The Natural History of Selborne

Happy Birthday Gilbert White!

• 1792: July 18, 1792 – Men cut their meadows.  Mr Churton came.
• 1790: July 18, 1790 – Mrs Clement & daughters came.
• 1788: July 18, 1788 – Fly-catcher feeds his sitting hen, Mrs H.W., Bessy, & Lucy came.
• 1786: July 18, 1786 – Gathered & preserved some Rasps.
• 1785: July 18, 1785 – Savoys & artichokes over-run with aphides.  The Fly-catcher in the vine sits on her eggs, & the cock feeds her.  She has four eggs.
• 1781: July 18, 1781 – Bramshot-place
  Lapwings haunt the uplands still.  Farmers complain that their wheat is blited.  At Bramshot-place, the house of Mr Richardson, in the wilderness near the stream, grows wild, & in plenty, Sorbus aucuparia, the quicken-tree, or mountain-ash, Rhamnus frangula, berry-bearing alder; & Teucrium scorodonia, wood-sage, & whortle-berries.  The soil is sandy.  In the garden at Dowland’s, the seat, lately, of Mr Kent, stands a large Liriodendrum tulipifera, or tulip-tree, which was in flower. The soil is poor sand; but produces beautiful pendulous Larches.  Mr R’s garden, tho’ a sand, abounds in fruit, & in all manner of good & forward kitchen-crops.  Many China-asters this spring seeded themselves there, and were forward; some cucumber-plants also grew-up of themselves from the seeds of a rejected cucumber thrown aside last autumn.  The well at Downland’s is 130 feet deep; at Bramshot place..  Mr R’s garden is at an average a fortnight before mine.
• 1778: July 18, 1778 – We have never had rain enough to lay the dust since saturday June 13: now five weeks.  By watering the fruit-trees we have procured much young wood.  The thermometer belonging to my brother Thomas White of South Lambeth was in the most shady part of his garden on July 5th & July 14th: up at 88, a degree of heat not very common even at Gibraltar!! July 5: Thermr at Lyndon in Rutland 85.
• 1777: July 18, 1777 – Swifts dash & frolick about, & seem to be teaching their young the use of their wings.  Thatched my rick of meadow-hay with the damaged St foin instead of straw.  Bees begin gathering at three o’clock in the morning: Swallows are stirring at half hour after two.
• 1773: July 18, 1773 – Lound thunder shower.  Mrs Snooke of Ringmere near Lewes had a coach-horse killed by this tempest: the horse was at grass just before the house.
• 1772: July 18, 1772 – Frequent sprinklings, but not enough all day to lay the dust.  The dry fit has lasted six weeks this day.
• 1769: July 18, 1769 – Moor-buzzard, milvus aeruginosus, has young.  It builds in low shrubs on wild heaths.  Five young.
• 1768: July 18, 1768 – The country is drenched with wet, and quantities of hay were spoiled.

