The Natural History of Selborne

Peter Wells’s well at Gracious street begins to run over.  The lavants rise at Faringdon.

Warm fog, small rain.  Vast condensation: the trees on the down, & hanger run in streams down their bodies.  Walls sweat.  The dew this morning was on the outsides of the windows a token that the air was colder within than without.

My well is risen very much.

Finished trimming & tacking my vines: the wood is pretty well ripened for next year.  Not withstanding the vehemence of last summer, & the lasting heat, yet my grapes were not so early nor so well ripened as in some moderate years.  In particular in 1775 my crops began to be gathered the first week in Septemr: & were in high perfection all the autumn: whereas this year we could not gather at all  ’til Octobr & then the flavour was not delicate & many clusters never ripened at all.  A proof this that somewhat more is requisite in the production of fine fruits than mere heat.  My peaches & nectarines also this summer were not in such perfection as in some former seasons.

Phalaneae flie in abundance about my hedges: those & some others, such as spiders, wood-lice, slippery jacks, & some gnats, & tipulae come forth all the winter in mild weather.

The vast yew-tree at Prior’s-dean is a female: males in general grow to the largest bulk.  The yew tree of East-Tisted is a female.  The great yew-tree at Selborne, & two very large ones at Faringdon are all males.

Planted in the borders some ferrugineous foxgloves.

My Chaumontelle pears now come into eating, & are very delicate.

Planted six proliferous fiery lily-bulbs from Hambledon in the flower-borders.

Full moon.  Tit-mice creep into the martin’s nests, & probably eat the pupae of the hippoboscae hirundinis.