Posted by sydney on Jun 29th, 2009
- 1792: June 29, 1792 – Straw-berries from the woods are brought; but they are crude, & pale, as might be expected. Cut-off the large leaves of the Colchicum, or meadow-saffron, now decaying: towards the end of August the blossoms, called by some naked boys, will shoot out, & make a pleasing appearance.
- 1791: June 29, 1791 – S. Lambeth
Some swallows in this district, & only two pairs of swifts, & no martins. No wonder then that they are overrun with flies, which swarm in the summer months, & destroy their grapes.
- 1789: June 29, 1789 – Marrow-fat pease come in.
- 1787: June 29, 1787 – Gracious street pond dry, & cleaned out. Much water in the pond on the hill. The pond at Faringdon dry.
- 1785: June 29, 1785 – Distant thunder. The storm arose in the S. & parted; so that we had only the skirts. When thunder arises in the S. we hardly ever receive the storm over us, because the clouds part to the right, & left before they reach us, influenced, I suppose, bu the hills that lie to that quarter. The walnut-trees throw-out shoots two or three feet below the extremities of the boughs; all above is dead.
- 1784: June 29, 1784 – Mr & Mrs Richardson came.
- 1783: June 29, 1783 – My garden is in high beauty, glowing with a variety of solstitial flowers. A person lately found a young cuckow in a small nest built in a beechen shrub at the upper end of the bostal. By watching in a morning, he soon saw the young bird fed by a pair of hedge-sparrows. The cuckow is but half-fledge; yet the nest will hardly contain him: for his wings hang out, & his tail & body are much compressed, & streightened. When looked at he opens a very red, wide mouth, & heaves himself up; using contorsions with his neck by way of menace, & picking at a person’s finger, if he advances it towards him.
- 1782: June 29, 1782 – Louring, with cool gale, sun, mist on the hills, golden stripe in the W. Double catchflies make a lovely show.
- 1780: June 29, 1780 – Jane White was married to Mr Clement
- 1775: June 29, 1775 – Young minute frogs migrate from the ponds this showery weather, & fill the lanes and paths: they are quite black.
- 1774: June 29, 1774 – Some swallows this day bring out their broods, which are perchers: they place them on rails that go across a stream, & so take their food up & down the river, feeding their young in exact rotation.
- 1772: June 29, 1772 – Light showers, not enough to lay the dust, chilly. Stachys germanica.
- 1771: June 29, 1771 – Ricked in two summer-cocks five jobbs of St foin in most curious order. Young martins hatched. Apples, & pears but few. Titlark whistles still.
- 1770: June 29, 1770 – A pound of trufles were found by a trufle-hunter in my Brother’s grove.
- 1768: June 29, 1768 – Ricked my St foin in good order. The ears of wheat in general are very long. Wheat blows still.
Posted by sydney on Jun 28th, 2009
- 1792: June 28, 1792 – Glow-worms abound on Baker’s hill.
- 1791: June 28, 1791 – When the Baromr is at 30 in S. Lambeth, it is 29-7 at Selborne, and 29-4 at Newton. My brother cut a good Romagna melon.
- 1789: June 28, 1789 – Daws come on the cherry-trees, for the fruit. While Mrs J. White & I were at S. Lambeth, we visited a Mrs Delhurst of that place, the wife of a officer, who being at Gibraltar at the time of the siege, underwent all the horrors of that long blockade, & bombardment. Even at this distance of time, somewhat of terror, & uneasiness seem to be imprinted on her features, so as to occasion a lasting impression. Nor is there any room for wonder; for fear is a violent passion, which frequently repeated like other strong emotions, must leave traces behind. Thus, thro’ the transports of inebriation, where men habituate themselves to excess in strong liquors, their faces contract an air of intoxication, even when they are cool and sober. This Lady, with many others, lodged for more than a twelve month in a cave of the rock to avoid the bombs & shot from the gun-boats, which annoyed the Southern part of the Istmus every night, as soon as it began to grow dark.
