THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
VTE\V NEAR SET.RORNE. 
 
 \Frontispiece. 
 
THE CHANDOS CLASSICS." 
 
 THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF 
 'SELBORNE, 
 
 BY THE REV. GILBERT WHITE, A.M. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, 
 EDITED, WITH NOTES, BY 
 
 G. CHRISTOPHER DAVIES, 
 
 Author of " The l Swan ' and Her Crew" etc,. et<.. 
 
 FULLY ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 mxfc Jleto g0rk: 
 FREDERICK WARNE AND CO 
 
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON & BUNGAY. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT TO ORIGINAL EDITION, 
 
 HP HE Author of the following Letters takes the 
 liberty, with all proper deference, of laying before 
 the public his idea of parochial history^ which, he thinks, 
 ought to consist of natural productions and occurrences 
 as well as antiquities. He is also of opinion that if 
 stationary men would pay some attention to the districts 
 on which they reside, and would publish their thoughts 
 respecting the objects that surround them, from such 
 materials might be drawn the most complete county- 
 histories, which are still wanting in several parts of 
 this kingdom, and in particular in the county of 
 Southampton. 
 
 And here he seizes the first opportunity, though a 
 late one, of returning his most grateful acknowledg- 
 ments to the reverend the President and the reverend 
 and worthy the Fellows of Magdalen College in the 
 University of Oxford, for their liberal behaviour in per- 
 mitting their archives to be searched by a member of 
 
 M359257 
 
vi ADVERTISEMENT TO ORIGINAL EDITION. 
 
 their own society, so far as the evidences therein con- 
 tained might respect the parish and priory of Selborne. 
 To that gentleman also, and his assistant, whose labours 
 and attention could only be equalled by the very kind 
 manner in which they were bestowed, many and great 
 obligations are also due. 
 
 Of the authenticity of the documents above-mentioned 
 there can be no doubt, since they consist of the identical 
 deeds and records that were removed to the College 
 from the Priory at the time of its dissolution ; and, 
 being carefully copied on the spot, may be depended 
 on as genuine ; and, never having been made public 
 before, may gratify the curiosity of the antiquary, as 
 well as establish the credit of the history. 
 
 If the writer should at all appear to have induced 
 any of his readers to pay a more ready attention to 
 the wonders of the Creation, too frequently overlooked 
 as common occurrences ; or if he should by any means, 
 through his researches, have lent a helping hand towards 
 the enlargement of the boundaries of historical and 
 topographical knowledge ; or if he should have thrown 
 some small light upon ancient customs and manners, 
 and especially on those that were monastic ; his purpose 
 will be fully answered. But if he should not have been 
 successful in any of these his intentions, yet there remains 
 this consolation behind that these his pursuits, by 
 
ADVERTISEMENT TO ORIGINAL EDITION. vii 
 
 keeping the body and mind employed, have, under 
 Providence, contributed to much health and cheerfulness 
 of spirits, even to old age ; and, what still adds to his 
 happiness, have led him to the knowledge of a circle 
 of gentlemen whose intelligent communications, as they 
 have afforded him much pleasing information, so, could 
 he flatter himself with a continuation of them, would 
 they ever be deemed a matter of singular satisfaction 
 and improvement. 
 
 SELBORNE, 
 January isf, 1788. 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 r | ^HERE is a singular parallel in the popularity of the two old 
 A books, the " Complete Angler " of Isaac Walton, and the 
 "Natural History of Selborne," by the Rev. Gilbert White. This 
 popularity has gone on steadily increasing in both cases, until both 
 books are of that class which everyone has read or is supposed to 
 have read, or, with reference to the coming generation of readers, 
 ought to read. The cause of the esteem in which the two 
 books are held is mainly the same. Honest, manly, and godly in 
 their tone, simple and clear in their style, with no ostentation, 
 clearness and accuracy of observation in those subjects which 
 each particularly affected, and with the charm of enthusiasm, and 
 enthusiasm with respect to the glorious " out of doors," they are 
 models for all succeeding writers on kindred subjects. The 
 Editor of this Volume, when a boy, wrote almost his first essay on 
 White and Walton, little thinking at the time that he would ever 
 have the pleasure of editing both books for the series in which 
 this appears. 
 
 The temptation which besets any Naturalist author who under- 
 takes to edit such a work as this, is to use it as a line on which to 
 hang out his own knowledge of Natural History. Such a course, 
 though pleasant to oneself, is not fair to the original Author. The 
 present Editor has done his best to limit the use of notes (a 
 nuisance at the best) to as few as might be consistent with the 
 
x INTRODUCTION. 
 
 present advanced state of knowledge, not forgetting the Publishers' 
 kindly warning that " the Editor should not make himself of more 
 moment than the original author." Where notes appear at the 
 foot of a page ttey are White's own. Those at the end of each 
 chapter are by the Editor. 
 
 The village of Selborne presents no more special features of 
 interest nor greater facilities for the study of Natural History than 
 hundreds of other of our charming English villages ; and it is the 
 patient and close observation by one man of the natural world 
 around him which has given it a name above its fellows. The 
 general features of it do not vary very much from the time of 
 White ; and any description of it here would only challenge com- 
 parison with the close description of it given by the Author; but 
 of the author himself we may tell all we know, for in his modesty 
 he has told us nothing. 
 
 The materials for a sketch ~f White's life are singularly scanty. 
 He kept no personal diary, and left no portrait of himself. In an 
 edition of his book published in 1802, nine years after his death, 
 his brother John wrote the following short sketch of his life. 
 
 " Gilbert White was the eldest son of John White of Selborne, 
 Esq., and of Anne, the daughter of Thomas Holt, rector of 
 Streatham in Surrey. He was born at Selburne on July i8th, 
 1720; and received his school education at Basingstoke, under 
 the Rev. Thomas Warton, vicar of that place, and father of those 
 two distinguished literary characters, Dr. Joseph Warton, master 
 of Winchester school ; and Mr. Thomas Warton, poetry-professor 
 at Oxford. He was admitted at Oriel College, Oxford, in Decem- 
 ber, 1739, and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in June, 1743. 
 In March, 1 744, he was elected fellow of his college. He became 
 Master of Arts in October, 1746, and was admitted as one of the 
 senior proctors of the University in April, 1752. Being of an un- 
 ambitious temper, and strongly attached to the charms of rural 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 scenery, he early fixed his residence in his natiie village, where 
 he spent the greater part of his life in literary occupations, and 
 especially in the study of nature. This he followed with a patient 
 assiduity, and a mind ever open to the lessons of piety and 
 benevolence, which such a study is so well calculated to afford. 
 Though several occasions offered of settling upon a college living, 
 he could never persuade himself to quit the beloved spot, which 
 was indeed a peculiarly happy situation for an observer. He was 
 much esteemed by a select society of intelligent and worthy friends, 
 to whom he paid occasional visits. Thus his days passed tranquil 
 and serene, with scarcely any other vicissitudes than those of the 
 seasons, till they closed at a mature age on June 26th, 1793." 
 
 White was the eldest of the eleven children which followed the 
 union of John White and Anne his wife. Eight of them grew up; 
 but the only one which calls for mention now was Benjamin, who 
 became a publisher, his specialite being works on Natural History, 
 and he it was who published his brother's book. 
 
 Gilbert White was ordained a deacon when he was twenty-seven^ 
 and priest when he was twenty-nine, years old. In 1755, he being 
 thirty-five years old, he took up his residence with his father at Sel- 
 borne; and on his father's death in 1758, he became the occupier 
 of the house, and shortly afterwards the owner, and there he lived 
 until his death. He had a curacy at Faringdon, an adjoining parish, 
 until 1784, when he became curate of Selborne. He several times 
 refused livings which were offered to him, though he accepted one 
 which required neither residence, service, nor attention on his 
 part, the duties being performed by others. White had a suffi- 
 ciency of income to enable him to live a quiet and comfortable 
 life in the old house at Selborne. He was never married ; but 
 this was from no lack of good qualities on his part, for he was 
 an affectionate and kind brother, uncle, and neighbour. He is 
 described as being a pleasant little man, brisk in manner and 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Kindly in speech, getting on well with his neighbours, helping 
 with money and with advice where help was needed, and taking 
 as great an interest in the human affairs of the parish as he did in 
 the bird, animal, and insect life of it. It is not known at what 
 time he turned his attention to the study of Natural History. 
 He was acquainted with many persons of note, and it is by the 
 medium of letters to two of those, Pennant and Daines Barrington, 
 that his work on Natural History was written. The tone of the 
 letters themselves, and the lack of system or arrangement in them, 
 would point to the conclusion that at first White did not intend 
 them for publication, and that when the idea occurred to him, he 
 fortunately did not fuse them into one whole, according to method, 
 but presented them to the \vorldjust as they were written. And 
 this book was his only book. It is clear that he was not smitten 
 with the vanity of authorship. His book was first published, in the 
 fashionable quarto size, in 1789, he then being sixty-nine years 
 of age. The book was a success, and brought him into favourable 
 notice. He is said to have been very nervous at first as to its re- 
 ception by Reviewers ; and in the Gentleman s Magazine is a friendly 
 review, written by his brother Thomas, which is rather amusing. It 
 says : " Contemplative persons see with regret the country more 
 and more deserted every day, as they know that every well-regu- 
 lated family of property, which quits a village to reside in a town, 
 injures the place that is forsaken in many material circumstances. 
 It is with pleasure, therefore, we observe, that so rational an 
 employment of leisure time as the study of nature, promises to 
 become popular ; since whatever adds to the number of rural 
 amusements, and consequently counteracts the allurements of the 
 metropolis, is. on this consideration, of national importance. 
 
 " Most of the local histories which have fallen into our hands 
 have been taken up with descriptions of the vestiges of ancient art 
 and industry, while natural observations have been too much 
 
INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 neglected. But we agree with Mr. White in his idea of parochial 
 history, which, he thinks, ought to consist of natural productions and 
 occurrences, as well as antiquities : for antiquities, when once sur- 
 veyed, seldom recall further attention, and are confined to one spot ; 
 whereas the pleasures of the naturalist continue through the year, 
 return with unabated attractions every spring, and may be ex- 
 tended over the kingdom. 
 
 " Mr. White is the gentleman who some years ago favoured the 
 world with a monography of the British Hirundines, published in 
 the Philosophical Transactions , which we reviewed in a former 
 volume. It is now reprinted, and the same sagacity of observa- 
 tion runs through the work before us. 
 
 " If this author should be thought by any to have been too 
 minute in his researches, be it remembered that his studies have 
 been in the great book of Nature. It must be confessed, that 
 the economy of the several kinds of crickets, and the distinc- 
 tion between the stock-dove and the ring-dove, are humble 
 pursuits, and will be esteemed trivial by many ; perhaps by some 
 to be objects of ridicule. However, before we condemn any 
 pursuits, which contribute so much to health by calling us abroad, 
 let us consider how the studious have employed themselves in 
 their closets. In a former century, the minds of the learned were 
 engaged in determining whether the name of the Roman poet 
 should be spelt Vergilius or Virgilius ; and the number of letters 
 in the name of Shakespear still remains a matter of much solici- 
 tude and criticism. Nor can we but think that the conjectures 
 about the migration of Hirundines are fully as interesting as the 
 Chattertonian controversy. 
 
 " We could have wished that this gentleman had uniformly, as 
 he has frequently, used the Linnaean names. No naturalist can 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 now converse intelligibly in any other language than that of the 
 celebrated Swede. And impartiality compels us to say, that we 
 are disappointed in not rinding a particular account of the tillage 
 of the district where Selborne is situate. A person with this 
 writer's patient observation would have made many remarks highly 
 valuable. Men of intelligence, like him, are wanted to promote 
 an intimacy between the library and the plough. The man of 
 books sees many errors which he supposes he could correct ; while 
 the practical cultivator laughs at the essays of the theorist. Much 
 the greater part of renting farmers are prevented, by their anxiety 
 to wind the bottom round the year, from engaging in experiments ; 
 and many think it nearly criminal to deviate from the practice of 
 their forefathers; so that, at this day, it remains for gentlemen of 
 property and enlarged minds to determine whether it is best to 
 sow three bushels of wheat, or one, on an acre of land. In other 
 words, whether there be not as much corn yearly wasted by super- 
 fluous, perhaps injurious, seeding, as would furnish an annual and 
 ample supply for the largest city. Though agriculture has of late 
 been attended to, still he would be one of the greatest benefactors 
 to his countrymen in general, who would convince them that the 
 richest mine of national wealth lies within six inches of the surface, 
 and who would teach them the most advantageous method of 
 working it. 
 
 "On the whole, we will pronounce that the inquirers into 
 natural knowledge will find Mr. White to be no unequal successor 
 of Ray and Derham ; and that the History of the Priory is a 
 curious tract of local antiquity. We should not hesitate to speak 
 so favourably of this work even though it had much less rural 
 anecdote and literary allusion to recommend it." 
 
 A translation of his book was published at Berlin in 1792. In 
 June, 1793, White died. His body lies in the fifth grave to the 
 north of the chancel wall, and on the headstone is 
 
INTRODUCTION. jn/ 
 
 G. W. 
 
 26 June, 
 
 1793- 
 
 On s. tablet, formerly on the outside of the wall, but now in 
 the chancel, is the following inscription : 
 
 IN THE FIFTH GRAVE FROM THIS WALL ARE BURIED THE REMAINS OF 
 
 THE REV. GILBERT WHITE, M.A., 
 
 FIFTY YEARS FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, IN OXFORD, 
 
 AND HISTORIAN OF THIS HIS NATIVE PARISH. 
 HE WAS ELDEST SON OF JOHN WHITE, ESQUIRE, BARRISTF.R-AT-LAW, 
 
 AND ANNE, HIS WIFE, ONLY CHILD OF 
 
 THOMAS HOLT, RECTOR OF STREATHAM, IN SURREY, 
 
 WHICH SAID JOHN WHITE WAS THE ONLY SON OF GILBERT WHITE, 
 
 FORMERLY VICAR OF THIS PARISH. 
 HE WAS KIND AND BENEFICENT TO HIS RELATIONS, 
 
 BENEVOLENT TO THE POOR, 
 
 AND DESERVEDLY RESPECTED BY ALL HIS FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS. 
 HE WAS BORN ' TT LY l8TH, 1/20, O. S., 
 
 AND DIED JUNE 26TH, 1793- 
 
 NEC BONO QUICQUAM MALI EVENIRE POTEST, 
 NEC VIVO, NEC MORTUO. 
 
 The irregular, old-fashioned, and charming house in which 
 White lived, is now the property of an eminent naturalist, Pro- 
 fessor Thomas Bell. This gentleman, in the year 1877, published 
 a very complete edition of the book, but an expensive one. In a 
 second volume, Mr. Bell gives a great number of letters written 
 by White to his relatives and friends, a sermon of his, and an 
 account book in which are entered in his neat and plain hand- 
 writing all his petty expenses. The facsimile of his handwriting 
 there given shows that he vas not accustomed to hurry himselt. 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 These letters give one a better idea of White's personal life than 
 all else that we know of him. To call attention to the note- 
 worthy points in them, would perhaps trench too closely on what 
 Professor Bell has made his own, but they fully bear out all that 
 nas been said in eulogy of him. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNT 
 OBSERVATIONS ON VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE 
 
 ."AGE 
 
 3 
 291 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER 437 
 
 A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE NATURALIST'S CALENDAR AS 
 KEPT BY THE LATE GILBERT WHITE AND WILLIAM 
 MARKWICK, ESQ tjfi 
 
 POEMS SELECTED FROM THE MSS. OF THE REV. GILBERT 
 
 WHITE . 
 
 BICENTENARY OF A GREAT NATURALIST. 
 
 Sunday. July 18, marks 'he bicentenary cf 
 
 the birth of Gilbert White, the fainouf 
 
 naturalist. Always quick to utilise occasions 
 
 in order to draw public attention to the 
 
 literary resources of the Bristol Libraries, Mr 
 
 Acland Taylor, the city librarian, has arranged 
 
 an exhibition of books dealing with White's 
 
 life and work. This will be in the Central 
 
 Reference Library. The exhibition includes a 
 
 fine copy of the first edition of the " Natural 
 
 History of Selborne " and other editions of the 
 
 same work, notably that published in 1889 and 
 
 illustrated with woodcuts by Thomas Bewick. 
 
 There is also a first edition of White s 
 
 < Naturalists' Calendar published after his death 
 
 in 1795. The fact that White spent " a seven 
 
 weeks' season at the Hot Well at Bristol, from 
 
 July 9 to August 30, 1753," will interest BIIB> 
 
 tolians. /$ 2.0 . * 
 
 ,101 
 
THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THOMAS PENNANT ESQ. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 THE parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern corner of 
 the county of Hampshire, bordering on the county of Sussex, 
 and not far from the county of Surrey ; is about fifty miles south- 
 west of London, in latitude fifty-one, and near mid-way between the 
 towns of Alton and Petersfield. Being very large and extensive, it 
 abuts on twelve parishes, two of which are in Sussex, viz., Trotton 
 and Rogate. If you begin from the south and proceed westward, 
 the adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton Valence, Faringdon, 
 Harteley Mauduit, Great Ward le ham, Kingsley, Hadleigh, 
 Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, LyrTe, and Greatham. The soils of this 
 district are almost as various and diversified as the views and 
 aspects. The high part of the south-west consists of a vast hill of 
 chalk, rising three hundred feet above the village, and is divided 
 into a sheep-down, the high wood and a long hanging wood, 
 called The Hanger. The covert of this eminence is altogether 
 beec^ the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its 
 smooth rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous 
 boughs. 1 The down, or sheepwalk, is a pleasing park-like spot, 
 of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the verge of 
 the hill-country, where \fc begins to break down into the plains, 
 and commanding a very engaging view, being an assemblage of 
 hill, dale, wood-lands, heath, and water. The prospect is bounded 
 to the south-east and east by the vast range- of mountains called 
 the Sussex Downs, by Guild-clown near Guildford, and by the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 BEECH. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 5 
 
 Downs round Dorking, and Ryegate in Surrey, to the north-east, 
 which altogether, with the country beyond Alton and Farnham, 
 form a noble and extensive outline. 
 
 At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from the uplands, lies 
 the village, which consists of one single straggling street, three- 
 quarters of a mile in length, in a sheltered vale, and running 
 parallel with The Hanger. The houses are divided from the hill 
 by a vein of stiff clay (good wheat-land), yet stand on a rock of 
 white stone, little in appearance removed from chalk ; but seems 
 so far from being calcareous, that it endures extreme heat. Yet 
 that the freestone still preserves somewhat that is analogous to 
 chalk, is plain from the beeches which descend as low as those 
 rocks extend, and no farther, and thrive as well on them, where 
 the ground is steep, as on the chalks. 
 
 The cart-way of the village divides, in a remarkable manner, 
 two very incongruous soils. To the south-west is a rank clay, 
 that requires the labour of years to render it mellow ; while the 
 gardens to the north-east, and small enclosures behind, consist of 
 a warm, forward, crumbling mould, called black malm, which 
 seems highly saturated with vegetable and animal manure ; and 
 these may perhaps have been the original site of the town ; while 
 the woods and coverts might extend down to the opposite bank. 2 
 
 At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to north- 
 west, arises a small rivulet : that at the north-west end frequently 
 fails ; but the other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by 
 drought or wet seasons, called Well-head.* This breaks out of 
 some high grounds joining to Nore Hill, a noble chalk promontory, 
 remarkable for sending forth two streams into two different seas. 
 The one to the south becomes a branch of the Arun, running to 
 Arundel, and so sailing into the British Channel : the other to the 
 north. The Selborne stream makes one branch of the Wey ; and, 
 meeting the Black-down stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and 
 
 * This spring produced, September loth, 1871, after a severe hot summer, and 
 a preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of water in a minute, which is 
 540 in an hour, and 12,960, or 216 hogsheads, in twenty-four hours, or one 
 natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the 
 vale were dry. 
 
6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Farnham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, 
 navigable at Godalming ; from whence it passes to Guildford x and 
 so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into the 
 German Ocean. 
 
 Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and when 
 sunk to that depth seldom fail ; but produce a fine limpid water, 
 soft to the taste, and much commended by those who drink the 
 pure element, but which does not lather well with soap. 
 
 To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of 
 fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a sort 
 of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost and 
 rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.* 
 
 Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white 
 land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the 
 plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep in the freestone, and 
 have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. 
 The white soil produces the brightest hops. 
 
 As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer-forest, at the 
 juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a wet, sandy loam, 
 remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks of 
 Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of purveyors, 
 and have furnished much naval timber; while the trees on the 
 freestone grow large, but are what workmen call shaky, and so 
 brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the sandy 
 loam the soil becomes a hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the 
 forest ; and will produce little without the assistance of lime and 
 turnips. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER I. 
 
 1 A noticeable feature about the beech is the peculiar absence of underwood 
 beneath it. Thus the stem is seen in its full beauty. The decaying beech-mast 
 and leaves lying upon the ground are apparently inimical to other vegetable life. 
 
 2 The north-east part of Selborne stands upon the Upper Greensand, while 
 to the south-west is the Chalk Marl, abruptly divided from each other as 
 mentioned by White. 
 
 * This; soil produces good wheat and clover. 
 
NATURAL HISJ^ORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 IN the court of Norton farmhouse, a manor farm to the north- 
 west of the village, on the white malms, stood within these twenty 
 
 
 WYCH ELM. 
 
 years a broad-leaved elm, or wych hazel, ulmus folio latissimo scabro 
 of Ray, which, though it had lost a considerable leading bough in 
 the great storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, 
 
8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 when felled, contained eight loads of timber; and, being too bulky 
 for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the butt, where it 
 measured near eight feet in the diameter. This elm I mention to 
 show to what a bulk planted elms may attain ; as this tree must 
 certain-ly have been such from its situation. 
 
 In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square 
 piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called " The 
 Plestor." In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast 
 oak, with a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms extending 
 almost to the extremity of the area. This venerable tree, sur- 
 rounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the delight 
 of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings ; 
 where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked 
 and danced before them. Long might it have stood, had not the 
 amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it at once, to the infinite 
 regret of the inhabitants, and the vicar, who bestowed several 
 pounds in setting it in its place again : but all his care could not 
 avail ; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and died. This 
 oak I mention to show to what a bulk planted oaks also may 
 arrive : and planted this tree must certainly have been, as will 
 appear from what will be said farther concerning this area, when 
 we enter on the antiquities of Selborne. 
 
 On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood called Losel's, 
 of a few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a 
 peculiar growth and great value ; they were tall and taper like 
 firs, but standing near together had very small heads, only a little 
 brush without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge 
 at the Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some 
 trees were wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without 
 bough, and would measure twelve inches diameter at the little 
 end. Twenty such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, 
 with this advantage, that many of them answered the description 
 at sixty feet. These trees were sold for twenty pounds apiece. 
 
 In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though 
 shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence 
 about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed 
 their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was dis- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 9 
 
 tinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many were the 
 attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry : the 
 difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of 
 surmounting the arduous task. But, when they arrived at the 
 swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so far beyond their 
 grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowledged 
 the undertaking to be too hazardous : so the ravens built on, nest 
 upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which 
 the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, 
 when these birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt, 
 the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to 
 the heavy blow of the beetle or mall or mallet, the tree nodded 
 to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, 
 the bird was flung from her nest ; and, though her parental affec- 
 tion deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which 
 brought her dead to the ground. 1 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER II. 
 
 1 The landrail, that shyest of birds, often sits upon its eggs on the ground in 
 the hayfield until it is slain by the scythe of the mowers. Instances innumer- 
 able of the tenacity with which birds will sit on their eggs when they are nearly 
 hatched may be cited. I once lifted a hen blackbird off her nest, and she came 
 back again when we had moved a few feet away. All birds and animals are 
 bold in the defence of their young, and it seems strange that this affection 
 should so completely vanish as it does when the young are able to shift for 
 themselves. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 THE fossil-shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as have 
 fallen within my observation, must not be passed over in silence. 
 And first I must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that 
 was ploughed up in the chalky fields, near the side of the Down, 
 and given to me for the singularity of its appearance, which, to 
 an incurious eye, seems like a petrified fish of about four inches 
 
io NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 long, the cardo passing for a head and mouth. It is in reality a 
 bivalve of the Linnaean Genus of Mytilus, and the species of 
 Crista GalH ; called by Lister, Rastellum ; by Rumphius, Ostreum 
 plicatum minus ; by D'Argenville, Auris Pord, s. Crista Galli ; 
 and by those who make collections, Cock's Comb. 1 Though I 
 applied to several such in London, I never could meet with an 
 entire specimen ; nor could I ever find in books any engraving 
 from a perfect one. In the superb museum at Leicester House, 
 permission was given me to examine for this article ; and, though 
 I was disappointed as to the fossil, I was highly gratified with the 
 sight of -several of the shells themselves in high preservation. 
 This bivalve is only known to inhabit the Indian ocean, where 
 it fixes itself to a zoophyte, known by the name Gorgonia. 
 The curious foldings of the suture the one into the other, the 
 alternate flutings or grooves, and the curved form of my specimen 
 are much easier expressed by the pencil than by words. 
 
 Cornua Ammonis 2 are very common about this village. As we 
 were cutting an inclining path up the Hanger, the labourers found 
 them frequently on that steep, just under the soil, in the chalk, 
 and of a considerable size. In the lane above Wall-head, in the 
 way to Emshot, they abound in the bank in a darkish sort of 
 marl ; and are usually very small and soft : but in Clay's Pond, 
 a little farther on, at the end of the pit, where the soil is dug out 
 for manure, I have occasionally observed them of large dimensions, 
 perhaps fourteen or sixteen inches in diameter. But as these did 
 not consist of firm stone, but were formed of a kind of terra 
 lapidosa, or hardened clay, as soon as they were exposed to the 
 rains and frost they mouldered away. These seemed as if they 
 were a very recent production. In the chalk-pit, at the north- 
 west end of the Hanger, large nautili are sometimes observed. 
 
 In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at considerable 
 depths, well-diggers often find large scallops or pectines, having 
 both shells deeply striated, and ridged and furrowed alternately. 
 They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly composed of, 
 the stone of the quarry. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. n 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER III. 
 
 1 This fossil is not what White supposes, but is a different species, belonging 
 to the upper greensand, known as Ostrea carinata. 
 
 2 The Ammonite is a very striking-looking fossil, and a common one. 
 When I was a small boy I used to delight in playing with a very large one 
 belonging to my father's collection, which would take to pieces, each section 
 of the shell being loose, showing the formation admirably. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 As in a former letter the freestone of this place has been only 
 mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more particular. 
 
 This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds of 
 ovens : and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account ; for 
 the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar; the sand of 
 which fluxes,* and runs by the intense heat, and so cases over 
 the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitrified coat-like glass, 
 that it is well preserved from injuries of weather, and endures 
 thirty or forty years. When chiseled smooth, it makes elegant 
 fronts for houses, equal in colour and grain to Bath stone ; and 
 superior in one respect, that, when seasoned, it does not scale. 
 Decent chimney-pieces are worked from it of much closer and 
 finer grain than Portland ; and rooms are floored with it ; but 
 it proves rather too soft for this purpose. It is a freestone 
 cutting in all directions ; yet has something of a grain parallel 
 with the horizon, and therefore should not be surbedded, but laid 
 in the same position that it grows in the quarry. f On the ground 
 abroad this firestone will not succeed for pavements, because, 
 
 * There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for lime a 
 proportion of sand : for few chalks are so pure as to have none. 
 
 t To sttrbed stone is to set it edgewise, contrary to the posture it had in the 
 quarry, says Dr. Plot, "Oxfordshire," p. 77. But surbedding does not succeed 
 in our dry walls ; neither do we use it so in ovens, though he says it is best for 
 Teynton stone. 
 
12 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORXE. 
 
 probably some degrees of saltness prevailing within it, the rain 
 tears the slabs to pieces.* Though this stone is too hard to 
 be acted on by vinegar, yet both the white part, and even the 
 blue rag, ferments strongly in mineral acids. Though the white 
 stone will not bear wet, yet in every quarry at intervals there are 
 thin strata of blue rag, which resist rain and frost; ar.d are 
 excellent for pitching of stables, paths, and courts, and for building 
 of dry walls against banks, a valuable species of fencing much in 
 use in this village, and for mending of roads. This rag is rugged 
 and stubborn, and will not hew to a smooth face, but is very 
 durable ; yet, as these strata are shallow and lie deep, large 
 quantities cannot be procured but at considerable expense. 
 Among the blue rags turn up some blocks tinged with a stain 
 of yellow or rust colour, which seem to be nearly as lasting as the 
 blue ; and every now and then balls of a friable substance, like 
 rust of iron, called rust balls. 
 
 In Wolmer Forest I see but one sort of stone, called by the 
 workmen sand, or forest-stone. This is generally of the colour 
 of rusty iron, and might probably be worked as iron ore ; is very 
 hard and heavy, and of a firm, compact texture, and composed of 
 a small roundish crystalline grit, cemented together by a brown, 
 terrene, ferruginous matter; will not cut without difficulty, nor 
 easily strike fire with steel. Being often found in broad flat 
 pieces, it makes good pavement for paths about houses, never 
 becoming slippery in frost or rain; is excellent for dry walls, 
 and is sometimes used in buildings. In many parts of that waste 
 it lies scattered on the surface of the ground; but is dug on 
 Weaver's Down, a vast hill on the eastern verge of that forest, 
 where the pits are shallow and the stratum thin. This stone is 
 imperishable. 
 
 From a notion of rendering their work the more elegant, and 
 giving it a finish, masons chip this stone into small fragments 
 about the size of the head of a large nail, and then stick the, 
 pieces into the wet mortar along the joints of their freestone 
 
 * "Firestone is full of salts, and has no sulphur : must be close-grained, and 
 have no interstices. Nothing supports fire like salts; saltstone perishes 
 exposed to wet and frost." PLOT'S Sta/., p. 152. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 13 
 
 walls ; this embellishment carries an odd appearance, and has 
 occasioned strangers sometimes to ask us pleasantly, " whether 
 we fastened our walls together with tenpenny nails." 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 AMONG the singularities of this place the two rocky hollow 
 lanes, the one to Alton, and the other to the forest, deserve our 
 attention. These roads, running through the malm lands, are, by 
 the traffic of ages, and the fretting of water, worn down through 
 the first stratum of our freestone, and partly through the second ; 
 so that they look more like water-courses than roads ; and are 
 bedded with naked rag for furlongs together. In many places 
 they are reduced sixteen or eighteen feet beneath the level of the 
 fields ; and after floods, and in frosts, exhibit very grotesque and 
 wild appearances, from the tangled roots that are twisted among 
 the strata, and from the torrents rushing down their broken sides ; 
 and especially when those cascades are frozen into icicles, hanging 
 in all the fanciful shapes of frost-work. These rugged gloomy 
 scenes affright the ladies when they peep down into them from 
 the paths above, and make timid horsemen shudder while they 
 ride along them; but delight the naturalist with their various 
 botany, and particularly with their curious filices with which they 
 abound. 
 
 The manor of Selborne, was it strictly looked after, with all 
 its kindly aspects, and all its sloping coverts, would swarm with 
 game ; even now hares, partridges, and pheasants abound ; and in 
 old days woodcocks were as plentiful. There are few quails, 
 because they more affect open fields than enclosures ; after harves 
 some few landrails are seen. 
 
 The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the forest, is a 
 vast district. Those who tread the bounds are employed part 
 of three days in the business, and are of opinion that the outline, 
 in all its curves and indentings, does not comprise less than thirty 
 miles. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured by the Hanger 
 from the strong westerly winds. The air is soft, but rather moist 
 from the effluvia of so many trees ; yet perfectly healthy and free 
 from agues. 
 
 The quantity of rain that falls on it is very considerable, as 
 may be supposed in so woody and mountainous a district. 1 As 
 my experience of measuring the water is but of short date, I am 
 not qualified to give the mean quantity.* I only know that 
 
 Inch. Hund. 
 
 From May , 177.9, to the end of the year there fe 1 ! . . 28 37 ! 
 
 Jan. , 1780, to Jan. I, 1781 . . . . 27 32 
 
 Jan. , 1781, to Jan. I, 1782 . . . . 30 71 
 
 Jan. , 1782, to Jan. I, 1783 . . . . 50 26 ! 
 