• 1791: July 17, 1791 – Small shower: heavy rain at Clapham, & Battersea.  On this day Mrs Edmd White was brought to bed of a daughter, who encreases my nephews & nieces to the number of 58.
• 1790: July 17, 1790 – Mr Churton came.  A nightingale continues to sing; but his notes are short and interrupted, & attended with a chur. A fly-catcher has a nest in my vines.  Young swallows settle on the grass-plots to catch insects.
• 1786: July 17, 1786 – Rye, & pea-harvest begins.  Several nightingales appear all day long in the broad walk of Baker’s hill.
• 1785: July 17, 1785 – Newton great pond is almost dry; only two or three dirty puddles remain, which afford miserable water for the village.  My nephew Edmd. White of Newton turns his sheep into five acres of barley, which is spoiled by the drought.  Mr Ponk of Farngdon does the same by a field of oats.
• 1784: July 17, 1784 – Mr. Chr. Etty has taken the young Cuckow, & put it in a cage, where the hedge-sparrows feed it.  No old Cuckow has been seen to come near it.  Mr CHarles Etty brought down with him from London in the coach his two finely-chequered tortoises, natives of the island of Madagascar, which appear to be Testudo geometrica, Linn., and the Testudo tessellat, Raii.  One of them was small, & probably a male, weighing about five pounds; the other , which was undoubtedly a female, because it layed an egg the day after it’s arrival, weighed ten pounds and a quarter.  The egg was round, & white, & much resembling in size & shape the egg of an owl.  Ray says of this species that the shell was “Ellipticae seu ovatae figurae solidae plus quam dimidia pars”: & again, “Ex omnibus quas unquam vidi maxime concava.” Ray’s quadrup: 260.  The head, neck, & legs of these were yellow.  These tortoises in the morning when put into the coach at Kensignton were brisk, & well; but the small one dyed the first night that they came to Selborne; & the other, two nights after, having received, as it should seem, some Injury on their Journey.  When the female was cleared of the contents of her body, a bunch of eggs of about 30 in number was found in her.
• 1783: July 17, 1783 – The jasmine, now covered with bloom, is very beautiful.  The jasmine was so sweet that I am obliged to quit my chamber.
• 1782: July 17, 1782 – The great Portugal-laurel in most beautiful bloom.  Tremella nostoc abounds.
• 1781: July 1781 – The sparrow-hawks continue their depredations.
• 1780: July 17, 1780 – White Jasmine begins to blow. The solstitial chafer now flies: this insect is the food of fern-owls thro’ this month.
• 1775: July 17, 1775 – Some martins are buliding against Mr Yaldens’ windows.  Young martins– perchers on the battlements of the tower, where the old ones feed them.
  * The young martin becomes a flyer in about sixteen days from the egg: most little birds come into their maturity, or full growth, in about a fortnight: for were they to lie a long time in the nest in a helpless state, few would escape; some mischief or other would destroy the whole breed.  The more forward pulli are out some days before the underlings of the same brood.
• 1771: July 17, 1771 – Sun sultry, seet even. Good dew. Stopp’d the vines.  White cucumbers begin to bear: the green are still barren.  Clouds threaten.
• 1770: July 17, 1770 – First young swallows appear.  Young Goldfinches.  Turned the grass-cocks about the last week of June.  Vine begins to blow very late! in good summers.
• 1768: July 17, 1768 – Succade-melons come in heaps.

• 1792: July 16, 1792 – Farmer Corps brought me two eggs of a fern-owl, which he found under a bush in shrub-wood. The dam was sitting on the nest; & the eggs, by their weight, seemed to be just near hatching. These eggs were darker, & more mottled than what I have procured before.
• 1789: July 16, 1789 – Wall-cherries are excellent.  Lime-trees blossom, & smell very sweet.  Mr & Mrs Sam Barker, & Miss Elizabeth Barker, came from the county of Rutland.
• 1788: July 16, 1788 – Bull-finch eats the berries of the honey-suckle.  Bror Tho. came.
• 1787: July 16, 1787 – The hedge-sparrow feeds the young cuckow in it’s cage.
• 1784: July 16, 1784 – Phallus impudicus, a stink-pot, comes up in Mr Burbey’s asparagus-bed.  Received a Hogsh. of port-wine, imported at Southampton.
• 1782: July 16, 1782 – A covey of young partridges frequents my out-let.  Hops do not cover their poles, nor throw-out any side-shoots.
• 1781: July 16, 1781 – Wheat-harvest begins at Headley.
• 1776: July 16, 1776 – Bees, when a shower approaches, hurry home.  One hive of bees does not swarm; the bees lie in clusters at the mouth of the hive.
• 1775: July 16, 1775 – Some of the forwardest birds of some broods of martins are out, the more backward remain in the nest.
• 1774: July 16, 1774 – Swallows strike at owls, & magpies.  Cut part of my great mead: grass over-ripe.
• 1771: July 16, 1771 – Sultry, sunny day.  Good dew.  Gardens suffer from want of moisture.  Dark clouds round the horizon.
• 1769: July 16, 1769 – Great showers in sight to the E. & N.E.  The ground is very much burnt up, no rain having fallen, very small showers excepted, since June 27.
• 1768: July 16, 1768 – Grasshopper-lark sings at Bradley.

