July 17
Posted by sydney on Jul 17th, 2009
- 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.
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