The Natural History of Selborne

Meadows not cut.  Nymphaea lutea in bloom in a watry ditch.  Went to see the village of Compton, where my father lived more than sixty years ago, & where seven of his children were born.  The people of the village remember nothing of our family.  Mr. Fulham’s conservatory richly furnished; & the grounds behind his house engaging, & elegant.  The romantic grounds, & paddock at the west end Godalming town are very bold & striking.  The hanging woods very solemn, & grand; & many of the trees of great age & dimensions.  This place was for many years inhabited by General Oglethrope.  The house is now under a general repair being with it’s grounds the property of Mr Godbold a quack Doctor.  The vale & hanging woods round Godalming are very beautiful: the Wey a sweet river, & becomes navigable at this town.  One branch of the Wey rises at Selborne.  At the entrance to the avenue leading to Bramshot-place are three great, hollow oaks, the largest of which measure 21 feet in girth.  We measure this tree at about 5 feet from the ground, & could not come at it lower on account of a dr stone-wall in which it stands.  We measure also the largest Sycamore in the front of the house, & found the girth to be 13.  They are very tall, & are deemed to be 80 feet in height: but I should suppose they do not exceed 74 feet.  I hear much of trees 80 or 90 feet high; but have never measured anay that exceed the supposed height of the Sycamores above.

Went to visit Mr Edmund Woods Senr. Swifts abound at Godlaming.

Mr. Richardson’s straw-berries very dry, & tasteless.

Went round by Petersfield. Foxgloves blow. By going round by Petersfield we make our journey to Bramshot 23 miles. After we had been driven 20 miles we found ourselves not a mile from Wever’s down, a vast hill in Wolmer forest, & in the parish of Selborne. Bramshot in a direct line is only seven miles from Selborne.

A flock of ravens about the hager for many days.

Pricked out more celeri in my garden, & Mr. Burbery’s.  Planted some cabbages from Dr Chandeler’s.  Timothy hides himself during this wintry weather.  The dry weather lasted just 3 weeks & 3 days; part of which was very sultry, & part very cold.

Planted out my annuals from Dan Wheeler.  Pricked out some celeri, good pants.  My crop of spinnage is just over: the produce from a pint of seed, sowed the first week in August, was prodigious.

Snails come out of hedges after their long confinement from the drought.  A swallow in Tanner’s chimney has hatched.  The fern on the forest is killed; but hardly touched by the frost on Selborne down, which is 400 feet higher than Wolmer.

The kidney-beans at Newton-house not touched by the late frost.  Bror. Thomas left us.

White frost, dark & cold; covered the kidney beans with straw last night.  My annuals, which were left open, much injured by the frost: the balsams, which touched the glass of the light, scorched.  Kidney-beans injured, & in some gardens killed.  Cucumbers secured by the hand-glasses but they do not grow.  The cold weather interrupts the house-martins in their building, & makes them leave their nests unfinished.  I have no martins at the end of my brew-house, as usual.