The Natural History of Selborne

• 1793: April 10, 1793 – Dug the asparagus bed, & cleared away the straw laid on.  Farmers wish for a gentle rain.
• 1792: April 10, 1792 – Hot sun. Goslins on commons. Black thorn blossoms.
• 1791: April 10, 1791 – The early beech in the long Lythe shows leaves fully expanded.
• 1788: April 10, 1788 – Crown Imperials blow, & stink.  Much gossamer.  Bat.
• 1787: April 10, 1787 – Cloudless.  Goslings.  No swallows.
• 1786: April 10, 1786 – Planted 12 goose-berry trees, & three monthly roses, & three Provence roses.  Mr & Mrs Taylor left Selborne.
• 1783: April 10, 1783 – Therm. 72!!! Prodigious heat: clouds of dust.  Thermr at Selborne only 62!  Nightingale at Bradshot.
• 1780: April 10, 1780 – Planted two more beds of asparagus.
• 1779: April 10, 1779 – The beeches on the hanger begin to show leaves.
• 1778: April 10, 1778 – Three bernacle-geese on a pond at Bramshot: one was shot & sent to me.
• 1776: April 10, 1776 – One swallow at Wallingford.
• 1773: April 10, 1773 – It appears from good information that sometimes the osprey falco haliaetus, Linn: is known to hawk the great pond at Frinsham.  It darts down with great violence on a fish, so as to plunge itself quite under water.  The man at the ale-house adjoining shot one as it was devouring its prey on the handle of a plough.  This man shot also a sea-pie, ostralegus on the banks of his pond.

From the studio of Thomas Bewick, for a very bird-y edition of the journals today.

• 1793: April 9, 1793 – Thomas Knight, a sober hind, assures us, that this day on Wish-hanger Common between Hedleigh & Frinsham he was several Bank Martins playing in & out, & hanging before some nest-holes in a sand-hill, where these birds usually nestle.  This incident confirms my suspicions, that this species of Hirundo is to be seen first of any; & gives great reason to suppose that they do not leave their wild haunts at all, but are secreted amidst the clefts, & caverns of these abrupt cliffs where they usually spend their summers.  The late severe weather considered, it is not very probable that these birds should have migrated so early from a tropical region thro’ all these cutting winds and pinching frosts: but it is easy to suppose that they may like bats & flies, have been awakened by the influence of the Sun, amidst their secret latebrae, where they have spent the uncomfortable foodless months in a torpid state, & the profoundest of slumbers.  There is a large pond at Wish-hanger which induces these sand-martins to frequent that district.  For I have ever remarked that they haunt near great waters, either rivers or lakes.  Planted in one of the quarters of the garden, in ground well-dunged, 8 long rows of potatoes.  Carted in hot dung for the cucumber-bed.
• 1792: April 9, 1792 – Nightingale sings.  Cuckoo is heard.  Timothy the tortoise weighs 6 ae 11 1/2 oz.
• 1789: April 9, 1789 – Brimstone butter-fly.  The tortoise comes out.  Dog violets blow.  Summer-like.
• 1787: April 9, 1787 – Sun, sharp wind.
• 1783: April 9, 1783 – Red-start at Selborne.
• 1776: April 9, 1776 – Young geese & ducks.  Four swallows at Alton.
• 1774: April 9, 1774 – The ring-ouzel appears on it’s spring migration.  It feeds now on ivy-berries, which just begin to ripen.  Ivy blossoms in Octobr.  In the autumn it feeds on haws, yew berries, &c.: also on worms, &c.
• 1772: April 9, 1772 – Titlark whistles.
• 1771: April 9, 1771 – Wryneck pipes about in orchards.
• 1770: April 9, 1770 – No birds sing, & no insects appear during this wintry, sharp season.
• 1769: April 9, 1769 – Atricapilla.  The black-cap is usually the second bird of passage that appears.  Some snow under the hedges.
• 1768: April 9, 1768 – The titlark, Aladua pratorum, first sings.  It is a delicate songster; flying from tree to tree, & spreading out it’s wings it chants in it’s descent.  It also sings on trees, & on the ground walking in pasture fields.