- 1788: June 28, 1788 – Mr. Reeve, a master Carpenter in the town of Lambeth, is employed in building a Conservatory for the Queen of Naples, the dimensions of which are 117 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth, 20 feet to the angle of the roof, & 10 feet to the eaves. This noble greenhouse ( the largest that has been constructed yet in this kingdom)
- 1786: June 28, 1786 – Bro: Thmas’s gardener stops his vines, & tacks them. Bro: Ben’s vines have good wood, & show for much fruit.
- 1783: June 28, 1783 – Ticked the hay of the great meadow in lovely order: six jobbs. The little meadow is hardly made. The country people look with a kind of superstitious awe at the red louring aspect of the sun thro’ the fog… “Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit.”
- 1776: June 28, 1776 – Flowers in the garden make a gaudy appearance.
- 1774: June 28, 1774 – Young nestling rooks still. Young partriges, flyers.
- 1773: June 28, 1773 – St foin begins to be damaged.
- 1772: June 28, 1772 – Not rain enough to lay the dust.
- 1770: June 28, 1770 – Trufles begin to be found. Chafers still appear.
- 1768: June 28, 1768 – Showers about. Dryed & cocked my st. foin.
Posted by sydney on Jun 27th, 2009
- 1792: June 27, 1792 – The late pliant sort of Honeysuckles, that do not make good standards, begin to show their yellow bloom: the more early are on the decline. Hung the net over the cherry-trees at the end of the house to keep off the magpies, which come to our very windows at three & four in the morning. The daws also from the church have invaded my neighbours cherries. Pies, & daws are very impudent!
- 1791: June 27, 1791 – Timothy Turner cuts my grass for himself, a small crop. Scarabaeus solstitialis first appears in my brother’s outlet: they are very punctual in their coming-out every year. They are a small species, about half the size of the May chafer, & are known in some parts by the name fern-chafer.
- 1790: June 27, 1790 – Roses make a beautiful show. Orange-lillies blossom. Sr George Wheeler’s tutsan blows.
- 1789: June 27, 1789 – My brother cuts his first melon, a small cantaleupe. Barley in bloom, that which was lodged rises a little.
- 1788: June 27, 1788 – Met a cart of whortle-berries on the road.
- 1787: June 27, 1787 – A brood of little partridges was seen in Baker’s hill among the Sainfoin.
- 1786: June 27, 1786 – Many of Bror Thomas’s young fowls pine, & die; & so they did last summer.
- 1785: June 27, 1785 – The Flycatchers, five in number, leave their nest in the vine over the parlor-window. Hemerocallis, day-lily, blows. Chaffers fall dead from the hedges; they have served their generation, & will be seen but little longer.
- 1783: June 27, 1783 – Nose-flies, & stouts make the horses very troublesome.
- 1781: June 27, 1781 – The honey-buzzard sits hard.
- 1780: June 27, 1780 – Swallows feed their young on the ground in Mr. Curtis’s botanic garden in George’s fields.
- 1777: June 27, 1777 – Boys bring me female wasps, & hornets. Ophrys nidus avis.
- 1772: June 27, 1772 – Wheat begins to blow. Finished my hay, which is curious. Watered the garden: nothing grows. Cucumbers cease to bear. The drought has lasted three weeks this day.
Posted by sydney on Jun 26th, 2009
- 1791: June 26, 1791 – Fifteen Whites dines this day at my Bro. B. White’s table; as did also a Mr Wells, a great, great, great grandson of the Revd John Longworth, in old times vicar of Selborne, who dyed about the year 1678. Dr & Mrs Chandler returned to Selborne.
- 1785: June 26, 1785 – Annuals die thro’ heat. Hops run their poles. Mr Powlett of Rotherfield has no water for his cattle in the park, but what he fetched from Alton! He has a well for the house. Many years ago Mr Powletts’s grandfather fetched water from Alton for all his cattle, deer & all, for three months together. My well is low; but affords plenty of fine clear water. We draw great quantities for the garden. A constant spring runs through it.
