The Natural History of Selborne

• 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