The Natural History of Selborne

• 1793: March 21, 1793 – Parted the bunches of Hepatica’s, that were got weak, & planted them again round the borders.
• 1791: March 21, 1791 – A hen gross-beak was found almost dead in my outlet it had nothing in it’s craw.
• 1790: March 21, 1790 – Bombylius medius, a hairy fly, with a long projecting snout, appears: they are seen chiefly in March & April.  “Os rostro porrecto, setaceo, longissimo, bivalvi.”  A dipterous insect, which sucks it’s aliment from blossoms.  On the 21st of March, a single bank, or sand-martin was seen hovering & playing round the sand-pit at short heath, where in the summer they abound.  I have often suspected that S. martins are the most early among the hirundines.
• 1788: March 21, 1788 – Young squab red-breasts were found this day in a nest built in a hollow tree.
• 1785: March 21, 1785 – Mr Charles Etty sailed from the mother bank, near the Isle of Wight, where they stopped to take in passengers.
• 1782: March 21, 1782 – Vast flocks of Fieldfares appear: they are probably intent on the business of migration.
• 1780: March 21, 1780 – The tortoise is quite awake, & came-out all day long: towards evening it buried itself in part.
• 1775: March 21, 1775 – Mrs Snooke’s old tortoise came out of the ground, but in a few days buried himself as deeps as ever.  Earth-worms lie out, & copulate.
• 1769: March 21, 1769 – Goose sits; while the gander with vast assiduity keeps guard; & takes the fiercest sow by the ear & leads her away crying.

• 1793: March 20, 1793 – Planted 30 cauliflowers brought from Mareland; & a row of red cabbages.  The ground is so glutted with rain that men can neither plow, nor sow, nor dig.
• 1791: March 20, 1791 – Mr Burbey shot a cock Gross-beak which he had observed to haunt his garden for more than a fortnight.  Dr Chandler had also seen it in his garden.  I began to accuse this bird of making sad havock among the buds of the cherries, goose-berries, & wall-fruit of all the neighbouring orchards.  Upon opening its crop & craw, no buds were to be seen; but a mass of kernels of the stones of fruits.  Mr B. observed that this bird frequented the spots where plum-trees grow; & that he had seen it with some what hard in it’s mouth which it broke with difficulty; these were the stones of damasons.  The latin Ornithologists call this bird Coccothraustes, i.e., berry-breaker, because with it’s large horny beak it cracks & breaks the shells of stone-fruits for the sake of the seed or kernel.  Birds of this sort are rarely seen in England, & only in winter.   About 50 years ago I discovered three of these gross-beaks in my outlet, one of which I shot.
• 1790: March 20, 1790 – That noise in the air of some thing passing quick over our heads after it becomes dark, & which we found last year proceeded from the Stone-curlew, has now been heard for a week or more.  Hence it is plain that these birds, which undoubtedly leave us for the winter, return in mild seasons very soon in the spring; & are the earliest summer birds that we have noticed.  They seem always to go down from the uplands towards the brooks, & meads.  The next early summer bird that we have remarked is the smallest Willow-wren, or chif-chaf; it utters two sharp, piercing notes, so loud in the hollow woods at to occasion an echo, & is usually first heard about the 20th of March.
• 1788: March 20, 1788 – Violent hail-storm, which filled the gutter, & came in & flooded the stair-case; & came down the chinmies & wetted the floors.
• 1787: March 20, 1787 – Sent me from South Lambeth, two Nectarine-trees; several sorts of curious pinks; some mulberry rasps some scarlet lichnis’s; a root of Monk’s rhubarb.
• 1786: March 20, 1786 – Sowed six rows of garden-beans in the meadow; & two in the garden.  Chif-chaf is heard: his notes are loud, & piercing.
• 1782: March 20, 1782 – The wheat-ear is seen on our down.
• 1780: March 20, 1780 – We took the tortoise out of it’s box, & buried it in the garden: but the weather being warm it heaved up the mould, & walked twice down to the bottom of the long walk to survey the premises.
• 1773: March 20, 1773 – Lacerta.  Sky thickens with flisky clouds.
• 1770: March 20, 1770 – Swan-goose, anser cygeus guineensis, sits.  The peacock, pavo, asserts his gallantry when the hens appear:  “… whose gay train/Adorns him color’d with the florid hue/Of rainbows, & starry eyes. — Milton
• 1769: March 20, 1769 – Young cucumber swells.  The great bed heats well.