- 1784: June 26, 1784 – Fire in the parlor.
- 1783: June 26, 1783 – Tedded the hay, & put it in a small cock. Sun looks all day like the moon, & shed a rusty red light. Mr & Mrs Brown, & niece Anna Barker came from the county of Rutland.
- 1782: June 26, 1782 – Serapias latifolia blossoms in the Hanger, & high wood.
- 1781: June 26, 1781 – Young restarts come abroad.
- 1779: June 26, 1779 – Cold black solstice.
- 1778: June 26, 1778 – Ricked the meadow-hay, six jobbs, & fine, & free from weeds. Did not mow the little mead.
- 1777: June 26, 1777 – Began to cut my st foin; large and much lodged, & full of wild grasses. The tenth crop.
- 1776: June 26, 1776 – No young partridges are flyers yet: but by the deportment of the dams it is plain they have chickens hatched; for they rise & fall before the horses feet, & hobble along as if wounded to draw-off attention from their helpless broods. Sphinx forte ocellata. A vast insect; appears after it is dusk, flying with an humming noise, & inserting it’s tongue into the bloom of the honey-suckle: it scarcely settles on the plants but feeds on the wing in the manner of humming-birds. Omiah, who is gone on board the Resolution, is expected to sail this week for Otaheite with Capt. Cook.
- 1774: June 26, 1774 – My Brother’s vines turn pale on the chalk: the leaves begin to whither.
- 1773: June 26, 1773 – Great hail-storm at Alton St foin not yet turned.
- 1772: June 26, 1772 – Sun sultry, cloudless, severe heat. Hottest day. Ricked all the hay, save one job, in most excellent order. Ground much burnt.
- 1771: June 26, 1771 – Phallus impudicus olet. Showers about.
Posted by sydney on Jun 25th, 2009
- 1792: June 25, 1792 – Timothy Turner sowed 40 bushels of ashes on Baker’s hill: an unusual season for such manure! Tryed for rats over the stable, & brewhouse with a ferret, but did not succeed.
- 1791: June 25, 1791 – My brother’s straw-berries well-flavoured. The vines here in bloom, & smell very sweet.
- 1789: June 25, 1789 – Crop-gardeners sell their pease at market at 20d the sack, & their cauliflowers at 18d per dozen: pease abound so as hardly to pay for gathering.
- 1787: June 25, 1787 – Nep. and niece Ben White brought little Ben.
- 1786: June 25, 1786 – Cauliflowers, Coss-lettuce, marrow-fat pease, carrots, summer-cabbage, & small beans in great profusion, & perfection. Cherries begin to come in: artichokes for supper. Bror Ben’s outlet swarms with the Scarabaeus solstitialis, which appears at Midsummer. My two brothers gardens abound with all sorts of kitchen-crops.
- 1785: June 25, 1785 – Fallows dusty, & in mellow order. Young fawns in the Holt. My walnut-trees are almost naked, & half-killed by the winter; while those at Rood are in full foliage, & shew fruit.
- 1784: June 25, 1784 – Towards the end of June they haad snow in Austria, & the vines were frozen.
- 1783: June 25, 1783 – Turned the swarths, but did not ted the hay. Much honey-dew on the honey-suckles, laurels, great oak.
- 1781: June 25, 1781 – Our fields of pease are in a sad lousy order.
- 1776: June 25, 1776 – Vine just begins to blow: it began last year June 7: in 1774 June 26. Wheat begins to blow. Thomas’s bees swarm, & settle on the Balm of Gilead fir. first swarm.
- 1775: June 25, 1775 – Wheat in general out of bloom. After so kind a blowing time we may from the heat of the summer expect an early, & plentiful wheat harvest.
