The Natural History of Selborne

Planted two Cypresses in the garden.  They came from S. Lambeth.

Vast rain in the night, with strong wind.  My well is risen near six feet.  Thomas begins to dress the vines.  The crop of grapes is just over, having lasted in perfection more than ten weeks.

The house-martins have disappointed us again, as they did last year, with respect to their Novemr. visit for one day.  On Nov. 5th 1779, & Nov. 4th 1777, they showed themselves all day along the hanger in considerable numbers, after they had withdrawn for some weeks: when, had they been properly watched, their place of retreat in the evening, I make no doubt, might have been easily discovered.  Once in a few years they make us a visit of this sort, some time in the first week in November.

Hares eat down the pinks, & cloves in the the garden: & yet sportsmen complain that the breed this year is very small; alleging that dry summers, tho’ kindly for partridges, are detrimental to hares.

The tortoise came out of his coop, & has buried himself in the laurel-hedge.  When my great parlor is kept close shut-up it is not at all affected by condensations on on the wainscot or paper, tho’ the hall & entry are all in a float.

John Hale has cleansed the pond on the down, & carried out a large quantity of mud.  Husbandry seems to be much improved at Selborne within these 20 years, & their crops of wheat are generally better: not that they plough oftener, or perhaps manure more than they did formerly; but from the more frequent harrowings & draggings now in use, which pulverize our strong soil, & render it more fertile than any other expedient yet in practice.

The walls of the hall & entry are all afloat with condensation.

The wintry & huge constellation, Orion, begins now to make his appearance in the evening, exhibiting his enormous figure in the E.  Tho’ my grapes ripen in the most disadvantageous years: yet from the concurring circumstances of a hot summer, & a failure of wasps, I think my crop was never so delicate before, nor ever supplyed my table for so long.

Hogs, in eating acorns, chew them very small, & reject all the husks.  The plenty of acorns this year avails the hogs of poor men & brings them forward without corn.

Much wheat-land not sown yet; because men are afraid to sow their corn in the dust.  Some water still in the pond on Selborne down; & the pond on Newton-farm, over the hedge, is half-full.  No drought, equal to the present, has been known since autumn 1740, which being preceeded by a dry summer & spring, & the terrible long frost of winter 1739, exhausted most of the wells & ponds, & distressed the country greatly.