anthidium manicatum.