The Natural History of Selborne

Finished the chimney of my parlor: it measures 30 feet from the hearth to the top.

After ewes & lambs are shorn there is great confusion & bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to distinguish one another as before.  This embarrassment seems not so much to arise from the loss of fleece, which may occasion an alteration in their appearance, as from the defect of that notus odor, discriminating each individual personally: which also is confounded by the strong scent of the pitch & tar wherewith they are newly marked; for the brute creation recognize each other more from the smell that the sight; & in matters of Identity & Diversity appeal much more to their noses than to their eyes.

Reared the roof of my new building.

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On July 29 such vast rains fell about Iping, Bramshot, Haslemere, &c. that they tore vast holes in the turnpike-roads, covered several meadows with sand, & silt, blowed-up the heads of several ponds, carryed away part of the country-bridge at Iping, & the garden walls of the paper mill, & endangered the mill & house.  A paper-mill near Haselmere was ruined, & many 100 ae damaage sustained.  Much hay was sewpt away down the rivers, & some lives were lost.  A post-boy was drowned near Haselmere, & an other as he was passing from Farnham to Alton: the Gent: in the chaise saved himself by swimming.  These torrents were local; for at Lewes, which lies about the middle of the country of Sussex, they had a very wet time, but experienced none of these devastations.

Pond-heads are blown-up: & roads torn by the torrents.  Great flood at Gracious street.  Several mills are damaged.  Hay drowned.  Finished the walls of my new parlor.

This morning more than 50 swifts sailed slowly over the village towards the S: there were almost double the number that belong to this place; & were probably actuated by some tendencies towards their retreat, which is now near at hand.

Lime trees in full bloom: on these the bees gather much honey.

My building is interrupted to by the rain.

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.

Rye, which blows early, in a bad state; no promise of a crop.

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.