- 1772: June 25, 1772 – Hay in beautiful order. Gardens suffer much for want of rain.
- 1771: June 25, 1771 – Rain-b0w. Rock-like clouds. Sweet evening. Moonshine.
Posted by sydney on Jun 24th, 2009
- 1792: June 24, 1792 – Thunder, & hail. A sad midsumr day. When the Blattae seem to be subdued, & got under; all at once several large ones appear: no doubt they migrate from the houses of neighbours, which swarm with them.
- 1791: June 24, 1791 – Meadows not cut. Nymphaea lutea in bloom in a watry ditch. Went to see the village of Compton, where my father lived more than sixty years ago, & where seven of his children were born. The people of the village remember nothing of our family. Mr. Fulham’s conservatory richly furnished; & the grounds behind his house engaging, & elegant. The romantic grounds, & paddock at the west end Godalming town are very bold & striking. The hanging woods very solemn, & grand; & many of the trees of great age & dimensions. This place was for many years inhabited by General Oglethrope. The house is now under a general repair being with it’s grounds the property of Mr Godbold a quack Doctor. The vale & hanging woods round Godalming are very beautiful: the Wey a sweet river, & becomes navigable at this town. One branch of the Wey rises at Selborne. At the entrance to the avenue leading to Bramshot-place are three great, hollow oaks, the largest of which measure 21 feet in girth. We measure this tree at about 5 feet from the ground, & could not come at it lower on account of a dr stone-wall in which it stands. We measure also the largest Sycamore in the front of the house, & found the girth to be 13. They are very tall, & are deemed to be 80 feet in height: but I should suppose they do not exceed 74 feet. I hear much of trees 80 or 90 feet high; but have never measured anay that exceed the supposed height of the Sycamores above.
- 1789: June 24, 1789 – Mazagan beans come in. The barley much lodged. No house-martins appear at S.L., a very few swallows, & only three pairs of swifts that seem to belong to the place. No wonder then that flies abound so in the autumn as to become a nuisance.
- 1788: June 24, 1788 – Four women gather my Bror’s gooseberries for sale.
- 1786: June 24, 1786 – Wheat is in bloom, & has had a fine, still, dry, warm season for blowing. Nights miserably hot, & sultry.
- 1783: June 24, 1783 – Vast dew, sun, sultry, misty, & hot. This is the weather that men think is injurious to hops. The sun “shorn of his beams” appears thro’ the haze like the full moon.
- 1783: June 23, 1783 – Vast honey-dew; hot & hazey; misty. The blades of wheat in several fields are turned yellow, & look as if scorched with the frost. Wheat comes into ear. Red even: thro’ the haze. Sheep are shorn.
- 1782: June 24, 1782 – The disorder seems rather to abate in these parts. Some few sufferers have had relapses.
- 1780: June 24, 1780 – Cistus ledon blows.
* Thomas kept the rain account at Selborne.
- 1779: June 24, 1779 – Things in the garden do not grow. Clap of thunder. Vine-bloom smells fragrantly.
- 1778: June 24, 1778 – Strawberries ripen. Notwithstanding the vast bloom there are no plums nor many pears; a moderate share of apples: few currans, & gooseberries. Few cherries. Great crop of medlars. Tempest at Farnham.
- 1777: June 24, 1777 – Kidney-beans look miserably. A poor cold solstice for tender plants. Wheat looks yellow. My bees when swarming settle every year on the boughs of the Balm of Gilead fir. Yesterday they settled at first in two swarms, which soon coalesced into one. To a thinking mind few phenomena are more striking than the clustering of bees on some bough where they remain in order, as it were, to be ready for hiving:
…”arbore summa
Confluere, & lentis uvam demittere ramis.”
- 1776: June 24, 1776 – Hay makes well. The wind bangs the hedges & flowers about.