• 1791: March 19, 1791 – Sowed my own ashes on the great meadow.  Timothy hides himself again.  Men turn their sheep into the green wheat.  The hunters killed a female hare, which gave suck: so there are young leverets already.  Dr Chandler’s labourer, in digging down the bank in the midst of the parsonage garden called the grotto, found human bones among the rocks.  As these lay distant from the bounds of the church-yard, it is possible that they might have been deposited there before there was any church, or yard.  So again, in 1728, when a saw-pit was sunk on the Plestor under the wall of court-yard, many human bones were dug-u at a considerable distance from the church-yard.
• 1789: March 19, 1789 – Snow lies on the hill.  Made the bearing cucumber-bed: the dung is full wet, but warm.
• 1787: March 19, 1787 – Women sow wheat.  Gossamer abounds.  Sowed a bed of Celeri under a hand-glass.
• 1785: March 19, 1785 – Sowed a bed of spinage: the winter-spinage killed.  Tulips, & crown-imperials, & hyacinths sprout.  Planted eight larches in the Baker’s hill.  Cucumbers thrive.  Ice still in water-tubs.  Men plough: the frost pretty much out of the ground wch is mellow.
• 1782: March 19, 1782 – Cleaned-up the alleys, & borders of the k. garden.
• 1771: March 19, 1771 – Cucumber-plants thrive & shew the rudiments of bloom & fruit.  Farmer Turner sows wheat.  Crocuss figure.
• 1770: March 19, 1770 – Viper, Coluber Berus, appears.

• 1791: March 18, 1791 – Snow lies deep in Newton-lane, & under hedges in the uplands.  The hounds find no hare on all Selborne hill.
• 1788: March 18, 1788 – The wheat-ear, a bird so called, returns & appears on Selborne down.
• 1787: March 18, 1787 – Timothy the tortoise heaves up the earth: he lies under the wall-nut tree.
• 1780: March 18, 1780 – No turnips to be seen on the road. Green plovers on the common. The uncrested wren, the smallest species, called in this place the Chif-chaf, is very loud in the Lythe. This is the earliest summer bird of passage, & the harbinger of spring. It has only two piercing notes.
• 1775: March 18, 1775 – Adoxa moschatellina.  The twigs which the rooks drop in building supply the poor with brush-wood to light their fires*.  Some unhappy pairs are not permitted to finish any nest ’til the rest have compleated yir building; as soon as they get a few sticks together a party comes & demolishes the whole.  As soon as rooks have finished their nests, & before they lay, the cocks begin the feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a fondling tremulous voice & fluttering wings, & all the little blandishments that are expressed by the young while in a helpless state.  This gallant deportment of the males is continued thro’ the whole season of incubation.  Theses birds do not copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but on the ground in open fields.
  *Thus did the ravens supply the prophet with necessaries in the wilderness.
• 1773: March 18, 1773 – Many sorts of insects begin to come out.  Water-insects begin to move.  Milvus aeruginosus?  Hot in the sun.
• 1770: March 18, 1770 – Milk frozen in the pantry.  Vast rock-like clouds in the horizon.
• 1769: March 18, 1769 – Planted out the cucumbers in the two-light frames: the plants are stout, but pretty long.  Several fruit have bloom in the first bed.

