The Natural History of Selborne

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.

Glow-worms abound on Baker’s hill.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Pinks, scarlet-lychnis, & fraxinellas blow.  The narrow-leaved blue Iris, called Xiphium, begins to blow.

The spotted Bantam hen brings out seven chickens.  Took a black birds nest the third time: the young were fledged, & flew out of the nest at a signal given by the old ones.

When the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen-hearth swarms with minute crickets not so big as fleas.  The Blattae are almost subdued by the persevering assiduity of Mrs J. W. who waged war with them for many months, & destroyed thousands: at first she killed some hundreds every night.  The thermometer at George’s fields Surrey 82: on the 21, — 51.  St foin fly, sphynx filipendulae, appears.

Planted some hand-glass plants in the frames of the fruiting cucumber-bed: cut down the lining, & worked it up with some grass-mowings.  Some young fly-catchers are out, & fed by their dams.