• 1790: April 8, 1790 – Mary White left us.
• 1788: April 8, 1788 – Timothy heaves up the earth.
• 1787: April 8, 1787 – Mrs Clement’s daughter, born this day, makes my nephews & nieces 49.
• 1784: April 8, 1784 – Dry & cold. Apricot begins to blow. Cucumber blows, female bloom without male. Snow melted. (A farmer told Mr Yaldon, that he saw two swallows on this way to Hawkley!!) A very large fall of timber, of about 1000 trees, has been cut this spring in the Holt-forest; one fifth of which belongs to the Grantee Lord Stawel. He lays claim also to the lop & top: but the poor of the parishes of Binsted, & Frinsham, says it belongs to them; & have actually in a riotous manner taken it away. One man that keeps a team has carryed home near forty stacks of wood. Forty nine of these people his Lordship has served with actions; & provided they do not make restitution, proposed to sue them. The timber, which is very fine, was winter-cut; vis: before barking time.
• 1783: April 8, 1783 – Swallow appeared at Liss.
• 1773: April 8, 1773 – Fritillaria imperialis meleagris.

Notes:
The peasantry was asserting their rights to gather fuel in common land, established by custom at least since The Charter of the Forest of 1217. This period saw a rapid erosion of the old rights of the common, as land was enclosed and privatized to facilitate the industrialization of agriculture. The move from self-sustaining peasantry to wage-labour provoked more serious riots in Selborne in 1830. Of Whitean interest in these riots was the great unpopularity of Gilbert’s successor in the church, who had a shot fired through is window.

Fritillaria imperialis meleagris– the snake’s head fritillary, a native wildflower.

• 1793: April 7, 1793 – The chaffinches destroy the blossoms of the polyanths in a sad manner.  Sowed a bed of carrots: the ground hard, & rough, & does not rake fine.
• 1792: April 7, 1792 – The cucumber shoot out fibers down their hills; earthed them a little.  Thomas mowed the dark green grass growing on the Fairy circles, & segments of circles in my grass plot, which encrease in number every year.
• 1790: April 7, 1790 – Thames very full & beautiful, after so much dry weather: wheat looks well; meadows dry, & scorched; roads very dusty.
• 1788: April 7, 1788 – Cucumbers begin to set.  Put some honey in the frames to tempt the bees.
• 1784: April 7, 1784 – Many lettuces, both Coss & Dutch, have stood out the winter under the fruit wall.  They were covered with straw in the hard weather, for many weeks.
• 1782: April 7, 1782 – Peter Wells’s well runs over.  Strong lavant thro’ Cobb’s court-yard.
• 1780: April 7, 1780 – Tortoise keeps still in it’s hole.
• 1776: April 7, 1776 – Linnets, & chaffinches flock still: so are not paired.  Some few sky-larks survive.
• 1773: April 7, 1773 – Prunus spinosa. The black-thorn begins to blow. This tree usually blossoms while cold N.E. winds blow: so that the harsh rugged weather obtaining at this season is called by the country people black-thorn winter.
• 1772: April 7, 1772 – Termes pulsatorium raps. Death-watch vulg.
• 1771: April 7, 1771 – Began to be confined.
• 1770: April 7, 1770 – Cut the first cucumber:  full old.  Snow covers the ground.