- 1774: June 24, 1774 – My Bro: has brewed a barrel of strong beer with his hordeum nudum. My Brother’s hordeum nudum is very large and forward, and has a broad blade like wheat: it is now spindling for ear, & the tops of the ears appear. It will be much forwarder than the common barley. Swifts squeak much.
* The swifts that dash round churches & towers in little parties, seem to me to be the cock-birds: they never squeak ’til they come close to the walls or eaves, & possibly then are seranading their females, who are close in their nests attending to the business of incubation. Swifts keep out the latest of any birds, never going to roost in the longest days ’til about a quarter before nine. Just before they retire they squeak & dash & shoot about with wonderful rapidity. Thy are stirring at least seventeen hours when the days are longest.
- 1772: June 24, 1772 – Hay makes well. Flisky clouds, & some rock-like clouds. Sambucus nigra. When the elder blows summer is established.
- 1771: June 24, 1771 – Cut my St. foin.
Posted by sydney on Jun 23rd, 2009
- 1791: June 23, 1791 – Went to visit Mr Edmund Woods Senr. Swifts abound at Godlaming.
- 1789: June 23, 1789 – Scarlet strawberries are cried about at six pence the pottle: they are not finely flavoured.
- 1787: June 23, 1787 – Brood of nightingales frequents the walks. The number of swifts are few, because they are stopped-out from the eaves of the church, which were repaired last autumn. The nest of a
Flusher, or red-backed Butcher-bird was found near Alton. Pease, barley, & oats look well, especially the first, which show fine bloom: wheat looks but poorly. What at market rises. Sheep are washed.
- 1782: June 23, 1782 – Jupiter makes, & has made for some weeks past a beautiful & resplendent appearance every evening to the S.E. Saturn, who is very near, is much obscured by the brilliancy of the former. The sun at setting shines along the hanger in these long days, & tinges the stems of the tall beeches of a golden colour in a most picturesque, & amusing manner!! Just at the summer solstice the sun at setting shines directly up my broad walk against the urn, & tall fir. Fox-gloves, thistles, butterfly-orchids, blow in the high wood. In the garden roses, corn-flags, Iris’s red valerian, lychniss’s, &c. blow.
- 1780: June 23, 1780 – Swifts stay-out ’til a quarter before nine o’ the clock.
- 1779: June 23, 1779 – Golden-crowned wrens, & creepers bring-out their broods.
- 1778: June 23, 1778 – Began to cut my meadow. A good crop, especially where the ground was dunged.
- 1774: June 23, 1774 – Nightingales very jealous of their young: & make a jarring harsh noise if you approach them.
- 1772: June 23, 1772 – A brood of swallows, flyers, appear for the first time. Cut great part of the great meadow.
- 1771: June 23, 1771 – Dark & cold, sun, clouds.
- 1770: June 23, 1770 – Wheat is very backward: hardly any ears appear. It is worthy of notice that on my clayey soil horses prefer the grass that grows on a sand-walk, tho’ shaded & dripped by a tall hedge, to that which springs from the natural ground in a sunny and open situation.
- 1769: June 23, 1769 – Thistles begin to blow. Young wheat-ears, birds so called.
Posted by sydney on Jun 22nd, 2009
- 1790: June 22, 1790 – Thermometer at Mr Alexander’s– 87 on a N. wall; at S. wall near. Fruit-walls in the sun are so hot that I cannot bear my hand on them. Bror Thos’ thermr was 89 on an E. wall in the afternoon.
*Much damage done, & some persons killed by lightening on this sultry day. My Bro. Thos’s thermr in Blackfriars road against an eastern wall in the afternoon was 89. My thermomr after the sun was got round upon it, was 100: Thomas forgot to look in time.
- 1788: June 22, 1788 – My fly-catchers left their nest this day.
- 1787: June 22, 1787 – Netted the wall-cherries. Boys bring wood-strawberries; not ripe.
- 1786: June 22, 1786 – Jasmine in warm aspects begins to blow.
- 1785: June 22, 1785 – Turbid sunset: the disk of the sun looked like three suns. Full moon.