 Jan. , 1783, to Jan. i, 1784 . . . . 33 71 
 
 Jan. , 1784, to Jan. i, 1785 . . 33 80 
 
 Jan. , 1785, to Jan. I, 1786 . . . . 31 55 
 
 Jan. , 1786, to Jan. i, 1787 . . . . 39 57 
 
 The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, with 
 the single farms, and many scattered houses along the verge of 
 the forest, contain upwards of six hundred and seventy inhabi- 
 tants, t 
 
 * A very intelligent gentleman assures me (and he speaks from upwards of 
 forty years' experience), that the mean rain of any place cannot be ascertained 
 till a person has measured it for a very long period. " If I had only measured 
 the rain," says he, "for the four first years, from 1740 to 1743, I should have 
 said the mean rain at Lyndon was 165 inches for the year; if from 1740 to 
 1750, i8J inches. The mean rain before 1763 was 20 J inches, from 1763 and 
 since 25^ inches, from 1770 to 1780, 26 inches. If only 1773, 1774 and 1775, 
 had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would have been called 32 inches." 
 
 f A STATE OF THE PARISH OF SELBORNE, TAKEN OCTOBER 4TH, 1783. 
 
 The number of tenements or families, 136. 
 
 The number of inhabitants in the street is 313 ) Total 676 ; near five inhabi- 
 In the rest of the parish . . . 363 f tants to each tenement. 
 In the time of the Rev. Gilbert White, Vicar, who died in 1727-8, the 
 number of inhabitants was computed at about 500. 
 
 Average baptisms for 60 years. 
 From 1720 to^ -. i 
 
 1729. both I Males 6, 9 
 years inclus. ) 
 
 ^S^I^M Sf3 
 
 years inclus. j Fem ' 8 > 2 f 
 
 Wind./*' ^| I8 ' 
 From, 770 W. 10 ,5) 
 
 o 
 
 1779 incl. 
 
 20, 3 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 We abound with poor; many of whom are sober and industrious, 
 and live comfortably in good stone or brick cottages, which are 
 glazed, and have chambers above stairs ; mud buildings we have 
 none. Besides the employment from husbandry, the men work 
 in hop-gardens, of which we have many ; and fell and bark timber. 
 In the spring and summer the women weed the corn ; and enjoy 
 
 Total of baptisms of Males . 
 Females 
 
 515 
 465 
 
 640 
 
 From 
 
 3732. 
 years mcl 
 
 Total of baptisms from 1720 to 1779, both inclusive, 60 years 
 
 Average of burials for 60 years. 
 From 1740) -. 
 
 to \ f- 4 ' 
 1749 incl. ) ' 3> 
 From 1750) M 
 
 F. 5, 
 
 980. 
 
 From 1720 to) v Ta i P<; . 
 '7*9, both JF^* 
 years inclus. ) 
 
 9,9 
 
 :S*lg 
 
 inclus. ) * e 
 
 Males 4, 8 ) 
 
 . 5, 8 j 
 
 MO, 6 
 
 8,4 
 
 to 
 1759 incl. 
 
 From 1760) lvr 
 
 to - ( F 
 1769 incl. J ' 
 
 From 1 770 1 M 
 1779 incl. j ' 
 
 9 
 
 6, 5 
 
 5- 5 
 
 6,2 
 
 Total of Burials of Males. 
 Females 
 
 640 
 
 Total of Burials from 1720 to 1779, both inclusive, 60 years ... 
 
 Baptisms exceed Burials by more than one-third. 
 Baptisms of Males exceed Females by one-tenth, or one in ten. 
 Burials of Females exceed Males by one in thirty. 
 
 It appears that a child, born or bred in this parish, has an equal chance to live above 
 forty years. 
 
 Twins thirteen times, many of whom dying young have lessened the chance for life. 
 Chances for life in men and women appear to be equal. 
 
 A TABLE OF 
 
 THE BAPTISMS, BURIALS, AND MARRIAGES, 
 DECEMBER 25, 1780, IN THE PARISH OF 
 
 FROM JANUARY 2, 1761, TO 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 
 B 
 
 APTIS 
 
 MS. 
 
 
 BURIAL 
 
 s. 
 
 MAR. 
 
 
 M 
 
 F. 
 
 Tot. 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 Tot. 
 
 
 1761 
 
 8 
 
 IO 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 1762 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 J 4 
 
 2 4 
 
 6 
 
 1763 
 
 8 
 
 IO 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 1764 
 
 ii 
 
 9 
 
 20 
 
 IO 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 T"r6 r 
 
 '.l"2 
 
 6 
 
 Icj 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 IO 
 
 6 
 
 1766 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 22 
 
 IO 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 1767 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 ii 
 
 2 
 
 1768 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 1769 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 ii 
 
 2 
 
 1770 
 
 IO 
 
 13 
 
 23 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 ii 
 
 3 
 
 1771 
 
 IO 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 1772 
 
 ii 
 
 IO 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 1773 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 J 774 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 i 
 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 27 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 1776 
 
 ii 
 
 IO 
 
 21 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 '777 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 IO 
 
 4 
 
 1778 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 1779 
 
 '4 
 
 8 
 
 22 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 ii 
 
 5 
 
 1780 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 17 
 
 ii 
 
 4 
 
 15 3 
 
 198 188 386 I 123 123 246 i 83 
 During this period of twenty years the births of males exceeded those of females 
 
 The burials of each sex were equal. 
 And the births exceeded the deaths 140 
 
16 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 a second harvest in September by hop-picking. Formerly, in the 
 dead months they availed themselves greatly by spinning wool, 
 for making of barragons, a genteel corded stuff, much in vogue at 
 that time for summer wear ; and chiefly manufactured at Alton, 
 a neighbouring town, by some of the people called Quakers ; but 
 from circumstances this trade is at an end.* The inhabitants 
 enjoy a good share of health and longevity; and the parish 
 swarms with children. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER V. 
 
 1 Mr. Bell, who lives in the house which was White's, says that the rainfall 
 at Selborne now is much a.bove the average, and White rightly attributes this 
 to the hilly and wooded nature of the district. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 SHOLLD I omit to describe with some exactness the forest of 
 Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my account 
 of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a district abounding 
 with many curious productions, both animal and vegetable ; and 
 has often afforded me much entertainment both as a sportsman 
 and as a naturalist. 
 
 The royal forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven 
 miles in length, by two and a half in breadth, running nearly from 
 north to south, and is abutted on, to begin to the south, and so 
 to proceed eastward, by the parishes of Greatham, Lysse, Rogate, 
 and Trotton, in the county of Sussex ; by Bramshot, Hedleigh, 
 and Kingsley. This royalty consists entirely of sand covered 
 with heath and fern ; but is somewhat diversified with hills and 
 dales, without having one standing tree in the whole extent. In 
 the bottoms, where the waters stagnate, are many bogs, which 
 
 * Since the passage above was written, I am happy in being able to say 
 that the spinning employment is a little revived, to the no small comfort of the 
 industrious housewife. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 17 
 
 formerly abounded with subterraneous trees ; though Dn Plot says 
 positively,* that " there never were any fallen trees hidden in the 
 messes of the southern counties." But he was mistaken : for I 
 myself have seen cottages on the verge of this wild district, whose 
 timbers consisted of a black hard wood, looking like oak, which 
 the owners assured me they procured from the bogs by probing 
 the soil with spits, or some such instruments : but the peat is so 
 much cut out, and the moors have been so well examined, that 
 none has been found of late.t Besides the oak, I have also been 
 shown pieces of fossil wood of a paler colour, and softer nature, 
 which the inhabitants called fir : but. upon a nice examination, 
 and trial by fire, I could discover nothing resinous in them ; and 
 therefore rather suppose that they were parts of a willow or alder, 
 or some such aquatic tree. 
 
 This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for many sorts of 
 wild fowls, which not only frequent it in the winter, but breed 
 there in the summer ; such as lapwings, snipes, wild-ducks, and, as 
 I have discovered within these few years, teals. Partridges in vast 
 plenty are bred in good seasons on the verge of this forest, into 
 
 * See his " History of Staffordshire." 
 
 f Old people have assured me, that on a winter's morning they have dis- 
 covered these trees, in the bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay longer over the 
 space where they are concealed than in the surrounding morass. Nor does 
 this seem to be a fanciful notion, but consistent with true philosophy. Dr. 
 Hales saith, "That the warmth of the earth, at some depth under ground, has 
 an influence in promoting a thaw, as well as the change of the weather from a 
 freezing to a thawing state, is manifest from this observation, viz., Nov. 29th, 
 1731, a little snow having fallen in the night, it was, by eleven the next morn- 
 ing, mostly melted away on the surface of the earth, except in several places in 
 Bushy Park, where there were drains dug and covered with earth, on which the 
 snow continued to lie, whether those drains were full of water or dry ; as also 
 where elm-pipes lay under ground : a plain proof this, that those drains inter- 
 cepted the warmth of the earth from ascending from greater depths below 
 them ; for the snow lay where the drain had more than four feet depth of earth 
 over it. U continued also to lie on thatch, tiles, and the tops of walls." 
 See Hale's "Haemastatics," p. 360. QUERY, Might not such observations 
 be reduced to domestic use, by promoting the discoveiy of old obliterated 
 drains and wells about houses ; and in Roman stations and camps lead to the 
 finding of pavements, baths and graves, and other hidden relics of curious 
 antiquity ? 
 
i8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 which they love to make excursions ; and in particular, in the dry 
 summers of 1740 and 1741, and some years after, they swarmed to 
 such a degree that parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty 
 and sometimes thirty brace in a day. 
 
 
 PARTRIDGES 
 
 But there was a nobler species of game in this forest, now 
 extinct, which I have heard old people say abounded much before 
 shooting flying became so common, and that was the heath-cock, 
 black-game, or grouse. When I was a little boy I recollect one 
 coming now and then to my father's table. The last pack remem- 
 bered was killed about thirty-five years ago ; and within these ten 
 years one solitary greyhen was sprung by some beagles in beating 
 for a hare. The sportsmen cried out " A hen pheasant ! " but a 
 gentleman present, who had often seen grouse in the north of 
 England, assured me that it was a greyhen. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 19 
 
 Nor does the loss of our black game prove the only gap in the 
 Fauna Selborniensis ; for another beautiful link in the chain of 
 beings is wanting, I mean the red deer, which toward the beginning 
 of this century amounted to about five hundred head, and made a 
 stately appearance. There is an old keeper, now alive, named 
 
 THE BLACK GROUSE (Tetrao Tetrix). 
 
 Adams, whose great grandfather (mentioned in a perambulation 
 taken in 1635), grandfather, father, and self, enjoyed the head 
 keepership of Wolmer Forest in succession for more than a hun- 
 dred years. This person assures me, that his father has often told 
 him, that Queen Anne, as she was journeying on the Portsmouth 
 road, did not think the forest of Wolmer beneath her royal regard. 
 For she came out of the great road at Lippock, which is just by, 
 and, reposing herself on a bank smoothed for that purpose, lying 
 about half a mile to the east of Wolmer Pond, and still called 
 Queen's Bank, saw with great complacency and satisfaction the 
 whole herd of red deer brought by the keepers along the vale 
 before her, consisting then of about five hundred head. A sight 
 this, worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign ! But he farther 
 
20 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 adds that, by means of the Waltham blacks or, to use his own 
 expression, as soon as they began blacking, they were reduced to 
 about fifty head, and so continued decreasing till the time of the 
 late Duke of Cumberland. It is now more than thirty years ago 
 that His Highness sent down a huntsman, and six yeoman- 
 prickers, in scarlet jackets laced with gold, attended by the stag- 
 hounds ; ordering them to take every deer in this forest alive, and 
 to convey them in carts to Windsor. In the course of the summer 
 they caught every stag, some of which showed extraordinary 
 
 RED DEER. 
 
 diversion : but in the following winter, when the hinds were also 
 carried off, such fine chases were exhibited as served the country 
 people for matter of talk and wonder for years afterwards. I saw 
 myself one of the yeoman-prickers single out a stag from the herd, 
 and must confess that it was the most curious feat of activity I 
 ever beheld, superior to anything in Mr. Astley's riding-school. 
 The exertions made by the horse and deer much exceeded all my 
 expectations; though the former greatly excelled the latter in 
 speed. When the devoted deer was separated from his com- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 21 
 
 panions, they gave him, by their watches, law, as they called it, 
 for twenty minutes; when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs 
 were permitted to pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 THOUGH large herds of deer do much harm to the neighbourhood, 
 yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more moment than 
 the loss of their crops. The temptation is irresistible ; for most 
 men are sportsmen by constitution : and there is such an inherent 
 spirit for hunting in human nature, as scarce any inhibitions can 
 restrain. Hence, towards the beginning of this century all this 
 country was wild about deer-stealing. Unless he was a hunter, as 
 they affected to call themselves, no young person was allowed to 
 be possessed of manhood or gallantry. The Waltham blacks at 
 length committed such enormities, that government was forced 
 to interfere with that severe and sanguinary act called the " Black 
 Act,"* which now comprehends more felonies than any law that 
 ever was framed before. And, therefore, a late Bishop of Win- 
 chester, when urged to re-stock Waltham Chase, t refused, from a 
 motive worthy of a prelate, replying " that it had done mischief 
 enough already." 
 
 Our old race of deer-stealers is hardly extinct yet : it was but 
 a little while ago that, over their ale, they used to recount the 
 exploits of their youth ; such as watching the pregnant hind to 
 her lair, and, when the calf was dropped, paring its feet with a 
 penknife to the quick to prevent its escape, till it was large and 
 fat enough to be killed ; the shooting at one of their neighbours 
 with a bullet in a turnip-field by moonshine, mistaking him for a 
 deer ; and the losing a dog in the following extraordinary manner : 
 Some fellows, suspecting that a calf new-fallen was deposited in 
 a certain spot of thick fern, went, with a lurcher, to surprise it ; 
 
 * Statute 9 Geo. I. cap. 22. 
 
 f This chase remains unstocked to this day ; the bishop was Dr. Hoadly. 
 
22 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 when the parent-hind rushed out of the brake, and, taking a vast 
 spring with all her feet close together, pitched upon the neck of 
 the dog, and broke it short in two. 1 
 
 Another temptation to idleness and sporting was a number of 
 rabbits, which possessed all the hillocks and dry'places : but these 
 being inconvenient to the huntsmen, on account of their burrows, 
 when they came to take away the deer, they permitted the country- 
 people to destroy them all. 
 
 Such forests and wastes, when their allurements to irregularities 
 are removed, are of considerable service to neighbourhoods that 
 verge upon them, by furnishing .them with peat and turf for their 
 firing; with fuel for the burning their lime; and with ashes for 
 their grasses ; and by maintaining their geese and their stock of 
 young cattle at little or no expense. 
 
 The manor farm of the parish of Greatham has an admitted 
 claim, I see (by an old record taken from the Tower of London), 
 of turning all live stock on the forest, at proper seasons, " bidentibus 
 exceptis."* The reason, I presume, why sheep f are excluded, 
 is, because, being such close grazers, they would pick out all the 
 finest grasses, and hinder the deer from thriving. 
 
 Though (by statute 4 and 5 W. and Mary, c. 23) "to bum on 
 any waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, any grig, ling, 
 heath and furze, goss or fern, is punishable with whipping and 
 confinement in the house of correction ;" yet, in this forest, about 
 March or April, according to the dryness of the season, such vast 
 heath-fires are lighted up, that they often get to a masterless head, 
 and, catching the hedges, have sometimes been communicated to 
 the underwoods, woods, and coppices, where great damage has 
 ensued. The plea for these burnings is, that, when the old coat 
 of heath, etc., is consumed, young will sprout up, and afford much 
 tender brouze for cattle ; but, where there is large old furze, the 
 fire, following the roots, consumes the very ground ; so that for 
 hundreds of acres nothing is to be seen but smother and desola- 
 
 * For this privilege the owners of that estate used to pay to the king annually 
 seven bushels of oats. 
 
 t In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow-deer has been kept up till lately, 
 no sheep are admitted to this day. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 23 
 
 tion, the whole circuit round looking like the cinders of a volcano ; 
 and, the soil being quite exhausted, no traces of vegetation are to 
 be found for years. 2 These conflagrations, as they take place 
 usually with a north-east or east wind, much annoy this village 
 with their smoke, and often alarm the country; and, once in 
 particular, I remember that a gentleman, who lives beyond 
 Andover, coming to my house, when he got on the downs 
 between that town and Winchester, at twenty-five miles distance, 
 was surprised much with smoke and a hot smell of fire ; and 
 concluded that Alresford was in flames; but, when he came to 
 that town, he then had apprehensions for the next village, and so 
 on to the end of his journey. 
 
 On two of the most conspicuous eminences of this forest stand 
 two arbours or bowers, made of the boughs of oak ; the one called 
 Waldon Lodge, the other Brimstone Lodge : these the keepers 
 renew annually on the feast of St. Barnabas, taking the old 
 materials for a perquisite. The farm called Blackmoor, in this 
 parish, is obliged to find the posts and brush-wood for the former ; 
 while the farms at Greatham, in rotation, furnish for the latter ; 
 and are all enjoined to cut and deliver the materials at the spot. 
 This custom I mention, because I look upon it to be of very 
 remote antiquity. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER VII. 
 
 1 Deer will attack serpents by jumping on them with all four feet at once, 
 and I have seen sheep serve obnoxious objects in the same way. 
 
 2 On the Welsh hills these conflagrations continually take place, and are 
 very splendid at night. It is often expedient to burn a patch of gorse or 
 heather for the sake of the sheep ; but when the fire gets beyond control, as it 
 sometimes does, the mischief done is enormous. The conical hill in the Vale 
 of Llangollen, known as Crow Castle, clothed on three sides with fir planta- 
 tions, once caught fire, and from base to summit was a mass of flames, that lit 
 up the country for miles by night, and shaded the valley with its smoke by 
 day. 
 
24 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 ON the verge of the forest, as it is now circumscribed, are three 
 considerable lakes, two in Oakhanger, of which I have nothing 
 particular to say ; and one called Bin's, or Bean's Pond, which is 
 worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sportsman. For, being 
 crowded at the upper end with willows, and with the carex 
 cespitosa,* it affords such a safe and pleasing shelter to wild 
 ducks, teals, snipes, etc., that they breed there. In the winter 
 this covert is also frequented by foxes, and sometimes by phea- 
 sants ; and the bogs produce many curious plants. (For which 
 consult Letter XLI. to Mr. Barrington.) 
 
 By a perambulation of Wolmer Forest and the Holt, made 
 in 1635, an d the eleventh year of Charles I. (which now lies 
 before me), it appears that the limits of the former are much 
 circumscribed. For, to say nothing of the farther side, with which 
 I am not so well acquainted, the bounds on this side, in old times, 
 came into Binswood ; and extended to the ditch of Ward le Ham 
 Park, in which stands the curious mount called King John's Hill, 
 and Lodge Hill ; and to the verge of Hartley Mauduit, called 
 Mauduit Hatch; comprehending also Short Heath, Oakhanger, 
 and Oakwoods ; a large district, now private property, though 
 once belonging to the royal domain. 
 
 It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once mentioned 
 in this long roll of parchment. It contains, besides the perambu- 
 lation, a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, which were 
 considerable, growing at that time in the district of the Holt ; 
 and enumerates the officers, superior and inferior, of those joint 
 forests, for the time being, and their ostensible fees and perquisites. 
 In those days, as at present, there were hardly any trees in Wolmer 
 Forest. 
 
 * I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the foresters 
 torrets ; a corruption, l suppose, ot turrets. 
 
 NOTE. In the beginning of the summer of 1787, the royal forests of Wolmer 
 and Holt were measured by persons sent down by goveinment, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 35 
 
 Within the present limits of the forest are three considerable 
 lakes, Hogmer, Cranmer, and Wolmer ; all of which are stocked 
 with carp, tench, eels, and perch : but the fish do not thrive well, 
 because the water is hungry, and the bottoms are a naked sand. 
 
 A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no means 
 peculiar to them, I cannot pass over in silence ; and that is, that 
 instinct by which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, cows, 
 calves, or heifers, retire constantly to the water during the hotter 
 hours; where, being more exempt from flies, and inhaling the 
 coolness of that element, some belly deep, and some only to mid- 
 leg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the 
 morning till four in the afternoon, and then return to their feeding. 
 During this great proportion of the day they drop much dung, in 
 which insects nestle ; and so supply food for the fish, which would 
 be -poorly subsisted but from this contingency. Thus Nature, 
 who is a great economist, converts the recreation of one animal to 
 the support of another ! Thomson, who was a nice observer of 
 natural occurrences, did not let this pleasing circumstance escape 
 him. He says, in his " Summer," 
 
 tr A various group the herds and flocks compose ; 
 
 on the grassy bank 
 
 Some ruminating lie ; while others stand 
 Half in the flood, and, often bending, sip 
 The circling surface." 
 
 Wolmer Pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence' sake, is a 
 vast lake for this part of the world, containing, in its whole 
 circumference, 2,646 yards, or very near a mile and a half. The 
 length of the north-west and opposite side is about 704 yards, 
 and the breadth of the south-west end about 456 yards. This 
 measurement, which I caused to be made with good exactness, 
 gives an area of about sixty -six acres, exclusive of a large irregular 
 arm at the north-east corner, which we did not take into the 
 reckoning. 
 
 On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure from 
 fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks of ducks, 
 teals, and widgeons, of various denominations ; where they preen 
 and solace, and rest themselves, till towards sunset, when they 
 
26 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state they are all 
 birds of the night), to feed in the brooks and meadows; returning 
 again with the dawn of the morning. Had this lake an arm or 
 
 X 
 
 ~\ \Sx\ \\ d/'x/'xY* / v-\ 
 
 ^ 
 
 / i 
 
 WILD DUCKS. 
 
 two more, and were it planted round with thick covert (for now it 
 is perfectly naked), it might make a valuable decoy. 
 
 Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor the 
 resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque groups of 
 cattle, can render this meer so remarkable as the great quantity 
 of coins that were found in its bed about forty years ago. But, 
 as such discoveries more properly belong to the antiquities of 
 this place, I shall suppress all particulars for the present, till I 
 enter professedly on my series of letters respecting the more 
 remote history of this village and district. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 BY way of supplement, I shall trouble you once more on this 
 subject, to inform you that Wolmer, with her sister forest Ayles 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 27 
 
 Holt, alias Alice Holt,* as it is called in old records, is held by 
 grant from the crown for a term of years. 
 
 The grantees that the author remembers are Brigadier-General 
 Emanuel Scroope Howe, and his lady, Ruperta, who was a 
 natural daughter of Prince Rupert by Margaret Hughes ; a Mr. 
 Mordaunt, of the Peterborough family, who married a dowager 
 Lady Pembroke; Henry Bilson Legge and lady; and now Lord 
 Stawell, their son. 
 
 The lady of General Howe lived to an advanced age, long 
 surviving her husband ; and, at her death, left behind her many 
 curious pieces of mechanism of her father's constructing, who was 
 a distinguished mechanic and artist,t as well as warrior; and 
 among the rest, a very complicated clock, lately in possession 
 of Mr. Elmer, the celebrated game painter at Farnham, in the 
 county of Surrey. 
 
 Though these two forests are only parted by a narrow range of 
 enclosures, yet no two soils can be more different ; for the Holt 
 consists of a strong loam, of a miry nature, carrying a good turf, 
 and abounding with oaks that grow to be large timber ; while 
 Wolmer is nothing but a hungry, sandy, barren waste. 
 
 The former being all in the parish of Binsted, is about two miles 
 in extent from north to south, and near as much from east to 
 west ; and contains within it many woodlands and lawns, and the 
 great lodge where the grantees reside, and a smaller lodge called 
 Goose Green ; and is abutted on by the parishes of Kingsley, 
 Frinsham, Farnham, and Bentley ; all of which have right of 
 common. 
 
 One thing is remarkable, that though the Holt has been of old 
 well stocked with fallow-deer, unrestrained by any pales or fences 
 more than a common hedge, yet they were never seen within the 
 limits of Wolmer ; nor were the red deer of Wolmer ever known 
 to haunt the thickets or glades of the Holt. 
 
 * " In Rot. Inquisit. de statu forest, in Scaccar. 36 Edw. III., it is called 
 Aisholt." 
 
 In the same, "Tit. Woolmer and Aisholt Hantisc. Dominus Rex habet 
 unam capellam in haia sua de Kingesle." " Haia, sepes, sepimentum, parcus$ 
 a Gall, haie and haye." SPELMAN'S Glossary. 
 
 t This prince was the inventor of mezzotinto. 
 
28 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 At present the deer of the Holt are much thinned and reduced 
 by the night hunters, who perpetually harass them in spite of the 
 efforts of numerous keepers, and the severe penalties that have 
 been put in force against them as often as they have been detected, 
 and rendered liable to the lash of the law. Neither fines nor 
 imprisonments can deter them ; so impossible is it to extinguish 
 the spirit of sporting which seems to be inherent in human nature. 
 
 General Howe turned out some German wild boars and sows 
 
 WILD BOAR. 
 
 in his rorests, to the great terror of the neighbourhood, and, at 
 one time, a wild bull or buffalo ; but the country rose upon them 
 and destroyed them. 
 
 A very large fall of timber, consisting of about one thousand 
 oaks, has been cut this spring (viz., 1784) in the Holt forest : one- 
 fifth of which, it is said, belongs to the grantee, Lord Stawell. 
 He lays claim also to the lop and top ; but the poor of the 
 parishes of Binsted and Frmsham, Bentley and Kingsley, assert 
 that it belongs to them, and assembling in a riotous manner, 
 have actually taken it all away. One man, who keeps a team, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 29 
 
 has carried home for his share forty stacks of wood. Forty-five 
 of these people his lordship has served with actions. These trees, 
 which were very sound and in high perfection, were winter-cut, 
 viz., in February and March, before the bark would run. In old 
 times the Holt was estimated to be eighteen miles, computed 
 measure from water-carriage, viz., from the town of Chertsey, on 
 the Thames ; but now it is not half that distance, since the Wey 
 is made navigable up to the town of Godalming in the county of 
 Surrey. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 August 4///, 1767. 
 
 IT has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbours 
 whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of natural know- 
 ledge ; so that, for want of a companion to quicken my industry 
 
 THE SWALLOW. 
 
 and sharpen my attention, I have made but slender progress in 
 a kind of information to which I have been attached from my 
 childhood. 
 
30 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 As to swallows (hirundines rusticce) being found in a torpid 
 state during the winter in the Isle of Wight or any part of this 
 country, I never heard any such account worth attending to. 1 
 But a clergyman, of an inquisitive turn, assures me, that when he 
 was a great boy, some workmen, in pulling down the battlements 
 of a church tower early in the spring, found two or three swifts 
 (hirundines apodes] among the rubbish, which were at first 
 appearance dead, but on being carried towards the fire revived. 
 He told me, that out of his great care to preserve them, he put 
 them in a paper bag, and hung them by the kitchen fire, where 
 they were suffocated. 
 
 Another intelligent person has informed me, that while he was 
 a schoolboy at Brighthelmstone, in Sussex, a great fragment of 
 the chalk cliff fell down one stormy winter on the beach, and 
 that many people found swallows among the rubbish ; but on 
 my questioning him whether he saw any of those birds himself, to 
 my no small disappointment, he answered me in the negative; but 
 that others assured him they did. 
 
 Young broods of swallows began to appear this year on 
 July nth, and young martins (hirundines urbiccR) were then 
 fledged in their nests. Both species will breed again once, 
 For I see by my fauna of last year, that young broods came 
 forth so late as September i8th. Are not these late hatch- 
 ings more in favour of hiding than migration ? Nay, some 
 young martins remained in their nests last year so late as 
 September 29th; and yet they totally disappeared with us by 
 the 5th October. 
 
 How strange it is that the swift, which seems to live exactly the 
 same life with the swallow and house-martin, should leave us before 
 the middle of August invariably ! while the latter stay often till 
 the middle of October; and once I saw numbers of house-martins 
 on the yth November. The martins and red-wing fieldfares were 
 flying in sight together, an uncommon assemblage of summer and 
 winter birds ! 
 
 A little yellow bird 2 (it is either a species of the alauda trivialis, 
 or rather perhaps of the motacilla trochilus] still continues to make 
 a sibilous shivering noise in the tops of tall woods. The stoparola 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OP SELBORNE. 
 
 of Ray (for which we have as yet no name in these parts) is called 
 in your zoology the 
 fly- catcher. There is 
 one circumstance 
 characteristic of this 
 bird which seems to 
 have escaped obser- 
 vation, and that is, it 
 takes its stand on the 
 
 THE SPOTTED FLY-CATCHER {Muscicapa grisola). 
 
 top of some stake or 
 post, from whence it 
 springs forth on its 
 prey, catching a fly 
 in the air, and hardly 
 ever touching the 
 ground, but returning 
 still to the same stand 
 for many times to- 
 gether. 
 
 I perceive there are more than one species of the motacilla 
 trochilus. Mr. Derham supposes, in " Ray's Philos. Letters," that 
 he has discovered three. In these there is again an instance of 
 some very common birds that have as yet no English name. 
 
 Mr. Stillingfleet makes a question whether the black-cap (mota- 
 cilla atricapilld] be a bird of passage or not 4 : I think there is no 
 doubt of it : for, in April, in the first fine weather, they come 
 trooping all at once, into these parts, but are never seen in the 
 winter. They are delicate songsters. 
 
 Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some moory ground 
 on the verge of this parish. It is very amusing to see the cock 
 bird on wing at that time, and to hear his piping and humming 
 notes. 5 
 
 I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any of those mice 
 which I mentioned to you in town. The person that brought me 
 the last says they are plenty in harvest, at which time I will take 
 care to get more ; and will endeavour to put the matter out of 
 doubt, whether it be a nondescript species or not. 
 
32 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 I suspect much there may be two species of water-rats. 6 Ray 
 says, and Linnaeus after him, that the water-rat is web-footed 
 behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks of our little 
 stream that is not web-footed, and yet is an excellent swimmer 
 and diver : it answers exactly to the mus amphibius of Linnaeus 
 (see Syst. Nat?) which he says " natat in fossis et urinatur" I 
 
 THE BLACKCAP. 
 
 should be glad to procure one " plant is palmatis" Linnaeus 
 seems to be in a puzzle about his mus amphibius, and to doubt 
 whether it differs from his mus terrestris ; which if it be, as he 
 allows, the " mus agrestis capite grandi brachyuros" of Ray, is 
 widely different from the water-rat, both in size, make, and manner 
 of life. 
 
 As to the falco, which I mentioned in town, I shall take the 
 liberty to send it down to you into Wales ; presuming on your 
 candour, that you will excuse me if it should appear as familiar to 
 you as it is strange to me. Though mutilated " qualem dices . . . 
 antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquice ! " 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 33 
 
 It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild-ducks and 
 snipes ; but, when it was shot, had just knocked down a rook, 
 which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer to any 
 of our English hawks j neither could I find any like it at the 
 
 COMMON RAT. 
 
 curious exhibition of stuffed birds in Spring Gardens. I found it 
 nailed up at the end of a barn, which.is the countryman's museum. 7 
 The parish I live in is a^very abrupt, uneven country, full of hills 
 and woods, and therefore full of birds. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER X. 
 
 1 The reader will observe, as he proceeds, that White leans more and more to 
 the idea that swallows live in a state of torpidity through the winter, and do 
 not migrate. He never, however, discovered any proof of this theory. It has 
 been ascertained beyond a doubt that swallows do migrate, and that if any 
 solitary individuals do lie torpid, it is because they were too weak at the end of 
 the summer to undertake their long journey to warmer countries. It is ques- 
 tionable, however, whether any such specimens live through the winter, although 
 it is of course possible that they might exist in some sheltered crevice where 
 insects might also hide and cluster. The late appearance of solitary swallows 
 simply shows that some have lingered beyond others, and the early appearance 
 of some in spring is in -'accordance with the usual practice of migratory birds, 
 pioneers arriving before the main body. 
 
 If any swallows appeared during some of the warm days we sometimes have 
 in December and January, when insects are abroad, it would point to the 
 hybernation of some specimens, but I am not aware of any such occurrences. 
 Mr. Jesse, in his edition of White, gives an instance of a pair of swallows 
 (presumably house-martins) sealing up their young in their nest, and the young 
 ones lived until the next spring, when they pecked their way out. This 
 interesting instance, however, did not come under his own observation. The 
 
34 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.. 
 y4^J^^J^ : /* \ 
 
 WATER-RAT. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNR. 35 
 
 reader must bear this long explanation in mind when he sees the numerous 
 allusions to the subject in the subsequent pages. 
 