• 1790: July 15, 1790 – Continual gales all thro’ this month, which interrupt the cutting my tall hedges.
• 1789: July 15, 1789 – We have planted-out vast quantities of annuals, but none of them thrive.  Grapes do not blow, nor make any progress.  The wet season has continued just a month this day.  Dismal weather!
• 1787: July 15, 1787 – Mr White of Newton finds mushrooms in his fir-avenue.  Tremella abounds in my grass-walks.
• 1786: July 15, 1786 – Made jellies, & jams of red currans.  Gathered broad beans.  Mushrooms begin to come in Mr Edmd White’s avenue, under the Scotch firs.  The cat gets upon the roof, & catches young bats as they come forth from behind the sheet of lead at the bottom of the chimney.
• 1785: July 15, 1785 – Boys brought the fourth wasp’s-nest.
• 1783: July 15, 1783 – No rain since June 20th at this place; tho’ vast showers have fallen round us, & near us.
• 1781: July 15, 1781 – The farmers complain of smut in their wheat.
• 1777: July 15, 1777 – Rye, which blows early, in a bad state; no promise of a crop.
• 1774: July 15, 1774 – No young martins out yet.  Creeping white mist.
• 1772: July 15, 1772 – Scarabaeus solstitialis. The fern-owl preys on the fern-chafer.
• 1771: July 15, 1771 – Lovely weather for the blowing of wheat.
• 1770: July 15, 1770 – Heavy showers.  Young frogs migrate from their ponds.  Young partridges.

• 1792: July 14, 1792 – The double roses rot in the bud without blowing out: an instance this of the coldness, & wetness of the summer.  Potatoes blossom.
• 1791: July 14, 1791 – A bat of the largest sort comes forth every evening, & flits about in the front of my brother’s house.  This is a very large species, & seldom seen.  See my history of Selburne.
• 1790: July 14, 1790 – Tempest, & much thunder to the N.W.  Neither cucumbers, nor kidney beans, nor annuals thrive on account of the cold blowing season. Timothy the tortoise is very dull, & spends most of his time under the shade of the vast, expanded leaves of the monk’s rhubarb.
• 1789: July 14, 1789 – Benham skims the horse-fields. Rasps come in: not well flavoured. On this day a woman brought me two eggs of a fern-owl or eve-jarr, which she found on the verge of the hanger to the left of the hermitage, under a beechen shrubb. This person, who lives just at the foot of the hanger, seems well acquainted with these nocturnal swallows, & says she has often found their eggs in that place, & that they lay only two at a time on the bare ground. The eggs were oblong, dusky, & streaked somewhat in the manner of the plumage of the parent-bird, & were equal in size at each end. The dam was sitting on the eggs when found, which contained the rudiments of young, & would have hatched perhaps in a week. From hence we may see the time of their breeding, which corresponds pretty well with that of the Swift, as does also the period of their arrival. Each species is usually seen about the beginning of May. Each breeds but once in a summer; each lays only two eggs.
• 1788: July 14, 1788 – Piped many shoots of elegant pinks.  There are some buntings in the N. field: a very rare bird at Selborne.  They love open fields, without enclosures.  Jennetings, apples so called, come in to be eaten.  Potatoes come in.
• 1787: July 14, 1787 – Hops are dioecious plants: hence perhaps it might be proper, tho’ not practised, to leave purposely some male plants in every garden, that their farina might impregnate the blossoms. The female plants without their male attendants are not in their natural state: hence we may suppose the frequent failure of crop so incident to hop grounds.  No ther growth, cultivated by man, has such frequent & general failures as hops.
  Daniel Wheeler’s boy found a young fledge cuckow in the nest of an hedge-sparrow.  Under the nest lay an egg of the hedge-sparrow, which looked as if it had been sucked.  In the late hot weather the cock bird has been crying much in the neighbourhood of the nest, but not since last week.
• 1785: July 14, 1785 – Vast shower in the evening towards Odiham.  Wheat on the strong lands looks finely.  The crop in the Ewel looked so thin, as if there would be nothing all spring: but now there is fine even wheat.  Fine rain at London.
• 1784: July 14, 1784 – Papilio Machaon in Mrs Etty’s garden.  They are very rare in these parts.
• 1783: July 14, 1783 – When the owl comes-out of an evening, the swifts pursue her, but not with any vehemence.
• 1782: July 14, 1782 – Rain.  This weather will occasion much after-grass.  Field-pease, & spring corn thrive.
• 1781: July 14, 1781 – The hay that is down is now entirely spoiled.  These soft rains sop & drench everything.  A young man brought me a live specimen of a Papilion Machaon, taken below Temple.  The first specimen that ever I saw of that species in these parts was in my own garden in last Augt. 2nd.
• 1780: July 14, 1780 – Seeds of lathraea squammaria ripen.
• 1779: July 14, 1779 – Dwarf elder blows.  Red martagons begin to blow.  Large kidney beans bud for bloom.  Grapes swell.
• 1778: July 14, 1778 – The little pond on our common has still plenty of water! ponds in bottoms are dry.
• 1776: July 14, 1776 – Young frogs migrate, & spread around the ponds for more than a furlong: they march about all day long, separating in pursuit of food; & get to the top of the hill, & into the N. field.
• 1775: July 14, 1775 – Hay much damaged: many meadows not cut. This dripping season, which hurts individuals in their hay, does marvelous service to the public, in the spring-corn, after-grass, turneps, fallows, &c. Oats are much recovered, & brought-on. Wheat begins to change colour; is not lodged.
  * When a person approaches the haunt of fern-owls (caprimulgi) in an evening, they continue flying round the head of the obtruder; & striking their wings together above their backs, in the manner that the pigeons called smiters are known to do, make a smart snap: perhaps at that time they are jealous for their young; & their noise & gesture are intended by way of menace.
• 1774: July 14, 1774 – Swifts, at least 30: at times they seem to come from other villages.
• 1772: July 14, 1772 – The grass-walks burnt to powder.
• 1771: July 14, 1771 – Young martins & swallows begin to congregate.  Young swifts are fledged.
• 1768: July 14, 1768 – Thomas brings down Succade-melons from Selborne; & he says he has cut four brace. They are very fine.