- 1784: June 22, 1784 – The wind broke-off a great bough from Molly White’s horse-chestnut tree.
- 1783: June 22, 1783 – Corn-flags, fraxinella, martagons, pinks, & dark-leaved ornage-lilies begin to blow. Bees swarm. Cherries look finely, but are not yet highly ripened.
- 1780: June 22, 1780 – Gloomy & moist, rain. Sold my st. foin the 13th crop. Lighted a fire in the dining room. Rain at S. Lambeth 32.
- 1779: June 22, 1779 – Farmer Turner housed his hay; it should, I think, have lain a day longer.
- 1777: June 22, 1777 – Swallows are hawking after food for their young ’til near nine o’ the clock. They take true pains to support their family.
- 1775: June 22, 1775 – Pines begin to ripen at Hartley. I have not seen the great species of bat this summer.
* Teals breed in Woolmer-forest: jack-snipes breed there also no doubt, since they are to be found there the summer thro’. A person assures me, that Mr Meymot, an old clergyman at North cappel in Sussex, kept a cuckow in a cage three or four years; & that he had seen it several times, both winter and summer. It made a little jarring noise, but never cryed ‘cuckow’: It might perhaps have been a hen. He did not remember how it subsided.
- 1774: June 22, 1774 – Spiraea filipendula, Valeriana offic:. Quail calls. Young backward rooks just flown. Young nightingales flown. Mayflies abound on the Whorwel streams & are taken by hirundines.
- 1773: June 22, 1773 – The King came down to Portsmouth to see the fleet.
* June the 22 : 23 : 24. The firings at Spithead were so great that they shook this house. They were heard on those days at Ringmer two miles east of Lewes in Sussex; & at Epsom in Surry.
- 1772: June 22, 1772 – Sweet hay-making day. Put all the St. foin up in a large cock in excellent order: four large jobs.
- 1769: June 22, 1769 – Thistles begin to blow. Young wheat-ears, birds so called.
Posted by sydney on Jun 21st, 2009
- 1792: June 21, 1792 – Put sticks to some of the kidney-beans. Longest day: a cold, harsh solstice! The rats have carried away six out of seven of my biggest Bantam chickens; some from the stable, & some from the brew-house.
- 1791: June 21, 1791 – Mr. Richardson’s straw-berries very dry, & tasteless.
- 1790: June 21, 1790 – Scarlet-straw-berries good. A small praecox melon. The longest day:
“The longest daye in time resignes to nighte;The greatest oke in time to duste doth turne;The Raven dies; the Egle failes of flighte;The Phoenix rare in time herselfe doth burne;The princelie stagge at lenghte his race doth ronne;And all must ende that ever was begonne.”
Geffrey Whitney’s Emblemmes; p. 230, 1586
- 1789: June 21, 1789 – Vines begin to blossom: corn-flags blow. My brother trenched his field, & sowed it with barley: but the corn seems as if it would be too big, & begins already to lodge. My brother has set up a may-pole 55 feet in height: it is constructed out of two slender deal-spars, & for support cramped to the corner of a garden wall.
- 1788: June 21, 1788 – Bro. B. has in his grounds 77 rows of Lucerne, which are each 48 yards in length. This plot furnishes his three horses with green meat the summer thro’, & is cut at an avarage four times in the year. His gardener cuts-up three rows at a time several evenings in the week, & observes that one row fodders one horse for 24 hours. The crop is kept clean at considerable expense; & would soon be over-run with weeds, was not care & attention bestowed. As soon as the whole rows are gone thro’, those that were cut at first are ready to be cut again. He has 15 lights of melons, & 16 lights for cucumbers; & 40 hand glasses for ridge-Cucumbers & other purposes.
- 1784: June 21, 1784 – Dark & chilly, rain. Cold and comfortless.
- 1783: June 21, 1783 – The late ten dripping days have done infinite service to the grass, & spring-corn.