 The sand-martin is the first of the swallow kind to arrive, and the swift 
 the last. 
 
 In the Field of April i2th, 1879, I see the following note by Mr. Henry 
 Smith, which is apropos of the subject : 
 
 "On Sunday last, April 6th, I saw a single swallow flying over the town of 
 Ringwood ; and on going out of the town across the river, where a large tract 
 of meadow is generally inundated in wet weather, I saw, to my astonishment, 
 a multitude of martins skimming over the surface of the water. This was 
 early in the morning, just before a tremendous downpour of rain, lasting six 
 hours. At 3 p.m., when the rain had ceased, and the sky had become clear, 
 I went out again, and found that the air was resounding with the twittering of 
 the birds, which were flying at a great altitude, and in vast numbers. The 
 low flight in the early morning, and the exalted position of the birds in the 
 afternoon, indicated on the one hand the forthcoming heavy rain, and on the 
 other presaged the fine afternoon which followed. In all my observations of 
 the arrival of the hirundines, I have never before noticed them in a large flock ; 
 but at their earliest date of arrival, one generally has marked their advent here 
 and there in small numbers ; their congregating in large flocks generally pre- 
 cedes their departure." 
 
 2 Possibly the Grasshopper Warbler. This little bird has a peculiar 
 sibilant warble, which, like the cry of the corncrake, is apparently ventrilo- 
 quous. The sound seems here, there, and everywhere, and it is only by the 
 closest observation and the greatest caution that a sight of the tiny songster 
 can be obtained. 
 
 3 In the verandah of my father's house in Shropshire, four or five pairs of 
 fly-catchers used to build, and there were other nests on a ledge in the orchard 
 wall, so that in the summer the standard roses and the gateposts each had a 
 fly- catcher using h as a raiding-point. The birds which rested in the verandah 
 took not the slightest notice of people passing and repassing. Sparrows, wrens, 
 and chaffinches also nested among the roses which trailed up it. 
 
 4 The Blackcap does migrate. 
 
 5 The humming of the snipe has puzzled many a naturalist to say how it was 
 made. It is also called bleating, and, in Norfolk, " lamming/' because the noise 
 is something like that caused by a lamb. I have noticed great numbers of 
 snipe bleating on the Norfolk Roads, and I am satisfied that it is made by the 
 rapid vibration of the long feathers of the tail and wings. The sound is only 
 made when the snipe is in the air and descending a little, rapidly, in an oblique 
 direction against the wind. 
 
 6 There is only one species of water-rat, and strictly speaking it is not a rat. 
 It differs anatomically and in its mode of life from the rat. Its proper name is 
 the water-vole. Its feet are not webbed. Its food is entirely vegetable, while 
 the common rat, which is found in numbers by the waterside, will eat fish or 
 
 3 
 
36 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 animal matter. Of the rat proper there are two species, the original black 
 English rat, which is exceedingly rare, and the Norway rat, which is the one now 
 so common. It has completely ousted the black rat. 
 
 7 This hawk was apparently a variety of the Peregrine Falcon. 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 SELBORNE, September tyh, 1767. 
 IT will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your 
 
 THE HOOPOE. 
 
 thoughts with regard to \hzfalco; as to its weight, breadth, etc., 1 
 wish I had set them down at the time ; but, to the best of my 
 remembrance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, and 
 measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere and 
 feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As it 
 had been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, I could make 
 no good observation on the colour of the pupils and the irides. 
 
 The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were a 
 pair of hoopoes (upupa}^ which came several years ago in the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF S EL BORNE. 37 
 
 summer, and frequented an ornamented piece of ground, which 
 joins to my garden, for some weeks. They used to march about 
 in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day ; 
 and seemed disposed to breed in my outlet j but were frighted 
 and persecuted by idle boys, who would never let them be at rest. 
 
 THE GROSSBEAK. 
 
 Three grossbeaks 2 (loxia coccothraustes) appeared some years 
 ago in my fields, in the winter; one of which I shot. Since that, 
 now and then, one is occasionally seen in the same dead season. 
 
 A crossbill 3 (loxia curvirostrd) was killed last year in this neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end ot the 
 village, yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's thumb 4 (gobius 
 fiuviatilis capitatus\ the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the eel 5 (anguilla), 
 the lampern 6 (lampcetra parva et fluviatilis\ and the stickle-back 7 
 (pisciculus acuhatus}. 
 
 We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from a 
 great river, and therefore see but little of sea birds. As to wild 
 fowls, we have a few teems of ducks bred in the moors where the 
 
;,8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 snipes breed ; and multitudes of widgeons and teals in hard weather 
 frequent our lakes in the forest. 
 
 Having some acquaintance with a tame brown owl, I find that 
 it casts up the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in pellets, after 
 
 THE COMMON CROSSBILL. 
 
 the manner of hawks; when full, like a dog, it hides what it 
 cannot eat. 
 
 The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as they want a 
 constant supply of fresh mice ; whereas the young of the brown 
 
 MILLER'S THUMB, OR BULL'S HEAD 
 
 owl will eat indiscriminately all that is brought ; snails, rats, kittens, 
 puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion or offal. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 39 
 
 The house-martins have eggs still, and squab young. The last 
 swift I observed was about the 2ist August : it was a straggler. 
 
 Red-starts, fly-catchers, white-throats, and reguli non cristati, still 
 appear : but I have seen no black-caps lately. 
 
 THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 
 
 I forgot to mention that I once saw, in Christ Church College 
 quadrangle in Oxford, on a very sunny warm morning, a house- 
 martin flying about, and settling on the parapet, so late as the 
 2oth November. 
 
 At present I know only two species of bats, the common vesper- 
 tilio murinus and the vespertilio auribus? 
 
 I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat, which 
 would take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave it anything 
 to eat, it brought its wings round before the mouth, hovering and 
 hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when they feed. 
 
40 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 The adroitness it showed in shearing off the wings of the flies, 
 which were always rejected, was worthy of observation, and 
 pleased me much. Insects seemed to be most acceptable, though 
 it did not refuse raw flesh when offered ; so that the notion, that 
 
 PlPlSTKELLE. 
 
 bats go down chimneys and gnaw men's bacon, seems no im- 
 probable story. While I amused myself with this wonderful 
 quadruped, I saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion, that 
 bats when down upon a flat surface cannot get on the wing again, 
 by rising with great ease from the floor. It ran, I observed, with 
 more dispatch than I was aware of; but in a most ridiculous and 
 grotesque manner. 
 
 Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping the surface, as 
 they play over pools and streams. They love to frequent waters, 
 not only for the sake of drinking, but on account of insects, which 
 are found over them in the greatest plenty. As I was going some 
 years ago, pretty late, in a boat from Richmond to Sunbury, on a 
 warm summer's evening, I think I saw myriads of bats between 
 the two places ; the air swarmed with them all along the Thames, 
 so that hundreds were in sight at a time. I am,, etc. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 41 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER XI. 
 
 1 One occasionally sees mention made in the scientific and natural history 
 periodicals of the occurrence of the hoopoe (upupa epops). Of course it is 
 generally shot, and no chance is given it of breeding. Its nest has only rarely 
 been found in England. 
 
 2 The grossbeak (coccothraustes vulgaris], or as it is more commonly called, 
 the hawfinch, is not so rare as is generally supposed. Its shyness prevents it* 
 being easily observed. 
 
 3 The crossbill may occasionally be seen, in small flocks, in districts where 
 the larch is plentiful. With its peculiar curved mandibles, it extracts the seeds 
 from the fir-cones. The birds vary greatly in size and colour, according to age 
 and sex. They are yellow, green, red, or brown at different times, so if it 
 were not for their crossed bills, it would be rather hard to distinguish them. 
 They breed in Norway and Sweden, and very occasionally in England. 
 
 4 We used, when I was a boy, to catch great numbers of bull- heads to bait 
 our eel lines with. They were found under every flat stone in the Shropshire 
 streams, in company with the loach, also an excellent bait. 
 
 5 It is now well known that there are three kinds of eels which inhabit our 
 rivers and pools, the snig, and the broad-nosed and sharp-nosed species. The 
 habits of eels are very peculiar. Nothing certain is known about their breeding, 
 but it is believed that the young are born alive. In the autumn the eels descend 
 the rivers in vast numbers, and go either to sea or to the brackish waters, where 
 they breed. In the spring the little eels, or elvers, ascend the rivers in columns 
 so dense that they may be scooped out by the bucketful. 
 
 6 In the Dee at Llangollen, lamperns were very numerous. They hold on 
 to stones by means of their round sucker-like mouths, and can move very heavy 
 ones. 
 
 7 There are six kinds of sticklebacks. Everyone knows the common three- 
 finned one. One kind builds a nest among the weeds, and guards it with the 
 utmost vigilance. 
 
 8 There seem to be about twenty species of British bats. Four or five 
 species are tolerably common. The squeak made by the bat is so very fine, 
 that while to some ears it is loud, by others it cannot be heard. I once, when 
 a boy, was exploring a hollow tree after owls' nests, when the smell from one 
 particular hole was so dreadful that we put some lighted paper down to see 
 what would come out ; and to our astonishment dozens of large, reddish bats 
 flew out, and dashed madly about in the bright sunlight. The bat has more 
 vermin upon it than any other creature of its size. It seems needless to state 
 that the bat is an animal, and not a bird or an insect ; but I saw it gravely stated 
 in the columns of a local journal by two correspondents that it was either of the 
 two latter. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 November tfh, 1767. 
 
 SIR, It gave me no small satisfaction to hear that \hzfalco turned 
 out an uncommon one. I must confess I should have been better 
 pleased to have heard that I had sent you a bird that you had 
 never seen before ; but that, I find, would be a difficult task. 
 
 I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former 
 letters, a young one and a female with young, both of which I 
 have preserved in brandy. From the colour, shape, size, and 
 manner of nesting, I make no doubt but that the species is 
 nondescript. They are much smaller, and more slender, than the 
 mus domesticus medius of Ray ; and have more of the squirrel or 
 dormouse colour ; their belly is white, a straight line along their 
 
 sides divides the shades of their 
 back and belly. They never enter 
 into houses ; are carried into ricks 
 and barns. with the sheaves; abound 
 in harvest j and build their nests 
 amidst the straws of the corn above 
 the ground, and sometimes in thistles. 
 They breed as many as eight at a 
 litter, in a little round nest composed 
 of the blades of grass or wheat. 1 
 
 One of these nests I procured 
 this autumn, most artificially platted, 
 and composed of the blades of 
 wheat, perfectly round, and about 
 the size of a cricket- ball ; with the 
 aperture so ingeniously closed, that 
 there was no discovering to what 
 part it belonged. It was so com- 
 pact and well filled, that it would 
 
 HARVEST MOUSE AND NEST. ro ii across the table without being 
 discomposed, though it contained eight little mice that were 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 43 
 
 naked and blind. As this nest was perfectly full, he w could the 
 dam come at her litter respectively so as to administer a teat to 
 each? Perhaps she opens different places for that purpose, 
 adjusting them again when the business is over ; but she could 
 not possibly be contained herself in the ball with her young, which 
 moreover would be daily increasing in bulk. This wonderful pro- 
 creant cradle, an elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was 
 found in a wheat-field suspended in the head of a thistle. 
 
 A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me word that his servant 
 had shot one last January, in that severe weather, which he 
 believed would puzzle me. I called to see it this summer, not 
 knowing what to expect, but the moment I took it in hand, I 
 pronounced it the male garrulus bohemicus or German silk-tail, 
 from the five peculiar crimson tags or points which it carries at the 
 ends of five of the short remiges. It cannot, I suppose, with any 
 propriety, be called an English bird ; and yet I see, by Ray's 
 " Philosophical Letters," that great flocks of them, feeding on 
 haws, appeared in this kingdom in the winter of 1685. 
 
 The mention of haws puts me in mind that there is a total 
 failure of that wild fruit, so conducive to the support of many of 
 the winged nation. For the same severe weather, late in the 
 spring, which cut off all the produce of the more tender and curious 
 trees, destroyed also that of the more hardy and common. 
 
 Some birds, haunting with the missel-thrushes, and feeding on 
 the berries of the yew tree, which answered to the description of the 
 merula torquata, or ring-ouzel, were lately seen in this neighbour- 
 hood. I employed some people to procure me a specimen, but 
 without success. (See Letter VIII.) 
 
 Query. Might not canary birds be naturalised to this climate, 
 provided their eggs were put, in the spring, into the nests of some 
 of their congeners, as goldfinches, greenfinches, etc. ? Before 
 winter perhaps they might be hardened, and able to shift for 
 themselves. 
 
 About ten years ago I used to spend some weeks yearly at 
 Sunbury, which is one of those pleasant villages lying on the 
 Thames, near Hampton Court. In the autumn, I could not help 
 being much amused with those myriads of the swallow kind which 
 
44 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 assemble in those parts. But what struck me most was, that, 
 from the time they began to congregate, forsaking the chimneys 
 and houses, they roosted every night in the osier-beds of the aits 
 of that river. 2 Now this resorting towards that element, at that 
 season of the year, seems to give some countenance to the northern 
 opinion (strange as it is) of their retiring under water. A Swedish 
 naturalist is so much persuaded of that fact, that he talks, in his 
 calendar of Flora, as familiarly of the swallow's going under water 
 in the beginning of September, as he would of his poultry going 
 to roost a little before sunset. 
 
 An observing gentleman in London writes me word that he saw 
 a house-martin, on the twenty-third of last October, flying in and 
 out of its nest in the Borough. And I myself, on the twenty-ninth 
 of last October (as I was travelling through Oxford), saw four or 
 five swallows hovering round and settling on the roof of the county 
 hospital. 
 
 Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which perhaps had 
 not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late season of 
 the year, and from so midland a county, attempt a voyage to 
 Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the equator ? * 
 
 I acquiesce entirely in your opinion that, though most of the 
 swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind and hide 
 with us during the winter. 
 
 As to the short-winged soft-billed birds, which come trooping in 
 such numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even what to suspect 
 about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and saw them 
 abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared no longer. 
 Subsist they cannot openly among us, and yet elude the eyes of 
 the inquisitive : and, as to their hiding, no man pretends to have 
 found any of them in a torpid state in the winter. But with regard 
 to their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition ! that 
 such feeble bad fliers (who the summer long never flit but from 
 hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse vast seas and con- 
 tinents in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst the regions of 
 Africa ! 
 
 * See " Adanson's Voyage to Senegal." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 45 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER XII. 
 
 1 The harvest mouse is the smallest of British animals. Unlike its relatives, 
 it builds its nest on the stalks of grass or corn at a little distance from the 
 ground. The nest is globular in shape, made of woven grass, and has a small 
 entrance like that of a wren's. It is tolerably common in some of the southern 
 counties, but it is not easily found. 
 
 2 There was a pool in Shropshire where I used to fish for roach, and I was 
 always struck with the number of swallows which roosted on the willow bushes 
 fringing the banks. One could almost take them in one's hand. At Acle, 
 in Norfolk, one August, the swallows roosted on the telegraph wires in such 
 extraordinary numbers that they formed continuous black festoons as far as the 
 eye could reach. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. 22nd, 1768. 
 
 SIR, As in one of your former letters you expressed the more 
 satisfaction from my correspondence on account of my living in 
 the most southerly county ; so now I may return the compliment, 
 and expect to have my curiosity gratified by your living much 
 more to the North. 
 
 For many years past I have observed that towards Christmas 
 vast flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields ; many more, 
 I used to think, than could be hatched in any one neighbourhood. 
 But, when I came to observe them more narrowly, I was amazed 
 to find that they seemed to me to be almost all hens. I com- 
 municated my suspicions to some intelligent neighbours, who, 
 after taking pains about the matter, declared that they also thought 
 them mostly females, at least fifty to one. This extraordinary 
 occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnaeus, that 
 " before winter all their hen chaffinches migrate through Holland 
 
4 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 into Italy." Now I want to know, from some curious person in 
 
 THE CHAFFINCH (Fiingilla Calebs). 
 
 the north, whether there are any large flocks of these finches with 
 them in the winter., and of which sex they mostly consist ? For 
 
 THE COMMON LINNET. 
 
 from such intelligence, one might be able to judge whether our 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 47 
 
 female flocks migrate from the other end of the island, or whether 
 they come over to us from the continent. 
 
 We have, in the winter, vast flocks of the common linnets ; 
 more, I think, than can be bred in any one district. These, 
 I observe, when the spring advances, assemble on some tree 
 in the sunshine, and join all in a gentle sort of chirping, as 
 if they were about to break up their winter quarters and 
 betake themselves to their proper summer homes. It is w t ell 
 known, at least, that the swallows and the fieldfares do congre- 
 gate with a gentle twittering before they make their respective 
 departure. 
 
 You may depend on it that the bunting, Embenza miliaria, 
 does not leave this county in the winter. In January, 1767, I 
 
 QUAIL. 
 
 saw several dozen of them, in the midst of a severe frost, among 
 the bushes on the downs near Andover : in our woodland enclosed 
 district it is a rare bird. 
 
 Wagtails, both white and yellow, are with us all the winter. 
 Quails crowd to our southern coast, and are often killed in 
 numbers by people that go on purpose. 
 
 Mr. Stillingfleet, in his Tracts, says that "if the wheatear 
 (osnanthe) does not quit England, it certainly shifts places; for 
 about harvest they are not to be found, where there was before 
 great plenty of them." This well accounts for the vast quantities 
 that are caught about that time on the south downs near Lewes, 
 where they are esteemed a delicacy. There have been shepherds, 
 I have been credibly informed, that have made many pounds in a 
 season by catching them in traps. And though such multitudes 
 
48 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 are taken, I never saw (and I am well acquainted with those 
 parts) above two or three at a time, for they are never gregarious. 
 They may perhaps migrate in general ; and, for that purpose, draw 
 towards the coast of Sussex in autumn : but that they do not 
 all withdraw I am sure ; because I see a few stragglers in many 
 counties, at all times of the year, especially about warrens and 
 stone quarries. 
 
 I have no acquaintance, at present, among the gentlemen of the 
 navy ; but have written to a friend, who was a sea-chaplain in 
 the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with respect 
 to birds that settled on their rigging during their voyage up or 
 down the Channel. What Hasselquist says on that subject is 
 
 WHEATKAR 
 
 remarkable ; there were little short-winged birds frequently coming 
 on board his ship all the way from our channel quite up to the 
 Levant, especially before squally weather. 
 
 What you suggest, with regard to Spain, is highly probable. 
 The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the 
 soft-billed birds that leave us at that season may find insects 
 sufficient to support them there. 
 
 Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, 
 should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom ; and should 
 spend a year there, investigating the natural history of that vast 
 country. Mr. Willughby * passed through that kingdom on such 
 an errand; but he seems to have skirted along in a superficial 
 
 * See "Ray's Travels," p. 466. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 40 
 
 manner and an ill-humour, being much disgusted at the rude 
 dissolute manners of the people. 
 
 I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the 
 swallows roosting on the aits of the Thames : nor can I hear any 
 more about those birds which I suspected were MeruJce. torquatcz. 
 
 As to the small mice, I have farther to remark, that though they 
 hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the standing 
 corn, above the ground ; yet I find that, in the winter, they burrow 
 deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass : but their grand 
 rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into which they are carried 
 at harvest. A neighbour housed an oat-rick lately, under the 
 thatch of which were assembled nearly a hundred, most of which 
 were taken, and some I saw. I measured them ; and found that, 
 from nose to tail, they were just two inches and a quarter, and 
 their tails just two inches long. Two of them, in a scale, weighed 
 down just one copper halfpenny, which is about the third of an 
 ounce avoirdupois : so that I suppose they are the smallest 
 quadrupeds in this island. A full-grown Mus medius domesticus 
 weighs, I find, one ounce lumping weight, which is more than 
 six times as much as the mouse above ; and measures from nose 
 to rump four inches and a quarter, and the same in its tail. We 
 have had a very severe frost and deep snow this month. My 
 thermometer was one day fourteen degrees and a half below the 
 freezing-point, within doors. The tender evergreens were injured 
 pretty much. It was very providential that the air was still, and 
 the ground well covered with snow, else vegetation in general 
 must have suffered prodigiously. There is reason to believe that 
 some days were more severe than any since the year 1739-40. 
 
 I am, etc., etc. 
 
50 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 SELBORNE, March i2th, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, If some curious gentleman would procure the head 
 of a fallow-deer, and have it dissected, he would find it furnished 
 with two spiracula, or breathing places, besides the nostrils ; pro- 
 bably analogous to the puncta lachrymalia in the human head. 
 When deer are thirsty they plunge their noses, like some horses, 
 very deep under water, while in the act of drinking, and continue 
 them in that situation for a considerable time : but, to obviate any 
 inconveniency, they can open two vents, one at the inner corner 
 of each eye, having a communication with the nose. Here seems 
 to be an extraordinary provision of nature worthy our attention ; 
 and which has not, that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist. 
 For it looks as if these creatures would not be suffocated, though 
 both their mouths and nostrils were stopped. This curious forma- 
 tion of the head may be of singular service to beasts of chase, by 
 affording them free respiration : and no doubt these additional 
 nostrils are thrown open when they are hard run. Mr. Ray ob- 
 served that at Malta, the owners slit up the nostrils of such asses 
 as were hard worked : for they, being naturally straight or small, 
 did not admit air sufficient to serve them when they travelled, or 
 laboured, in that hot climate. And we know that grooms, and 
 gentlemen of the turf, think large nostrils necessary, and a perfec- 
 tion, in hunters and running horses. 
 
 Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have 
 had some notion that stags have four spiracula : 
 
 " lerpadv/j-ot pives, iriovpes cDvot^ot 8iav\ot. " 
 " Quadrifidse nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales." 
 
 OFF. CYN. Lib. ii. 1. 181. 
 
 Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say that 
 goats breathe at their ears ; whereas he asserts just the con- 
 trary : " AX/c/Aatcoi/ yap OVK aX.r)Or] Aeyei, <a/xevos avairvew ras euyas 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 5: 
 
 fcr:.T TO, tora." " Alcmseon does not advance what is true, when 
 he avers that goats breathe through their ears." " History of 
 Animals." Book I. chap, xi. 1 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XIV. 
 
 Naturalists seem now agreed that the curious slits referred to in the fore- 
 going chapter are not and cannot be used for breathing, but for some other 
 sense of which we can but guess the nature. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 SELBORNE, March 30^, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Some intelligent country people have a notion that 
 we have in these parts, a species of the genus mustelinum y besides 
 
 WEASEL. 
 
 the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat ; a little reddish beast, not 
 much bigger than a field-mouse, but much longer, which they 
 
 4 
 
52 NATURAL HISTORY OF SEL BORNE. 
 
 call a cane. This piece of intelligence can be little depended 
 on; but farther inquiry may be made. 1 
 
 TOLECAT 
 
 A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk white rooks in 
 one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before they were 
 able to fly, threw them down and destroyed them, to the regret of 
 the owner, who would have been glad to have preserved such a 
 curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself nailed against the 
 end of a barn, and was surprised to find that their bills, legs, feet, 
 and claws were milk white. 
 
 A shepherd saw, as he thought, some white larks on a down 
 above my house this winter : were not these the Emberiza nivalis, 
 the snow-flake of the Brit. Zool. ? No doubt they were. 
 
 A few years ago I saw a cock bullfinch in a cage, which had 
 been caught in the fields after it was come to its full colours. In 
 about a year it began to look dingy ; and, blackening every suc- 
 ceeding year, it became coal-black at the end of four. Its chief 
 food was hempseed. Such influence has food on the colour of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 53 
 
 animals ! The pied and mottled colours of domesticated animals 
 are supoosed to be owing to high, various, and unusual food. 
 
 THE BULLFINCH (Pyrrhula rubicilla). 
 
 I had remarked, for years, that the root of the cuckoo-pint 
 (arum) was frequently scratched out of the dry banks of hedges, 
 and eaten in severe snowy weather. After observing, with some 
 exactness, myself, and getting others to do the same, we found it 
 was the thrush kind that searched it out. The root of the arum 
 is remarkably warm and pungent. 
 
 Our flocks of female chaffinches have not yet forsaken us. The 
 blackbirds and thrushes are very much thinned down by that 
 fierce weather in January. 
 
 In the middle of February I discovered, in my tall hedges, a 
 little bird that raised my curiosity : it was of that yellow-green 
 colour that belongs to the salicaria kind, and, I think, was soft- 
 billed. It was no parus ; and was too long and too big for the 
 golden-crowned wren, appearing most like the largest willow-wren. 
 It hung sometimes with its back downwards, but never continuing 
 one moment in the same place. I shot at it, but it was so desul- 
 tory that I missed my aim. 
 
r* NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 I wonder that the stone-curlew, Charadrins Kdicnemus, should 
 be mentioned by the writers as a rare bird : it abounds in all the 
 champaign parts of Hampshire and Sussex, and breeds, I think, 
 all the summer, having young ones, I know, very late in the 
 autumn. Already they begin clamouring in the evening. They 
 cannot, I think, with any propriety, be called, as they are by 
 Mr. Ray, "circa aquas -versantes ;" for with us, by day at least, 
 they haunt only the most dry, open, upland fields and sheep-walks, 
 far removed from water : what they may do in the night I cannot 
 say. Worms are their usual food, but they also eat toads and 
 frogs. 
 
 I can show you some good specimens of my new mice. Linnaeus 
 perhaps would call the species Mus minimus. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XV. 
 
 1 The cane is simply a local name for the weasel. It is called mouse-hunter 
 in Norfolk. A peculiarity of the weasel is its curiosity. If you startle it and 
 it runs into a hole, wait a few moments, and it will probably come out again to 
 look at you in a very impertinent kind of way. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 SELBORNE, April i8//, 1768. 
 
 DFAR SIR, The history of the stone-curlew, Charadrius &dic- 
 nemus, is as follows. It lays its eggs, usually two, never more 
 than three, on the bare ground, without any nest, in the field ; so 
 that the countryman, in stirring his fallows, often destroys them. 
 The young run immediately from the egg like partridges, etc., and 
 are withdrawn to some flinty field by the dam, where they skulk 
 among the stones, which are their best security ; for their feathers 
 are so exactly of the colour of our grey spotted flints, that the 
 most exact observer, unless he catches the eye of the young bird, 
 may be eluded. The eggs are short and round ; of a dirty white, 
 spotted with dark bloody blotches. Though I might not be able, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 55 
 
 just when I pleased, to procure you a bird, yet I could show 5 ou 
 them almost any day; and any evening you may hear them round 
 the village, for they make a clamour which may be heard a mile. 
 Oedicnemus is a most apt and expressive name for them, since 
 their legs seem swoln like those of a gouty man. After harvest I 
 have shot them before the pointers in turnip-fields. 
 
 COMMON CURLEW. 
 
 I make no doubt but there are three species of the willow-wrens; 
 two I know perfectly, but have not been able yet to procure the 
 third. No two birds can differ more in their notes, and that 
 constantly, than those two that I am acquainted with ; for the one 
 has a joyous, easy, laughing note, the other a harsh loud chirp. 
 The former is every way larger, and three-quarters of an inch 
 longer, and weighs two drams and a half, while the latter weighs 
 but two ; so the songster is one-fifth heavier than the chirper. The 
 chirper (being the first summer-bird of passage that is heard, the 
 wryneck sometimes excepted) begins his two notes in the middle 
 
50 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 of March, and continues them through the spring and summer till 
 the end of August, as appears by my journals. The legs of the 
 larger of these two are flesh-coloured ; of the less black. 
 
 The grasshopper-lark began his sibilous note in my fields last 
 
 THE CHIFF-CHAFF (Sylvia hippolais). 
 
 Saturday. Nothing can be more amusing than the whisper of 
 this little bird, which seems to be close by though at a hundred 
 yards distance ; and when close at your ear, is scarce any louder 
 than when a great way off. Had I not been a little acquainted with 
 insects, and known that the grasshopper kind is not yet hatched, 
 I should have hardly believed but that it had been a locusta whis- 
 pering in the bushes. The country people laugh when you tell 
 them that it is the note of a bird. It is a most artful creature, 
 sculking in the thickest part of a bush ; and will sing at a yard 
 distance, provided it be concealed. I was obliged to get a person 
 to go on the other side of the hedge where it haunted, and then 
 it would run, creeping like a mouse, before us for a hundred 
 yards together, through the bottom of the thorns ; yet it would not 
 come into fair sight ; but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, 
 it sings on the top of a twig, gaping and shivering with its wings. 
 Mr. Ray himself had no knowledge of this bird, but received his 
 account from Mr. Johnson, who apparently confounds it with the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 57 
 
 regitli non cristati, from which it is very distinct. See Ray's 
 " Philos. Letters," p. 108. 
 
 The fly-catcher (stoparola) has not yet appeared ; it usually 
 breeds in my vine. The redstart begins to sing, its note is short 
 and imperfect, but is continued till about the middle of June. 
 The willow-wrens (the smaller sort) are horrid pests in a garden, 
 destroying the peas, cherries, currants, etc, ; and are so tame that 
 a gun will not scare them. 
 
 A LIST OF THE SUMMER BIRDS OF PASSAGE DISCOVERED IN THIS 
 NEIGHBOURHOOD, RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH 
 THEY APPEAR. 
 
 LINN^EI NOMINA. 
 
 Smallest willow-wren, Motaciila trochilus. 
 
 Wryneck, Jynx torquilla. 
 
 House-swallow, Hirundo rustica. 
 
 Martin, H'-rundo urbica. 
 
 Sand-martin, Hirundo riparia. 
 
 Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus. 
 
 Nightingale, Motaciila luscinia. 
 
 Blackcap, Motaciila atricapilla. 
 
 Whitethroat, Motaciila sylvia. 
 
 Middle willow-wren, Motaciila trochilus. 
 
 Swift, Hirundo apus. 
 
 Stone-curlew? Charadrius cedicnemusl 
 
 Turtle-dove? Turtur aldrovandil 
 
 Grasshopper-lark, Alauda trivialis. 
 
 Landrail, Rallus crex. 
 
 Largest willow- wren, Motaciila trochilus. 
 
 Redstart, Motaciila phcenicurus. 
 
 Goat-sucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgus europceus. 
 
 Fly-catcher, Muscicapa grisola. 
 
 My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with 
 its bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling it a jar- 
 bird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact ; it proved to be 
 the Sitta europaa (the nuthatch). Mr. Ray says that the less spotted 
 woodpecker does the same. This noise may be heard a furlong 
 or more. 
 
 Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer 
 birds ; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any remarks 
 
58 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 on such a restless tribe; and when once the young begin to appear 
 
 it is all confusion : there is no distinction of genus, species, or sex. 
 
 In breeding-time snipes play over the moors, piping and hum- 
 
 NUTHATCH. 
 
 ming ; they always hum as they are descending. Is not their hum 
 ventriloquous like that of the turkey? Some suspect it is made 
 by their wings. 
 
 This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown 
 glitters like burnished gold. 3 It often hangs like a titmouse, with 
 its back downwards. 
 
 Yours, etc., etc. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER XVI. 
 
 1 White probably means the willow-wren and chiff-chaff which are common, 
 and the wood-wren which is rare. 
 
 2 The nuthatch builds in holes in trees, and if the opening is too large, it 
 builds it up with mud, leaving only sufficient room for its own egress and 
 ingress. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 59 
 
 3 The golden-crested wren suspends its deep purse-like nest beneath some 
 thick fir branch, and lays a number of tiny yellow-brown eggs, like green-peas 
 in size. All the winter through this wren and the long-tailed tit frequented the 
 hedgerows and coppices in Shropshire, and were frequent victims to a school- 
 boy's love of chevying. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 SELBORNE, June i8//&, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, On Wednesday last arrived your agreeable letter 
 of June loth. It gives me great satisfaction to find that you 
 pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are in such for- 
 wardness with regard to reptiles and fishes. 
 
