The Natural History of Selborne

Rye, & pea-harvest begins.  Several nightingales appear all day long in the broad walk of Baker’s hill.

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.

Gathered the wall-cherries, & preserved them with sugar: they are very fine.

Roses, sweet-williams, pinks, white & orange lilies make a gaudy show in my garden.  Annuals are stunted for want of rain.  Mr White’s tank at Newton measure three feet in water.

The rick sweats, & fumes, & is in fine order.  The pond at Faringdon is dry; my well is very low, having been much exhausted by long waterings.  Received five gallons, & a pint of brandy from Mr Edmd Woods.

Alton 

Many swifts near Kingston.  Vast rain at Bagshot.  Hops are healthy round Alton, & Selborne.

The fruit of Dr Wesdale’s great St. Germain pear swells, & grows large.  Dwarf kidney-beans begin to pod.  A cloud of swifts over Clapham: they probably have brought out their young.  On this day Thomas got up all my hay in good order, & finished my rick, which contains eight good jobbs or loads; at least six tuns. Thatched & secured my hay-rick.  Two jobbs of the hay were from Baker’s hill, the other six from the meadow, & slip.  Baker’s hill cut the 19th year: the Saint foin is got very thin, but other grasses prevail.

Bror Ben: cuts his Lucern a second time: the second crop is very tall.

Bro: Thmas’s gardener stops his vines, & tacks them.  Bro: Ben’s vines have good wood, & show for much fruit.

Many of Bror Thomas’s young fowls pine, & die; & so they did last summer.