Posted by sydney on Jun 24th, 2009
- 1792: June 24, 1792 – Thunder, & hail. A sad midsumr day. When the Blattae seem to be subdued, & got under; all at once several large ones appear: no doubt they migrate from the houses of neighbours, which swarm with them.
- 1791: June 24, 1791 – 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.
- 1789: June 24, 1789 – Mazagan beans come in. The barley much lodged. No house-martins appear at S.L., a very few swallows, & only three pairs of swifts that seem to belong to the place. No wonder then that flies abound so in the autumn as to become a nuisance.
- 1788: June 24, 1788 – Four women gather my Bror’s gooseberries for sale.
- 1786: June 24, 1786 – Wheat is in bloom, & has had a fine, still, dry, warm season for blowing. Nights miserably hot, & sultry.
- 1783: June 24, 1783 – Vast dew, sun, sultry, misty, & hot. This is the weather that men think is injurious to hops. The sun “shorn of his beams” appears thro’ the haze like the full moon.
- 1783: June 23, 1783 – Vast honey-dew; hot & hazey; misty. The blades of wheat in several fields are turned yellow, & look as if scorched with the frost. Wheat comes into ear. Red even: thro’ the haze. Sheep are shorn.
- 1782: June 24, 1782 – The disorder seems rather to abate in these parts. Some few sufferers have had relapses.
- 1780: June 24, 1780 – Cistus ledon blows.
* Thomas kept the rain account at Selborne. - 1779: June 24, 1779 – Things in the garden do not grow. Clap of thunder. Vine-bloom smells fragrantly.
- 1778: June 24, 1778 – Strawberries ripen. Notwithstanding the vast bloom there are no plums nor many pears; a moderate share of apples: few currans, & gooseberries. Few cherries. Great crop of medlars. Tempest at Farnham.
- 1777: June 24, 1777 – Kidney-beans look miserably. A poor cold solstice for tender plants. Wheat looks yellow. My bees when swarming settle every year on the boughs of the Balm of Gilead fir. Yesterday they settled at first in two swarms, which soon coalesced into one. To a thinking mind few phenomena are more striking than the clustering of bees on some bough where they remain in order, as it were, to be ready for hiving:
…”arbore summa
Confluere, & lentis uvam demittere ramis.” - 1776: June 24, 1776 – Hay makes well. The wind bangs the hedges & flowers about.
- 1774: June 24, 1774 – My Bro: has brewed a barrel of strong beer with his hordeum nudum. My Brother’s hordeum nudum is very large and forward, and has a broad blade like wheat: it is now spindling for ear, & the tops of the ears appear. It will be much forwarder than the common barley. Swifts squeak much.
* The swifts that dash round churches & towers in little parties, seem to me to be the cock-birds: they never squeak ’til they come close to the walls or eaves, & possibly then are seranading their females, who are close in their nests attending to the business of incubation. Swifts keep out the latest of any birds, never going to roost in the longest days ’til about a quarter before nine. Just before they retire they squeak & dash & shoot about with wonderful rapidity. Thy are stirring at least seventeen hours when the days are longest. - 1772: June 24, 1772 – Hay makes well. Flisky clouds, & some rock-like clouds. Sambucus nigra. When the elder blows summer is established.
- 1771: June 24, 1771 – Cut my St. foin.
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