 The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted with, so well 
 as I could wish, with regard to their natural history. There is a 
 degree of dubiousness and obscurity attending the propagation of 
 this class of animals, something analogous to that of the crypto- 
 gamia in the sexual system of plants : and the case is the same 
 with regard to some of the fishes ; as the eel, etc. 1 
 
 The method in which toads procreate and bring forth seems to 
 be very much in the dark. Some authors say that they are vivi- 
 parous : and yet Ray classes them among his oviparous animals \ 
 and is silent with regard to the manner of their bringing forth. 
 Perhaps they may be low ^kv woroVot, cw Se CDOTO'/COI, as is known 
 to be the case with the viper. 
 
 The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance of it ; for 
 .Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis intrans) is notorious 
 to everybody: because we see them sticking upon each other's backs 
 for a month together in the spring : and yet I never saw, or read of 
 toads being observed in the same situation. It is strange that the 
 matter with regard to the venom of toads has not been yet settled. 
 That they are not noxious to some animals is plain : for ducks, 
 buzzards, owls, stone-curlews, and snakes, eat them, to my know- 
 ledge, with impunity. And I well remember the time, but was 
 not eyewitness to the fact (though numbers of persons were) when 
 
 
60 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 a quack, at this village, ate a toad to make the country- people 
 stare ; afterwards he drank oil. 2 
 
 I have been informed also, from undoubted authority, that some 
 ladies (ladies you will say of peculiar taste) took a fancy to a toad, 
 which they nourished summer after summer, for many years, till he 
 grew to a monstrous size, with the maggots which turn to flesh-flies. 
 The reptile used to come forth every evening from a hole under the 
 garden-steps; and was taken up, after supper, on the table to be fed. 
 But at last a tame raven, kenning him as he put forth his head, 
 gave him such a severe stroke with his horny beak as put out one 
 eye. After this accident the creature languished for some time 
 and died. 
 
 I need not remind a gentleman of your extensive reading of the 
 excellent account there is from Mr. Derham, in Ray's "Wisdom of 
 God in the Creation " (p. 365), concerning the migration of frogs 
 from their breeding ponds. In this account he at once subverts 
 that foolish opinion of their dropping from the clouds in rain ; 
 showing that it is from the grateful coolness and moisture of those 
 showers that they are tempted to set out on their travels, which 
 they defer till those fall. 3 Frogs are as yet in their tadpole state ; 
 but, in a few weeks, our lanes, paths, fields, will swarm for a few 
 days with myriads of those emigrants, no larger than my little 
 finger nail. Swammerdam gives a most accurate account of the 
 method and situation in which the male impregnates the spawn of 
 the female. How wonderful is the economy of Providence with 
 regard to the limbs of so vile a reptile ! While it is an aquatic it 
 has a fish-like tail, and no legs ; as soon as the legs sprout, the 
 tail drops oif as useless, and the animal betakes itself to the 
 land ! 
 
 Merret, I trust, is widely mistaken when he advances that the 
 Rana arborea is an English reptile ; it abounds in Germany and 
 Switzerland. 4 
 
 It is to be remembered that the Salamandra aquatica of Ray 
 (the water-newt or eft) will frequently bite at the angler's bait, and 
 is often caught on his hook. I used to take it for granted that 
 the Salamandra aquatica was hatched, lived, and died, in the 
 water. But John Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. (the coralline Ellis), asserts, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OP SELBORNE. 
 
 61 
 
 in a letter to the Royal Society, dated June 5th, 1766, in his 
 account of the mud inguana, an amphibious bipes from South 
 
 METAMORPHOSES OF NEWT. 
 
 Carolina, that the water-eft, or newt, is only the larva of the 
 land-eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. 5 Lest I should be suspected to 
 misunderstand his meaning, I shall give it in his own words. 
 Speaking of the opercula or coverings to the gills of the mud 
 inguana, he proceeds to say that, " The form of these pennated 
 coverings approaches very near to what I have some time ago 
 observed in the larva or aquatic state of our English lacerta, 
 known by the name of eft, or newt ; which serve them for cover- 
 ings to their gills, and for fins to swim with while in this state ; 
 and which they lose, as well as the fins of their tails, when they 
 change their state and become land animals, as I have observed, 
 by keeping them alive for some time myself." 
 
 Linnaeus, in his " Systema Naturae," hints at what Mr. Ellis 
 advances more than once. 
 
 Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of but one 
 venomous reptile of the serpent kind in these kingdoms, and that 
 
62 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 is the viper. As you propose the good of mankind to he an 
 
 VIPER. 
 
 object of your publications, you will not omit to mention common 
 
 RINGED SNAKE. 
 
 salad-oil as a sovereign remedy against the bite of the viper. As 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 63 
 
 to the blind worm (Anguis fragilis, so-called because it snaps in 
 sunder with a small blow), I have found, on examination, that it 
 is perfectly innocuous. 6 A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am 
 indebted for some good hints) killed and opened a female viper 
 about the 2yth May: he found her filled with a chain of eleven 
 eggs, about the size of those of a blackbird ; but none of them 
 were advanced so far towards a state of maturity as to contain 
 any rudiments of young. Though they are oviparous, yet they 
 are viviparous also, hatching their young within their bellies, and 
 
 BLINDWORM. 
 
 then bringing them forth. Whereas snakes lay chains of eggs 
 every summer in my melon beds, in spite of all that my people 
 can do to prevent them ; which eggs do not hatch till the spring 
 following, as I have often experienced. Several intelligent folks 
 assure me that they have seen the viper open her mouth and 
 admit her helpless young down her throat on sudden surprises, 
 just as the female opossum does her brood into the pouch under 
 her belly, upon the like emergencies ; and yet the London viper- 
 catchers insist on it, to Mr. Barrington, that no such thing ever 
 happens. 7 The serpent kind eat, I believe, but once in a year ; 
 
 
64 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 or rather, but only just at one season of the year. 3 Countiy 
 people talk much of a water-snake, but, I am pretty sure, without 
 any reason; for the common snake (Coluber natrix] delights much 
 to sport in the water, perhaps with a view to procure frogs and 
 other food. 9 
 
 I cannot well guess how you are to make out your twelve 
 species of reptiles, unless it be by the various species, or rather 
 varieties, of our lacerti, of which Ray enumerates five. I have 
 not had opportunity of ascertaining these ; but remember well to 
 have seen, formerly, several beautiful green lacerti on the sunny 
 sandbanks near Farnham, in Surrey; and Ray admits there are 
 such in Ireland. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER XVII. 
 
 1 Toads lay eggs as frogs do. Every dweller in the country will be familiar 
 with the masses of jelly-like substance in the ditches which constitutes the 
 spawn of frogs. That of toads forms long strings instead of masses. 
 
 2 There seems to be little doubt that the secretion which exudes from the 
 tubercles on the toad's skin is very offensive, and might irritate a delicate 
 skin. Dogs will not mouth them a second time. 
 
 3 There are so many accounts of frogs actually falling with the rain, as well 
 as small fish, that the possibility of this happening should not be too incredu- 
 lously denied. It is possible, and indeed no other explanation can be enter- 
 tained, that they may have been swept up from the earth or water by a 
 whirlwind, as sticks and straws are, and then dropped down. Those who have 
 seen a reed stack carried into the air by a " rodges blast " on the Norfolk 
 marshes, would not consider this suggestion an impossible one. 
 
 4 This pretty green frog which lives on trees, and is sometimes kept as a 
 pet, is not considered a native species. Mr. J. G. Wood says he saw a colony 
 of them in a hole in an apple-tree at Marston, near Oxford ; but they must 
 have been introduced there, or strayed from someone who kept them. 
 
 5 There is but one species of newt, which goes through all its changes in the 
 water. The male has a beautiful waving crest along its back and tail. When 
 young it has gills ; but when it reaches the perfect state it has to rise constantly 
 to the surface to take in a supply of air. It is possible that by the term land- 
 eft, White may refer to the lizard, which belongs to a different family. Most 
 country people of the lower order are dreadfully afraid of newts or effets, and 
 think their bite is deadly. As a fact, however, they are quite harmless. 
 
 6 The blind-worm or slow-worm does not need a blow to induce it to cast 
 off its tail. A sudden fright is sufficient. While you are looking at the tail 
 wrigg-iing and jumping about, the body quietly makes its escape. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 65 
 
 7 The story of the viper swallowing her young ones for their safety is so 
 persistently told from all parts of the country by persons of veracity, that it 
 seems cruel to doubt their accuracy of observation. No scientific and accurate 
 naturalist has, as far as I am aware, actually seen the occurrence. Mr. Jesse 
 ;;eems satisfied that it does happen from the evidence he has collected, and lie 
 says that a viper-catcher on the Brighton Downs told him that he had often 
 witnessed the fact. I think the question is still unsettled. I have never seen 
 it myself, and I have seen a great number of vipers in close proximity. 
 
 8 Snakes eat oftener than once a year, but still one meal of a frog or mouse 
 will take a good-sized snake a long time to digest. 
 
 9 The common snake takes readily to the water, and swims sometimes 
 altogether beneath it, and sometimes with the head and neck above. I have 
 very often seen them doing this ; and although I knew they were harmless, I 
 did not like them diving close by me when I was swimming. There is no 
 English species of "water-snake." 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, July 27 'th, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I received your obliging and communicative letter of 
 June 28th, while I was on a visit at a gentleman's house, where 
 I had neither books to turn to, nor leisure to sit down, to return 
 you an answer to many queries, which I wanted to resolve in the 
 best manner that I am able. 
 
 A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, but could find 
 no such fish as the Gasterosteus pungitius ;^ he found the Gasterosteus 
 aculeatus in plenty. This morning, in a basket, I packed a little 
 earthen pot full of wet moss, and in it some sticklebacks, male 
 and female; the females big with spawn: some lamperns; some 
 bull's heads ; but I could procure no minnows. This basket will 
 be in Fleet Street by eight this evening ; so I hope Mazel will 
 have them fresh and fair to-morrow morning. I gave some 
 directions, in a letter, to what particulars the engraver should be 
 attentive. 
 
 Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a reasonable 
 distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to that town, and 
 procured several living specimens of loaches, wiiicn he brought, 
 
66 NATURAL HISTORY QF SELBORNE. 
 
 safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were taken in the 
 gullies that were cut for watering the meadows. From these 
 fishes (which measured from two to four inches in length) I took 
 the following description : " The loach, in its general aspect, has 
 a pellucid appearance ; its back is mottled with irregular collec- 
 tions of small black dots, not reaching much below the linea 
 lateralis, as are the back and tail fins; a black line runs from 
 each eye down to the nose ; its belly is of a silvery white ; the 
 upper jaw projects beyond the lower, and is surrounded with six 
 feelers, three on each side ; its pectoral fins are large, its ventral 
 much smaller ; the fin behind its anus small ; its dorsal-fin large, 
 containing eight spines; its tail, where it joins to the tail-fin, 
 remarkably broad, without any taperness, so as to be characteristic 
 of this genus ; the tail-fin is broad, and square at the end. From 
 the breadth and muscular strength of the tail it appears to be an 
 active nimble fish." 
 
 In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did not 
 forget to make some inquiries concerning the wonderful method 
 of curing cancers by means of toads. Several intelligent persons, 
 both gentry and clergy, do I find give a great deal of credit to 
 what is asserted in the papers, and I myself dined with a clergyman 
 who seemed to be persuaded that what is related is matter of fact ; 
 but, when I came to attend to his account, I thought I discerned 
 circumstances which did not a little invalidate the woman's story 
 of the manner in which she came by her skill. She says of herself 
 " that, labouring under a virulent cancer, she went to some church 
 where there was a vast crowd; on going into a pew, she was 
 accosted by a strange clergyman, who, after expressing compassion 
 for her situation, told her that if she would make such an applica- 
 tion of living toads as is mentioned she would be well." Now is 
 it likely that this unknown gentleman should express so much 
 tenderness for this single sufferer, and not feel any for the many 
 thousands that daily languish under this terrible disorder ? Would 
 he not have made use of this invaluable nostrum for his own 
 emolument ; or at least, by some means of publication or other, 
 have found a method of making it public for the good of mankind ? 
 In short, this woman (as it appears to me) having set up for a 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 67 
 
 cancer-doctress, finds it expedient to amuse the country with this 
 dark and mysterious relation. 
 
 The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appearance 
 of any gills ; for want of which it is continually rising to the sur- 
 face of the water to take in fresh air. I opened a big-bellied one 
 indeed, and found it full of spawn. Not that this circumstance 
 at all invalidates the assertion that they are larva; for the larvce 
 of insects are full of eggs, which they exclude the instant they 
 enter their last state. The water-eft is continually climbing over 
 the brims of the vessel, within which we keep it in water, and 
 wandering away ; and people every summer see numbers crawling 
 out of the pools where they are hatched up the dry banks. There 
 are varieties of them, differing in colour ; and some have fins up 
 their tail and back, and some have not. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XVIII. 
 
 1 The Gasterosteus pungitius is the ten-spined stickleback. The other is the 
 common one with three spines. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 SELBORNE, August i7//z, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I have now, past dispute, made out three distinct 
 species of the willow-wrens (motatilla trochilt) which constantly 
 and invariably use distinct notes. But at the same time I am 
 obliged to confess that I know nothing of your willow-lark. In 
 my letter of April i8th, I had told you peremptorily that I knew 
 your willow-lark, but had not seen it then ; but when I came 
 to procure it, it proved in all respects a very motadlla trochilus, 
 only that it is a size larger than the two other, and the yellow- 
 green of the whole upper part of the body is more vivid, and the 
 belly of a clearer white. I have specimens of the three sorts now 
 lying before me, and can discern that there are three gradations 
 of t sizes, and that the least has black legs, and the >ther two flesh- 
 
 5 
 
68 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 coloured ones. The yellowest bird is considerably the largest, 
 and has its quill-feathers and secondary feathers tipped with white, 
 which the others have not. This last haunts only the tops of trees 
 in high beechen woods, and makes a sibilous grasshopper-like 
 noise, now and then, at short intervals, shivering a little with its 
 wings when it sings ; and is, I make no doubt now, the regulus 
 non cristatus of Ray, which he says " cantat voce stridula locustce" 
 Yet this great ornithologist never suspected that there were three 
 species. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 SELBORNE, October 8/ti, 1768. 
 
 IT is I find in zoology as it is in botany ; all nature is so full that 
 that district produces the greatest variety which is the most exa- 
 mined. Several birds, which are said to belong to the north only, 
 are it seems often in the south. I have discovered this summer 
 three species of birds with us, which writers mention as only to 
 be seen in the northern counties. The first that was brought me 
 (on the 1 4th May), was the sandpiper, tringa hypoleucus : it was 
 a cockbird, and haunted the banks of some ponds near the village ; 
 and, as it had a companion, doubtless intended to have bred near 
 that water. Besides, the owner has told me since, that on recol- 
 lection, he has seen some of the same birds round his ponds in 
 former summers. 
 
 The next bird that I procured (on the 2ist May) was a male 
 red-backed butcher bird, lanhts collurio. My neighbour, who shot 
 it, says that it might easily have escaped his notice, had not the 
 outcries and chattering of the whitethroats and other small birds 
 drawn his attention to the bush, where it was ; its craw was filled 
 with the legs and wings of beetles. 
 
 The next rare birds (which were procured for me last week) 
 were some ring-ousels, turdi torquatil 
 
 This week twelve months a gentleman from London, being with 
 us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told us, on an 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORN&. 
 
 69 
 
 old yew hedge where there were berries, some birds like black- 
 birds, with rings of white round their necks : a neighbouring 
 farmer also at the same time observed the same; but, as no 
 specimens were procured, little notice was taken. I mentioned 
 this circumstance to you in my letter of November 4th, 1767 
 (you, however, paid but small regard to what I said, as I had not 
 seen these birds myself) ; but last week the aforesaid farmer, 
 seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty of these birds, shot two cocks 
 and two hens, and says, on recollection, that he remembers to 
 
 THE KNOT SANDPIPER (Tringa. canutus). 
 
 have observed these birds again last spring, about Lady-day, as it 
 were on their return to the north. Now perhaps these ousels are 
 not the ousels of the north of England, but belong to the more 
 northern parts of Europe; and may retire before the excessive 
 rigour of the frosts in those parts, and return to breed in the 
 spring, when the cold abates. If this be the case, here is dis- 
 covered a new bird of winter passage, concerning whose migrations 
 the writers are silent ; but if these birds should prove the ousels 
 of the north of England, then here is a migration disclosed within 
 our own kingdom never before remarked. It does not yet appear 
 
70 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 whether they retire beyond the bounds of our island to the south ; 
 but it is most probable that they usually do, or else one cannot 
 suppose that they would have continued so long unnoticed in the 
 southern countries. The ousel is larger than a blackbird, and 
 feeds on haws ; but last autumn (when there were no haws) it fed 
 on yew-berries : in the spring it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen 
 only at that season, in March and April. 
 
 I must not omit to tell you (as you have been so lately on the 
 study of reptiles) that my people, every now and then of late, draw 
 up with a bucket of water from my well, which is sixty-three feet 
 deep, a large black warty lizard with a fin-tail and yellow belly. 
 How they first came down at that depth, and how they were 
 ever to have got out thence without help, is more than I am able 
 to say. 
 
 My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care in the 
 examination of a buck's head. As far as your discoveries reach at 
 present, they seem much to corroborate my suspicions; and I 
 
 hope Mr. may find reason to give his decision in my favour ; 
 
 and then, I think, we may advance this extraordinary provision of 
 nature as a new instance of the wisdom of God in the creation. 
 
 As yet I have not quite done with my history of the cedicnemus, 
 or stone-curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman in Sussex (near 
 whose house these birds congregate in vast flocks in the autumn; 
 to observe nicely when they leave him (if they do leave him), and 
 when they return again in the spring : I was with this gentleman 
 lately, and saw several single birds. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XX. 
 
 1 The ring-ousel was common on the Eglwyseg Rocks bordering the Vale of 
 Llangollen. It appears to make a partial migration to the south of England 
 in the autumn, , 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 SELBORNE, Nw. 2&th, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, With regard to the (zdicnemus, or stone-curlew, I 
 intend to write very soon to my friend near Chichester, in whose 
 neighbourhood these birds seem most to abound ; and shall urge 
 him to take particular notice when they begin to congregate, and 
 
 
 
 THE PUFFIN (Puffinus arcticus). 
 
 afterwards to watch them most narrowly whether they do not 
 withdraw themselves during the dead of the winter. When I have 
 obtained information with respect to this circumstance, I shall 
 have finished my history of the stone-curlew, which I hope will 
 prove to your satisfaction, as it will be, I trust, very near the truth. 
 This gentleman, as he occupies a large farm of his own, and is 
 abroad early and late, will be a very proper spy upon the motions 
 of these birds ; and besides, as I have prevailed on him to buy the 
 
72 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Naturalist's Journal (with which he is much delighted), I shall 
 expect that he will be very exact in his dates. It is very extra- 
 ordinary, as you observe, that a bird so common with us should 
 never struggle to you. 
 
 And here will be the properest place to mention, while I think 
 of it, an anecdote which the above-mentioned gentleman told me 
 when I was last at his house ; which was that, in a warren joining 
 to his outlet, many daws (corvi monedulos] build every year in the 
 rabbit-burrows under ground. The way he and his brothers used 
 to take their nests, while they were boys, was by listening at the 
 mouths of the holes ; and, if they heard the young ones cry, they 
 twisted the nest out with a forked stick. Some water-fowls (viz., 
 the puffins) breed, I know, in that manner; but I should never 
 have suspected the daws of building in holes on the flat ground. 1 
 
 Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a place 
 to breed in, and that is Stonehenge. These birds deposit their 
 nests in the interstices between the upright and the impost stones 
 of that amazing work of antiquity : which circumstance alone 
 speaks the prodigious height of the upright stones, that they 
 should be tall enough to secure those nests from the annoyance 
 of shepherd-boys, who are always idling round that place. 
 
 One of my neighbours last Saturday, November 26th, saw a 
 martin in a sheltered bottom : the sun shone warm, and the bird 
 was hawking briskly after flies. I am now perfectly satisfied that 
 they do not all leave this island in the winter. 
 
 You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve and 
 caution concerning the cures done by toads : for, let people 
 advance what they will on such subjects, yet there is such a 
 propensity in mankind towards deceiving and being deceived, that 
 one cannot safely relate anything from common report, especially 
 in print, without expressing some degree of doubt and suspicion. 
 
 Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery of the 
 migration of the ring-ousel, gives me satisfaction \ and I find you 
 concur with me in suspecting that they are foreign birds which 
 visit us. You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make inquiry 
 whether your ring-ousels leave your rocks in the autumn. What 
 puzzles me most, is the very short stay they make with us ; for in 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 73 
 
 about three weeks they are all gone. I shall be very curious to 
 remark whether they will call on us at their return in the spring, 
 as they did last year. 
 
 I want to be better informed with regard to ichthyology. If 
 fortune had settled me near the seaside, or near some great river, 
 my natural propensity would soon have urged me to have made 
 myself acquainted with their productions : but as I have lived 
 mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, my knowledge 
 of fishes extends little farther than to those common sorts which 
 our brooks and lakes produce. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXI. 
 
 1 At Craigyrhiw, a limestone cliff near Oswestry, on the Welsh border, 
 where the jackdaws bred by the thousand, numbers of them made their nests 
 in the rabbit holes at the foot of the rocks. I often used to find a stock -dove's 
 nest in a rabbit hole there too. We would sit and watch them from a crag, 
 until we saw a bird leave or enter. On the Norfolk warrens, too, stock-doves 
 breed in the rabbit holes. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. 2nd, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, As to the peculiarity of jackdaws building with us 
 under the ground in rabbit-burrows, you have, in part, hit upon 
 the reason -, for, in reality, there are hardly any towers or steeples 
 in all this county. And perhaps, Norfolk excepted, 1 Hampshire 
 and Sussex are as meanly furnished with churches as almost any 
 counties in the kingdom. We have many livings of two or three 
 hundred pounds a year, whose houses of worship make little better 
 appearance than dovecots. When I first saw Northamptonshire, 
 Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, and the fens of Lincoln- 
 shire, I was amazed at the number of spires which presented them- 
 selves in every point of view. As an admirer of prospects, I have 
 
74 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 reason to lament this want in my own county ; for such objects 
 are very necessary ingredients in an elegant landscape. 
 
 What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads raises my 
 curiosity. An ancient author, though no naturalist, has well re- 
 marked that " every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, 
 and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, of mankind." 
 
 It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard has actually 
 been procured for you in Devonshire ; because it corroborates my 
 discovery, which I made many years ago, of the same sort, on a 
 
 sunny sandbank near Farnham, in Surrey. I am well acquainted 
 with the South Hams of Devonshire ; and can suppose that dis- 
 trict, from its southerly situation, to be a proper habitation for 
 such animals in their best colours. 
 
 Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly not 
 forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those which visit 
 this neighbourhood about Michaelmas are not English birds, but 
 driven from the more northern parts of Europe by the frosts, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 75 
 
 are still more reasonable ; and it will be worth your pains to 
 endeavour to trace from whence they come, and to inquire why 
 they make so very short a stay. 
 
 In your account of your error with regard to the two species of 
 herons, you incidentally gave me great entertainment in your de- 
 scription of the heronry at Cressi Hall ; which is a curiosity I 
 never could manage to see. Fourscore nests of such a bird on 
 one tree is a rarity which I would ride half as many miles to have 
 a sight of. Pray be sure to tell me in your next whose seat Cressi 
 Hall is, and near what town it lies. I have often thought that 
 those vast extents of fens have never been sufficiently explored. If 
 half-a-dozen gentlemen, furnished with a good strength of water- 
 spaniels, were to beat them over for a week, they would certainly 
 find more species. 2 
 
 There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have studied more 
 than that of the caprimulgus (the goat-sucker), as it is a wonderful 
 and curious creature \ but I have always found that though some- 
 times it may chatter as it flies, as I know it does, yet in general it 
 utters its jarring note sitting on a bough ; and I have for many a 
 half hour watched it as it sat with its under mandible quivering, 
 and particularly this summer. It perches usually on a bare twig, 
 with its head lower than its tail, in an attitude well expressed by 
 your draughtsman in the folio " British Zoology.' 5 3 This bird 
 is most punctual in beginning its song exactly at the close of day ; 
 so exactly that I have known it strike up more than once or twice 
 just at the report of the Portsmouth evening gun, which we can 
 hear when the weather is still It appears to me past all doubt 
 that its notes are formed by organic impulse, by the powers of the 
 parts of its windpipe, formed for sound, just as cats pur. You 
 will credit me, I hope, when I assure you that, as my neighbours 
 were assembled in an hermitage on the side of a steep hill where 
 we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled on the 
 cross or' that little straw edifice and began to chatter, and con- 
 tinued his note for many minutes ; and we were all struck with 
 wonder to find that the organs of that little animal, when put in 
 motion, gave a sensible vibration to the whole building ! This 
 bird also sometimes makes a small squeak, repeated four or five 
 
76 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 times ; and I have observed that to happen when the cock has 
 been pursuing the hen in a toying way through the boughs of a 
 tree. 
 
 It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you have pro- 
 cured, should prove a new one, since five species have been 
 found in a neighbouring kingdom. The great sort that I men- 
 tioned is certainly a nondescript; I saw but one this summer, 
 and that I had no opportunity of taking. 
 
 Your account of the Indian grass was entertaining. I am 
 no angler myself; but inquiring of those that are, what they sup- 
 posed that part of their tackle to be made of? they replied, 
 " Of the intestines of a silkworm." 4 
 
 Though I must not pretend to great skill in entomology, yet 
 I cannot say that I am ignorant of that kind of knowledge ; I 
 may now and then perhaps be able to furnish you with a little 
 information. 
 
 The vast rains ceased with us much about the same time as 
 with you, and since we have had delicate weather. Mr. Barker, 
 who has measured the rain for more than thirty years, says, in 
 a late letter, that, more has fallen this year than in any he ever 
 attended to; though from July 1763 to January 1764, more fell 
 than in any seven months of this year. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 77 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER XXII. 
 
 1 White cannot have known much of Norfolk, for it is as thickly studded 
 with churches as it well can be, and many of them remarkably fine. 
 
 2 The fens are now well drained and well explored. They were indeed 
 "happy hunting grounds " for the naturalist. The Norfolk Broads are still 
 left, and offer somewhat the same features as the fens. 
 
 3 The goat-sucker or nightjar perches lengthwise on a bough instead of 
 across it as other birds do. The eggs, which it lays on the ground, in an 
 apology for a nest, are most beautifully marbled. 
 
 4 The gut used by anglers is made from the silkworm, and is the substance 
 from which the silk would be spun if the caterpillar were allowed to continue 
 its existence. The Indian grass is of very little use for fishing, as it is brittle. 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 28M, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, It is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and 
 our green lizards may be specifically the same ; all that I know 
 is, that, when some years ago many Guernsey lizards were turned 
 loose in Pembroke College garden, in the University of Oxford, 
 they lived a great while, and seemed to enjoy themselves very 
 well, but never bred. Whether this circumstance will prove any- 
 thing either way I shall not pretend to say. 
 
 I return you thanks for your account of Cressi Hall ; but 
 recollect, not without regret, that in June 1746. 1 was visiting for 
 a week together at Spalding, without ever being told that such 
 a curiosity was just at hand. Pray send me word in your next 
 what sort of tree it is that contains such a quantity of herons' 
 nests; and whether the heronry consists of a whole grove of 
 wood, or only of a few trees. 
 
 It gave me satisfaction to find we accorded so well about the 
 caprimulgus ; all I contended for was to prove that it often 
 chatters sitting as well as flying ; and therefore the noise was 
 voluntary, and from organic impulse, and not from the resistance 
 ot the air against the hollow of its mouth and throat. 
 
 If ever I saw anything like actual migration, it was last Michael- 
 
73 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 mas Day. I was travelling, and out early in the morning ; at first 
 there was a vast fog ; but, by the time that I was got seven or 
 eight miles from home towards the coast, the sun broke out into 
 a delicate warm day. We were then on a large heath or common, 
 and I could discern, as the mist began to break away, great 
 numbers of swallows (hirundines rusticcz) clustering on the stunted 
 shrubs and bushes, as if they had roosted there all night. As 
 soon as the air became clear and pleasant they were all on the 
 wing at once ; and, by a placid and easy flight, proceeded on 
 southward towards the sea ; after this I did not see any more 
 flocks, only now and then a straggler. 
 
 I cannot agree with those persons that assert that the swallow 
 kind disappear some and some gradually, as they come, for the 
 bulk of them seem to withdraw at once; only some stragglers 
 stay behind a long while, and do never, there is the greatest 
 reason to believe, leave this island. Swallows seem to lay them- 
 selves up, and to come forth in a warm day, as bats do continually 
 of a warm evening, after they have disappeared for weeks. For 
 a very respectable gentleman assured me that, as he was walking 
 with some friends under Merton Wall on a remarkably hot noon, 
 either in the last week in December or the first week in January, 
 he espied three or four swallows huddled together on the moulding 
 of one of the windows of that college. I have frequently re- 
 marked that swallows are seen later at Oxford than elsewhere ; 
 is it owing to the vast massy buildings of that place, to the many 
 waters round it, or to what else ? 
 
 When I used to rise in the morning last autumn, and see the 
 swallows and martins clustering on the chimneys and thatch of 
 the neighbouring cottages, I could not help being touched with 
 a secret delight, mixed with some degree of mortification ; with 
 delight, to observe with how much ardour and punctuality those 
 poor little birds obeyed the strong impulse towards migration, or 
 hiding, imprinted on their minds by their great Creator ; and 
 with some degree of mortification, when I reflected that, after all 
 our pains and inquiries, we are yet not quite certain to what 
 regions they do migrate ; and are still farther embarrassed to find 
 that some do not actually migrate at all. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 79 
 
 These reflections made so strong an impression on my imagi- 
 nation, that they became productive of a composition that may 
 perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I have 
 the honour of writing to you. 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 SELBORNE, May 29^, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The scarabczus fullo I know very well, having seen 
 it in collections ; but have never been able to discover one wild 
 in its natural state. Mr. Banks told me he thought it might be 
 found on the seacoast. 1 
 
 On the i3th April I went to the sheep-down, where the ring- 
 ousels have been observed to make their appearance at spring 
 and fall, in their way perhaps to the north or south ; and was 
 much pleased to see these birds about the usual spot. We shot 
 a cock and a hen ; they were plump and in high condition. The 
 hen had but very small rudiments of eggs within her, which proves 
 they are late breeders ; whereas those species of the thrush kind 
 that remain with us the whole year have fledged young before 
 that time. In their crops was nothing very distinguishable, but 
 somewhat that seemed like blades of vegetables nearly digested. 
 In autumn they feed on haws and yew-berries, and in the spring 
 on ivy-berries. I dressed one of these birds, and found it juicy 
 and well flavoured. It is remarkable that they make but a few 
 days' stay in their spring visit, but rest near a fortnight at Michael- 
 mas. These birds, from the observations of three springs and 
 two autumns, are most punctual in their return; and exhibit a 
 new migration unnoticed by the writers, who supposed they never 
 were to be seen in any southern countries. 
 
 . One of my neighbours lately brought me a new salicaria, which 
 at first I suspected might have proved your willow-lark, but on 
 ?. nicer examination, it answered much better to the description 
 
8o NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 of that species which you shot at Revesby, in Lincolnshire. My 
 bird I describe thus : " It is a size less than the grasshopper-lark ; 
 the head, back, and coverts of the wings, of a dusky brown, 
 without those dark spots of the grasshopper-lark ; over each eye 
 is a milk-white stroke; the chin and throat are white, and the 
 under parts of a yellowish white ; the rump is tawny, and the 
 feathers of the tail sharp-pointed ; the bill is dusky and sharp, 
 and the legs are dusky ; the hinder claw long and crooked." 
 The person that shot it says that it sung so like a reed-sparrow 
 that he took it for one ; and that it sings all night : but this 
 account merits farther inquiry. For my part, I suspect it is a 
 second sort of locustela, hinted ^at by Dr. Derham in Ray's Letters : 
 see p. 1 08. He also procured me a grasshopper-lark. 
 
