The Natural History of Selborne

Bror. & Sister Benj. came.

Prodigious damage appears to be done by the late tempests, all over the kingdom; & in many places abroad.

Men sow wheat in good order at Temple & Wick-hill.  The hop-planters of this parish returned from Wey-hill fair with chearful faces, & full purses; having sold a large crop of hops for a good rice.  The hops of Kent were blown away by the storms, after the crop of this country was gathered in.

The news papers mention vast floods about the country; & that much damage has been done by high tides, & tempestuous winds.

The great rains do not influence our wells in the least.  Niece Betsey returned to Fyfield.  On this day Miss Mary Haggitt of Rushton, Northamptonshire, by being married to my Nephew Sam Barker, encreased the number of my nephews & nieces to 47.

On this day an woodcock was seen in a coppice at Froyle.  Gathered-in the Royal-russets, & knobbed russets; the former are fine shewy apples.  There is a good crop of each sort.

Gathered-in the apples called dearlings, which keep well, & are valuable kitchen apples.  My only tree of the sort stands in the meadow, & produced ten bushels of fruit.  Apples this year have sold at 8s per bushel: so had the price continued the produce would be worth four pounds.  Next year probably there will be no crop; because I do not remember to have seen this tree bear two years following.

About Octobr 1, the weather was cold & wet at Vevey, in Switzerland; when the Hirundines flew so near the ground as to be a prey to cats, which watched for them; & some entered mens windows so tame & hungry as to sit on a finger, & take flies when offered to them, or which they saw on the glass or walls.

Saw a nest full of young swallows, nearly fledged, in their nest under Captain Dumaresq’gate way at Pilham-place.  Saw the same day many martins over Selborne village.  I have often seen young house-martins in their nests in the Mich. week; but never swallows before.

Niece Betsey came from Fyfield.