The Natural History of Selborne

The well at Temple is 77 feet deep: 60 to the water, & seventeen afterwards.  My well measures only 63 feet to the bottom.

Goleigh well to the water is 55 1/2 yrds  /166 feet; to the bottom 57 1/2 yrds / 172 1/2 feet; Heards well to the water is 70 2/3 yrds / 212 feet; to the bottom 83 1/3 yrds / 250 feet.

A stone was 4 1/2 seconds falling to the bottom of Heards well; & 4 seconds to the water of Goleigh.   The wells were measured accurately by the Revd. Edumund White on the 25th of August 1792, in the midst of a very wet summer.  Deep, & tremendous as is the well at Heards, John Gillman, an Ideot, fell to the bottom of it twice in one morning; & was taken out alive, & survived the strange accident many years.  Only Goleigh & Heards wells were measured by Mr E. White.

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.

Grey crow returns, & is seen near Andover.  Some nightly thief stole a dozen of my finest nectarines.

Very rough weather at Portsmouth: boats over-set, & people drowned in coming from Spit-head.

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.

Beautiful picturesque, partial fogs along the vales, representing rivers, islands, & arms of the sea!  These fogs in London & other parts were so deep that much mischief was occasioned by men falling into rivers, & being over-turned into ditches, etc.

Timothy Turner’s brew-house on fire: but much help coming in & pulling off the thatch, the fire was extinguished, without any farther damage than the loss of the roofing.  The flames burst thro’ the thatch in many places.  We are this day annoyed in the brown parlor by multitudes of flying ants, which come forth, as usual, from under the stairs.

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.

Cauliflowers.  The Opera-house in the Hay-market burnt down.

A patent machine, called a Fire Escape (rather perhaps a ‘Scape fire) was brought along Fleet street.  It consisted of a Ladder, perhaps 38 feet in length, which turned on a pivot, so as to be elevated or depressed at will, & was supported on timber frame-work, drawn on wheels.  A groove in each rail of this ladder-like construction admitted a box or hutch to be drawn up or let down by a pulley at the top round & by a windlass at bottom.  When the ladder is set up against a wall, the person in danger is to escape into the hutch, then drawn to the top.  That the ladder may not take fire from any flames breaking out below, it is defended all the way by a sheathing of tin.  Several people, it seems, had illiberally refused the Patentee the privilege of trying his machine against their houses:  but Mr White, on application, immediately consented; when the ladder was applyed to a sash on the second story, & a man was hoisted up, & let down with great expedition, & safety, & then a couple of boys went together.  Some spectators were of opinion that the hutch or box was too scanty or shallow, & for that security it ought to be raised on the sides and lower end by a treillis of strong wire, or iron-work, lest people in terror & confusion should miss of their aim & fall over to the ground.  This machine was easily drawn by four men only.  The ladder, the owner told us, would reach to a third story, when properly elevated.  The name of the Inventor is Mounsieur Dufour.