 The question that you put with regard to those genera of 
 animals that are peculiar to America, viz., how they came there, 
 and whence? is too puzzling for me to answer; and yet so 
 obvious as often to have struck me with wonder. If one looks 
 into the writers on that subject little satisfaction is to be found. 
 Ingenious men will readily advance plausible arguments to support 
 whatever theory they shall choose to maintain; but then the 
 misfortune is, every one's hypothesis is each as good as another's, 
 since they are all founded on conjecture. The late writers of 
 this sort, in whom may be seen all the arguments of those that 
 have gone before, as I remember, stock America from the western 
 coast of Africa and the south of Europe ; and then break down 
 the Isthmus that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making 
 use of a violent piece of machinery ; it is a difficulty worthy of 
 the interposition of a god ! ' { Incredulus odi" 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 81 
 
 TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
 
 THE NATURALISTS SUMMER-EVENING WALK. 
 
 equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis 
 
 Ingenium. VIRG. Georg. 
 
 WHEN day declining sheds a milder gleam, 
 What time the may-fly* haunts the pool or stream ; 
 When the still owl skims round the grassy mead, 
 What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed ; 
 Then be the time to steal adown the vale, 
 And listen to the vagrantf cuckoo's tale ; 
 To hear the clamorous:}: curlew call his mate, 
 Or the soft quail his tender pain relate ; 
 To see the swallow sweep the dark'ning plain 
 Belated, to support her infant train ; 
 To mark the swift in rapid giddy ring 
 Dash round the steeple, unsubdued of wing : 
 Amusive birds ! say where your hid retreat 
 When the frost rages and the tempests beat ; 
 Whence your return, by such nice instinct led, 
 When spring, soft season, lifts her bloomy head f 
 Such baffled searches mock man's prying pride, 
 The GOD of NATURE is your secret guide ! 
 
 While deep'ning shades obscure the face of day. 
 To yonder bench leaf-shelter'd let us stray, 
 'Till blended objects fail the swimming sight, 
 And all the fading landscape sinks in night ; 
 
 * The angler's may-fly, the ephemera vulgata LINN., comes forth from its 
 aurelii state, and emerges out of the water about six in the evening, and dies 
 about eleven at night, determining the date of its fly state in about five or six 
 hours. They usually begin to appear about the 4th June, and continue in 
 succession for near a fortnight. See Sivammerdam, Derham, Scopoli, etc. 
 
 f "Vagrant cuckoo ; so called because, being tied down by no incubation or 
 attendance about the nutrition of its young, it wanders without control. 
 
 Charadrius cedicnemus. 
 
82 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 To hear the drowsy 1 dor come brushing by 
 With buzzing wing, or the shrill* cricket cry ; 
 To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ; 
 To catch the distant falling of the flood ; 
 While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd churn-owl hung 
 Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song ; 
 While high in air, and poised upon his wings, 
 Unseen, the soft enamour'd f woodlark sings : 
 These, NATURE'S works, the curious mind employ, 
 Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : 
 As fancy warms^ a pleasing kind of pain 
 Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! 
 
 Each rural sight, each sound, each smell, couuine ; 
 The tinkling sheep-bell or the breath of kine; 
 The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, 
 Or cottage-chimney smoking through the trees. 
 
 The chilling night-dews fall : away, retire ! 
 For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire ! J 
 Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky, 
 Th' impatient damsel hung her lamp on high : 
 True to the signal, by love's meteor led, 
 Leander hasten'd to his Hero's bed. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXIV. 
 1 This insect, the Kentish chafer, is said to be only found in Ktnt. 
 
 * Grylhis campestris. 
 
 f In hot summer nights wood-larks soar to a prodigious height, and hang 
 singing in the air. 
 
 % The light of the female glow-worm (as she often crawls up the stalk of a 
 grass to make herself more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which is a 
 slender dusky scarabczus. 
 
 See the story of Hero and Leander. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 83 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. y>fh, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, It gives me satisfaction to find that my account of 
 the ousel migration pleases you. You put a very shrewd question 
 when you ask me how I know that their autumnal migration is 
 southward ? Was not candour and openness the very life of 
 natural history, I should pass over this query just as a sly com- 
 mentator does over a crabbed passage in a classic ; but common 
 ingenuousness obliges me to confess, not without some degree of 
 shame, that I only reasoned in that case from analogy. For as 
 all other autumnal birds migrate from the northward to us, to 
 partake of our milder winters, and return to the northward again 
 when the rigorous cold abates, so I concluded that the ring-ousels 
 did the same, as well as their congeners the fieldfares ; and 
 especially as ring-ousels are known to haunt cold mountainous 
 countries : but I have good reason to suspect since that they may 
 come to us from the westward ; because I hear from very good 
 authority, that they breed on Dartmoor ; and that they forsake 
 that wild district about the time that our visitors appear, and do 
 not return till late in the spring. 
 
 I have taken a great deal of pains about your salicaria and 
 mine, with a white stroke over its eye and a tawny rump. 1 I have 
 surveyed it alive and dead, and have procured several specimens, 
 and am perfectly persuaded myself (and trust you will soon 
 become convinced of the same) that it is no more nor less than 
 the passer arundinaceus minor of Ray. This bird, by some means 
 or other, seems to be entirely omitted in the British Zoology ; and 
 one reason probably was because it is so strangely classed in Ray, 
 who ranges it among \i\s_picis affines. It ought no doubt to have 
 gone among his avicultz cauda unicolore, and among your slender- 
 billed small birds of the same division. Linnaeus might with 
 great propriety have put it into his genus of motacilla ; and mota- 
 cilla salicaria of \i\sfauna suecica seems to come the nearest to it. 
 It is no uncommon bird, haunting the sides of ponds and rivers 
 
 6 
 
84 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 where there is covert, and the reeds and sedges of moors. The 
 country people in some places call it the sedge-bird. It sings 
 incessantly night and day during the breeding-time, imitating the 
 note of a sparrow, a swallow, a skylark ; and has a strange hurry- 
 ing manner in its song. My specimens correspond most minutely 
 to the description of your fen salicaria shot near Revesby. 
 Mr. Ray has given an excellent characteristic of it when he says, 
 "Rostrum et pedes in hoc avicula multo majores snnt qudm pro 
 corporis rationed See letter, May 29th, 1769. (Preceding letter, 
 xxiv.) 
 
 I have got you the egg of an cedicnemus, or stone-curlew, which 
 was picked up in a fallow on the naked ground ; there were two, 
 but the finder inadvertently crushed one with his foot before he 
 saw them. 
 
 When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, I wish I had not 
 forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have of stinking se 
 defendendo. I knew a gentleman who kept a tame snake, which 
 was in its person as sweet as any animal while in good humour 
 and unalarmed ; but as soon as a stranger, or a dog or cat, came 
 in, it fell to hissing, and filled the room with such nauseous effluvia 
 as rendered it hardly supportable. Thus the squnck, or stonck, of 
 Ray's " Synop. Quadr." is an innocuous and sweet animal ; but, 
 when pressed hard by dogs and men, it can eject such a most 
 pestilent and fetid smell and excrement, that nothing can be more 
 horrible. 
 
 A gentleman sent me lately a fine specimen of the lanius minor 
 cinerascens cum macula in scapulis alba> Rail ; which is a bird 
 that, at the time of your publishing your two first volumes of 
 <; British Zoology," I find you had not seen. You have described 
 it well from Edwards's drawing. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXV. 
 
 1 The bird referred to is the sedge-warbler. White says it sings like a reed- 
 sparrow. The reed -sparrow has no song, but the reed-wren or reed- warbler 
 ha s, and White must mean this species by the term reed-sparrow. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 SELBORNE, December %th, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I was much gratified by your communicative letter 
 on your return from Scotland, where you spent some considerable 
 time, and gave yourself good room to examine the natural curio- 
 sities of that extensive kingdom, both those of the islands, as well 
 
 THE FIELDFARE. 
 
 as those of the highlands. The usual bane of such expeditions is 
 hurry, because men seldom allot themselves half the time they 
 should do ; but, fixing on a day for their return, post from place 
 to place, rather as if they were on a journey that required dispatch, 
 than as philosophers investigating the works of nature. You must 
 have made, no doubt, many discoveries, and laid up a good fund 
 of materials fora future edition of the " British Zoology;" and 
 
86 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 will have no reason to repent that you have bestowed so much 
 pains on a part of Great Britain that perhaps was never so well 
 examined before. 
 
 It has always been matter of wonder to me that fieldfares, which 
 are so congenerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should never choose 
 to breed in England ; but that they should not think even the 
 highlands cold and northerly, and sequestered enough, is a cir- 
 cumstance still more strange and wonderful. The ring-ousel, you 
 find, stays in Scotland the whole year round ; so that we have 
 
 reason to conclude 
 that those migrators 
 that visit us for a 
 short space every 
 autumn do not come 
 from thence. 
 
 And here, I think, 
 will be the proper 
 ^ & vws&r'-' > as place to mention that 
 
 M' KiSKH&Z'li-' ^ ' --^.4^:- . . , , 
 
 those birds were most 
 punctual again in 
 their migration this 
 autumn, appearing, as 
 before, about the 3oth 
 September ; but their 
 flocks were larger 
 than common, and 
 their stay protracted 
 somewhat beyond the usual time. If they came to spend the 
 whole winter with us, as some of their congeners do, and then 
 left us, as they*do, in spring, I should not be so much struck with 
 the occurrence, since it would be similar to that of the other 
 winter birds of passage ; but when I see them for a fortnight at 
 Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the middle of April, I 
 am seized with wonder, and long to be informed whence these 
 travellers come, and whither they go, since they seem to use our 
 hills merely as an inn or baiting place. 
 
 Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very 
 
 THE BRAMBLING. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 87 
 
 amusing ; and strange it is that such a short-winged bird should 
 delight in such perilous voyages over the. northern ocean ! Some 
 country people in the winter time have every now and then told 
 me that they have seen two or three white larks on our downs 
 but, on considering the matter, I begin to suspect that these are 
 some stragglers of the birds we are talking of, which sometimes 
 perhaps may rove so far to the southward. 
 
 It pleases me to find that white hares are so frequent on the 
 Scottish mountains, and especially as you inform me that it is a 
 distinct species ; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so few, that 
 every new species is a great acquisition. 
 
 The eagle-owl, could it be proved to belong to us, is so majestic 
 a bird, that it would grace our fauna much. I never was informed 
 before where wild-geese are known to breed. 
 
 You admit, I find, that I have proved your fen salicaria to be 
 the lesser reed-sparrow of Ray ; and I think you may be secure 
 that I am right, for I took very particular pains to clear up that 
 matter, and had some fair specimens ; but, as they were not well 
 preserved, they are decayed already. You will, no doubt, insert 
 it in its proper place in your next edition. Your additional plates 
 will much improve your work. 
 
 De Buffon, I know, has described the water shrew-mouse : but 
 still I am pleased to find you have discovered it in Lincolnshire, 
 for the reason I have given in the article of the white hare. 
 
 As a neighbour was lately ploughing a dry, chalky field, far 
 removed from any water, he turned out a water-rat, that was 
 curiously lain up in a hybernaculum artificially formed of grass 
 and leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a gallon of 
 potatoes regularly stowed, on which it was to have supported itself 
 for the winter. But the difficulty with me is how this ampJiibius 
 mus came to fix its winter station at such a distance from the 
 water. Was it determined in its choice of that place by the mere 
 accident of finding the potatoes which were planted there ; or is it 
 the constant practice of the aquatic rat to forsake the neighbour- 
 hood of the water in the colder months ? 
 
 Though I delight very little in analogous reasoning, knowing 
 how fallacious it is with respect to natural history; yet, in the 
 
88 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 following instance, I cannot help being inclined to think it 
 may conduce towards the explanation of a difficulty that I have 
 mentioned before, with respect to the invariable early retreat of 
 the hirundo apus, or swift, so many weeks before its congeners ; 
 and that not only with us, but also in Andalusia, where they also 
 begin to retire ab Hit the beginning of August. 
 
 The great large bat (which by-the-by is at present a non- 
 descript in England, and what I have never been able yet to 
 procure) retires or migrates very early in the summer ; it also 
 ranges very high for its food, feeding in a different region of the 
 air ; and that is the reason I never could procure one. Now this 
 is exactly the case with the swifts ; for they take their food in a 
 more exalted region than the other species, and are very seldom 
 seen hawking for flies near the ground, or over the surface of the 
 water. From hence I would conclude that these hirundines and 
 the larger bats are supported by some sorts of high-flying gnats, 
 scarabs, or phalana, that are of short continuance ; and that the 
 short stay of these strangers is regulated by the defect of their 
 food. 
 
 By my journal it appears that curlews clamoured on to 
 October 3ist; since which I trve not seen nor heard any. 
 Swallows were observed on to November 3rd. 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 22nd, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Hedgehogs abound in my gardens and fields. 
 The manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my 
 grass-walks is very curious ; with their upper mandible, which is 
 much longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and so 
 eat the root off upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. 
 In this respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very 
 troublesome weed ; but they deface the walks in some measure 
 by digging little round holes. It appears, by the dung that they 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 89 
 
 drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of 
 their food. 1 In June last I procured a litter of four or five young 
 hedgehogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old : 
 they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when 
 they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are soft and 
 flexible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would 
 have but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturition, 
 but it is plain they soon harden ; for these little pigs had such 
 stiff prickles on their backs and sides as would easily have fetched 
 
 HEDGEHOG. 
 
 blood, had they not been handled with caution. Their spines 
 are quite white at this age; and they have little hanging ears, 
 which I do not remember to be discernible in the old ones. 
 They can, in part, at this age draw their skin down over their 
 faces j but are not able to contract themselves into a ball, as they 
 do, for the sake of defence, when full grown. The reason, I 
 suppose, is, because the curious muscle that enables the creature 
 to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its full tone and 
 firmness. Hedgehogs make a deep and warm hybernaculum with 
 leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves for the winter : 
 
9 o NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 but I never could find that they stored in any winter provision, 
 as some quadrupeds certainly do. 
 
 I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare 
 (turdus pilaris), which I think is particular enough ; this bird, 
 though it sits on trees in the day-time, and procures the greatest 
 part of its food from white-thorn hedges ; yea, moreover, builds 
 on very high trees, as may be seen by the fauna suecica ; yet 
 always appears with us to roost on the ground. They are seen 
 to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to settle and nestle 
 among the heath on our forest. 2 And besides, the larkers in 
 dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the wheat 
 stubbles ; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red-wings in the 
 hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why these birds, in 
 the matter of roosting, should differ from all their congeners, and 
 from themselves also with respect to their proceedings by day, 
 is a fact for which I am by no means able to account. 
 
 I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose-deer ; 
 but in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way ; my little 
 intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my own obser- 
 vations at home. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER XXVII. 
 
 1 Hedgehogs are indiscriminate feeders upon flesh or vegetables, insects or 
 eggs. It is persistently asserted by country people, and as persistently denied 
 by naturalists, that the hedgehog will suck the teats of sleeping cows. That 
 it is occasionally up to mischief the following note copied from the Field of 
 May 24th, 1879, will show : 
 
 "Some few days ago a farmer had an ewe caught in some brambles, and 
 when he went to see his sheep in the morning, he found that something had 
 eaten the ewe's udder off. Of course he killed the sheep at once, and, as he 
 was taking it home in the cart, I thought it was a strange case, and got up 
 into the cart and examined the part that had been bitten. I saw the marks of 
 small teeth on the skin, and told the farmer I thought it was a hedgehog. 
 I set some traps where the blood had been spilt on the ground, and strewed 
 some small portions of half-decayed liver round about the traps for one or two 
 nights. About the third night the portions of liver were all gone. I left the 
 traps set, and strewed more liver, and this morning I had got a very large 
 hedgehog, a little over 2lb. weight. I skinned him, and examined the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 91 
 
 stomach, and found in it some soft dark -brown pulpy substance, mixed with a 
 small quantity of wool. 
 
 "W. R. SMITH, GAMEKEEPER, 
 
 " Okehampton, N. Devon" 
 
 2 The fieldfare and red-wing nest among the pines and firs of Norway and 
 Sweden, and arrive in England in large flocks in the winter. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, March t 1770. 
 
 ON Michaelmas-day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the 
 female moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood ; 
 but was greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find 
 that it died, after having appeared in a languishing way for some 
 time on the morning before. However, understanding that it 
 was not stripped, I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped ; 
 I found it in an old greenhouse, slung under the belly and chin 
 by ropes, and in a standing posture ; but, though it had been 
 dead for so short a time, it was in so putrid a state that the 
 stench was hardly supportable. The grand distinction between 
 this deer, and any other species that I have ever met with, con- 
 sisted in the strange length of its legs ; on which it was tilted up 
 much in the manner of the birds of the grallce order. I measured 
 it, as they do a horse, and found that, from the ground to the 
 withers it was just five feet four inches; which height answers 
 exactly to sixteen hands, a growth that few horses arrive at : but 
 then, with this length of legs, its neck was remarkably short, no 
 more than twelve inches; so that, by straddling with one foot 
 forward and the other backward, it grazed on the plain ground, 
 with the greatest difficulty, between its legs ; the ears were vast 
 and lopping, and as long as the neck $ the head was about twenty 
 inches long, and ass-like ; and had sucn a redundancy of upper 
 lip as I never saw before, with huge nostrils. This lip, travellers 
 say, is esteemed a dainty dish in North America. It is very 
 reasonable to suppose that this creature supports itself chiefly by 
 
92 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 
 
 browsing of trees, and by wading after water plants ; towards 
 which way of livelihood the length of legs and great lip must 
 contribute much. I have read somewhere that it delights in 
 eating the nymphcza, or water-lily. From the fore-feet to the 
 belly behind the shoulder it measured three feet and eight inches : 
 the length of the legs before and behind consisted a great deal in 
 the tibia^ which was strangely long ; but, in my haste to get out 
 of the stench, I forgot to measure that joint exactly. Its scut 
 seemed to be about an inch long ; the colour was a grizzly black ; 
 the mane about four inches long ; the fore-hoofs were upright and 
 shapely, the hind flat and splayed. The spring before it was 
 only two years old, so that most probably it was not then come 
 to its growth. What a vast tall beast must a full grown stag be ! 
 I have been told some arrive at ten feet and a half! This poor 
 creature had at first a female companion of the same species, 
 which died the spring before. In the same garden was a young 
 stag, or red deer, between whom and this moose it was hoped 
 that there might have been a breed ; but their inequality of height 
 must have always been a bar to any commerce of the amorous 
 kind. I should have been glad to have examined the teeth, 
 tongue, lips, hoofs, etc., minutely ; but the putrefaction precluded 
 all farther curiosity. This animal, the keeper told me, seemed to 
 enjoy itself best in the extreme frost of the former winter. In 
 the house they showed me the horn of a male moose, which had 
 no front antlers, but only a broad palm with some snags on the 
 edge. The noble owner of the dead moose proposed to make 
 a skeleton of her bones. 
 
 Please to let me hear if my female moose corresponds with 
 that you saw ; and whether you think still that the American 
 moose and European elk are the same creature. 
 
 I am, with the greatest esteem, etc. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 93 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 SELBORNE, May iztk, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Last month we had such a series of cold turbulent 
 weather, such a constant succession of frost, and snow, and hail, 
 and tempest, that the regular migration or appearance of the 
 summer birds was much interrupted. Some did not show them- 
 selves (at least were not heard) till weeks after their usual time ; 
 as the blackcap and whitethroat ; and some have not been heard 
 yet, as the grasshopper-lark and largest willow-wren. As to the 
 fly-catcher, I have not seen it ; it is indeed one of the latest, but 
 should appear about this time : and yet, amidst all this meteorous 
 strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered them- 
 selves as long ago as April nth, in frost and snow; but they 
 withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many days. 
 House-martins, which are always more backward than swallows, 
 were not observed till May came in. 
 
 Among the monogamous birds several are to be found, after 
 pairing-time, single, and of each sex ; but whether this state of 
 celibacy is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easy discover- 
 able. When the house-sparrows deprive my martins of their 
 nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or 
 hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times following. 
 
 I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, 
 which made great havoc among the young pigeons : one of the 
 owls was shot as soon as possible ; but the survivor readily found 
 a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the new 
 pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased. 
 
 Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for 
 the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after 
 pairing-time he always shot the cock-bird of every couple of 
 partridges upon his grounds ; supposing that the rivalry of many 
 males interrupted the breed : he used to say, that, though he had 
 widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still 
 
94 NATURAL HISTORY OF SFLBORNE 
 
 provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from 
 her usual haunt. 
 
 Again ; I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has 
 often told me that soon after harvest he has frequently taken small 
 coveys' of partridges, consisting of cock-birds alone; these he 
 pleasantly used to call old bachelors. 
 
 There is a propensity belonging to common house-cats that is 
 very remarkable ; I mean their violent fondness for fish, which 
 appears to be their most favourite food : and yet nature in this 
 
 OTTER. 
 
 instance seems to have planted in them an appetite that, unassisted, 
 they know not how to gratify : for of all quadrupeds cats are the 
 least disposed towards water ; and will not, when they can avoid 
 it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element. 
 
 Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious : such is the otter, 
 which by nature is so well formed for diving, that it makes great 
 havoc among the inhabitants of the waters. Not supposing that 
 we had any of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much 
 pleased to see a male otter, brought to me, weighing twenty-one 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 95 
 
 pounds, that had been shot on the bank of our stream below the 
 Priory, where the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from 
 Harteley Wood. 1 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXIX. 
 
 1 Shy as the otter is, a pair made their home in a hole under some stonework 
 on the banks of the canal at Llangollen, within six yards of several cottages. 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 SELBORNE, 
 
 DEAR SIR, The French, I think, in general are strangely 
 prolix in their natural history. What Linnaeus says with respect 
 to insects holds good in every other branch : " Verbositas prcesentis 
 sceculi, calamitas artis" 
 
 Pray how do you approve of Scopoli's new work ? As I admire 
 his " Entomologia," I long to see it. 
 
 I forgot to mention in my last letter (and had not room to 
 insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting time, swims 
 from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North America, 
 in pursuit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, saw one killed 
 in the water as it was on that errand in the river St. Lawrence : it 
 was a monstrous beast, he told me ; but he did not take the 
 dimensions. 
 
 When I was last in town our friend Mr. Barrington most 
 obligingly carried me to see many curious sights. As you were 
 then writing to him about horns, he carried me to see many 
 strange and wonderful specimens. There is, I remember, at Lord 
 Pembroke's at Wilton, a horn room furnished with more than 
 thirty different pairs ; but I have not seen that house lately. 
 
 Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections of 
 stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. After I 
 had studied over the latter for a time, I remarked that every 
 species almost that came from distant regions, such as South 
 America, the coast of Guinea, etc., were thick-billed birds of the 
 
96 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 loxia and fringilla genera ; and no motacillce, or musricapa, were 
 to be met with. When I came to consider, the reason was 
 obvious enough ; for the hard-billed birds subsist on seeds which 
 are easily carried on board ; while the soft-billed birds, which are 
 supported by worms and insects, or, what is a succedaneum for 
 them, fresh raw meat, can meet with neither in long and tedious 
 voyages. It is from this defect of food that our collections (curious 
 as they are) are defective, and we are deprived of some of the 
 most delicate and lively genera. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. 14/7*, 1770. 
 
 DFAR SIR, You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their 
 native crags ; and are farther assured that they continue resident 
 in those cold regions the whole year. From whence then do our 
 ring-ousels migrate so regularly every September, and make their 
 appearance again, as if in their return, every April ? They are 
 more early this year than comrnon, for some were seen at the 
 usual hill on the fourth of this month. 
 
 An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me that they frequent 
 some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there ; but leave those haunts 
 about the end of September, or beginning of October, and return 
 again about the end of March. 
 
 Another intelligent person assures me that they breed in great 
 abundance all over the peak of Derby, and are called there 
 tor-ousels ; withdraw in October and November, and return in 
 spring. This information seems to throw some light on my new 
 migration. 
 
 Scopoli's new work (which I have just procured) has its merit 
 in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tirol and Carniola. 
 Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I think, fair 
 pretence to challenge some regard and approbation from the 
 lovers of natural history ; for, as no man can alone investigate 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 97 
 
 the works of nature, these partial writers may, each in their 
 department, be more accurate in their discoveries, and freer 
 from errors, than more general writers ; and so by degrees may 
 pave the way to an universal correct natural history. Not that 
 Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to the life and conver- 
 sation of his birds as I could wish : he advances some false facts ; 
 as when he says of the hirnndo urbica that " pullos extra nidum 
 non nutrit" This assertion I know to be wrong from repeated 
 observation this summer; for house-martins do feed their young 
 flying, though it must be acknowledged not so commonly as the 
 house-swallow; and the feat is done in so quick a manner as 
 not to be perceptible to indifferent observers. He also advances 
 some (I was going to say) improbable facts ; as when he says of 
 the woodcock that "pullos rostra p or tat fugiens ab hoste" But 
 candour forbids me to say absolutely that any fact is false, because 
 I have never been witness to such a fact. I have only to remark 
 that the long unwieldy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worst 
 adapted of any among the winged creation for such a feat of 
 natural affection. 1 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXXL 
 
 1 It is a fact that the woodcock does carry its young. The legs and beak are 
 both employed in holding the young one to the parent's breast as it flies. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 SELBORNE, October 2tyh, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, After an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, 
 etc., I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo hyberna 
 in Scopoli's new discovered hirundo rupestris^ p. 167. His 
 description of " Supra murina, subtus albida ; rectrices macula 
 ovali alba in latere inferno ; pedes nudi, nigri ; rostrum nigrum ; 
 remiges obscuriores quam plumce dorsales ; rectrices remigibus con- 
 
98 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 colores ; cauda emarginatd, nee forripatd, ; " agrees very well with 
 the bird in question : but when he comes to advance that it is 
 "statiira hirundinis urbiccz" and that " definitio hirundinis 
 riparitz Linnai huic quoque converiiit" he in some measure invali- 
 dates all he has said ; at least he shows at once that he compares 
 them to these species merely from memory : for I have compared 
 the birds themselves, and find they differ widely in every circum- 
 stance of shape, size, and colour. However, as you will have a 
 specimen, I shall be glad to hear what your judgment is in tii2 
 matter. 
 
 Whether my brother is forestalled in his non-descript or not, 
 he will have the credit of first discovering that they spend their 
 winters under the warm and sheltry shores of Gibraltar and 
 Barbary. 
 
 Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clear, just, 
 and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnaeus. These few 
 remarks are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's " AniAis 
 Primus." 
 
 The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to the 
 other by memory : for want of caution in this particular Scopoli 
 falls into errors : he is not so full with regard to the manners of 
 his indigenous birds as might be wished, as you justly observe : 
 his Latin is easy, elegant, and expressive, and very superior to 
 Kramer's.* 
 
 I am pleased to see that my description of the moose corresponds 
 so well with yours. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. 2.6th, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I was much pleased to see, among the collection of 
 birds from Gibraltar, some of those short-winged English summer 
 birds of passage, concerning whose departure we have made so 
 * See his "Elenchus Vegetabilium et Animalium per Austriam Inferiorem, 
 etc." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 99 
 
 much inquiry. Now if these birds are found in Andalusia to 
 migrate to and from Barbary, it may easily be supposed that those 
 that come to us may migrate back to the continent, and spend 
 their winters in some of the warmer parts of Europe. This is 
 certain, that many soft-billed birds that come to Gibraltar appear 
 there only in spring and autumn, seeming to advance in pairs 
 towards the northward, for the sake of breeding during the summer 
 months ; and retiring in parties and broods towards the south at 
 the decline of the year ; so that the rock of Gibraltar is the great 
 rendezvous, and place of observation, from whence they take 
 their departure each way towards Europe or Africa. It is therefore 
 no mean discovery, I think, to find that our small short-winged 
 summer birds of passage are to be seen spring and autumn on the 
 very skirts of Europe ; it is presumptive proof of their emigrations. 
 
 Scopoli seems to me to have found the hirundo melba, the great 
 Gibraltar swift, in Tirol, without knowing it. For what is his 
 hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned bird in other words ? Says 
 he " Omnia prior is" (meaning the swift); " sed pectus album; paulo 
 major priore" I do not suppose this to be a new species. It is 
 true also of the melba, that " nidificat in excelsis A/plum rtipibus" 
 Vid. Annum Pnrnum. 
 
 My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but no 
 naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone-curlew, 
 csdicnemus, sends me the following account : " In looking over my 
 Naturalist's Journal for the month of April, I find the stone-curlews 
 are first mentioned on the seventeenth and eighteenth, which date 
 seems to me rather late. They live with us all the spring and 
 summer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare to take leave by 
 getting together in flocks. They seem to me a bird of passage 
 that may travel into some dry hilly country south of us, probably 
 Spain, because of the abundance of sheep-walks in that country ; 
 for they spend their summers with us in such districts. This 
 conjecture I hazard, as I have never met with any one that has 
 seen them in England in the winter. I believe they are not fond 
 of going near the water, but feed on earth-worms, that are common 
 on sheep-walks and downs. They breed on fallows and lay-fields 
 abounding with grey mossy flints, which much resemble their 
 
 7 
 
ioo NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 young in colour ; among which they skulk and conceal themselves. 
 They make no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare ground, pro- 
 ducing in common but two at a time. There is reason to think 
 their young run soon after they are hatched ; and that the old 
 ones do not feed them, but only lead them about at the time of 
 feeding, which, for the most part, is in the night." Thus far, my 
 friend. 
 
 In the manners of this bird you see there is something very 
 analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles in 
 aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet. 
 
 For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for 
 these birds in Andalusia ; and now he writes me word that, for the 
 first time, he saw one dead in the market on the 3rd September. 
 
 When the ozdicnemus flies it stretches out its legs straight behind, 
 like a heron. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 SELBORNE, March y>th, 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, There is an insect with us, especially on chalky 
 districts, which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end 
 of the summer, getting into people's skins, especially those of 
 women and children, and raising tumours which itch intolerably. 
 This animal (which we call a harvest bug) is very minute, scarce 
 discernible to the naked eye ; of a bright scarlet colour, and of the 
 genus of Acarus. They are to be met with in gardens on kidney- 
 beans, or any legumens, but prevail only in the hot months of 
 summer. Warreners, as some have assured me, are much infested 
 by them on chalky downs ; where these insects swarm sometimes 
 to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets, and to give them 
 a reddish cast, while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into 
 fevers. 
 
 There is a small long shining fly in these parts very troublesome 
 to the housewife, by getting into the chimneys, and laying its eggs 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 101 
 
 in the bacon while it is drying ; these eggs produce maggots called 
 jumpers, which, harbouring in the gammons and best parts of the 
 hogs, eat down to the bone, and make great waste. This fly I 
 suspect to be a variety of the muscapntris of Linnaeus ; it is to be 
 seen in the summer in farm-kitchens on the bacon-racks and about 
 the mantel-pieces, and on the ceilings. 
 
 The insect that infests turnips and many crops in the garden 
 (destroying often whole fields while in their seedling leaves) is an 
 animal that wants to be better known. The country people here 
 call it the turnip- fly and black-dolphin ; but I know it to be one 
 of the coleoptera ; the " chrysomela oleracea, sanatoria, femoribus 
 posticis crassissimis." In very hot summers they abound to an 
 amazing degree, and, as you walk in a field or in a garden, make 
 a pattering like rain, by jumping on the leaves of the turnips or 
 cabbages. 
 
 There is an oestrus, known in these parts to every ploughboy ; 
 which, because it is omitted by Linnaeus, is also passed over by 
 late writers ; and that is the curvicauda of old Mouset, mentioned 
 by Derham in his " Physico-Theology," p. 250; an insect worthy 
 of remark for depositing its eggs as it flies in so dextrous a manner 
 on the single hairs of the legs and flanks of grass-horses. But 
 then Derham is mistaken when he advances that this oestrus is 
 the parent of that wonderful star-tailed maggot which he mentions 
 afterwards ; for more modern entomologists have discovered that 
 singular production to be derived from the egg, or the musca 
 chamczleon ; see Geoffrey, t. xvii. f. 4. 
 
 A full history of noxious insects hurtful in the field, garden and 
 house, suggesting all the known and likely means of destroying 
 them, would be allowed by the public to be a most useful and 
 important work. What knowledge there is of this sort lies 
 scattered, and wants to be collected ; great improvements would 
 soon follow of course. A knowledge of the properties, economy, 
 propagation, and in short of the life and conversation of these 
 animals, is a necessary step to lead us to some method of prevent- 
 ing their depredations. 
 
