The Natural History of Selborne

In Alton

Went, & dined with my Brother Benjamin White at Mareland, to which he & his wife were come down for two or three days.  We found the house roomy, & good, & abounding with conveniences: the out-door accommodations are also in great abundance, such as a larder, pantry, dairy, laundry, pigeon-house, & good stables.  The view from the back front is elegant, commanding sloping meadows thro’ which runs the Wey (the stream  from Alton to Farnham) meandering in beautiful curves, & shewing a rippling fall occasioned by a tumbling bay formed by Mr. Sainesbury, who also widened the current.  The murmur of this water-fall is heard from the windows.  Behind the house next the turnpike are three good ponds, & round the extensive outlet a variety of pleasant gravel walks.  Across the meadows the view is bounded by the Holt: but up & down the valley the prospect is diversifyed, & engaging.  In short Mareland is a very fine situation, & a very pleasing Gentleman’s seat.  I was much amused with the number of Hirundines to be seen from the windows: for besides the several martins and swallows belonging to the house, many Swifts from Farnham range up & down the vale; & what struck me most were forty or firty bank-martins, from the heaths, & sand-hills below, which follow the stream up the meadows, & were the whole day long busied in catching the several sorts of Ephemerae which at this season swarm in the neighbourhood of the waters.  The stream below the house abounds with trouts.  Nine fine coach-horses were burnt in a stable at Alresford.

The mare lies out.  St foin begins to blow.

My horses taken into the stable & not to lie out any more a nights.  New coped the top of my kitchen-chimney, mended the tiling, & toached the inside of the roofing to keep out the drifting snow.

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.

Bought a strong, stout white Galloway mare, that walks well, & seems to be gentle.  She was lately the property of Mr Leech, Surgeon at Alton, deceased.

The stream at Fyfield encreases very fast.  Spent three hours of this day, viz. from one o’ the clock till four, in the midst of the downs between Andover & Winton, where we should have suffered greatly from cold & hunger, had not the day proved very fine, & had not we been opposite to the house of Mr Treadgold’s down farm, where we were hospitably entertained by the labourer’s wife with cold sparerib, & good bread, & cheese, & ale, while the driver went back to Andover to fetch a better horse.  The case was, the saddle-horse being new to his business, became jaded and restiff, & would not stir an inch; but was soon kept in countenance by the shaft-horse, who followed his example: so we were quite set-up ’till four o’ the clock, when an other driver arrived with an other lean jaded horse, & with much difficulty assisted in dragging us to Winton, which we did not reach toll six in the evening.  We set out from Fyfield at eleven; so were were seven hours in getting 19 miles.  During our long conversation with the dame, we found that this lone farm-house & it’s buildings, tho’ so sequestered from all neighbourhood, & so far removed from all streams & water, are much annoyed with Norway rats: the carter also told us that about 12 years ago he had seen a flock of 18 bustards at one time on that farm, & once since only two.  This is the only habitation to be met with on theses downs between Whorwel & Winchester.

Mr Talbot turned-out a stag, which after wounding some hounds, & an horse, was taken alive.

Covered the rows of the celeri with straw.  This day compleats the 34 of the dry weather.  Horses begin to lie within.

Turned the horses into the great meadow: there is a vast after grass, more than when the meadow was mowed in the summer.

Horses begin to lie within.