Spring flowers in snow. London, April 6, 2008

• 1793: April 6, 1793 – On the 6th of last October I saw many swallows hawking for flies around the Plestor, & a row of young ones, with square tails, sitting on a spar of the old ragged thatch of the empty house.  This morning Dr Chandler & I cause the roof to be examined, hoping to have found some of these birds in their winter retreat: but we did not meet with any success, tho’ Benham searched every hole & every breach in the decayed roof.
• 1792: April 6, 1792 – Players left us.
• 1791: April 6, 1791 – The cuckoo arrives, & is seen, & heard.  The Apricots have no blossoms; they lost all their buds by the birds.  Red start returns, & appears on the grass plot.
• 1790: April 6, 1790 – Young goslings on the common.
• 1789: April 6, 1789 – Timothy the tortoise heaves up the sod under which he is buried.  Daffodil blows.
• 1788: April 6, 1788 – NIGHTINGALE heard in the church-litten coppice: qu.
• 1787: April 6, 1787 – Stone-curlews pass along over my house of an evening with a short quick note after dark.  Wry-neck pipes in the orchard.  Nightingale sings at Citraro in the nearer Calabria.
• 1782: April 6, 1782 – Many hail-storms about.  Sunny evening, pleasant.  The wind veered about to every black storm.  On this day the lavants began to break at Chawton, two fields above the church.
• 1773: April 6, 1773 – I am informed that three swallows appeared over a mill-pond at Bramshot on Sunday, March 28.  They were seen over the paper-mill pond by Mr Pym.
• 1772: April 6, 1772 – Wood lark sits.  Hirundo domestica!  Swallow comes early.  Cock snipe pipes & hums in the air.  Is the latter sound ventriloquous, or from the rapid motion of the wings?  The bird always descends when that noise is made, & the wings are violently agitated.

Notes:
The quest for hibernating swallows continues. I’d forgotten we had snow this time last year!

• 1793: April 5, 1793 – The air smells very sweet, & salubrious.  Men dig their hop-gardens, & sow spring-corn.  Cucumber plants show rudiments of fruit.  Planted cuttings of currans, & goose-berries.  Dug some of the quarters in the garden, & sowed onions, parsnips, radishes, & lettuces.  Planted more beans in the meadow.  Many flies are out basking in the sun.
• 1792: April 5, 1792 – Wind damages the hedges.  Some thatch torn by the wind.  Mr White’s tank at Newton runs over, & Capt. Dumaresque’s is near full.
• 1789: April 5, 1789 – Wry-neck pipes.  The smallest uncrested wren chirps loudly, & sharply in the hanger.
• 1788: April 5, 1788 – The first radishes failed.  After all Mr Charles Etty did not sail fm St Hellens ’till this morning.
• 1784: April 5, 1784 – My crocus’s are in full bloom, & make a most gaudy show. Those eaten-off by the hares last year were not injured.
• 1781: April 5, 1781 – Searched the S.E. end of the hanger for house-martins, but without any success, tho’ many young me assisted.  They examined the beechen-shrubs & holes in the steep hanger.
• 1780: April 5, 1780 – The frost injured the bloom of the wall-trees: covered the bloom with boughs of ivy.
• 1774: April 5, 1774 – The ground harrows, & rakes well.
• 1772: April 5, 1772 – Uncrested wren chirps.  Barometer falls apace.  Ants appear.
• 1770: April 5, 1770 – Mercuralis perennis.  Oxalis acetosella.  Sour, cold day.  Great storms about.
• 1769: April 5, 1769 – Anemone pulsatilla budds.  This plant, the pasque flower, which is just emerging and budding for bloom, abounds on the sheep-down just above Streatley in Berks.
• 1768: April 5, 1768 – Luscinia!