• 1792: July 13, 1792 – Whortle-berries offered at the door.  Cherries have little flavour.
• 1791: July 13, 1791 – My brother gathered a sieve of mush-rooms: they come up in the flower-borders, which have been manured with dung from the old hot beds.
• 1787: July 13, 1787 – The apricots drop off in a surprizing manner.  Planted a bed of Savoys.
• 1784: July 13, 1784 – Finished ripping, furring, & tiling the back part of my house; a great jobb.  Garden-beans come in.
• 1783: July 13, 1783 – Five great white sea-gulls flew over the village toward the forest.
• 1779: July 13, 1779 – Therm. 79!  The grass-mowers complain of the heat.
• 1778: July 13, 1778 – Bestowed great waterings in the garden.
• 1777: July 13, 1777 – The backward wheat is in beautiful bloom: the fields look quite white with blossoms.  The forward wheat is out of bloom, & therefore from the late weather not likely to be so good.
• 1774: July 13, 1774 – Martins hover at the mouth of their nests, & feed their young without settling.
• 1773: July 13, 1773 – Finished stopping the vines: much bloom & much fruit set.  Finished cutting the tall hedges.
• 1772: July 13, 1772 – Lime blows, & smells sweetly, & is much frequented by bees.
• 1770: July 13, 1770 – Cut my great mead, a good crop.  Young bank-martins are flyers: this species every year is the first that brings forth it’s young.  Quer: Do they feed their young flying, or not?
• 1769: July 13, 1769 – Oxford
  Vast flocks of young wag-tails on the banks of the charwel.
• 1768: July 13 – Truffles began to be taken for ye first time in my Brother Henry White’s grove; & will continue to be found in great abundance every fort-night till about Lady-day.

