The Natural History of Selborne

• 1790: December 31, 1790 – Total of rain in 1790, 32 inch. 27 h.
• 1789: December 31, 1789 – Storm in the night, that blew down my rain-measurer.  The newspapers say that there are floods on the Thames.
• 1785: December 31, 1785 – Snow covers the ground.
• 1784: December 31, 1784 – Much snow on the ground.  My laurel-hedge, & laurustines, quite discoloured, & burnt as it were with the frost.
• 1783: December 31, 1783 – Ice under people’s beds.  Water bottles burst in chambers.  Meat frozen.  The fierce weather drove the snipes out of the moors of the forest up the streams towards the spring-heads.  Many were shot round the village.
• 1782: December 31, 1782 – Baromr in 1782 at S. Lambeth.
  lowest April 1………… 28:5-10;
  highest Nov 13 ………….. 30: 13-20 or 6 1/2;
  Therm: lowest Feb 12 ……………. 23;
  highest June 18 ……………….. 81
• 1776: December 31, 1776 – A grosbeak was shot near the village.  They sometimes come to us in the winter.
• 1775: December 31, 1775 – The country-people, who are abroad in winter-mornings long before sun-rise, talk of much hard frost in some spots, & none in others.  The reason of these partial frosts is obvious: for there are, at such times, partial fogs about: where the fog obtains little or no frost appears; but where the air is clear there it freezes hard.  So the  frost takes place either on the hill or in dale, where every the air happens to be clearest, & freest from vapour.  Hyrn, cornu vel angulus: whence our Faringdon Hyrn, or hern as we pronounce it, is the corner-field of our parish.  Heane, Humilis: hence perhaps our honey-lane.  Our Gally-hill, is perhaps gallows hill from Galga, crux.  Does not domesday book among other privileges, say that Priors & c. were allowed Furcas, gallows?  By, habitation: from whence ye adjective Byn, as Binsted, &c.  Deortun, saltus: hence no doubt our Dorton, a wild, bushy common just below the village: Deerton, a place where deer are kept.  Eowod, Ovile: hence perhaps our field called the Ewel?  Ymbhanger the winding hanger: we have places so named.  Rode, crux: hence our Rode-green near the Priory, where probably a cross was erected.  Fyrd, a ford; also a camp: hence probably our high common-field to the N.W. is called the fordown.  Ether, sepes: the top border that binds down our hedges & keeps them together is called by our hedgers ether to this day: the wickering the top along they call ethering.  Gouleins (Gothic) salutatio: hence perhaps our word Golly, a sort of jolly kind of oath, or asservation much in use among our carters, & lowest people.  Eorthwicga, blatta terrana: hence our absurd word, not peculiar to this district: earwig.
• 1773: December 31, 1773 – Frost all day.
• 1768: December 31, 1768 – A wet season began about the 9th of June, which lasted thro’ haymaking, harvest, & seed-time, & did infinite mischief to the country.  It appears from my Brother Barker’s instrument, with which he measures the quantity of rain, that more water fell in the county of Rutland in the year 1768 from Jan. the 1 to Dec 31 than in any other Calendar year for 30 years past; viz. 30 1/2 inches.  A mean year’s rain in Rutland is about 20 3/4 inches.

Notes:

Brother Barker was White’s brother-in-law, married to his sister Anne. The lengthy entry on possible Saxon roots for local place-names is one of the few indications in the journals that White was almost as keenly interested in local history– what would have been called “Antiquarianism”– as he was in natural history. The full title of The Natural History of Selborne is in fact The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, although the letters concerning the antiquities are often omitted from modern editions of the book, lacking as they are in the vividness of direct observation that makes White’s writing so timeless; although they do have a hobbity charm of their own.Here is a nice article on the first grammar of Anglo-Saxon, with observations on the antiquarian spirit.

• 1788: December 30, 1788 – Ice within doors.  Rime.  Snow on the ground.
• 1787: December 30, 1787 – Some of our hollow lanes are not passable.
• 1780: December 30, 1780 – No shower since the 24th of Novemr.
• 1771: December 30, 1771 – Lambs begin to fall.  Harsh wind all day.
• 1769: December 30, 1769 – Papilio Io appears within doors, & is very brisk.

Notes:

Papilio Io is the Peacock butterfly, which hibernates sometimes in houses. Otherwise a slow day in Selborne.

