The Natural History of Selborne

Parted the bunches of Hepatica’s, that were got weak, & planted them again round the borders.

Planted 30 cauliflowers brought from Mareland; & a row of red cabbages.  The ground is so glutted with rain that men can neither plow, nor sow, nor dig.

On friday last my Brother & I walked up to Bentely church, which is more than a mile from his house & on a considerable elevation of ground.  From thence the prospect is good, & you see at a distance Cruxbury hill, Guild down, part of Lethe hill, Hind-head, & beyond it to the top of one of the Sussex downs.  There is an avenue of aged yew-trees up to the church: & the yard, which is large, abounds with brick-tombs covered with slabs of stone: of these there are ten in a row, belonging to the family of the Lutmans.  The church consists of three ailes, & has a squat tower containing six bells.  From the inscriptions it appears that the inhabitants live to considerable ages.  There are hob-grounds along on the north side of the turn-pike road, but none on the south towards the stream.  The whole district abounds with streams.  The largest spring on my brother’s farm issues out of the bank in the meadow, just below the terrace.  Some body formerly was pleased with this fountain, & has, at no small expence bestowed a facing of Portland stone with an arch, & a pipe, thro’ which the water falls into a stone bason, in a perennial stream.  By means of a wooden trough this spring waters some part of the cirucumjacent slopes.  It is not so copious as Well head.

Papilio rhamni, the brimstone butterfly, appears in the Holt.  Trouts rise, & catch at insects.   A dob-chick comes down the Wey in sight of the banks.  Timothy the tortoise comes forth, & weighs 6 ae 5 1/2 z.  Took a walk in the Holt up to the lodge: no bushes, & of course no young oaks: some Hollies, & here & there a few aged yews: no oaks of any great size.  The soil wet & boggy.

During my absence Thomas parted-out my polyanths, & planted them in rows along the orchard walk, & up the border of Baker’s Hill by the hot beds.  My Brother has a pigeon-house stocked with perhaps 50 pairs of birds, which have not yet begun to breed.  He has in the yard Turkeys, a large breed of ducks, & fine fowls.  On the ponds are geese, which begin to sit.

Apricot begins to blow.  red-wings, & starlings abound in the meadow, where they feed in the moist, & watered spots.

There is a glade cut thro’ the covert of the Holt opposite these windows, up to the great Lodge.  To this opening a herd of deer often resorts, & contributes to enliven & diversify the prospect, in itself beautiful & engaging.

The sweet bells at Farnham, heard up the vale of a still evening, is a pleasant circumstance belonging to this situation, not only as occasioning agreeable associations in the mind, & remembrances of the days of my youth, when I once resided in that town: — but also by bringing to one’s recollection many beautiful passages from the poets respecting this tuneable & manly amusement, for which this island is so remarkable. Of these none are more distinguished, & masterly than the following:–

“Let the village bells as often wont,/
Come swelling on the breeze, & to the sun/
Half set, ring merrily their evening round.
– – – – /
It is enough for me to hear the sound/
Of the remote, exhilerating peal,/
Now dying all away, now faintly heard./
And now with loud, & musical relapse/
In mellow changes pouring on the ear.”
— The Village Curate

Trouts begin to rise: some angling takes place in this month. By Brother’s cucumbers are strong, & healthy.  Lady Stawell tells Mrs White that they have seen more woodcocks & snipes at their table this winter than usual.

Dogs-tooth violets blow.  Wag-tails on the grass-plots: they were here all this mild winter.  Goldfinches are not paired.