- 1781: June 21, 1781 – Finished cutting the St foin, which has stood full long. The 14th crop. Sold it to John Hale. In some parts a good burden.
- 1777: June 21, 1777 – Wheat begins to come into ear. A pair of martins began a nest this day over the garden-door. The brick-burner has received great damage among his ware that was drying by the continual rains.
- 1775: June 21, 1775 – Hay makes at a vast rate. Vast crops of plums, currants, & gooseberries. House-martin which laid in an old nest, hatches. House-martins, which breed in an old nest get the start of those that build in new ones by 10 days, or a fortnight.
- 1774: June 21, 1774 – Dark, & still. Rain.
- 1773: June 21, 1773 – First brood of young swallows comes forth more early than usual. They commonly appear about the first week in July.
- 1772: June 21, 1772 – Brother John sailed from Cadiz for England.
- 1771: June 21, 1771 – St foin housed about Winton.
- 1769: June 21, 1769 – Vast rain, cold wind. Quite a winter’s day.
Posted by sydney on Jun 20th, 2009
- 1791: June 20, 1791 – Went round by Petersfield. Foxgloves blow. By going round by Petersfield we make our journey to Bramshot 23 miles. After we had been driven 20 miles we found ourselves not a mile from Wever’s down, a vast hill in Wolmer forest, & in the parish of Selborne. Bramshot in a direct line is only seven miles from Selborne.
- 1790: June 20, 1790 – Muck laid on a gardener’s field poisons my Brother’s outlet. A martin at Stockwell chapel has built its nest against the window: it seems to stick firmly to the glass, and has no other support. In former summers I remember similar instances.
- 1784: June 20, 1784 – Narrow-leaved iris, cornflag, & purple martagons blow. Butter-fly orchids in the hanger.
- 1782: June 20, 1782 – The smoke from the lime-kilns hangs along the forest in level tracts for miles.
- 1781: June 20, 1781 – Much thunder, & vast showers to the westward. Vast storm & rain at Winton. These storms were very terrible at Sarum, & in the vale of the white-horse, etc.
- 1780: June 20, 1780 – Early pease abound. Strawberries, & cherries ill-ripened, & very small. Much wall-fruit. Roses blow.
- 1778: June 20, 1778 – The elders, water-elders, fox-gloves, & other soltitial plants begin to be in bloom. Blue dragon-flies appear. Cucumbers, which had stopped for a time, bear again.
* My favorite old Galloway, who is touched in his wind, was allowed to taste no water for 21 days; by which means his infirmity grew much less troublesome. He was turned to grass every night, and becaome fat & hearty, and moved with ease. During this abstinence he staled less than usual, & his dung was harder & dryer than usually fall from grass-horses. After refraining from a while he shewed little propensity for drink. A good lesson this to people, who by perpetual guzzling create a perpetual thirst. When permitted to drink he shewed no eagerness for water.
- 1777: June 20, 1777 – Tremella nostoc abounds in the field-walks; a sign that the earth is drenched with water.
- 1776: June 20, 1776 – Cut my St foin; a large burden: rather over-blown: the nineth crop. Libellula virgo, sive puella. Dragon-fly with blue upright wings.
* As the way-menders are digging for stone in a bank of the street, they found a large cavern running just under the cart-way. This cavity was covered over by a thin stratum of rock: so that if the arch had given way under a loaded waggon, considerable damage must have ensued.
- 1775: June 20, 1775 – Meadow-grass very short indeed.
- 1773: June 20, 1773 – Young wild-ducks, or flappers are taken at Oakhanger-pond; & a small Anas olive, which seemed to me to be a young teal: turned it into James Knight’s ponds.
- 1772: June 20, 1772 – Ephemerae innumberable on the Alresford stream. When the swifts play very low over the water they are feeding on emphemerae and phryganeae.
- 1771: June 20, 1771 – Sheep are shorn. St foin cut.
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