• 1793: April 4, 1793 – Timothy Turner ashed a great part of Baker’s hill, & dunged one part.  Wag-tail on grass-plots.
• 1791: April 4, 1791 – Mary White came from London.
• 1790: April 4, 1790 – Sharp, cutting wind!  Heath-fire in the forest makes a great smoke.
• 1786: April 4, 1786 – Planted 1 doz. of white currans, & six of goose-berry trees, with many rasp-plants on the orchard-side of the bank.  Turned-out the cucumber-plants into the hills of the bearing-bed; they are large & strong, & began to be too big for the pots.  Sowed onions, & parsnips: the ground is dusty, & works well.  10 pots of Cucumber-plants remain.  Sowed radishes, & lettuce.  Planted one Roman, & one Newington Nectarine-tree against the fruit-wall.
• 1781: April 4, 1781 – The rooks at Faringdon have got young.  Very  little spring-corn sown yet.  Snow as deep as the horses belly under the hedges in the North field.  A brace more of hares frequenting my grounds were killed in my absence: so that I hope now the garden will be safe fore some time.
• 1778: April 4, 1778 – A swallow was seen this morning near Ripley.  Young geese.
• 1776: April 4, 1776 – No rain since the beginning of March. The ground dry & harsh.  The Bombylius medius abounds.  It is an hairy insect, like an humble-bee, but with only two wings, & a long straight beak, with which it sucks the early flowers, always appearing in March.  The female seems to lay it’s eggs as it poises on the it’s wings, by striking it’s tail on the ground, & against the grass that stands in it’s way in a quick manner for several times together.
• 1774: April 4, 1774 – Two swallows appear at Faringdon.
• 1772: April 4, 1772 – Mackaral sky, wheel round the sun.  Clouds in horizon.
• 1771: April 4, 1771 – Ring-ouzel.  Pleasant day, but every thing quite dryed up.  No lambs frolic & play as usual… acrior illos Cura domat — Virg.

• 1793: April 3, 1793 – The small willow-wren, or chif-chaf, is heard inthe short Lythe.  This is the earliest summer bird, & is heard usually about the 20th of March.  Tho’ one of the smallest of our birds, yet it’s two notes are very loud, & piercing, so as to occasion an echo in the hanging woods.  It loves to frequent tall beeches.
• 1792: April 3, 1792 – Some players came hither from Alton.  A hand-glass of early celeri entirely eaten-up by the Chrysomela oleracea saltatoria, vulgarly called the turnip-fly.  Sowed more.
• 1791: April 3, 1791 – The chif-chaf, the smallest uncrested wren, is heard in the Hanger, & long Lythe.  They are usually heard about the 21 of March.  These birds, no bigger than a man’s thumb, fetch an echo out of the hanger at every note.
• 1789: April 3, 1789 – Some wood-cocks are now found in Hartely-wood: as soon as the weather grows a little warm, they will pair, & leave us.
• 1788: April 3, 1788 – Dogs-tooth violets blow.
• 1787: April 3, 1787 – Cowslips blow under hedges.
• 1786: April 3, 1786 – Earthed the cucumber-bed; plastered some fresh cow-dung under the hills.  Sowed two ounces of carrot seed in the garden-plot in the meadow.
• 1784: April 3, 1784 – The crocus’s are full blown, & would make a fine show, if the sun would shine warm.  The ever-green-trees are not injured, as about London.  On this day a nightingale was heard at Bramshot!!
• 1782: April 3, 1782 – The prospect at Newton was most lovely; as usually is the case after much rain etc.
• 1781: April 3, 1781 – Timothy eats heartily.  The wry-neck appears & pipes.  Bombylius medius still: bobs his tail in flight against the grass, as if in the act of laying eggs.
• 1773: April 3, 1773 – Apricot blossoms seem mostly cut off: peaches & nectarines are well-blown, & look well.  Sowed a box of polyanth-seed, & a bed of Celeri.
• 1771: April 3, 1771 – Planted potatoes, & sowed carrots, parsneps, onions, coss-lettuce, leeks.
• 1770: April 3, 1770 – Snipe pipes in the moors.  Bat appears.