 As far as I am a judge, nothing would recommend entomology 
 more than some neat plates that should well express the generic 
 
102 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 distinctions of insects according to Linnaeus ; for I am well 
 assured that many people would study insects, could they set out 
 with a more adequate notion of those distinctions than can be 
 conveyed at first by words alone. 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 SELBORNE, 1771. 
 DEAR SIR, Happening to make a visit to my neighbour's 
 
 THE COMMON PEACOCK (Pavo cristatits). 
 
 peacocks, I could not help observing that the trains of those 
 magnificent birds appear by no means to be their tails ; those 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 103 
 
 long feathers growing not from their uropygium, but all up their 
 backs. A range of short brown stiff feathers, about six inches 
 long, fixed in the uropygium, is the real tail, and serves as the 
 fulcrum to prop the train, which is long and top-heavy, when set 
 on end. When the train is up, nothing appears of the bird before 
 but its head and neck ; but this would not be the case were those 
 long feathers fixed only in the rump, as may be seen by the 
 turkey cock when in a strutting attitude. By a strong muscular 
 vibration these birds can make the shafts of their long feathers 
 clatter like the swords of a sword dancer ; they then trample very 
 quick with their feet, and run backwards towards the females. 
 
 I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus 
 czgogropila, taken out of the stomach of a fat ox ; it is perfectly 
 round, and about the size of a large Seville orange ; such are, I 
 think, usually flat. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 Sept. 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The summer through I have seen but two of that 
 large species of bat which I call vespertilio altivolans, from its 
 manner of feeding high in the air ; I procured one of them, and 
 found it to be a male ; and made no doubt, as they accompanied 
 together, that the other was a female ; but, happening in an 
 evening or two to procure the other likewise, I was somewhat dis- 
 appointed, when it appeared to be also of the same sex. This 
 circumstance, and the great scarcity of this sort, at least in these 
 parts, occasions some suspicions in my niind whether it is really 
 a species, or whether it may not be the male part of the more 
 known species, one of which may supply many females ; as is 
 known to be the case in sheep and some other quadrupeds. But 
 this doubt can only be cleared by a farther examination, and 
 some attention to the sex, of more specimens : all that I know at 
 present is, that my two were amply furnished with U-s parts of 
 generation, much resembling those of a boar. 
 
104 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 In the extent of their wings they measured fourteen inches and 
 a half ; and four inches and a half from the nose to the tip of 
 the tail ; their heads were large, their nostrils bilobated, their 
 shoulders broad and muscular; and their whole bodies fleshy and 
 plump. Nothing could be more sleek and soft than their fur, 
 which was of a bright chesnut colour; their maws were full of 
 food, but so macerated that the quality could not be distin- 
 guished; their livers, kidneys and hearts, were large, and their 
 bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, when entire, full 
 one ounce and one drachm. Within the ear there was somewhat 
 of a peculiar structure that I did not understand perfectly ! but 
 refer it to the observation of the curious anatomist. These 
 creatures sent forth a very rancid and offensive smell. 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 SELBORNE, 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, On the i2th July I had a fair opportunity of 
 contemplating the motions of the caprimulgu^ or fern-owl, as it 
 was playing round a large oak that swarmed with scarabm solsti- 
 tiales, or fern-chafers. The powers of its wing were wonderful, 
 exceeding, if possible, the various evolutions and quick turns of 
 the swallow genus. But the circumstance that pleased me most 
 was, that I saw it distinctly, more than once, put out its short leg 
 while on the wing, and, by a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into 
 its mouth. If it takes any part of its prey with its foot, as I have 
 now the greatest reason to suppose it does these chafers, I no 
 longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously 
 furnished with a serrated claw. 
 
 Swallows and martins, the bulk of them I mean, have forsaken 
 us sooner this year than usual ; for on September 22nd they ren- 
 dezvoused in a neighbour's walnut-tree, where it seemed probable 
 they had *aken up their lodging for the night. At the dawn of 
 the day, which was foggy, they arose all together in infinite 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 105 
 
 numbers, occasioning such a rushing from the strokes of their 
 wings against the hazy air, as might be heard to a considerable 
 distance : since that no flock has appeared, only a few stragglers. 
 
 Some swifts stayed late, till the 22nd August a rare instance ! 
 for they usually withdraw within the first week. 
 
 On September 24th three or four ring-ousels appeared in my fields 
 for the first time this season ; how punctual are these visitors ic 
 their autumnal and spring migrations ! 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, March i$tk, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, By my journal for last autumn it appears that the 
 house-martins bred very late, and stayed very late in these parts ; 
 for, on the ist October, I saw young martins in their nest 
 nearly fledged ; and again on the 2ist October, we had at 
 the next house a nest full of young martins just ready to fly; 
 and the old ones were hawking for insects with great alertness. 
 The next morning the brood forsook their nest, and were flying 
 round the village. From this day I never saw one of the swallow 
 kind till November 3rd; when twenty, or perhaps thirty, house- 
 martins were playing all day long by the side of the hanging 
 wood, and over my field. Did these small weak birds, some of 
 which were nestling twelve days ago, shift their quarters at this 
 late season of the year to the other side of the northern tropic ? 
 Or rather, is it not more probable that the next church, ruin, 
 chalk-cliff, steep covert, or perhaps sandbank, lake or pool (as a 
 more northern naturalist would say), may become their hyber- 
 naculunij and afford them a ready and obvious retreat ? 
 
 We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ring-ousels 
 every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me that ring-ousels 
 were seen at Christmas 1770 in the forest of Bere, on the southern 
 verge of this county. Hence we may conclude that their migra- 
 tions are only internal, and not extended to the continent south- 
 
io6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 ward, if they do at first come at all from the northern parts of this 
 island only, and not from the north of Europe. Come from whence 
 they will, it is plain, from the fearless disregard that they show for 
 men or guns, that they have been little accustomed to places of 
 much resort. Navigators mention that in the Isle of Ascension, 
 and other such desolate districts, birds are so little acquainted 
 with the human form that they settle on men's shoulders ; and 
 have no more dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat 
 that was grazing. 1 A young man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured me 
 that about seven years ago ring-ousels abounded so about that 
 town in the autumn that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon; 
 he added further, that some had appeared since in every autumn ; 
 but he could not find that any had been observed before the 
 season in which he shot so many. I myself have found these 
 birds in little parties in the autumn cantoned all along the Sussex 
 downs, wherever there were shrubs and bushes, from Chichester 
 to Lewes; particularly in the autumn of 1770. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 1 Even in England birds often show great confidence in man. I seem to 
 have a peculiar knack of making friends with them and with wild animals. One 
 evening last summer I was sitting in Jesmond Dene, Newcastle-on-Tyne, when 
 a robin hopped close by me, and as I kept perfectly still, it inspected me closely, 
 flew on to my boot, on to the seat by my side, and closely inspected my hand, 
 then hopped on to my knee, and finally on to my shoulder. This familiarity 
 was repeated on a subsequent occasion, to my great satisfaction. While lying 
 down by some rabbit holes on a summer's afternoon, the bunnies have sat at 
 the mouths of their burrows, coolly gazing at me, and proceeding with their 
 toilets within three yards of my head, Squirrels, too, have made friends with 
 me ; but then, I prefer quietly watching birds and animals to killing them. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 107 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. tyh, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, As you desire me to send you such observations as 
 may occur, I take the liberty of making the following remarks, 
 that you may, according as you think me right or wrong, admit or 
 reject what I here advance, in your intended new edition of the 
 " British Zoology." 
 
 THE OSPREY (Pandion). 
 
 The osprey was shot about a year ago at Frinsham Pond, a 
 great lake, at about six miles from hence, while it was sitting on 
 the handle of a plough and devouring a fish : it used to precipitate 
 itself into the water, and so take its prey by surprise. 
 
 A great ash-coloured butcher-bird was shot last winter in Tisted 
 Park, and a red-backed butcher-bird [shrike] at Selborne : they are 
 rara aves in this county. 1 
 
io8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Crows go in pairs all the year round. 
 
 Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beechy Head, and on 
 all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 
 
 The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, 2 is a bird of passage in 
 the south of England, seldom appearing till towards the end of 
 November ; is usually the latest winter-bird of passage. Before 
 our beechen woods were so much destroyed we had myriads of 
 them, reaching in strings for a mile together as they went out in 
 
 a 
 
 THE SHRIKE. 
 
 a morning to feed. They leave us early in spring : where do they 
 breed ? 
 
 The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird the 
 storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring in blowing showery 
 weather; its song often commences with the year: with us it 
 builds much in orchards. 
 
 A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ring-ousels 
 on Dartmoor : they build in banks on the sides of streams. 
 
 Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also as 
 they play and toy about on the wing ; and particularly while they' 
 are descending, and sometimes they stand on the ground. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 109 
 
 Adanson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence 
 
 that European swallows migrate during our winter to Senegal : he 
 does not talk at all like an ornithologist ; and probably saw only 
 
 THE WHIN-CHAT. 
 
 the swallows of that country, which I know build within Governor 
 
I JO 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 O'Hara's hall against the roof. Had he known European swallows, 
 would he not have mentioned the species ? 
 
 The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as it flies: 
 this species appears commonly about a week before the house- 
 martin, and about ten or twelve days before the swift. 
 
 In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till 
 October 23rd. 
 
 The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than the house- 
 swallow : viz., about the 24th or 26th April. 
 
 Whin-chats and stone-chatters stay with us the whole year. 3 
 Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through. 
 Wag-tails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter. 4 
 Bullfinches, when fed on hempseed, often become wholly black. 
 W T e have vast flocks of female chaffinches all the winter, with 
 hardly any males among them. 
 
I NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. in 
 
 When you say that in breeding-time the cock-snipes make a 
 bleating noise, and I a drumming (perhaps I should rather have 
 said a humming), I suspect we mean the same thing. However, 
 while they are playing about on the wing they certainly make a 
 loud piping with their mouths : but whether that bleating or hum- 
 ming is ventriloquous, or proceeds from the motion of their wings, 
 I cannot say ; but this I know, that when this noise happens the 
 bird is always descending, and his wings are violently agitated. 
 
 Soon after the lapwings have done breeding they congregate, 
 and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake themselves to downs 
 and sheep-walks. 
 
 Two years ago last spring the little auk was found alive and 
 unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane a few miles 
 from Alresford, where there is a great lake : it was kept awhile, 
 but died. 
 
 I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer Forest 
 in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, or young wild- 
 ducks. 
 
 Speaking of the swift, that page says " its drink the dew ; " 
 whereas it should be "it drinks on the wing; " for all the swallow 
 kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of pools or rivers : 
 like Virgil's bees, they drink flying ; "flumina swnma libant" In 
 this method of drinking perhaps this genus may be peculiar. 
 
 Of the sedge-bird be pleased to say it sings most part of the 
 night ; its notes are hurrying, but not unpleasing, and imitative of 
 several birds ; as the sparrow, swallow, skylark. When it happens 
 to be silent in the night, by throwing a stone or clod into the 
 bushes where it sits you immediately set it a-singing ; or in other 
 words, though it slumbers sometimes, yet as soon as it is awakened 
 it reassumes its song. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 1 The red-backed butcher-bird, or shrike, is common enough in some dis- 
 tricts. 1 found several nests one year in some thorn trees in a small field in 
 Norfolk. The shrike has a habit of impaling the beetles or other small live 
 creatures it feeds upon, on the thorns, to await its convenience for eating them, 
 and some spots have quite the appearance of a well-stocked larder. 
 
112 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 2 The stock-dove is not the common wild pigeon. The pigeons usually 
 found in England are the ring-dove, which makes its nests on trees, and is 
 called the cushat, or in Shropshire the quice, the stock-dove, which breeds in 
 holes in trees, and also in rabbit holes ; the rock-dove, and the pretty little 
 turtle-dove, which builds so slight a nest in a tree or big bush that the small 
 white eggs can be seen through it from below. 
 
 3 Whin-chats migrate, but stone-chats do not as a rule. 
 
 4 The yellow-wagtail migrates, but the pied and grey wagtails do not. 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. 2nd, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Before your letter arrived, and of my own accord, I 
 had been remarking and comparing the tails of the male and 
 
 THE NIGHTINGALE (Philomela, luscinid). 
 
 female swallow, and this ere any young broods appeared ; so that 
 there was no danger of confounding the dams with their putti: 
 and besides, as they were then always in pairs, and busied in the 
 employ of nidincation, there could be no room for mistaking the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 113 
 
 sexes, nor the individuals of different chimneys the one for the 
 other. From all my observations, it constantly appeared that each 
 sex has the long feathers in its tail that give it that forked shape ; 
 with this difference, that they are longer in the tail of the male 
 than in that of the female. 
 
 Nightingales, when their young first come abroad, and are help- 
 less, make a plaintive and a jarring noise ; and also a snapping or 
 cracking, pursuing people along the hedges as they walk : these 
 last sounds seem intended for menace and defiance. 
 
 The grasshopper-lark chirps all night in the height of summer. 
 
 Swans turn white the second year, and breed the third. 
 
 Weasels prey on moles, as appears by their being sometimes 
 caught in mole-traps. 
 
 Sparrow-hawks sometimes breed in old crows' nests, and the 
 kestril in churches and ruins. 
 
 There are supposed to be two sorts ot eels in the island of Ely. 
 The threads sometimes discovered in eels are perhaps their young: 
 the generation of eels is very dark and mysterious. 
 
 Hen-harriers breed on the ground, and seem never to settle on 
 trees. 
 
 When redstarts shake their tails they move them horizontally, as 
 dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when in motion, 
 bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse. 
 
 Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in 
 breeding-time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a very 
 piping plaintive noise. 
 
 Many birds which become silent about Midsummer reassume 
 their notes again in September ; as the thrush, blackbird, woodlark, 
 willow-wren, etc. ; hence August is by much the most mute month, 
 the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are birds induced to 
 sing again because the temperament of autumn resembles that of 
 spring ? 
 
 Linnaeus ranges plants geographically; palms inhabit the tro- 
 pics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and lichens the 
 polar circles ; no doubt animals maybe classed in the same manner 
 with propriety. 
 
 House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring ; as the weather 
 
ii4 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest in plum-trees 
 and apple-trees. These birds have been known sometimes to 
 build in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks of boughs under 
 rooks' nests. 
 
 As my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that his dogs 
 devoured all the little red mice that they could catch, but rejected 
 the common mice ; and that his cats ate the common mice, re- 
 fusing the red. 
 
 Red-breasts sing all through the spring, summer, and autumn. 
 The reason that they are called autumn songsters is, because in 
 the two first seasons their voices are drowned and lost in the 
 general chorus ; in the latter their song becomes distinguishable. 
 Many songsters of the autumn seem to be the young cock red- 
 breasts of that year : notwithstanding the prejudices in their favour, 
 they do much mischief in gardens to the summer-fruits.* 
 
 The titmouse, which early in February begins to make two quaint 
 notes, like the whetting of a saw, is the marsh titmouse : the great 
 titmouse sings with three cheerful joyous notes, and beg ins about 
 the same time. 
 
 Wrens sing all the winter through, frost excepted. 
 
 House-martins came remarkably late this year both in Hamp- 
 shire and Devonshire : is this circumstance for or against either 
 hiding or migration ? 
 
 Most birds drink sipping at intervals ; but pigeons take a long 
 continued draught, like quadrupeds. 
 
 Notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, no gray 
 crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor ; it was my mistake. 
 
 The appearance and flying of the Scarab czus solstitialis, or fern- 
 chafer, commence with the month of July, and cease about the 
 end of it. These scarabs are the constant food of Caprimulgi, or 
 fern owls, through that period. They abound on the chalky downs 
 and in some sandy districts, but not in the clays. 
 
 In the garden of the Black Bear inn in the town of Reading, is 
 a stream or canal running under the stables and out into the fields 
 on the other side of the road : in this water are many carps, which 
 
 * They eat also the berries of the ivy, the honey-suckle, and the E^lonym^^s 
 europtzus, or spindle-tree. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 115 
 
 lie rolling about in sight, being fed by travellers, who amuse them- 
 selves by tossing them bread ; but as soon as the weather grows 
 at all severe, these fishes are no longer seen, because they retire 
 under the stables, where they remain till the return of spring. 
 Do they lie in a torpid state ? If they do not, how are they 
 supported ? l 
 
 The note of the white-throat, which is continually repeated, and 
 often attended with odd gesticulations on the wing, is harsh and 
 
 WHITE-THROAT 
 
 displeasing. These birds seem of a pugnacious disposition ; for 
 they sing with an erected crest and attitudes of rivalry and defiance ; 
 are shy and wild in breeding-time, avoiding neighbourhoods, and 
 haunting lonely lanes and commons ; nay, even the very tops of 
 the Sussex Downs, where there are bushes and covert ; but in 
 July and August they bring their broods into gardens and orchards, 
 and make great havoc among the summer-fruits. 
 
 The black-cap has in common a full, sweet, deep, loud, and 
 wild pipe ; yet that strain is of short continuance, and his motions 
 are desultory ; but when that bird sits calmly and engages in song 
 
 8 
 
ii6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but inward melody, and 
 expresses great variety of soft and gentle modulations, superior 
 perhaps to those of any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. 
 
 Black-caps mostly haunt orchards and gardens; while they 
 warble their throats are wonderfully distended. 
 
 The song of the redstart is superior, though somewhat like that 
 of the white-throat -, some birds have a few more notes than others. 
 Sitting very placidly on the top of a tall tree in a village, the cock 
 sings from morning to night : he affects neighbourhoods, and 
 
 avoids solitude, and loves to build in orchards and about houses ; 
 with us he perches on the vane of a tall maypole. 
 
 The fly-catcher is of all our summer birds the most mute and 
 the most familiar; it also appears the last of any. It builds in a 
 vine, or a sweetbriar, against the wall of a house, or in the hole of 
 a wall, or on the end of a beam or plate, and often close to the 
 post of a door where people are going in and out all day long. 
 This bird does not make the least pretension to song, but uses a 
 little inward wailing note when it thinks its young in danger from 
 cats or other annoyances ; it breeds but once, and retires early. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 117 
 
 Selborne parish alone can and has exhibited at times more than 
 half the birds that are ever seen in all Sweden ; the former has 
 produced more than one hundred and twenty species, the latter 
 only two hundred and twenty- one. Let me add also that it has 
 shown near half the species that were ever known in Great Britain. 
 
 On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries with it a 
 quaint and magisterial air, and is very sententious ; but when I 
 recollect that you requested stricture and anecdote, I hope you 
 will pardon the didactic manner for the sake of the information it 
 may happen to contain. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XL. 
 
 1 Carp, tench, and eels retire into the mud, if it is soft enough, in the very 
 cold weather, but cannot be said to become torpid, like a tortoise does. Fish 
 can do for a long time with very little food, and the mud itself is full of eatabb 
 (in the fish view) things even in the winter. 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 IT is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how those species of 
 soft-billed birds that continue with us the winter through, subsist 
 during the dead months. The imbecility of birds seems not to 
 be the only reason why they shun the rigour of our winters ; for 
 the robust wryneck (so much resembling the hardy race of wood- 
 peckers) migrates, while the feeble little golden-crowned wren, 
 that shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts without availing 
 himself of houses or villages, to which most of our winter birds 
 crowd in distressful seasons, while this keeps aloof in fields and 
 woods ; but perhaps this may be the reason why they may often 
 perish, and why they are almost as rare as any bird we know. 
 
 I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds, which 
 winter with us, subsist chiefly on insects in their aurelia state. 
 All the species of wagtails in severe weather haunt shallow streams 
 
n8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 near their spring-heads, where they never freeze ; and, by wading, 
 pick out the aurelias of the genus of Phryganeiz, etc. 
 
 Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather, 
 where they pick up crumbs and other sweepings ; and in mild 
 weather they procure worms, which are stirring every month in 
 the year, as any one may see that will only be at the trouble of 
 taking a candle to a grass-plot on any mild winter's night. Red- 
 
 THE GOLDCREST. 
 
 breasts and wrens in the winter haunt outhouses, stables, and 
 barns, where they find spiders and flies that have laid themselves 
 up during the cold season. But the grand support of the soft- 
 billed birds in winter is that infinite profusion of aurelia of the 
 Lepidoptera ordo, which is fastened to the twigs of trees and their 
 trunks ; to the pales and walls of gardens and buildings ; and is 
 found in every cranny and cleft of rock or rubbish, and even in 
 the ground itself. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 119 
 
 Every species of titmouse winters with us ; they have what I 
 call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft, 
 between the Linnsean genera of Fringilla and Motacilla. One 
 species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never 
 retreating for succour in the severest seasons to houses and neigh- 
 bourhoods ; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse, which is 
 
 
 LONG-TAILED TIT AND NEST. 
 
 almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren ; but the blue tit- 
 mouse or nun (Parus cceruleus], the cole-mouse (Parus ater\ the 
 great black-headed titmouse (Fringillago), and the marsh titmouse 
 (Parus palustris), all resort at times to buildings, and in hard 
 weather particularly. The great titmouse, driven by stress of 
 weather, much frequents houses ; and, in deep snows, I have seen 
 this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to my no small 
 delight and admiration), draw straws lengthwise from out the eaves 
 of thatched houses, in order to pull out the flies that were con- 
 
120 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 cealed between them, and that in such numbers that they quite 
 defaced the thatch, and gave it a ragged appearance. 
 
 The blue titmouse, or nun, is a great frequenter of houses, and 
 a general devourer. Besides insects, it is very fond of flesh ; for 
 it frequently picks bones on dunghills : it is a vast admirer of suet, 
 and haunts butchers' shops. When a boy, I have known twenty 
 in a morning caught with snap mouse-traps, baited with tallow or 
 suet. It will also pick holes in apples left on the ground, and be 
 
 BLUE TITMOUSE. 
 
 well entertained with the seeds on the head of a sunflower. The 
 blue, marsh, and great titmice will, in very severe weather, carry 
 away barley and oat-straws from the sides of ricks. 
 
 How the wheat-ear and whin-chat support themselves in winter 
 cannot be so easily ascertained, since they spend their time on 
 wild heaths and warrens ; the former especially, where there are 
 stone quarries : most probably it is that their maintenance arises 
 from the aureliae of the Lepidoptera ordo, which furnish them with 
 
 a plentiful table in the wilderness. 
 
 I am, etc, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. J2 i 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 SELBORNE, March gtk, 1775. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Some future faunist, a man of fortune, will, I hope, 
 extend his visits to the kingdom of Ireland ; a new field and a 
 country little known to the naturalist. He will not, it is to be 
 wished, undertake that tour unaccompanied by a botanist, because 
 the mountains have scarcely been sufficiently examined ; and the 
 southerly counties of so mild an island may possibly afford some 
 plants little to be expected within the British dominions. A 
 person of a thinking turn of mind will draw many just remarks 
 from the modern improvements of that country, both in arts and 
 agriculture, where premiums obtained long before they were heard 
 of with us. The manners of the wild natives, their superstitions, 
 their prejudices, their sordid way of life, will extort from him 
 many useful reflections. He should also take with him an able 
 draughtsman ; for he must by no means pass over the noble castles 
 and seats, the extensive and picturesque lakes and waterfalls, and 
 the lofty stupendous mountains, so little known, and so engaging 
 to the imagination when described and exhibited in a lively 
 manner ; such a work would be well received. 
 
 As I have seen no modern map of Scotland, I cannot pretend 
 to say how accurate or particular any such may be ; but this I 
 know, that the best old maps of that kingdom are very defective. 
 
 The great obvious defect that I have remarked in all maps of 
 Scotland that have fallen in my way is a want of a coloured line, 
 or stroke, that shall exactly define the just limits of that district 
 called the Highlands. Moreover, all the great avenues to that 
 mountainous and romantic country want to be well distinguished. 
 The military roads formed by General Wade are so great and 
 Roman-like an undertaking that they well merit attention. My 
 old map, Moll's Map, takes notice of Fort William, but could not 
 mention the other forts that have been erected long since ; there- 
 fore a good representation of the chain of forts should not be 
 omitted. 
 
122 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 The celebrated zigzag up the Coryarich must not be passed 
 over. Moll takes notice of Hamilton and Drumlanrig, and such 
 capital houses; but a new survey, no doubt, should represent 
 every seat and castle remarkable for any great event, or celebrated 
 for its paintings, etc. Lord Breadalbane's seat and beautiful 
 policy are too curious and extraordinary to be omitted. 
 
 The seat of the Earl of Eglingtoun, near Glasgow, is worthy of 
 notice. The pine plantations of that nobleman are very grand 
 and extensive indeed. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 A PAIR of honey-buzzards, Buteo opivorus, sive Vespivorus Rait, 
 
 built them a large 
 shallow nest, com- 
 posed of twigs and 
 lined with dead 
 beechen leaves, upon 
 a tall slender beech 
 near the middle of 
 Selborne Hanger, in 
 the summer of 1780. 
 In the middle of the 
 month of June a bold 
 boy climbed this tree 
 though standing on 
 so steep and dizzy a 
 situation, and brought 
 
 down 
 
 an egg, 
 
 the 
 
 THE SPARROW-HAWK (Accifiter nisus). 
 
 only one in the nest, 
 which had been sat 
 on for some time, and 
 
 contained the embryo of a. young bird. The egg was smaller, and 
 not so round as those of the common buzzard ; was dotted at 
 

 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 123 
 
 each end with small red spots, and surrounded in the middle with 
 a broad bloody zone. 
 
 The hen-bird was shot, and answered exactly to Mr. Ray's 
 description of that species ; had a black cere, short thick legs, 
 and a long tail. When on the wing this species may be easily 
 distinguished from the common buzzard by its hawk-like appear- 
 ance, small head, wings not so blunt, and longer tail. This 
 specimen contained in its craw some limbs of frogs and many 
 grey snails without shells. The irides of the eyes of this bird 
 were of a beautiful bright yellow colour. 
 
 About the loth July in the same summer a pair of sparrow- 
 hawks bred in an old crow's nest on a low beech in the same 
 hanger ; and as their brood, which was numerous, began to grow 
 up, became so daring and ravenous, that they were a terror to all 
 the dames in the village that had chickens or ducklings under 
 their care. A boy climbed the tree, and found the young so 
 fledged that they all escaped from him ; but discovered that a 
 good house had been kept : the larder was well-stored with pro- 
 visions; for he brought down a young blackbird, jay, and house- 
 martin, all clean picked, and some half devoured. The old birds 
 had been observed to make sad havoc for some days among the 
 new-flown swallows and martins, which, being but lately out of 
 their nests, had not acquired those powers and command of wing 
 that enable them, when more mature, to set such enemies at 
 defiance. 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. y>th, 1780. 
 DEAR SIR, Every incident that occasions a renewal of our 
 correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. 
 
 As to the wild wood-pigeon, the CEnas, or Vinago, of Ray, I am 
 much of your mind ; and see no reason for making it the origin of 
 the common house-dove : but suppose those that have advanced 
 
I2 4 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 that opinion may have been misled by another appellation, often 
 Tjiven to the (Enas, which is that of stock-dove. 
 
 Unless the stock- dove in the winter varies greatly in manners 
 from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to be 
 domesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see the 
 latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the woods \ but 
 the former as long as it stays with us, from November perhaps to 
 February, lives the same wild life with the ring-dove, Palumbus 
 
 STOCK-DOVE. 
 
 torquatus ; frequents coppices and groves, supports itself chiefly by 
 mast, and delights to roost in the tallest beeches. Could it be 
 known in what manner stock-doves build, the doubt would be 
 settled with me at once, provided they construct their nests on 
 trees, like the ring-dove, as I much suspect they do. 
 
 You received, you say, last spring a stock-dove from Sussex ; 
 and are informed that they sometimes breed in that county. But 
 why did not your correspondent determine the place of its nidifi- 
 cation, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was not an adroit 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 125 
 
 ornithologist I should doubt the fact, because people with us per- 
 petually confound the stock-dove with the ring-dove. 
 
 For my own part, I readily concur with you in supposing that 
 house-doves are derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, for 
 many reasons. In the first place the wild stock-dove is manifestly 
 larger than the common house-dove, against the usual rule of 
 domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. Again, those 
 two remarkable black spots on the remiges of each wing of the 
 stock-dove, which are so characteristic of the species, would not, 
 one should think, be totally lost by its being reclaimed ; but would 
 often break out among its descendants. But what is worth a 
 hundred arguments is, the instance you give in Sir Roger Mostyn's 
 house-doves in Caernarvonshire ; which, though tempted by plenty 
 of food and gentle treatment, can never be prevailed on to inhabit 
 their cote for any time; but, as soon as they begin to breed, betake 
 themselves to the fastnesses of Ormshead, and deposit their young 
 in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns, and precipices of that 
 stupendous promontory. 
 
 li Naturam expellas furca . . . tarn en usque recurret." 
 
 I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventy-eighth year, 
 who tells me that fifty or sixty years back, when the beechen 
 woods were much more extensive than at present, the number of 
 wood-pigeons was astonishing; that he has often killed near 
 twenty in a day : and that with a long wild-fowl piece he has shot 
 seven or eight at a time on the wing as they came wheeling over 
 his head : he moreover adds, which I was not aware of, that often 
 there were among them little parties of small blue doves, which 
 he calls rockiers. The food of these numberless emigrants was 
 beech-mast and some acorns ; and particularly barley, which they 
 collected in the stubbles. But of late years, since the vast in- 
 crease of turnips, that vegetable has furnished a great part of their 
 support in hard weather; and the holes they pick in these roots 
 greatly damage the crop. From this food their flesh has con- 
 tracted a rancidness which occasions them to be rejected by nicer 
 judges of eating, who thought them before a delicate dish. They 
 were shot not only as they were feeding in the fields, and especially 
 
126 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 in snowy weather, but also at the close of the evening, by men 
 who lay in ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as 
 they came in to roost.* These are the principal circumstances 
 relating to this wonderful internal migration, which with us takes 
 place towards the end of November, and ceases early in the spring. 
 Last winter we had in Selborne high wood about a hundred of 
 these doves ; but in former times the flocks were so vast, not only 
 with us but all the district round, that on mornings and evenings 
 they traversed the air, like rooks, in strings, reaching for a mile 
 together. When they thus rendezvoused here by thousands, if 
 they happened to be suddenly roused from their roost-trees on 
 an evening, 
 
 " Their rising all at once was like the sound 
 Of thunder heard remote. " 
 
 It will by no means be foreign to the present purpose to add, 
 that I had a relation in this neighbourhood who made it a practice, 
 for a time, whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to 
 place them under a pair of doves that were sitting in his own 
 pigeon-house ; hoping thereby, if he could bring about a coalition, 
 to enlarge his breed, and teach his own doves to beat out into the 
 woods, and to support themselves by mast ; the plan was plausible, 
 but something always interrupted the success ; for though the 
 birds were usually hatched, and sometimes grew to half their 
 size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. I myself have seen these 
 foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of nature, so 
 as scarcely to bear to be looked at, and snapping with their bills 
 by way of menace. In short, they always died, perhaps for want 
 of proper sustenance : but the owner thought that by their fierce 
 and wild demeanour they frighted their foster mothers, and so were 
 starved. 
 
 Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a 
 dove haunting the cavern of a rock in such engaging numbers, 
 that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage : and John Dryden 
 
 * " Some old sportsmen say that the main part of these flocks used to with- 
 draw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 127 
 
 has rendered it so happily in our language, that without farther 
 excuse I shall add his translation also. 
 
 " Qualis spelunca subito commota Columba, 
 Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi, 
 Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exterrita pennis, 
 Dat tecto ingentem mox aere lapsa quieto, 
 Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas." 
 
 " As when a dove her rocky hold forsakes, 
 Rous'd, in a fright her sounding wings she shakes ; 
 The cavern rings with clattering : out she flies, 
 And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies : 
 At first she flutters : but at length she springs 
 To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 

 LETTERS TG THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 SELBORNE, June 30/7*, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, When I was in town last month I partly engaged 
 that I would sometimes do myself the honour to write to you on 
 the subject of natural history ; and I am the more ready to fulfil 
 my promise, because I see you are a gentleman of great candour, 
 and one that will make allowances ; especially where the writer 
 professes to be an outdoor naturalist, one that takes his observa- 
 tions from the subject itself, and not from the writings of others. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING IS A LlST OF THE SUMMER BlRDS OF PASSAGE 
 WHICH I HAVE DISCOVERED IN THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD, RANGED 
 SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY APPEAR: 
 
 1. Wryneck. 
 
 2. Smallest willow- 
 
 wren, 
 
 3. Swallow, 
 
 4. Martin, 
 
 5. Sand-martin, 
 
 6. Black-cap, 
 
 7. Nightingale, 
 
 8. Cuckoo, 
 
 9. Middle willow-wren, 
 
 10. White-throat, 
 
 11. Red-start, 
 '12. Stone-Curlew, 
 
 13. Turtle-dove, 
 
 RAII NOMINA. 
 