• 1791: July 12, 1791 – On this day My Bro. Benj. White began to rebuild his house in Fleetstreet which he had entirely pulled to the ground. His grandson Ben White laid the first brick of the new foundation, & then presented the workmen with five shillings for drink. Ben, who is five years old, may probably remember this circumstance hereafter, & may be able to recite to his grandchildren the occurances of this day.
• 1789: July 12, 1789 – Wag-tails bring their young to the grass-plots, where they catch insects to feed them.
• 1788: July 12, 1788 – Codlins came in for stewing. Wasps encrease & gnaw the cherries. Hung bottles to take the wasps.
  “Contemplator item, cum se Nux plurima silvis
  Induet in florem, & ramos curvabit olentis:
  Si superant foetus, pariter frumenta sequenterur;
  Magnaque cum mango veniet tritura calore.”*
  If by Nux in this passage Virgil meant the Wall-nut, then it must follow, that he must also mean that a good wall-nut year usually proves a good year for wheat. This remark is verifyed in a remarkable manner this summer with us; for the wallnut trees are loaded with a myriad of nuts, which hang in vast clusters; & the crop of wheat is such as has not been known for many seasons. The last line seems also to imply, that this coincident, even in Italy, does not befall but only in a dry, sultry summer. Tho’ wall-nut-trees in England blow long before wheat; yet it is probable that in Italy, where wheat is more early than with us, they may blossom together. And indeed unless these vegetables had accorded in the time of their bloom, the Poet would scarce have introduced together as an instance of concomitant fertility.
• 1786: July 12, 1786 – Gathered the wall-cherries, & preserved them with sugar: they are very fine.
• 1785: July 12, 1785 – Bramshot-place
  My vines are nicely trimmed: not a superflous shoot left.  Cleared the cherry-trees, & took-in the nets.  Mr Richardson’s garden was not so much burnt-up as might be expected.  There was plenty of pease, & kidney-beans; & much fruit, such as currans, gooseberries, melond, & cherries.  The wheat at Bramshot looks well; but the spring-crops are injured by they drought.  Turnips come-up pretty well.  The pair of Fly-catchers in the vine are preparing for a second brood, & have got one egg.  This is the first instance that I remember of their breeding twice.
• 1779: July 12, 1779 – Apricots, the young tree, ripen.  Mossed the hills of the white cucumbers to keep them moist.
• 1777: July 12, 1777 – Ricked the St foin: it lay 12 days washed with continual showers, & yet is not quite spoiled.
• 1775: July 12, 1775 – Five young kestrils, or windhovers almost fledge are taken in an old magpie nest.
• 1774: July 12, 1774 – Martins build nests & forsake them, & now build again.  Much hay spoiled: much not cut.
• 1773: July 12, 1773 – Ricked all my hay.  The st foin has lost all smell: the meadow-hay is most delicate.  A large crop.
• 1772: July 12, 1772 – Barley & pease suffer much. Frogs continue to migrate from the ponds.
• 1771: July 12, 1771 – Vine-bloom smells sweetly.

Notes:
The latin passage reads:

“Observe again, when the walnut clothes herself in the woods
with richest bloom and bends to earth her scented branches-
If her fruit is plentiful, a plentiful corn crop follows
And great will be the threshing in a season of great heat…”

