The Natural History of Selborne

A gale rises every morning at ten o’ the clock & falls at sunset.

Thunder, lightening, rain, snow!  A severe tempest.  Much damage done in & about London: damage to some ships at Portsmouth. Vast damage in various parts!  Two men were struck dead in a wind-mill near Rooks-hill on the Sussex downs: & on Hind-head one of the bodies on the gibbet was beaten down to the ground.  Harry & Ben Woods came.

A vast tempest at Sarum; & an house beat down.  The mast of a man of war was struck at Spit-head by the lightening.

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

The wind on Saturday last occasioned much damage among the shipping in the river, & on the E. coast.

Prodigious damage appears to be done by the late tempests, all over the kingdom; & in many places abroad.

The news papers mention vast floods about the country; & that much damage has been done by high tides, & tempestuous winds.

Much damage has been done at sea & land by the late strong winds; in particular about London.  The vines were very forward in June: but now the grapes are quite backward, having made no progress in ripening for some weeks, on account of the blowing, black, wet weather.  The bunches are of a good size, & the grapes large, & much want hot sunshine to bring them to perfection. My potted balsoms, which stand within, are still in beauty,  tho’ they have been blowing now more than three months.  One in particular is more showy now than ever, & has such double flower that they produce no seed.  The blossoms are as large as a crown piece.

The cause, occasion, call it what you will, of fairy-rings, subsists in the turf, & is conveyable with it: for the turf of my garden-walks, brought from the down above, abounds with those appearances, which vary their shape, & shift situation now in segments, & sometimes in irregular patches, the seeds of which were doubtless also brought in the turf.  Hunter’s moon.  Much lightening, & thunder.  This storm did much damage at Hammersmith, Putney, Wandsworth, &c. in the Isle of Wight, & at Plymouth, &c. &c.  This stomr did great damage in the isl of Wight, Lancashire, & at Torbay where our fleet of observation lay, & over on the coast of France near Brest: & was part of the hurricane which occasioned such horrible devastations in the W. Indies.

A tremendous storm in the Leeward islands, which occasioned vast damage among the shipping, & c.  Vast halo round the moon.