The Natural History of Selborne

Sultry, & heavy clouds. Smell of sulphur in the air. Paid for near 20 wasps: several were breeders; but some were workers, hatched perhaps this year.

Strawberries blow well.  The first effectual rain after a long dry season.

The autumn-sown brown lettuces, which stood the winter, still continue good.  The dry season last friday morning had lasted just 3 months:  the 9, 10, & 11 of March were very wet.

Shower in the night.  Planted-out vast quantities of annuals both in the borders, & basons; both in the fields, & gardens.

Roses begin to blow:  pinks bud; fraxinella blows.  Garden burnt to powder.

Hot sun, & brisk gale, sweet even.  Dusty beyond comparison.  Watered away five hogsheads of water.  Stoparola has five eggs.  Rooks live hard:  there are no chafers.  Barley & oats do not come up;  the fields look naked.  Some pairs of swifts always build in this village under the low thatched roofs of some of the meanest cottages:  & as there fails to be nests in those particular houses, it looks as if some of the same family still returned to the same place.

House-martins do not build as usual:  perhaps are troubled to find wet dirt.  Bees swarm.  Severe heat in the lanes in the middle of the day.

Odd meteorous circle round the sun, which the common people call a mock sun.

Sanicula europaea.  Lysimacha nemorum.  Bees swarm.  Pease in the fields thrive wonderfully.  Thunder.

Lampyris noctiluca.  Thunder & lightening & moderate rain half the inght.  The corn & grass & gardens look well after ye rain.