The Natural History of Selborne

Mr Churton left us, & went to Waverly.  Sweet weather: gnats play in the air.  Paths dry.

The spotted Bantam lays a second time.

Frost, ice, sun, pleasant, moon-light.  The hounds found a leash of hares on the hill.

Storm in the night, that blew down my rain-measurer.  The newspapers say that there are floods on the Thames.

Our rivulets were much flooded; &  the water at Oakhanger ran over the bridge, which in in old days was called tun-bridge.

Dark & dismal.  Mr. Churton came from Oxford.

Walked down to short heath: the sands were very comfortable, & agreeable to the feet: the grass grounds, & arable paths were wet, & unpleasant.

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

The Emshot hounds kill a leash of hares on the hill.

The Bramshot hounds kill a leash of hares on the hill.