Virgil’s Georgics I, l. 187-190, trans. Cecil Day Lewis

• 1791: July 11, 1791 – Chardons are usually blanched, & stewed like celeri: but my Brother boils the heads of his, which are very sweet, & in flavour like artichokes; the chief objection is, that they are very small, & afford little substance in their bottoms.  The heads of chardons are sold in the markets & are thought to be a delicate morsels.  Chardons are strong, vigorous plants, & grow six & seven feet high, & have strong sharp prickles like thistles.
• 1790: July 11, 1790 – Now the meadow is cleared, the brood-swallows sweep the face of the ground all day long; & from over that smooth surface collect a variety of insects for the support of their young.
• 1789: July 11, 1789 – The fly-catchers in the vine bring out their young.
• 1787: July 11, 1787 – Planted a line of kidney-beans
• 1785: July 11, 1785 – The down is so burnt, that it looks dismally.
• 1784: July 11, 1784 – My horses, which lie at grass, have had no water now for about 8 weeks: nor do they seem to desire any when they pass by a pond, or stream.  This method of management is particularly good for aged horses, especially if their wind is at all thick.  My horses look remarkably well.
• 1783: July 11, 1783 – The heat overcomes the grass-mowers & makes them sick.  There was not rain enough in the village to lay the dust.  The water in my well rises!  tho’ we draw so much daily!  watered much.  No dew, sun, & hase, rusty sunshine!  The tempest on friday night did much damage at West-meon, & burnt down three houses and a barn.  The tempests round on thursday and friday nights were very aweful!  There was vast hail on friday night in several places.  Some of the standard honey-suckles, which a month ago were so sweet & lovely, are now loathsome objects, being covered with aphides, & viscous honey-dews.  Gardens sadly burnt.
• 1781: July 11, 1781 – Trenched-out celeriac, & some of the new-advertized large celeri. Planted out some endive. A pair of house-martins, that built under the eaves of my stable, lost their nest in part by a drip, just as most of the young were flown. They are now repairing their habitation in order to rear a second brood.
• 1780: July 11, 1780 – Finished my great parlor, by hanging curtains, & fixing the looking-glass.
• 1779: July 11, 1779 – By the number of swifts round the church which seem to be encreased to more than 30, their young ones must be come out.
• 1778: July 11, 1778 – Finished cutting the hedges. Watered the garden. Many ponds are dry. Much hay ricked.
  * The young martins that were hatched June 11th began to come-out of their nest July 7th, so that they arrive at their maturity in somewhat less than a month. A colony of black ants comes forth every midsummer from under my stair-case, which stands in the middle of the house; & as soon as the males & females (which fill all the windows & rooms) are flown away, the workers retire under the stairs & are seen no more. It does not appear how this nest can have any communication with the garden or yard; & if not, how can these ants subsist in perpetual darkness & confinement!
• 1777: July 11, 1777 – Bees swarm by heaps.  31 swifts appear: so that if near half of them are not strangers the young broods are out.
• 1776: July 11, 1776 – Tilia europaea. The lime blows, smells very sweetly, & affords much pabulum for the bees.
  * Bees come & suck the cherries where the birds have broke the skin; & on some autumns, I remember they attack’d & devoured the peaches & Nect. where the wasps had once made a beginning.
• 1775: July 11, 1775 – Destroyed a wasp’s nest which was grown into a considerable bulk, & had many working wasps.
• 1773: July 11, 1773 – Partridges young, flyers.
• 1772: July 11, 1772 – Drought has continued five weeks this day.  Watered the rasp and annuals well.
  * There is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden-campion for the sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some purpose in the business of nidification.  It is very pleasant to see with what address it strips off the pubes, running from the top to the bottom of a branch, & shaving it bare with all the dexterity of a hoop-shaver.  When it has got a vast bundle, almost as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between it’s chin and it’s forelegs.
• 1770: July 11, 1770 – Vast showers about but no rain.  Turn’d the St. foin twice, & cocked it in a small cock.
• 1769: July 11, 1769 – Whitchurch, Hants.
  Butomus umbellatus.  The stint, cinclus, Aldro. appears about the banks of the Thames.  At Oxford it is called the summer snipe.
• 1768: July 11, 1768 – Cut my great meadow.

Notes:
Lots of background on the chardon, or cardoon, a sister to the thistle and artichoke, at ladybugletter.com. The bee observed shaving the hairs off the plants was wool-carder bee, Anthidium manicatum.