• 1792: December 29, 1792 – Mr. B. & wife left us.
• 1790: December 29, 1790 – On this day Mrs Clements was delivered of a boy, who makes my nephews & nieces again 57 in number.  By the death of Mrs Brown & one twin they were reduced to 56.
• 1788: December 29, 1788 – Many wild geese in the moors of the forest.
• 1783: December 29, 1783 – Carryed some savoy-heads, endive, & celeri into the cellar: the potatoes have been there some days.  Red breasts die.  Ground covered with ice & snow.
• 1780: December 29, 1780 – Snow totally gone.
• 1770: December 29, 1770 – Wrens whistle all the winter except in severe frost.  Wrens whistle much more than any English bird in a wild state.  The redbreast sings great part of the year; but at intervals is silent.  This year concludes with a very wet season, which has lasted from the middle of Octr last, & has occasioned vast floods, & desolation both at home & abroad.  Much wheat-land in wet countries remains unsown.

• 1792: December 1, 1792 – Thomas started a hare, which lay in her form under a cabbage, in the midst of my garden.  It has begun to eat the tops of my pinks in many places.  The land-springs, which begin to appear, are much abated.
• 1791: December 1, 1791 – Mr & Mrs Ed. White left us.  The Hermitage, new capped with a coat of thatch, & embellished with a large cross, makes a very picturesq object on the hanger, & takes the eye agreeably.
• 1788: December 1, 1788 – Several wells in the village are dry, & some ponds in the neighbourhood.  Well-head runs much as usual.  There is a fine perennial spring at the bottom of Hasteds.  Men cart earth, & marl from Clay’s pond.
• 1786: December 1, 1786 – The downs are very heavy.
• 1783: December 1, 1783 – Some ivy-berries are near full grown: others, & often on the same twig, just out of bloom.  Farmer Lassam has more than 20 young lambs: some fallen some days, near a fortnight.
• 1782: December 1, 1782 – One of the keepers of Wolmer-forest sent me a peregrine falcon which he shot this day on the verge of the forest, as it was devouring wood-pigeon it had just taken.  The Falco Peregrinus, or Haggard Falcon, mentioned in the last page but one, is a noble species of Hawk, seldom seen in the southern counties.  In winter 1766 one was killed in the neighbouring parish of Faringdon, & sent by me to Mr Pennant in N. Wales.  Since that time I have met with none till now.  The specimen before me is in fine preservation, not being at all injured in the shooting. It measures 42 inches & upwards from wing to wing, & 21 from bill to tail, & weighs 2 pounds & an half standing weight.  This species is very robust, & wonderfully formed for rapine: it’s breast is plump, & muscular: its thighs long, & thick, & brawny; it’s legs remarkably short, & well-set: the feet are armed with most formidable sharp talons.  The eye-lids, & Cere of the bill are yellow, but the Irides of the eyes are dusky the bill is thick, & hooked, & of a dark colour, & has a jagged process near the end of the upper mandible on each side.  It’s tail is short in proportion to it’s bulk but the wings tho’ long, when closed, fall short of the train. From it’s large & fair proportions it may be supposed to be a female.  Probably it was driven from the mountains of N. Wales, or Scotland, where it is known to breed, by the late deep snows, & rigorous weather.  The plumage answers well to Brit. zoology 4: vol: 1: p: 156.  For a bird of prey, this was in high case; it’s intestines very fat.  In it’s craw were many barley-corns, which probably came from the crop of the wood-pigeon on which it was feeding when shot.  Voracious birds, when devouring their quarry, swallow feathers, & bones, & all parts indiscriminately.
• 1779: December 1, 1778 – Planted an old Newington-peach, & a Roman nectarine.
• 1777: December 1, 1777 – The brick-layers began to lay on the second coat of plaster in my new parlor.
• 1775: December 1, 1775 – Many species of flies come forth.  Bats are out, & preying on phalaenae.  The berries of Ivy, which blowed in the end of Sep: now half grown.  A noble & providential supply for birds in winter & spring!  for the first severe frost freezes, & spoils all the haws, sometimes by the middle of Novr.  Ivy-berries do not seem to freeze.  Large, grey, shell-less cellar snails lay themselves up about the same time with those that live abroad: hence it is plain that a defect of warmth alone is not the only causes that influences their retreat.  The rudiments of the arbutus-fruit swell, & grow.  Laurustines continue to blow.
• 1773: December 1, 1773 – Birds on the downs are rooks, larks, stone-chats, kites, gulls: some field-fares, some hawks.
• 1771: December 1, 1771 – Hot sun.  Cloudless & still.  Dark clouds to the S.W.  Bats about.
• 1770: December 1, 1770 – Some oaks have yet some green leaves.  Those oaks that were eaten bare by the chafers leafed about midsumr & continued unusally green late into Novemr.
• 1768: December 1, 1768 – Vast floods.  Vast rain & stormy wind all night.