Men put their hogs up a fatting. Timothy the tortoise, who in May last, after fasting all the winter, weighed only 6 pds. & four ounces: & in Aug. when full feed weighed 6 pds. & 15 ounces: weighs now 6 pds. 9 oun. & 1/2: & so he did last Oct. at Ringmer. Thus his weight fluctuates, according as he fasts or abstains.
Bees begin gathering honey on the bloom of the crocus’s, & finish with the blooms of the ivy.
Planted two rows of small lettuces under the fruit-wall to stand the winter: the ground works very fine. The rows reach the whole length of the wall.
No beech-mast; many acorns. Many wall-nuts. My great tree produced, when measured in their husks, eight bushels
The cause, occasion, call it what you will, of fairy-rings, subsists in the turf, & is conveyable with it: for the turf of my garden-walks, brought from the down above, abounds with those appearances, which vary their shape, & shift situation now in segments, & sometimes in irregular patches, the seeds of which were doubtless also brought in the turf. Hunter’s moon. Much lightening, & thunder. This storm did much damage at Hammersmith, Putney, Wandsworth, &c. in the Isle of Wight, & at Plymouth, &c. &c. This stomr did great damage in the isl of Wight, Lancashire, & at Torbay where our fleet of observation lay, & over on the coast of France near Brest: & was part of the hurricane which occasioned such horrible devastations in the W. Indies.
On these two days many house-martins were feeding & flying along the hanger as usual, ’til a quarter past five in the afternoon, when they all scudded away in great haste to the S.E. and darted down among the low beechen oaken shrubs above the cottages at the end of the hill. After making this observation I waited ’til it was quite dusk, but saw them no more; & returned home well pleased with this incident, hoping that at this late season it might lead to some useful discover, & point out their winter retreat. since that, I have only seen two on Oct. 22 in the morning. These circumstances put together make it look very suspicious that this late flock at least will not withdraw into warmer climes, but that they will lie dormant within 300 yards of the village.
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