• 1792: July 10, 1792 – Guns fire at Portsmouth.
• 1791: July 10, 1791 – Grapes swell.  New potatoes.
• 1788: July 10, 1788 – There are now some fallow-deer, & a red deer in Hartely wood.
• 1785: July 10, 1785 – The spring in Kimber’s mead is dry; & also that in Conduit-wood; from whence in old time the Priory was supplyed with water by means of leaden pipes.  The pond on the common is also empty.  All the while Well-head is not much abated, nor the spring at the bottom of the church -litten closes, where you pass over the foot-bridge to the Lithe.  Perserved cherries, & currans; & made curran-jelly.  Not one mess of wood-strawberries brought this year.
• 1784: July 10, 1784 – The young cuckow gets fledge, & grows bigger than its nest.  It is very fierce, & pugnacious.
• 1783: July 10, 1783 – About 8 o’clock on the evening of the 10th a great tempest arose in the S.W. which steered-off to the N.W.: another great storm went to the N.E. with continued thunder, & lightening.  About 10 another still heavier tempest arose to the S.E. & divided, some part going for Bramshot & Headley, & Farnham, & the rest for Alresford, Basingstoke, &c.  The lightening towards Farnham was prodigious.  It sunk all away before midnight.  Vast showers around us but none here.
• 1780: July 10, 1780 – Timothy eats voraciously; but picks out the hearts & stems of the Coss-lettuce, holding the outer leaves back with his feet.
• 1777: July 10, 1777 – A swarm of bees has hung-out in a torpid state for many days.
• 1776: July 10, 1776 – Some of the little frogs from the ponds stroll quite up the hill: they seem to spread in all directions.
• 1775: July 10, 1775 – Mushrooms begin to appear.
• 1773: July 10, 1773 – Wood strawberries begin to ripen.  Hay makes well.  Cock great part of the hay in very large cock.  Many young bank-martins seem to be flown in the forest.  The old ones carry dragon-flies into their nests to their young.
• 1772: July 10, 1772 – Woodstrawberries come.  Rasps begin to ripen.  Sprinking shower.  Showers at a distance.
• 1771: July 10, 1771 – Vine begins to blow.  Very late again!  it blowed last year on July 17:  usually blows the last week in June.
• 1770: July 10, 1770 – Very few apples or pears.  Cherries hardly begin to turn.  Wood straw berries turn.

• 1792: July 9, 1792 – The Provost & Lady left us.  Thunder in the night, & most part of the day to the S. & S.E.  Yellow evening.
• 1791: July 9, 1791 – A cuckoo cries in my Brors garden: some birds of that sort have frequented this place all the summer.  Young swallows at Stockewell.  In Mr Malcolm’s garden there is a bed of small silver firs, the tops of which are all killed by the frosts in June.  The hothouses of this Gent. afford a most noble appearance; & his plantations are grand, & splendid.  Passion-flower begins to blow in the open air.  Cucumbers are scarce, & sell for 2 1/2 d. a piece. Crops of pease go off.  Some cleri trenched out form the seedling bed.
• 1790: July 9, 1790 – Gathered our first beans, long pods.  Planted-out annuals.
• 1788: July 9, 1788 – Bunches of snake’s eggs are found under some straw near the hot-beds.  Several snakes haunted my out-let this summer, & cast their sloughs in the garden, & elsewhere.  Cran-berries are offered at the door.
• 1786: July 9, 1786 – Roses, sweet-williams, pinks, white & orange lilies make a gaudy show in my garden.  Annuals are stunted for want of rain.  Mr White’s tank at Newton measure three feet in water.
• 1785: July 9, 1785 – Ants swarm on the stairs: their male-flies leave them, & fill the windows: their females do not yet appear.
• 1783: July 9, 1783 – Bees have thriven well this summer, being assisted by the honey-dews, which have abounded this year.
• 1779: July 9, 1779 – A surprizing humming of bees all over the common, tho’ none can be seen!  This is frequently the case in hot weather.
• 1776: July 9, 1776 – Bees are very quarrelsome, and stung me.
• 1774: July 9, 1774 – Young swifts helpless squabs still. Young martins not out.
  *  I procured a bricklayer to open the tiles in several places of my Bro.s brewhouse in order to examine the state of swift’s nests at that season, & the number of their young.  This enquiry confirmed my suspicions that they never lay more than two eggs at a time: for in several nests which we discovered, there were only two squab young apiece.  As swifts breed but once in a summer, & the other hirundines twice: the latter, who lay from four to six eggs, encrease five times as fast as the former: & therefore it is not to be wondered that swifts are very numerous.
• 1773: July 9, 1773 – Hay makes well.  Flocks of lapwings on the common.  After breeding they forsake the moory places, & take to the high grounds.
• 1772: July 9, 1772 – Meadow-hay begins to be cut.  Some barley in ear: wheat uneven.  Watered annuals.  Finished cutting the tall hedges.
• 1768: July 9, 1768 – The capsule of the tway-blade bursts at a touch, & scatters the dust-like seed on all sides.