The Natural History of Selborne

Cabbage sprouts come in.  Both the pullets of last summer lay.

Dr. Chandler came.

Frost, ice, bright, red even, prodigious white dew.

As the Surveyor of Gosport-turnpike was mending the road in Rumsdean bottom, he found several Roman coins, one of which was silver.  Hence we may conclude that the remarkable entrenchments in that valley, whatever use may have been made of them since, were originally Roman.  There is a tradition that they were frequently occupied during the grand rebellion n the time of Charles the first, a period in which many skirmishes happened in these parts, as at Cherriton, Alton, &c.  These trenches must have been a post of consequence, because they are on a great road, & between large sloping woods.  At the S.W. end of this valley, towards Filmer-hill, in a place called Feather-bed-lane, are three large contiguous barrows which seem to indicate that near the spot some considerable battle must have been fought in former times.

The moon & Venus in the S.W. & Jupiter & Mars in the E. make nightly a charming appearance.

Three gallons of best french brandy from London.

Bullfinches pick the buds of damson-trees.

The great titmouse, or sit-ye-down, sings.  One crocus is blown-out.  Insects abound in the air: bees gather much on the snowdrops, & winter-aconites.  Gossamer is seen streaming from the boughs of trees.

A fine young hog salted & tubbed; weight 7 scores, & 18 pounds.

A trufle-hunter came with his dogs, & tryed my tall hedges, where, as he told us, he found only a few small bulbs, because the season was over: in the autumn, he supposes, many large trufles might be met with.  He says, trufles do not flourish in deep woods, but in hedge-rows, & the skirts of coppices within the influence of the sun & air.