The Natural History of Selborne

A nest of young blackbirds destroyed by a cat in my garden.

Planted 4 rows of my own potatoes in the garden.  Mowed the terrace walk.

Redstart appears.  Daffodils are gone: mountain-snow-drops, & hyacinths in bloom; the latter very fine: fritillaries going.  Vast flood at Whitney in Oxfordshire, on the Windrush.

Saw a pair of swallows at Alton.

Great bloom of cherries, pears, & plums.

A great thunder-storm at Woodstock, & Islip: the Charwel much flooded, & discoloured.  No rain at Oxford.  Prodigious was the damage done about the Kingdom on this day by storms of thunder, lightening, & vast torrents, & floods, & hail.  The town of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire was  quite deluged, & the shops & sitting rooms filled with water.  A house was burnt at some place; & in others many people hurt, & some killed.

Thermometer at Fyfield 72! in the shade.

Men how their wheat, which is very forward, & fine. Thomas in my absence planted beans, & sowed carrots, parsnips, cabbage-seed, onions, lettuce, & radishes.

Hot sun. Goslins on commons. Black thorn blossoms.

Nightingale sings.  Cuckoo is heard.  Timothy the tortoise weighs 6 ae 11 1/2 oz.