Testudo graeca

• 1793: March 17, 1793 – On friday last my Brother & I walked up to Bentely church, which is more than a mile from his house & on a considerable elevation of ground.  From thence the prospect is good, & you see at a distance Cruxbury hill, Guild down, part of Lethe hill, Hind-head, & beyond it to the top of one of the Sussex downs.  There is an avenue of aged yew-trees up to the church: & the yard, which is large, abounds with brick-tombs covered with slabs of stone: of these there are ten in a row, belonging to the family of the Lutmans.  The church consists of three ailes, & has a squat tower containing six bells.  From the inscriptions it appears that the inhabitants live to considerable ages.  There are hob-grounds along on the north side of the turn-pike road, but none on the south towards the stream.  The whole district abounds with streams.  The largest spring on my brother’s farm issues out of the bank in the meadow, just below the terrace.  Some body formerly was pleased with this fountain, & has, at no small expence bestowed a facing of Portland stone with an arch, & a pipe, thro’ which the water falls into a stone bason, in a perennial stream.  By means of a wooden trough this spring waters some part of the cirucumjacent slopes.  It is not so copious as Well head.
• 1792: March 17, 1792 – Dog’s toothed violets bud. Lord Stawell made me a visit on this day, & brought me a white wood-cock it’s head, neck, belly, sides, were milk-white, as were the under sides of the wings.  On the back, & upper parts of the wings were a few spots of the natural colour.  From the shortness of the bill I should suppose it to be a male bird.  it was plump, & in good condition.
• 1791: March 17, 1791 – The Stone-curlew is returned again: & was heard this evening passing over the village frmo the uplands down to the meadows & brooks.  Planted 1/2 hundred cabbages.  Timothy comes out.
• 1790: March 17, 1790 – Timothy the tortoise lies very close in the hedge.
• 1789: March 17, 1789 – Icicles hang in eaves all day.  Snow melts in the sun.
• 1788: March 17, 1788 – Sowed the border opposite the rear parlor-windows with dwarf upright larkspurs; a fine sort.
• 1785: March 17, 1785 – Made the four-light beargin cucumber-b ed with five dung-carts, & 1/2 of dung.
• 1783: March 17, 1783 – Full moon.  Ice.  Nect. & peach blow.  Moon totally ecliped.
• 1780: Mrch 17, 1780 – Brought away Mrs Snooke’s old tortoise, Timothy, which she valued much, & had treated kindly for near 40 years.  When dug out of it’s hybernaculum, it resented the Insult by hissing.
• 1779: March 17, 1779 – Tussilago farfara.  Stellaria holostia.
• 1775: March 17, 1775 – Nuthatch brings out & cracks her nuts, & strews the garden-walks with shells.  They fix them in a fork of a tree where two boughs meet: on the Orleans plum tree.
• 1772: March 17, 1772 – Wild geese appear in a flock, flying to the Southward.

Notes:

A momentous day in Selborne: Timothy became a kind of Selborne mascot, and makes several appearances in “The Natural History of Selborne” itself. An extract from a letter by Gilbert to one of his nieces, in the person of Timothy complaining of the indignities to which she was put:

These matters displease me; but there is another that much hurts my pride: I mean that contempt shown for my understanding which these Lords of Creation are very apt to discover, thinking that nobody knows anything but themselves.

She (it was a she; Gilbert could have made use of this helpful page on sexing Testudo graeca) has penned a recent autobiography. The tortoise trust has a nice little biography as well. Her shell now resides in the British museum.

• 1792: March 16, 1792 – Daffodil blows… “it takes the winds of March/ Before the Swallow dares.”
• 1790: March 16, 1790 – Dog’s toothed violets blow.
• 1789: March 16, 1789 – Mended the cucumber frames.
• 1787: March 16, 1787 – The cats brought-in a dead house-martin from the stable.  I was in  hopes at first sight that it might have been in a torpid state; but it was decayed, & dry.  Polyanths blow.  Jet-ants appear.
• 1782: March 16, 1782 – Frost, ice, small flights of snow.  Peaches, & Nect. forwarder in bloom than apricots.
• 1775: March 16, 1775 – Ephemerae bistae come forth.
• 1771: March 16, 1771 – Crocuss begins to blow & make a show. Upon examination it seems probable that the gulls which I saw were the pewit-gulls, or black caps, the larus ridibundus Linn: They haunt, it seems, inland pools, & sometimes breed on them. See Brit. zool vol: 2nd.
• 1770: March 16, 1770 – Tussilago farfara.  Thick ice.  Ground as hard as a stone.

• 1792: March 15, 1792 – Snow-drops are out of bloom.  Rainbow.
• 1790: March 15, 1790 – A vast snake appears at the hot-beds.
• 1789: March 15, 1789 – Snow on the ground.  raw & cold.  Mrs Clement left us.
• 1788: March 15, 1788 – The hot-bed streams very much; but the plants thrive, & put out their roots down the sides of the hills; & the weeds spring in the bed.  Yet a little neglect, should there come hot sun-shine, would burn the plants.  Holes are bored on every side in the dung.
• 1780: March 15, 1780 – Mrs. Snooke was buried.
• 1775: March 15, 1775 – Hard frost, hot sun.  Sheltered the fruit-wall bloom with boughs of ivy & yew.
• 1773: March 15, 1773 – Mild & grey, sun.  Ants.  Chrysomela Gottingensis.  This insect is very common with us.
• 1769: March 15, 1769 – Made cucumber-bed over again; & added many barrows of fresh dung: it was so drenched with snow & rain that it would not heat.  Great hail-storm.