Frontsipiece to Thorely’s Melisselogia, 1744

• 1791: April 2, 1791 – Crown imperials begin to blow.  Pronged the asparagus beds. Wheat looks well.  Mrs B. White & Hannah White come from London.
• 1790: April 2, 1790 – Nightingales heard in honey-lane.
  “The Nightingall, that chaunteth all the springe,/Whose warblinge notes throughout the wooddes are harde,/Beinge kepte in cage, she ceaseth for to singe,/And mourns, bicause her libertie is barde.” — Geffrey Whitney’s Emblemes: 1586, p.81
• 1788: April 2, 1788 – Sowed a bed of Onions.  Mr Churton left us.
• 1787: April 2, 1787 – Lined the back of the Cucumber-bed with hot dung.
• 1784: April 2, 1784 – No snow ’till we came to Guild-down; deep snow on that ridge!  Much snow at Selborne in the fields: the hill deep in snow!  The country looks most dismally, like the dead of winter!  A few days ago our lanes would scarce have been passable for a chaise.
• 1781: April 2, 1781 – Tortoise out.  Timothy weighs 6 lobs. 8 3/4 oz.  The beginning of last May he wighted only 6 lbs. 4 oz.
• 1779: April 2, 1779 – Efts appear.
• 1775: April 2, 1775 – Bees resort to the hot-beds tempted by some honey spread on the leaves, & blossoms of the cucumbers.  When bees do not frequent the frames, the early fruit never sets well: therefore this expident is very proper for early melons, & cucumbers.
• 1771: April 2, 1771 – Butterflies appear again.  Some flies begin to appear.  Spring-like day, sharp in the morning.
• 1768: April 2, 1768 – Bombylius medius.  Musca bombyliiformis dense pilosa nigra abdomine obtuso, ad latera rufo, longissimum spiculum quoddam ceu linguam ex ore protendit.  Ray’s Hist: Insect: p. 273

Notes:

Whitney’s Choice of Emblemes, The Nightingale
The latin passage in the ’68 entry reads, roughly: ‘bombilius fly has dense hair on a rounded body, a long proboscis from which the tongue projects.’ More accurate translations welcome! A lovely photo of Bombilius medius.

Contributor John Brouwer de Koning adds:

On this day in 1791 George Vancouver’s HMS Discovery and HMS Chatham left Falmouth in search of the Northwest Passage. And William Cowper wrote Mrs. Throckmorton, “My dear Mrs. Frog, A word or two before breakfast; which is all that I shall have time to send you!”

• 1793: April 1, 1793 – In the mid counties there was a prodigious snow; some people were lost in it, & perished.
• 1792: April 1, 1792 – Stormy, wet night.  Mrs Clement, & daughters left us.  Berriman’s field measured contains 1 acre 3 qur. 25 rods.
• 1791: April 1, 1791 – The bearing cucumber-bed becomes milder & more mellow; & the plants shoot & blow well.  Daffodils make a show.  Planted potatoes in the meadow-garden, ten rows.
• 1790: April 1, 1790 – Sharp, & biting wind.  Some crude oranges were put in a hot cupboard in order that the heat might mellow them, & render them better flavoured: but the crickets got to them, & gnawing holes thro’ the rind, sucked out all the juice, & devoured all the pulp.
• 1789: April 1, 1789 – Rain in the night, spring-like.  Crocus’s make a gaudy show.  Some little snow under the hedges.
• 1788: April 1, 1788 – Daffodils in bloom.  Mr Churton came.
• 1787: April 1, 1787 – Crown imperials, double hyacinths, cherries against walls, blow.
• 1785: April 1, 1785 – Snow hangs in the trees, & makes a perfect winter scene!
• 1783: April 1, 1783 – Field almost dry.
• 1782: April 1, 1782 – Vast rains!  91.
• 1781: April 1, 1781 – The tortoise came-out for two hours.
• 1776: April 1, 1776 – Gossamer floats.  Wood-larks hang suspended in the air, & sing all night.
• 1775: April 1, 1775 – White frost, sun, dark clouds.
• 1774: April 1, 1774 – No rain since the 9th of March.
• 1771: April 1, 1771 – Mr Woods, of Chilgrove, had on this day 27 acres of spring-sown wheat not then sprouted out of the ground: & yet he had a good crop from those fields, no less than 4 quarters an acre!