 Jynx, sive Torquilla, 
 
 Regulus non cristatus. 
 
 Hirundo domestica. 
 
 Hirundo rustica. 
 
 Hirundo riparia. 
 
 Atricapilla. 
 
 Luscinia. 
 
 Cuculus. 
 
 Regulus non cristatus. 
 
 Ficedulce affinis. 
 Ruticilla. 
 (Edicnemus. 
 Turfur. 
 
 USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT. 
 
 C The middle of March : harsh 
 \ note. 
 
 ( March 23rd : chirps till 
 I September. 
 
 April 1 3th. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Ditto : a sweet wild note. 
 
 Beginning of April. 
 
 Middle of April. 
 
 Ditto: a sweet plaintive note. 
 C Ditto : mean note ; sings on 
 \ till September. 
 
 Ditto : more agreeable song. 
 f End ol March : loud noc- 
 ( turnal whistle. 
 
130 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 14. Grasshopper-lark, 
 
 15. Swift, 
 
 RAH NOMINA. 
 
 C Alauda minima locusta 
 \ voce. 
 
 Hirundo apus. 
 
 16. Less reed-sparrow, \ P^r arundinaceus 
 3 minor. 
 
 Ortygometra. 
 
 1 8. Largest willow- ) , 
 
 > Regulus non cri status. 
 
 17. Land-rail, 
 
 argest 
 wren, 
 
 19. Goat-sucker, or ) 
 
 fern-owl, I Caprtmulgus. 
 
 20. Fly-catcher, 
 
 Stoparolz. 
 
 USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT. 
 
 Middle April : a small sibi- 
 lous note, till the end of 
 
 July- 
 
 About April 27th. 
 
 A sweet polyglot, but hurry- 
 ing ; it has the notes of 
 many birds. 
 
 A loud harsh note, crex, crex . 
 
 Cantat voce striduld locus tee ; 
 end of April, on the tops 
 of high beeches. 
 
 Beginning of May : chatters 
 by night with a singular 
 noise. 
 
 May 1 2th : a very mute 
 bird ; this is the latest 
 summer bird of passage. 
 
 This assemblage of curious and amusing birds belongs to ten 
 several genera of the Linnaean system ; and are all of the ordo of 
 passeres save the Jynx and Cuculus, which are pica, and the 
 Charadrius (CEdicnemus) and Rallus (Ortygometra\ which are 
 grallce. 
 
 These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following 
 Linnsean genera : 
 
 1, Jynx. 13. Columba. 
 
 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 16, 1 8, Motadlla. 17. Rallus. 
 
 3, 4, 5, 15, Hirundo. 19. Caprimulgus. 
 8, Cuculus. 14. Alauda. 
 
 12, Charadrius. 20. Muscicapa. 
 
 Most soft-billed birds live on insects, and not on grain and 
 seeds ; and therefore at the end of summer they retire : but the 
 following soft-billed birds, though insect-eaters, stay with us the 
 year round : 
 
 RAII NOMINA. 
 
 ( These frequent houses ; and 
 ' haunt out-buildings in the 
 ' winter : eat spiders. 
 -, c riaunt sinks for crumbs and 
 
 Hedge-sparrow, Curruca. ] other sweepings. 
 
 Redbreast, 
 Wren, 
 
 Rubeada. 
 Fassei- troglodytes. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 White-wagtail, 
 Yellow-wagtail. 
 Grey-wagtail, 
 
 Wheat-ear, 
 
 Whin-ch.it, 
 Stone-chatter, 
 
 RAII NOMINA. 
 
 Motacilla alba. 
 Motadlla flava. 
 Motacilla cinerea. 
 
 (Enanthe. 
 
 (Enanthe secunda. 
 (Enanthe tertia. 
 
 Golden-crowned wren, Regulus cristatus. 
 
 /These frequent shallow rivulets 
 \ near the spring heads, where 
 < they never freeze : eat the 
 I aureliae of Fhryganea. The 
 V. smallest birds that walk. 
 C Some of these are to be seen 
 \ with us the winter through. 
 
 'This is the smallest British 
 bird : haunts the tops of tall 
 trees; stays the winter 
 through. 
 
 A LIST OF THE WINTER BIRDS OF PASSAGE ROUND THIS NEIGH- 
 BOURHOOD, RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH 
 THEY APPEAR. 
 
 RAII NOMINA. 
 
 1. Ring-ousel, 
 
 2. Bed wing, 
 
 3. Fieldfare, 
 
 4. Royston-crow, 
 
 5. Woodcock, 
 
 6. Snipe. 
 
 7. Jack-snipe. 
 
 8. Wood-pigeon, 
 
 9. Wild-swan. 
 
 10. Wild-goose, 
 
 11. Wild-duck, 
 
 12. Pochard, 
 
 13. Wigeon, 
 
 14. Teal, breeds with 
 
 us in Wolmer 
 Forest, 
 
 15. Gross-beak, 
 
 1 6. Cross-bill, 
 
 17. Silk-tail. 
 
 Merula iorauata. 
 
 Turdus iliacus. 
 Turdus pilariSt 
 
 Comix cirzcrca. 
 Scolopax. 
 
 Gallinago minor. 
 Gallinago minima. 
 (Enas. 
 
 Cygmis ferus. 
 
 Anser ferus. 
 
 Anas torquata minor. 
 
 A nas fera fusca. 
 
 Penelope. 
 
 Querquedula. 
 
 Coccothraustes. 
 
 Loxia. 
 
 Garruius lohemicus. 
 
 (This is a new migration, which 
 ) I have lately discovered about 
 j Michaelmas week, and again 
 ( about the I4th March. 
 
 About old Michaelmas. 
 I Though a percher by day, 
 | roosts on the ground. 
 
 Most frequent on downs. 
 
 Appears about old Michaelmas- 
 C Some snipes constantly breed 
 { with us. 
 
 c Seldom appears till late ; not 
 { in such plenty as formerly. 
 On some large waters. 
 
 On our lakes and streams. 
 
 ! These are only wanderers that 
 appear occasionally, and are 
 not observant of any regular 
 migration. 
 
 9 
 
1 32 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 The birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following- 
 Linnsean genera : 
 
 I, 2, 3, Turdus. 9, 10, u, 12, 13, 14, Anas. 
 
 4, Corvus. 15, 1 6, Zcu/0. 
 
 5, 6, 7, Scolopax. 17, Ampelis. 
 8, Columba. 
 
 Birds that sing in the night are but few. 
 
 C " In shadiest covert hid." 
 Nightingale, Lusama. | MILTON. 
 
 Woodlark, Alauda arborea. Suspended in mid air. 
 
 ( Passer . arundinaceus \ , 
 Less reed- sparrow, 1 minor 3 Among reeds and willows. 
 
 I should now proceed to such birds as continue to sing after 
 Midsummer, but, as they are rather numerous, they would exceed 
 the bounds of this paper : besides, as this is now the season for 
 remarking on that subject, I am willing to repeat my observations 
 on some birds concerning the continuation of whose song i seem 
 at present to have some doubt. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. 2nd, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, When I did myself the honour to write to you about 
 the end of last June on the subject of natural history, I sent you 
 a list of the summer birds of passage which I have observed in 
 this neighbourhood ; and also a list of the winter birds of passage: 
 I mentioned besides those soft-billed birds that stay with us the 
 winter through in the south of England, and those that are 
 remarkable for singing in the night. 
 
 According to my proposal, I shall now proceed to such birds 
 (singing birds strictly so called) as continue in full song till after 
 Midsummer; and shall range them somewhat in the order in 
 which they first begin to open as the spring advances. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 133 
 
 r. Woodlark, 
 
 2. Song-thrush, 
 
 3. Wren. 
 
 4. Redbreast, 
 
 5. Hedge-sparrow, 
 
 6. Yellow-hammer. 
 
 7. Skylark, 
 
 8. Swallow, 
 
 9. Black-cap, 
 
 10. Titlark, 
 
 11. Blackbird, 
 
 12. Whitethroat, 
 
 13. Goldfinch, 
 
 14. Greenfinch, 
 
 15. Less reed-spar- 
 
 row, 
 
 RAII NOMINA. 
 
 Alauda arborea. 
 
 Turdzis simpliciter 
 dicttis. 
 
 Passer troglodytes. 
 
 Ricbecula. 
 Curruca. 
 
 Emberiza /lava. 
 
 Alauda vulgaris. 
 Hirundo dotnestica. 
 Atricapilla. 
 
 Alauda pratornm. 
 
 Merula vulgaris. 
 
 Ficedula affinis. 
 Carduelis. 
 
 Chloris. 
 
 Passer a^undinaceus 
 minor. 
 
 1 6. Common linnet, Linaria vulgaris. 
 
 f In January, and continues to 
 -| sing through all the summer 
 (. and autumn. 
 t In February and on to August; 
 s re-assume their song in au- 
 v tumn. 
 
 r All the year, hard frost ex- 
 ( cepted. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Early in February to July loth. 
 f Early in February, and on 
 \ through July to August 2 1st. 
 
 In February and on to October. 
 
 From April to September. 
 
 Beginning of April to July 1 3th. 
 r From middle of April to July 
 i i6th. 
 
 ( Sometimes in February and 
 
 < March, and so on to July 
 
 23rd ; re-assumes in autumn. 
 
 In April, and on to July 23rd. 
 f April, and through to Sep- 
 \ tember i6th. 
 
 On to July and August 2nd. 
 
 F May, on to beginning of July. 
 
 Breeds and whistles on till 
 August j re-assumes its note 
 when they begin to congre- 
 gate in October, and again 
 early before the flocks sepa- 
 rate. 
 
 Birds that cease to be in full song, and are usually silent at or 
 before Midsummer : 
 
 RAII NOMINA. 
 
 r/. Middle willow- 
 
 1 8. Redstart, Rutidlla. 
 
 19. Chaffinch, 
 
 20. Nightingale, 
 
 Fringilla. 
 Luscinia. 
 
 C Middle of June; begins in 
 \ ^^ 
 
 Ditto: begins in May. 
 C Beginning of June ; sings first 
 \ in February. 
 c Middle of June : sings first m 
 \ April. 
 
I 3 4 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Birds that sing for a short time, and very early in the. spring : 
 
 21. Missel-bird. 
 
 22. Great titmouse 
 or ox-eye 
 
 RAII NOMINA. 
 
 Turdus viscivorus. 
 
 ' r Fringillago. 
 
 January 2nd, 17 70, in February, 
 Is called in Hampshire and 
 Sussex the storm-cock, be- 
 cause its song is supposed to 
 forbode windy wet weather ; 
 it is the largest singing bird 
 we have. 
 
 In February, March, April : 
 re-assumes for a short time 
 in September. 
 
 Birds that have somewhat of a note or song, and yet are hardly 
 
 to be called singing birds : 
 
 fits note as minute as its per- 
 ] son ; frequents the tops oi 
 
 Golden-crowned 
 
 Regulus cristatus. 
 
 24. Marsh-titmouse, Parus pdustris. 
 
 25. Small willow-wren, Regtthis non cristatus. 
 
 26. Largest ditto, Ditto. 
 
 27. Grasshopper-lark, 
 
 Ala^tda minima voce 
 locustce. 
 
 28. Martin, 
 
 29. Bullfinch, 
 
 30. Bunting, 
 
 Hirundo agrestis. 
 pyrrhula. 
 Emberiza alba. 
 
 J high oaks and firs ; the 
 (^ smallest British bird. 
 f Haunts great woods : two harsh 
 \ sharp notes. 
 
 ( Sings in March, and on to Sep- 
 ( tember. 
 
 c Cantat voce stridnld locust<z ; 
 \ from end of April to August. 
 Chirps all night, from the mid- 
 dle of April to the end of 
 
 July. 
 
 5 All the breeding time ; from 
 \ May to September. 
 
 f From the end of January to 
 
 i July. 
 
 1 All singing birds, and those that have any pretensions to song, 
 not only in Britain, but perhaps the world through, come under 
 the Linnaean or do of Passer es. 
 
 The above-mentioned birds, as they stand numerically, belong 
 to the following Linnaean genera : 
 
 1, 7, 10, 27, Alauda. 8, 28, 
 
 2, II, 21, Turdtis. 13, 16, 19, 
 
 3,4,5,9, 12, 15, 17, \ Molaci iia. 
 
 18, 20, 23, 25, 26, 3 
 
 6, 30, Emberiza. 
 
 22, 24, 
 
 *4> 29, 
 
 Hirundo. 
 Fringilla. 
 Parus. 
 Loxia. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 135 
 
 Birds that sing as they fly are but few : 
 
 RAII NOMINA. 
 
 Skylark, Alauda vulgaris. Rising, suspended, and falling. 
 
 {In its descent ; also sitting on 
 trees, and walking on the, 
 ground. 
 
 c Suspended ; in hot summer 
 Woodlark, Alauda arborea. J nights all night long> 
 
 Blackbird, Merula. Sometimes from bush to bush. 
 
 f Uses when singing on the wing 
 White-throat, ficedula affinis. | odd jerkg and gesticulatioils . 
 
 Swallow, Hirundo domestica. In soft sunny weather. 
 
 Wren, Passer troglodytes. Sometimes from bush to bush. 
 
 Birds that breed most early in these parts : 
 
 ( 
 Raven, Corvus. \ 
 
 Hatches in Feb-uary and 
 March> 
 
 Song-thrush, Turdus. In March. 
 
 Blackbird, Merula. In March. 
 
 Rook, Cornix frugilega. Builds the beginning of March . 
 
 Woodlark, Alauda arborea. Hatches in April. 
 
 Ring-dove, Palumbus torquatus. Lays the beginning of April. 
 
 All birds *hat continue in full song till after Midsummer appear 
 to me to breed more than once. 
 
 Most kinds of birds seem to me to be wild and shy somewhat in 
 proportion to their bulk ; I mean in this island, where they are 
 much pursued and annoyed ; but in Ascension Island, and many 
 other desolate places, mariners have found fowls so unacquainted 
 with a human figure, that they would stand still to be taken ; as 
 is the case with boobies, etc. As an example of what is advanced, 
 I remark that the golden-crested wren (the smallest British bird) 
 will stand unconcerned till you come within three or four yards of 
 it, while the bustard (Otis), the largest British land fowl, does not 
 care to admit a person within so many furlongs. 1 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER II. 
 
 1 The bustard, once common in several parts of the country, is now almost 
 extinct. Its last abiding place was the fenny part of Norfolk, but the gun ana 
 
I3<5 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 snare, indiscriminately used, have banished it. One way of destroying it was by 
 baiting a spot within range of a battery of shot guns, so laid that a person at 
 a distance could, by means of a long string, discharge them when the bustards 
 came sufficiently near. Two or three years ago a male bustard was seen on 
 the fens, and every effort was made by the landowners to keep it safe. They 
 even turned out two female birds in the hope that it would pair with one and 
 breed ; but after staying about for a few days it flew away, and was not again 
 
 THE GREAT BUSTARD (Otzs taraa). 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. i$th, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, It was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find 
 that you were not displeased with my little methodus of birds. If 
 there was any merit in the sketch, it must be owing to its 
 punctuality. For many months I carried a list in my pocKet of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SKIBORNE. 137 
 
 the birds that were to be remarked, and, as I rode or walked 
 aoout my business, I noted each day the continuance or omission 
 or each bird's song ; so that I am as sure of the certainty of my 
 facts as a man can be of any transaction whatsoever. 
 
 I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which you 
 put in your two obliging letters, in the best manner that I am able. 
 Perhaps Eastwick, and its environs, where you heard so very few 
 birds, is not a woodland country, and therefore not stocked with 
 such songsters. If you will cast your eye on my last letter, 
 you will find that many species continued to warble after the 
 beginning of July. 
 
 The titlark and yellow-hammer breed late, the latter very late ; 
 and therefore it is no wonder that they protract their song : for I 
 lay it down as a maxim in ornithology, that as long as there is 
 any incubation going on there is music. As to the redbreast and 
 wren, it is well known to the most incurious observer that they 
 whistle the year round, hard frost excepted ; especially the latter. 
 
 It was not in my power to procure you a black-cap, or a less 
 reed-sparrow, or sedge-bird, alive. As the first is undoubtedly, 
 and the last, as far as I can yet see, a summer bird of passage, 
 they would require more nice and curious management in a cage 
 than 1 should be able to give them : they are both distinguished 
 songsters. The note of the former has such a wild sweetness 
 that it always brings to my mind those lines in a song in " As 
 You Like It : " 
 
 "And tune his merry note 
 Unto the -wild bird's throat." SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 The latter has a surprising variety of notes resembling the song 
 of several other birds ; but then it has also a hurrying manner, 
 not at all to its advantage : it is notwithstanding a delicate 
 polyglot. 
 
 It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the night; perhaps 
 only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame redbreast in a cage 
 that always sang as long as candles were in the room; but in 
 their wild state no one supposes they sing in the night. 
 
 I should be almost ready to doubt the fact, that there are to be 
 seen much fewer birds in July than in any former month, not 
 
138 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 withstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am that 
 it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribe, which increases 
 prodigiously as the summer advances : and I saw at the time 
 mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails on the banks of 
 the Cherwell, which almost covered the meadows. If the matter 
 appears as you say in the other species, may it not be owing to 
 the dams being engaged in incubation, while the young are con- 
 cealed by the leaves ? 
 
 Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomachs of 
 woodcocks and snipes ; but nothing ever occurred that helped to 
 explain to me what their subsistence might be : all that I could 
 ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay many pellucid small 
 gravels. 1 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER III. 
 
 1 Upon examining patches of mud on which I have flushed woodcocks and 
 snipes, I have found them riddled with small perforations, clearly made by the 
 bills of the birds, which must have been seeking some insects or worms therein. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. \tyh, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Your observation that "the cuckoo does not deposit 
 its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in 
 its way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree congene- 
 rous, with whom to intrust its young," is perfectly new to me ; and 
 struck me so forcibly, that I naturally fell into a train of thought 
 that led me to consider whether the fact was so, and what reason 
 there was for it. When I came to recollect and inquire, I could 
 not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts, except 
 in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the 
 white-throat, and the redbreast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. 
 The excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the Palumbus 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 139 
 
 (ring-dove), and of i^Qfringilla (chaffinch), birds that subsist on 
 acorns and grains, and such hard food : but then he does not 
 mention them as of his own knowledge ; but says afterwards that 
 he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears hardly 
 possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the same food 
 with the hard-billed : for the former have thin membranaceous 
 stomachs suited to their soft food ; while the latter, the granivo- 
 rous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills, grind, 
 by the help of small 
 gravels and pebbles, what 
 is swallowed. This pro- 
 ceeding of the cuckoo, 
 of dropping its eggs as 
 it were by chance, is 
 such a monstrous out- 
 rage on maternal affec- 
 tion, one of the first 
 great dictates of nature ; 
 and such a violence on 
 instinct ; that, had it 
 only been related of a 
 bird in the Brazils, or 
 Peru, it would never 
 have merited our belief. 
 But yet, should it farther 
 appear that this simple 
 bird, when divested of 
 that natural oropyj) that seems to raise the kind in general above 
 themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cun- 
 ning and address, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty 
 of discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nursing- 
 mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may deposit them 
 only under their care, this would be adding wonder to wonder, 
 and instancing, in a fresh manner, that the methods of Providence 
 are not subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish us in new 
 lights, and in various and changeable appearances. 
 
 What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer concerning 
 
 THE COMMON CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus). 
 
140 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 the defect of natural affection in the ostrich, may be well applied 
 to the bird we are talking of : 
 
 " She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were 
 not hers : 
 
 " Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath He 
 imparted to her understanding." * 
 
 Query. Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a season, 
 or does she drop several in different nests according as opportunity 
 offers ? l 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER IV. 
 
 1 I have found so many cuckoos' eggs in a district where there were but a 
 limited number of cuckoos, that I am satisfied it lays several eggs. The egg 
 of the cuckoo is small for the size of the bird, yet it often looks a monster in 
 some of the nests in which it is deposited, such as sedge-warblers and reed-wrens. 
 Three times at least it has been found in a grasshopper warbler's, where the 
 foot or the beak must have been the agent in transferring the egg after being laid 
 into the nest. One July at Wroxham Broad in Norfolk, there were thirty or 
 forty cuckoos flying restlessly about from tree to tree, and uttering frequently 
 a treble cry ; thus : cuck-cuckoo cuck- cuckoo. A week later they were all 
 gone. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 SELBORNE, April I2t/i, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I heard many birds of several species sing last year 
 after Midsummer; enough to prove that the summer solstice is 
 not the period that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The 
 yellow-hammer no doubt persists with more steadiness than any 
 other } but the woodlark, the wren, the redbreast, the swallow, the 
 white-throat, the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted 
 instances of the truth of what I advanced. 
 
 If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the 
 summer migrations, the black- cap will be here in two or three days. 
 * Job xxxix 1 6, 17. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. j 4I 
 
 I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those songsters ; 
 but I arn no birdcatcher; and so little used to birds in a cage, 
 that I fear if I had one it would soon die for want of skill in feeding. 
 
 Was your reed-sparrow, which you kept in a cage, the thick- 
 billed reed-sparrow of the Zoology, p. 320; or was it the less 
 reed-sparrow of Ray, the sedge-bird of Mr. Pennant's last publica- 
 tion, p. 1 6 ? 
 
 As to the matter of long-billed birds growing fatter in moderate 
 frosts, I have no doubt within myself what should be the reason. 
 
 THE REDWING. 
 
 The thriving at those times appears to me to arise altogether from 
 the gentle check which the cold throws upon insensible perspira- 
 tion. The case is just the same with blackbirds, etc.; and farmers 
 and warreners observe, the first, that their hogs fat more kindly at 
 such times, and the latter that their rabbits are never in such good 
 case as in a gentle frost. But when frosts are severe, and of long 
 continuance, the case is soon altered ; for then a want of food 
 soon overbalances the repletion occasioned by a checked per- 
 spiration. I have observed, moreover, that some human constitu- 
 tions are more inclined to plumpness in winter than in summer. 
 
I 4 2 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find that the first 
 that fail and die are the redwing-fieldfares, and then the song- 
 thrushes. 
 
 You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge-sparrows, etc., 
 can be induced at all to sit on the egg of the cuckoo without being 
 scandalised at the vast disproportionate size of the supposititious 
 egg j but the brute creation, I suppose, have very little idea of 
 size, colour, or number. For the common hen, I know, when the 
 fury of incubation is on her, will sit on a single shapeless stone 
 instead of a nest full of eggs that have been withdrawn : and, 
 moreover, a hen-turkey, in the same circumstances, would sit on 
 in the empty nest till she perished with hunger. 
 
 I think the matter might easily be determined whether a cuckoo 
 lays one or two eggs, or more, in a season, by opening a female 
 during the laying-time. If more than one was come down out of 
 the ovary and advanced to a good size, doubtless then she would 
 that spring lay more than one. 
 
 I will endeavour to get a hen, and to examine. 
 
 Your supposition that there may be some natural obstruction in 
 singing birds while they are mute, and that when this is removed 
 the song recommences, is new and bold : I wish you could dis- 
 cover some good grounds for this suspicion. 
 
 I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the capri- 
 mulgus, or fern-owl; you were, I find, acquainted with the bird 
 before. 
 
 When we meet I shall be glad to have some conversation with 
 you concerning the proposal you make of my drawing up an 
 account of the animals in this neighbourhood. Your partiality 
 towards my small abilities persuades you, I fear, that I am able to 
 do more than is in my power : for it is no small undertaking for a 
 man unsupported and alone to begin a natural history from his 
 own autopsia ! Though there is endless room for observation in 
 the field of nature, which is boundless, yet investigation (where a 
 man endeavours to be sure of his facts) can make but slow pro- 
 gress ; and all that one could collect in many years would go into 
 a very narrow compass. 
 . Some extracts from your ingenious " Investigations of the Differ- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 143 
 
 ence between the Present Temperature of the Air in Italy," etc., 
 have fallen in my way, and gave me great satisfaction : they have 
 removed the objections that always arose in my mind whenever I 
 came to the passages which you quote. Surely the judicious Virgil, 
 when writing a didactic poem for the region of Italy, could never 
 think of describing freezing rivers, unless such severity of weather 
 pretty frequently occurred ! 
 
 P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 SELBORNE, May 2ist, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The severity and turbulence of last month so inter- 
 rupted the regular process of summer migration, that some of the 
 birds do but just begin to show themselves, and others are appa- 
 rently thinner than usual j as the white-throat, the black-cap, the 
 red-start, the fly-catcher. I well remember that after the very 
 severe spring in the year 1739-40, summer birds of passage were 
 very scarce. They come probably hither with a south-east wind, 
 or when it blows between those points ; but in that unfavourable 
 year the winds blowed the whole spring and summer through from 
 the opposite quarters. And yet amidst all these disadvantages 
 two swallows, as I mentioned in my last, appeared this year as 
 early as the nth April amidst frost and snow; but they withdrew 
 again for a time. 
 
 I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satisfied 
 with Scopoli's new publication ; there is room to expect great 
 things from the hands of that man, who is a good naturalist : and 
 one would think that a history of the birds of so distant and 
 southern a region as Carniola would be new and interesting. I 
 could wish to see that work, and hope to get it sent down. Dr. 
 Scopoli is physician to the wretches that work in the quicksilver 
 mines of that district. 
 
 When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it seeds, 
 I could not help wondering ; because the reed- sparrow which I 
 
144 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 mentioned to you (Passer arundinaceus minor Rait) is a soft-billed 
 bird ; and most probably migrates hence before winter ; whereas 
 the bird you kept (Passer torquatus Rait) abides all the year, and 
 is a thick-billed bird. I question whether the latter be much of 
 a songster ; but in this matter I want to be better informed. The 
 former has a variety of hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some 
 part of the song of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. 
 We have plenty of the soft-billed sort ; which Mr. Pennant had 
 entirely left out of his " British Zoology," till I reminded him of 
 his omission. See " British Zoology " last published, p. 16. 
 
 I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in which 
 different birds fly and walk ; but as this is a subject that I have 
 not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not to be 
 contained in a small space, I shall say nothing further about it at 
 present. 
 
 No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first plumage 
 is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, " because they are 
 not to pair and discharge their parental functions till the ensuing 
 spring." As colours seem to be the chief external sexual distinc- 
 tion in many birds, these colours do not take place till sexual 
 attachments begin to obtain. And the case is the same in 
 quadrupeds ; among whom, in their younger days, the sexes differ 
 but little: but, as they advance to maturity, horns and shaggy 
 manes, beards and brawny necks, etc., etc., strongly discriminate 
 the male from the female. We may instance still farther in our 
 own species, where a beard and stronger features are usually cha- 
 racteristic of the male sex : but this sexual diversity does not take 
 place in earlier life ; for a beautiful youth shall be so like a beautiful 
 girl that the difference shall not be discernible j 
 
 " Quern si puellarum insereres chore, 
 Mire sagaces falleret hospites 
 Discrimen obscurum, solutis 
 Crinibus, ambiguoque vultu." 
 
 HOR. ODES. II. od. 5-21, p. 13;', orig. edit. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. i4J 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 RINGMER, near LEWES, Oct. %th, 
 DEAR SIR, I am glad to hear that Kuckalm is to furnish you 
 with the birds of Jamaica j a sight of the hirundines of that hot 
 and distant island would be a great entertainment to me. 
 
 The Anni of Scopoli are now in my possession and I have 
 read the Annus Primus with satisfaction ; for though some parts 
 of this work are exceptionable, and he may advance some mis- 
 taken observations, yet the ornithology of so distant a country as 
 Carniola is very curious. Men that undertake only one district 
 are much more likely to advance natural knowledge than those 
 that grasp at more than they can possibly be acquainted with : 
 every kingdom, every province, should have its own monographer. 
 The reason perhaps why he mentions nothing of Ray's Ornith- 
 ology may be the extreme poverty and distance of his country 
 into which the works of our great naturalist may have never ye/- 
 found their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this Ornith- 
 ology is genuine, and really the work of Scopoli ; as to myself, I 
 think I discover strong tokens of authenticity; the style corre- 
 sponds with that of his Entomology ; and his characters of his 
 Ordines and Genera are many of them new, expressive, and 
 masterly. He has ventured to alter some of the Linnsean genera 
 with sufficient show of reason. 
 
 It might perhaps be mere accident that you saw so many swifts 
 and no swallows at Staines ; because, in my long observation of 
 those birds, I never could discover the least degree of rivalry or 
 hostility between the species. 
 
 Ray remarks that birds of the gattincz order, as cocks and hens, 
 partridges, and pheasants, etc., are pulveratrices, such as dust 
 themselves, using that method of cleansing their feathers, and 
 ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can observe,, 
 many birds that dust themselves never wash ; and I once thought 
 that those birds that wash themselves would never dust; but 
 here l find myself mistaken: for common house-sparrows are 
 
146 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBURNE. 
 
 great pulveratrices, being frequently seen grovelling and wallowing 
 in dusty roads ; and yet they are great washers. Does not the 
 skylark dust? 
 
 Query. Might not Mahomet and his followers take one method 
 of Durification from these pulveratrices ? because I find from tra- 
 vellers of credit, that if a strict Mussulman is journeying in a. 
 sandy desert where no water is to be found, at stated hours he 
 strips off his clothes, and most scrupulously rubs his body over 
 with sand or dust. 
 
 A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl in the 
 nest of a small bird on the ground ; and that it was fed by the 
 little bird. I went to see this extraordinary phenomenon, and 
 found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a titlark ; 
 it was become vastly too big for its nest, appearing 
 
 in tenui re 
 
 Majores pennas nido extendisse . . 
 
 and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, as I 
 teased it, for many feet from the nest, and sparring and buffeting 
 with its wings like a game-cock. The dupe of a dam appeared at 
 a distance, hovering about with meat in its mouth, and expressing 
 the greatest solicitude. 
 
 In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a large pond ; 
 and found, after some observation, that they were feeding on the 
 Libellulce, or dragon-flies ; some of which they caught as they 
 settled on the weeds, and some as they were on the wing. Not- 
 withstanding what Linnaeus says, I cannot be induced to believe 
 that they are birds of prey. 
 
 This district affords some birds that are hardly ever heard of at 
 Selborne. In the first place considerable flocks of cross-beaks 
 (Loxice curvirostrce) have appeared this summer in the pine-groves 
 belonging to this house; the water-ousel is said to haunt the 
 mouth of the Lewes river, near Newhaven; and the Cornish 
 chough builds, I know, all along the chalky cliffs of the Sussex 
 shore. 
 
 I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ring-ousels (my 
 newly discovered migraters) scattered, at intervals, all along the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 147 
 
 Sussex downs, from Chichester to Lewes. Let them come from 
 whence they will, it looks very suspicious that they are cantoned 
 along the coast in order to pass the channel when severe weather 
 advances. They visit us again in April, as it should seem, in 
 their return ; and are not to be found in the dead of winter. It 
 is remarkable that they are very tame, and seem to have no 
 manner of apprehensions of danger from a person with a gun,. 
 There, are bustards on the wide downs near Brighthelmstone. 
 No doubt you are acquainted with the Sussex downs ; the pros- 
 pects and rides round Lewes are most lovely ! 
 
 As I rode along near the coast I kept a very sharp look-out in 
 the lanes and woods, hoping I might, at this time of the year, 
 have discovered some of the summer short-winged birds of passage 
 crowding towards the coast in order for their departure : but it 
 was very extraordinary that I never saw a red-start, white-throat, 
 black-cap, uncrested wren, rly-catr,her, etc. And I remember to 
 have made the same remark in former years, as I usually come to 
 this place annually about this time. The birds most common 
 along the coast, at present, are the stone- chatters, whinchats, bunt- 
 ings, linnets, some few wheatears, titlarks, etc. Swallows and 
 house-martins abound yet, induced to prolong their stay by this 
 soft, still, dry season. 
 