• 2009: March 14 – <?php OTDList(); ?>
• 1793: March 14, 1793 – Papilio rhamni, the brimstone butterfly, appears in the Holt.  Trouts rise, & catch at insects.   A dob-chick comes down the Wey in sight of the banks.  Timothy the tortoise comes forth, & weighs 6 ae 5 1/2 z.  Took a walk in the Holt up to the lodge: no bushes, & of course no young oaks: some Hollies, & here & there a few aged yews: no oaks of any great size.  The soil wet & boggy.
• 1791: March 14, 1791 – Daffodil blows.  Timothy the tortoise heaves up earth.
• 1790: March 14, 1790 – About this time Ned White is to sail for Antegoa in the Lady Jane Halliday: Ross, Captain.
• 1787: March 14, 1787 – The male bloom of the cucumbers opens: the bed is warm, & the plants thrive.  Planted more roses from South Lambeth.
• 1786: March 14, 1786 – Took away the netting on the wall-cherries.
• 1783: March 14, 1783 – Daffodil blows.
• 1780: March 14, 1780 – Chaffinches sing but in a shorter way than in Hants.
• 1779: March 14, 1779 – Small rain.  Quick-set hedges begin to leaf.  Dust is laid.
• 1778: March 14, 1778 – The green wood-pecker laughs in the fields of Vauxhall.  Owl hoots at Vauxhall.
• 1773: March 14, 1773 – Wh: frost, thick ice, cloudless sky.  Skylarks rise & sing a little.
• 1772: March 14, 1772 – Most severe flights of snow.  Plows are frozen out, dirt carries horse, & man.

• 2009: March 14 – <?php OTDList(); ?>
• 1793: March 14, 1793 – Papilio rhamni, the brimstone butterfly, appears in the Holt.  Trouts rise, & catch at insects.   A dob-chick comes down the Wey in sight of the banks.  Timothy the tortoise comes forth, & weighs 6 ae 5 1/2 z.  Took a walk in the Holt up to the lodge: no bushes, & of course no young oaks: some Hollies, & here & there a few aged yews: no oaks of any great size.  The soil wet & boggy.
• 1791: March 14, 1791 – Daffodil blows.  Timothy the tortoise heaves up earth.
• 1790: March 14, 1790 – About this time Ned White is to sail for Antegoa in the Lady Jane Halliday: Ross, Captain.
• 1787: March 14, 1787 – The male bloom of the cucumbers opens: the bed is warm, & the plants thrive.  Planted more roses from South Lambeth.
• 1786: March 14, 1786 – Took away the netting on the wall-cherries.
• 1783: March 14, 1783 – Daffodil blows.
• 1780: March 14, 1780 – Chaffinches sing but in a shorter way than in Hants.
• 1779: March 14, 1779 – Small rain.  Quick-set hedges begin to leaf.  Dust is laid.
• 1778: March 14, 1778 – The green wood-pecker laughs in the fields of Vauxhall.  Owl hoots at Vauxhall.
• 1773: March 14, 1773 – Wh: frost, thick ice, cloudless sky.  Skylarks rise & sing a little.
• 1772: March 14, 1772 – Most severe flights of snow.  Plows are frozen out, dirt carries horse, & man.

• 1793: March 11, 1793 – There is a glade cut thro’ the covert of the Holt opposite these windows, up to the great Lodge.  To this opening a herd of deer often resorts, & contributes to enliven & diversify the prospect, in itself beautiful & engaging.
• 1791: March 11, 1791 – Sowed radishes, & parsley.  Weeded the garden, & dug some ground.
• 1790: March 11, 1790 – Several hundreds of fieldfares on the hill: they probably congregate in order to migrate together.
• 1786: March 11, 1786 – Snow wastes very fast.  Roofs clear of snow.  The ground appears.  About this time my niece Brown was brought to be of her fifth child, a girl, who encreases the number of my living nephews & nieces to 43.
• 1775: March 11, 1775 – Vast rain.  This rain must occasion great floods.  The trufle-hunter came this morning, & took a few trufles: he complains that those fungi never abound in wet winters, & springs.
• 1773: March 11, 1773 – Sun begins to look down over the hanger.
• 1771: March 11, 1771 – Crocuss at this time used to be in full bloom. Only one or two roots blowed before this frost began. Made the bearing-cucumber bed with 8 cartloads of dung.
• 1769: March 11, 1769 – Made the bearing cucumber-bed for four lights with seven loads of dung.  The bed was much wetted in making by the snow.