 A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little 
 walled court belonging to the house where I now am visiting, 
 retires under ground about the middle of November, and comes 
 forth again about the middle of April. When it first appears in 
 the spring it discovers very little inclination towards food ; but in 
 the height of summer grows voracious ; and then as the summer 
 declines its appetite declines ; so that for the last six weeks in 
 autumn it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as lettuces, 
 dandelions, sowthistles, are its favourite dish. In a neighbouring 
 village one was kept till by tradition it was supposed to be a 
 hundred years old. An instance of vast longevity in such a poor 
 reptile ! 
 
 10 
 
148 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Dec. 2oth, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The birds that I took for aberdavines were reed- 
 sparrows (Passeres torquati). 
 
 There are doubtless many home internal migrations within this 
 kingdom that want to be better understood : witness those vast 
 flocks of hen-chaffinches that appear with us in the winter without 
 hardly any cocks among them. Now was there a due proportion 
 of each sex, it should seem very improbable that any one district 
 should produce such numbers of these little birds; and much 
 more when only one-half of the species appears; therefore we 
 may conclude that the Fringilla coelebes, for some good purposes, 
 have a peculiar migration of their own in which the sexes part. 
 Nor should it seem so wonderful that the intercourse of sexes in 
 this species of bird should be interrupted in winter; since in 
 many animals, and particularly in bucks and does, the sexes herd 
 separately, except at the season when commerce is necessary for 
 the continuance of the breed. For this matter of the chaffinches 
 see "Fauna Suecica," p. 58, and " Systema Naturae," p. 318. 
 I see every winter vast flights of hen-chaffinches, but none of 
 cocks. 
 
 Your method of accounting for the periodical motions of the 
 British singing birds, or birds of flight, is a very probable one ; 
 since the matter of food is a great regulator of the actions and 
 proceedings of the brute creation ; there is but one that can be 
 set in competition with it, and that is love. But I cannot quite 
 acquiesce with you in one circumstance when you advance that, 
 "when they have thus feasted, they again separate into small 
 parties of five or six, and get the best fare they can within a 
 certain district, having no inducement to go in quest of fresh- 
 turned earth." Now if you mean that the business of congregating 
 is quite at an end from the conclusion of wheat sowing to the 
 season of barley and oats, it is not the case with us ; for larks and 
 chaffinches, and particularly linnets, flock and congregate as much 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 149 
 
 in the very dead of winter as when the husbandman is busy with 
 his ploughs and harrows. 
 
 Sure there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and fieldfares 
 leave us in the spring, in order to cross the seas, and to retire to 
 some districts more suitable to the purpose of breeding. That 
 the former pair before they retire, and that the hens are forward 
 with egg, I myself, when I was a sportsman, have often ex- 
 perienced. It cannot indeed be denied but that now and then we 
 hear of a woodcock's 
 nest, or young birds, 
 discovered in some part 
 or other of this island ; 
 but then they are all 
 always mentioned as 
 rarities, and somewhat 
 out of the common 
 course of things : l but 
 as to redwings and 
 fieldfares, no sportsman 
 or naturalist has ever 
 yet, that I could hear, 
 pretended to have found 
 the nest or young of 
 those species in any 
 part of these kingdoms. 
 And I the more admire 
 at this instance as extra- 
 ordinary, since, to all 
 appearance, the same food in summer as well as in winter might 
 support them here which maintains their congeners, the black- 
 birds and thrushes, did they choose to stay the summer through. 
 From hence it appears that it is not food alone which determines 
 some species of birds with regard to their stay or departure. 
 Fieldfares or redwings disappear sooner or later according as the 
 warm weather comes on earlier or later. For I well remember, 
 after that dreadful winter 1739-40, that cold north-east winds 
 continued to blow on through April and May, and that these 
 
 WOODCOCK. 
 
ISO NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 kind of birds (what few remained of them) did not depart as 
 usual, but were seen lingering about till the beginning of June. 
 
 The best authority that we can have for the nidification of the birds 
 above-mentioned in any district, is the testimony of faunists that 
 have written professedly the natural history of particular countries. 
 Now as to the fieldfare, Linnaeus, in his " Fauna Suecica," says of 
 it, that " maximis in arboribus nidificat ; " and of the redwing he 
 says, in the same place, that " nidificat in mediis arbusculis^ sive 
 sepibus : ova sex cceruleo-viridia macnlis nigris variis" Hence we 
 may be assured that fieldfares and redwings build in Sweden. 
 Scopoli says, in his " Annus Primus," of the woodcock, that 
 "nupta ad nos venit circa aquinoctium vernale /" meaning in Tyrol, 
 of which he is a native. And afterwards he adds " nidificat in 
 paludibus alpinis : ova ponit 3-5." It does not appear from 
 Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in Austria ; but he says, 
 " Avis hcec septentrionalium provinciarum cestivo tempore incola est ; 
 ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante hyeme australiores pro- 
 vincias petit ; hinc circa pleniluniurn mensis Octobris plerumque 
 Austriam transmigrat. Tune riirsus circa plenilunium potissimum 
 mensis Martii per Austriam matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales 
 provincias redit" For the whole passage (which I have abridged) 
 see " Elenchus," etc., p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of 
 the migration of woodcocks ; though little is proved concerning 
 the place of breeding. 
 
 P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of 
 this present very wet weather, seven inches and a half of rain, 
 which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty 
 years past in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that 
 county for one year is twenty inches and a half. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER VIII. 
 
 1 Every year several woodcocks' nests are found in Norfolk and Suffolk. 
 While reading my Field last Saturday, May 3ist, 1879, I came upon the 
 following most interesting note : 
 
 "I had a curious adventure with a woodcock last week. My keeper told 
 me he had found the bird in a covert sitting on four eggs, and I went at once 
 with him to see it. The woodcock remained on its. nest perfectly motionless 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 151 
 
 for about ten minutes while we watched it. Next day I went again with a 
 photographic camera and exposed three plates, the lens being within six feet of 
 the bird, and the front leg of the stand being well within two feet. On trying 
 to get a fourth view still nearer, the bird rose. As I do not suppose a photograph 
 of a sitting woodcock has ever been taken before, I enclose you a print from 
 one of my negatives The nest to-day was empty, with signs of the young 
 birds having been satisfactorily hatched. " 
 
 " R. C. GRAHAM, 
 
 " Skipness, Argyllshire" 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 FYFIELD, near ANDOVER, Feb. 12th, 1772. 
 
 DEAR SIR, You are, I know, no great friend to migration ; and 
 the well-attested accounts from various parts of the kingdom 
 seem to justify you in your suspicions, that at least many of the 
 swallow kind do not leave us in the winter, but lay themselves up 
 like insects and bats in a torpid state, and slumber away the more 
 uncomfortable months till the return of the sun and fine weather 
 awakens them. 
 
 But then we must not, I think, deny migration in general ; 
 because migration certainly does subsist in some places, as my 
 brother in Andalusia has fully informed me. Of the motions of 
 these birds he has ocular demonstration, for many weeks together, 
 both spring and fall ; during which periods myriads of the swallow 
 kind traverse the straits from north to south, and from south to 
 north, according to the season. And these vast migrations consist 
 not only of hirundines but of bee-birds, hoopoes, Oro pendolos, or 
 golden thrushes, etc., etc., and also of many of our soft-billed 
 summer birds of passage ; and moreover of birds which never 
 leave us, such as all the various sorts of hawks and kites. Old 
 Belon, two hundred years ago, gives a curious account of the 
 incredible armies of hawks and kites which he saw in the spring- 
 time traversing the Thracian Bosphorus from Asia to Europe. 
 Besides the above mentioned, he remarks that the procession is 
 swelled by whole troops of eagles and vultures. 
 
 Now it is no wonder that birds residing in Africa should retreat 
 
 
152 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 before the sun as it advances, and retire to milder regions, and 
 especially birds of prey, whose blood being heated with hot animal 
 food, are more impatient of a sultry climate ; but then I cannot 
 help wondering why kites and hawks, and such hardy birds as are 
 known to defy all the severity of England, and even of Sweden 
 and all north Europe, should want to migrate from the south of 
 Europe, and be dissatisfied with the winters of Andalusia. 
 
 It does not appear to me that much stress may be laid on the 
 difficulty and hazard that birds must run in their migrations, by 
 reason of vast oceans, cross winds, etc. ; because, if we reflect, a 
 bird may travel from England to the Equator without launching 
 out and exposing itself to boundless seas, and that by crossing the 
 water at Dover, and again at Gibraltar. And I with the more 
 confidence advance this obvious remark, because my brother has 
 always found that some of his birds, and particularly the swallow 
 kind, are very sparing of their pains in crossing the Mediterranean ; 
 for when arrived at Gibraltar they do not 
 
 . . ' ' Rang'd in figure wedge their way, 
 
 And set forth 
 
 Their airy caravan high over seas 
 Flying, and over lands with mutual wing 
 Easing their flight :" .... MiLTON. 
 
 but scout and hurry along in little detached parties of six or seven 
 in a company; and sweeping low, just over the surface of the land 
 and water, direct their course to the opposite continent at the 
 narrowest passage they can find. They usually slope across the 
 bay to the south-west, and. so pass over opposite to Tangier, 
 which, it seems, is the narrowest space. 
 
 In former letters we have considered whether it was probable 
 that woodcocks in moonshiny nights cross the German Ocean 
 from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of less speed may pass 
 that sea, considerable as it is, I shall relate the following incident, 
 which, though mentioned to have happened so many years ago, 
 was strictly matter of fact : As some people were shooting in the 
 parish of Trotton, in the county of Sussex, they killed a duck in 
 that dreadful winter, 1708-9, with a silver collar about its neck,* 
 * "I have read a like anecdote of a swan." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 153 
 
 on which were engraven the arms of the king of Denmark. This 
 anecdote the rector of Trotton at that time has often told to a near 
 relation of mine ; and, to the best of my remembrance, the collar 
 was in the possession of the rector. 1 
 
 At present I do not know anybody near the sea-side that will 
 take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon woodcocks 
 first come ; if I lived near the sea myself I would soon tell you 
 more 'of the matter. One thing I used to observe when I was a 
 sportsman, that there were times in which woodcocks were so 
 sluggish and sleepy that they would drop again when flushed just 
 before the spaniels, nay, just at the muzzle of a gun that had been 
 fired at them ; whether this strange laziness was the effect of a 
 recent fatiguing journey I shall not presume to say. 1 
 
 Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and Scotland, 
 but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire and Cornwall. 
 In those two last counties we cannot attribute the failure of them 
 to the want of warmth; the defect in the west is rather a pre- 
 sumptive argument that these birds come over to us from the con- 
 tinent at the narrowest passage, and do not stroll so far westward. 
 
 Let me hear from your own observation whether skylarks do 
 not dust. I think they do ; and if they do, whether they wash also. 
 
 The Alauda pratensis of Ray was the poor dupe that was 
 educating the booby of a cuckoo mentioned in my letter of 
 October last. 
 
 Your letter came too late for me to procure a ring-ousel for 
 Mr. Tunstal during their autumnal visit ; but I will endeavour to 
 get him one when they call on us again in April. I am glad that 
 you and that gentleman saw my Andalusian birds ; I hope they 
 answered your expectation. Royston, or grey crows, are winter 
 birds that come much about the same time with the woodcock ; 
 they, like the fieldfare and redwing, have no apparent reason for 
 migration ; for as they fare in the winter like their congeners, so 
 might they in all appearance in the summer. Was not Tenant, 
 when a boy, mistaken ? did he not find a missel-thrush's nest, and 
 take it for the nest of a fieldfare ? 
 
 The stock-dove, or wood-pigeon, (Enas Raii, is the last winter 
 bird of oassage which appears with us ; it is not seen till towards 
 
ift. NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 the end of November : about twenty years ago they abounded in 
 the district of Selborne ; and strings of them were seen morning 
 and evening that reached a mile or more ; but since the beechen 
 woods have been greatly thinned they are much decreased in 
 number. The ring-dove, Palumbus Rail, stays with us the whole 
 year, and breeds several times through the summer. 
 
 Before I received your letter of October last I had just remarked 
 in my journal that the trees were unusually green. This uncommon 
 verdure lasted on late into November ; and may be accounted 
 for from a late spring, a cool and moist summer ; but more par- 
 ticularly from vast armies of chafers, or tree-beetles, which, in 
 many places, reduced whole woods to a leafless naked state. 
 These trees shot again at Midsummer, and then retained their 
 foliage till very late in the year. 2 
 
 My musical friend, at whose house I am now visiting, has tried 
 all the owls that are his near neighbours with a pitch-pipe set at 
 concert pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. He will examine 
 the nightingales next spring. 
 
 I am, etc., etc. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER IX. 
 
 1 I have observed woodcocks sluggish and owl-like in their movements 
 during a continuance of bright cool weather in the autumn, and have attributed 
 it to fatigue after a long flight. 
 
 2 The leaves of a number of currant bushes in my garden were destroyed this 
 spring by a vast number of the caterpillars of the magpie moth, so that the trees 
 were black and apparently lifeless; yet after Midsummer, when the caterpillars 
 had turned into moths, the bushes budded again and were soon in full leaf, 
 but bore no fruit. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. is/, 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, From what follows, it will appear that neither owls 
 nor cuckoos, keep to one note. A friend remarks that many (most) 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 155 
 
 of his owls hoot in B flat ; but that one went almost half a note 
 below A. The pipe he tried their notes by was a common half- 
 crown pitch-pipe, such as masters use for tuning of harpsichords ; 
 it was the common London pitch. 
 
 A neighbour of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, remarks 
 that the owls about this village hoot in three different keys, in 
 G flat, or F sharp, in B flat and A flat. He heard two hooting 
 to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Query : 
 Do these different notes proceed from different species, or only 
 from various individuals ? The same person finds upon trial that 
 the note of the cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies 
 in different individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, he found they 
 were mostly in D : he heard two sing together, the one in D, the 
 other in D sharp, who made a disagreeable concert : he afterwards 
 heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest some in C. As 
 to nightingales, he says that their notes are so short, and their 
 transitions so rapid, that he cannot well ascertain their key; 
 Perhaps in a cage, and in a room, their notes may be more 
 distinguishable. This person has tried to settle the notes of a 
 swift, and of several other small birds, but cannot bring them to 
 any criterion. 
 
 As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the first 
 birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no wonder at all 
 that they retreat from Scandinavian winters : and much more the 
 ordo of grallcz, who, all to a bird, forsake the northern parts of 
 Europe at the approach of winter. " Grall<z tanquam conjuratce, 
 unanimiter in fugam se conjidunt ; ne earum unicam quidem inter 
 nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim (estate in australibus 
 degere nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque siccam ; ita nee 
 in frigidis ob eandem causam" says Ekmarck the Swede, in his 
 ingenious little treatise called " Migrationes Avium," which by all 
 means you ought to read while your thoughts run on the subject 
 of migration. See " Amcenitates Academicae," vol. iv., p. 565. 
 
 Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate in 
 one country, and not in another : but the grallce (which procure 
 their food from marshes and boggy grounds), must in winter for- 
 sake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for want of food. 
 
156 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 I am glad you are making inquiries from Linnaeus concerning 
 the woodcock : it is expected of him that he should be able to 
 account for the motions and manner of life of the animals of his 
 own " Fauna." 
 
 Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare 
 descriptions, and a few synonyms : the reason is plain ; because all 
 that may be done at home in a man's study, but the investigation 
 of the life and conversation of animals, is a concern of much more 
 trouble and difficulty, and is not be attained but by the active and 
 inquisitive, and by those that reside much in the country. 
 
 Foreign systematics are, I observe, much too vague in their specific 
 differences ; which are almost universally constituted by one or 
 two particular marks, the rest of the description running in general 
 terms. But our countryman, the excellent Mr. Ray, is the only 
 describer that conveys some precise idea in every term or word, 
 maintaining his superiority over his followers and imitators in 
 spite of the advantage of fresh discoveries and modern information. 
 
 At this distance of years it is not in my power to recollect at 
 what periods woodcocks used to be sluggish or alert when I was a 
 sportsman : but, upon my mentioning this circumstance to a 
 friend, he thinks he has observed them to be remarkably listless 
 against snowy foul weather ; if this should be the case, then the 
 inaptitude for flying arises only from an eagerness for food ; as 
 sheep are observed to be very intent on grazing against stormy 
 wet evenings. 
 
 I am, etc., etc. 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. %th, 1772. 
 
 DEAR SIR, When I ride about in the winter, and see such pro- 
 digious flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help admiring at 
 these congregations, and wishing that it was in my power to 
 account for those appearances almost peculiar to the season. The 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 157 
 
 two great motives which regulate the proceedings of the brute 
 creation are love and hunger ; the former incites animals to per- 
 petuate their kind ; the latter induces them to preserve individuals : 
 whether either of these should seem to be the ruling passion in the 
 matter of congregating is to be considered. As to love, that is 
 out of the question at a time of the year when that soft passion is 
 not indulged : besides, during the amorous season, such a jealousy 
 prevails between the male birds that they can hardly bear to be 
 together in the same hedge or field. Most of the singing and 
 elation of spirits of that time seem to me to be the effect of rivalry 
 and emulation : and it is to this spirit of jealousy that I chiefly 
 attribute the equal dispersion of birds in the spring over the face 
 of the country. 
 
 Now as to the business of food : as these animals are actuated 
 by instinct to hunt for necessary food, they should not, one would 
 suppose, crowd together in pursuit of sustenance at a time when 
 it is most likely to fail; yet such associations do take place in 
 hard weather chiefly, and thicken as the severity increases. As 
 some kind of self-interest and self-defence is no doubt the motive 
 for the proceeding, may it not arise from the helplessness of their 
 state in such rigorous seasons ; as men crowd together, when under 
 great calamities, though they know not why ? Perhaps approxi- 
 mation may dispel some degree of cold ; and a crowd may make 
 each individual appear safer from the ravages of birds of prey and 
 other dangers. 
 
 If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds love to 
 congregate, I am the more struck when I see incongruous ones in 
 such strict amity. If we do not much wonder to see a flock of 
 rooks usually attended by a train of daws, yet it is strange that the 
 former should so frequently have a flight of starlings for their 
 satellites. Is it because rooks have a more discerning scent than 
 their attendants, and can lead them to spots more productive of 
 food ? Anatomists say that rooks, by reason of two large nerves 
 which run down between the eyes into the upper mandible, have 
 a more delicate feeling in their beaks than other round-billed 
 birds, and can grope for their meat when out of sight. Perhaps, 
 then, their associates attend them on the motive of interest, as 
 
158 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 greyhounds wait on the motions of their finders ; and as lions are 
 said to do on the yelpings cf jackals. Lapwings and starlings 
 sometimes associate. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 March g/h, 1772. 
 
 DEAR SIR, As a gentleman and myself were walking on the 
 4th of last November round the sea-banks at Newhaven, near the 
 mouth of the Lewes river, in pursuit of natural knowledge, we 
 were surprised to see three house-swallows gliding very swiftly by 
 us. That morning was rather chilly, with the wind at north-west ; 
 but the tenor of the weather for some time before had been 
 delicate, and the noons remarkably warm. From this incident, 
 and from repeated accounts which I meet with, I am more and 
 more induced to believe that many of the swallow kind do not 
 depart from this island, but lay themselves up in holes and 
 caverns; and do, insect-like and bat-like, come forth at mild times, 
 and then retire again to their latebra. Nor make I the least 
 doubt but that, if I lived at Newhaven, Seaford, Brighthelmstone, 
 or any of those towns near the chalk cliffs of the Sussex coast, by 
 proper observations, I should see swallows stirring at periods of 
 the winter, when the noons were soft and inviting, and the sun 
 warm and invigorating. And I am the more of this opinion from 
 what I have remarked during some of our late springs, that though 
 some swallows did make their appearance about the usual time, 
 viz., the 1 3th or i4th April, yet meeting with a harsh reception, 
 and blustering cold north-east winds, they immediately withdrew, 
 absconding for several days, till the weather gave them better 
 encouragement. 
 

 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 159 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 April I2M, 1772. 
 
 DEAR SIR, While I was in Sussex last autumn my residence was 
 at the village near Lewes, from whence I had formerly the plea- 
 sure of writing to you. On the ist November I remarked that the 
 old tortoise, formerly mentioned, began first to dig the ground in 
 
 THE TORTOISE. 
 
 order to the forming its hyb'ernaculum, which it had fixed on just 
 beside a great tuft of hepaticas. It scrapes out the ground with 
 its fore-feet, and throws it up over its back with its hind ; but the 
 motion of its legs is ridiculously slow, little exceeding the hour- 
 hand of a clock; and suitable to the composure of an animal said 
 to be a whole month in performing one feat of copulation. No- 
 thing can be more assiduous than this creature night and day in 
 scooping the earth, and forcing its great body into the cavity ; 
 but, as the noons of that season proved unusually warm and 
 
160 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 sunny, it was continually interrupted, and called forth by the heat 
 in the middle of the day ; and though I continued there till the 
 1 3th November, yet the work remained unfinished. Harsher 
 weather, and frosty mornings, would have quickened its operations. 
 No part of its behaviour ever struck me more than the extreme 
 timidity it always expresses with regard to rain ; for though it has 
 a shell that would secure it against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet 
 does it discover as much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed 
 in all her best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and 
 running its head up in a comer. If attended to, it becomes an 
 excellent weather-glass; for as sure as it walks elate, and as it 
 were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness in a morning, so 
 sure will it rain before night. It is totally a diurnal animal, and 
 never pretends to stir after it becomes dark. The tortoise, like 
 other reptiles, has an arbitrary stomach as well as lungs ; and can 
 refrain from eating as well as breathing for a great part of the 
 year. When first awakened it eats nothing; nor again in the 
 autumn before it retires : through the height of the summer it 
 feeds voraciously, devouring all the food that comes in its way. I 
 was much taken with its sagacity in discerning those that do it 
 kind offices ; for, as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who 
 has waited on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards its 
 benefactress with awkward alacrity ; but remains inattentive to 
 strangers. Thus not only " the ox knoweth his owner, and the 
 ass his master's crib,"* but the most abject reptile and torpid of 
 beings distinguishes the hand that feeds it, and is touched with 
 the feelings of gratitude ! 
 
 I am, etc., etc. . 
 
 P.S. In about three days after I left Sussex the tortoise retired 
 into the ground under the hepatica. 
 
 * Isa. i. 3. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 161 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 SELBORNE, March 26t/t, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The more I reflect on the 0-1-0/3777 of animals, the 
 more I am astonished at its effects. Nor is the violence of this 
 affection more wonderful than the shortness of its duration. 
 Thus every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in proportion 
 to the helplessness of her brood ; and will fly in the face of a dog 
 or a sow in defence of those chickens, which in a few weeks she 
 will drive before her with relentless cruelty. 
 
 This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the invention, 
 and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus a hen, 
 just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird she used to be, 
 but with feathers standing on end, wings hovering, and clocking 
 note, she runs about like one possessed. Dams will throw them- 
 selves in the way of the greatest danger in order to avert it from 
 their progeny. Thus a partridge will tumble along before a 
 sportsman in order to draw away the dogs from her helpless 
 covey. In the time of nidification the most feeble birds will 
 assault the most rapacious. All the hirundines of a village are up 
 in arms at the sight of a hawk, whom they will persecute till he 
 leaves that district. A very exact observer has often remarked 
 that a pair of ravens nesting in the rock of Gibraltar would suffer 
 no vulture or eagle to rest near their station, but would drive them 
 from the hill with an amazing fury ; even the blue thrush at the 
 season of breeding would dart out from the clefts of the rocks to 
 chase away the kestril, or the sparrow-hawk. 1 If you stand near 
 \he nest of a bird that has young, she will not be induced to 
 betray them by an inadvertent fondness, but will wait about at a 
 distance with meat in her mouth for an hour together. 
 
 Should I farther corroborate what I have advanced above by 
 some anecdotes which I probably may have mentioned before in 
 conversation, yet you will, I trust, pardon the repetition for the 
 sake of the illustration. 
 
 The fly-catcher cf the "Zoology" (the Stoparola of Ray), builds 
 
162 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 every year in the vines that grow on the walls of my house. A 
 pair of these little birds had one year inadvertently placed their 
 nest on a naked bough, perhaps in a shady time, not being aware 
 of the inconvenience that followed. But a hot sunny season 
 coming on before the brood was half fledged, the reflection of the 
 wall became insupportable, and must inevitably have destroyed 
 the tender young, had not affection suggested an expedient, and 
 prompted the parent birds to hover over the nest all the hotter 
 hours, while with wings expanded, and mouths gaping for breath, 
 they screened off the heat from their suffering offspring. 
 
 A farther instance I once saw of notable sagacity in a willow- 
 wren, which had built in a bank in my fields. This bird a friend 
 and myself had observed as she sat in her nest ; but were particu- 
 larly careful not to disturb her, though we saw she eyed us with 
 some degree of jealousy. Some days after as we passed that way 
 we were desirous of remarking how this brood went on ; but no 
 nest could be found, till I happened to take a large bundle of 
 long green moss, as it were, carelessly thrown over the nest in 
 order to dodge the eye of any impertinent intruder. 
 
 A still more remarkable mixture of sagacity and instinct occurred 
 to me one day as my people were pulling off the lining of a hot- 
 bed, in order to add some fresh dung. From out of the side of 
 this bed leaped an animal with great agility that made a most 
 grotesque figure ; nor was it without great difficulty that it could 
 be taken ; when it proved to be a large white-bellied field-mouse 
 with three or four young clinging to her teats by their mouths and 
 feet. It was amazing that the desultory and rapid motions of this 
 dam should not oblige her litter to quit their hold, especially 
 when it appeared that they were so young as to be both naked 
 and blind ! 
 
 To these instances of tender attachment, many more of which 
 might be daily discovered by those that are studious of nature, 
 may be opposed that rage of affection, that monstrous perversion 
 of the o-ropyr), which induces some females of the brute creation 
 to devour their young because their owners have handled them 
 too freely, or removed them from place to place ! Swine, and 
 sometimes the more gentle race of dogs and cats, are guilty of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. if 3 
 
 this horrid and preposterous murder. When I hear now and then 
 of an abandoned mother that destroys her offspring, I am not so 
 much amazed ; since reason perverted, and the bad passions let 
 loose, are capable of any enormity ; but why the parental feelings 
 of brutes, that usually flow in one most uniform tenor, should 
 sometimes be so extravagantly diverted, I leave to abler philoso- 
 phers than myself to determine. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XIV. 
 
 1 I once saw a small balloon pass just over a large rookery during the nesting 
 time. The rooks "mobbed" the balloon, uttering a terrific clangour, and 
 circling close around it with angry sweeps until it passed well away. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 SELBORNE, July 8M, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Some young men went down lately to a pond on 
 the verge of Wolmer Forest to hunt flappers, or young wild-ducks, 
 many of which they caught, and, among the rest, some very 
 minute yet well-fledged wild-fowls alive, which upon examinatior 
 I found to be teals. I did not know till then that teals ever bred 
 in the south of England, and was much pleased with the discovery : 
 this I look upon as a great stroke in natural history. 
 
 We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of white owls 
 that constantly breed under the eaves of this church. As I have 
 paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds during 
 their season of breeding, which lasts the summer through, the fol- 
 lowing remarks may not perhaps be unacceptable : About an 
 hour before sunset (for then the mice begin to run; they sally forth 
 in quest of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows and 
 small enclosures for them, which seem to be their only food. In 
 this irregular country we can stand on an eminence and see them 
 beat the fields over like a setting-dog, and often drop down in tne 
 
 ii 
 
164 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my watch for an 
 hour together, and have found that they return to their nest, the 
 one or the other of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting at 
 the same time on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of 
 as far as regards the well-being of itself and offspring. But a piece 
 of address, which they show when they return loaded, should not, 
 I think, be passed over in silence. As they take their prey with 
 their claws, so they carry it in their claws to their nest ; but, as 
 the feet are necessary in their ascent under the tiles, they con- 
 
 THE BARN OWL (Strix flammea). 
 
 stantly perch first on the roof of the chancel, and shift the mouse 
 from their claws to their bill, that their feet may be at liberty to 
 take hold of the plate on the wall as they are rising under the eaves. 
 White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot at 
 all ; l all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the 
 wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a tre- 
 mendous manner ; and these menaces well answer the intention of 
 intimidating ; for I have known a whole village up in arms on such 
 an occasion, imagining the churchyard to be full of goblins and 
 spectres. White owls also often scream horribly as they fly 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 165 
 
 along; from this screaming probably arose the common people's 
 imaginary species of screech-owl, which they superstitiously think 
 attends the windows of dying persons. The plumage of the remiges 
 of the wings of every species of owl that I have yet examined is 
 remarkably soft and pliant. Perhaps it may be necessary that the 
 wings of these birds should not make much resistance or rushing, 
 that they may be enabled to steal through the air unheard upon a 
 nimble and watchful quarry. 
 
 THE BROWN OWL (Syrnium Aluco). 
 
 While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to mention 
 what I was told by a gentleman of the county of Wilts. As they 
 were grubbing a vast hollow pollard-ash that had been the mansion 
 of owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom a mass of 
 matter that at first he could not account for. After some ex- 
 amination he found that it was a congeries of the bones of mice 
 (and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been heaping together 
 for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many genera- 
 tions of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, and feathers, 
 
166 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 of what they devour, after the manner of hawks. He believes, he 
 told me, that there were bushels of this kind of substance. 
 
 When brown owls hoot their throats swell as big as a hen's 
 egg. I have known an owl of this species live a full year without 
 any water. Perhaps the case may be the same with all birds of 
 prey. When owls fly they stretch out their legs behind them as a 
 balance to their large heavy heads, for as most nocturnal birds 
 have large eyes and ears they must have large heads to contain 
 them. Large eyes I presume are necessary to collect every ray 
 of light, and large concave ears to command the smallest degree 
 of sound or noise. I am, etc. 
 
 [It will be proper to premise here that the sixteenth, eighteenth, 
 twentieth, and twenty-first letters have been published already in 
 the " Philosophical Transactions ; " but as nicer observation has 
 furnished several corrections and additions, it is hoped that the 
 republication of them will not give offence ; especially as these 
 sheets would be very imperfect without them, and as they will be 
 new to many readers who had no opportunity of seeing them 
 when they made their first appearance.] 
 
 " The hirundines are a most inoffensive, harmless, entertaining, 
 social, and useful tribe of birds ; they touch no fruit in our gar- 
 dens 5 delight, all except one species, in attaching themselves to 
 our houses ; amuse us with their migrations, songs, and marvellous 
 agility ; and clear our outlets from the annoyances of gnats and 
 other troublesome insects. Some districts in the south seas, near 
 Guiaquil,* are desolated, it seems, by the infinite swarms of veno- 
 mous mosquitoes, which fill the air, and render those coasts in- 
 supportable. It would be worth inquiring whether any species of 
 hirundines is found in those regions. Whoever contemplates the 
 myriads of insects that sport in the sunbeams of a summer evening 
 in this country, will soon be convinced to .what a degree our 
 atmosphere would be choked with them was it not for the friendly 
 interposition of the swallow tribe. 
 
 * See " Ulloa's Travels." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 167 
 
 " Many species of birds have their peculiar lice ; but the hirun- 
 dines alone seem to be annoyed with dipterous insects, which 
 infest every species, and are so large, in proportion to themselves, 
 that they must be extremely irksome and injurious to them. 
 These are the hippoboscce. hinindinis, with narrow subulated wings, 
 abounding in every nest ; and are hatched by the warmth of the 
 bird's own body during incubation, and crawl about under its 
 feathers. 
 
 "A species of them is familiar to horsemen in the south of 
 England under the name of forest-fly ; and to some of side-fly, 
 from its running sideways like a crab. It creeps under the tails, 
 and about the groins, of horses, which, at their first coming out of 
 the north, are rendered half frantic by the tickling sensation ; 
 while our own breed little regards them. 
 
 " The curious Reaumur discovered the large eggs, or rather 
 pupa, of these flies as big as the flies themselves, which he hatched 
 in his own bosom. Any person that will take the trouble to 
 examine the old nests of either species of swallows may find in 
 them the black shining cases or skins of the pupa of these insects; 
 but for other particulars, too long for this place, we refer the reader 
 to ' L'Histoire d'lnsectes' of that admirable entomologist. Tom. 
 iv., pi. ii." 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XV. 
 
 The white owl does hoot, although it is not its most frequent cry. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. 2o//z, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, In obedience to your injunctions I sit down to give 
 you some account of the house-martin, or martlet; and if my 
 monography of this little domestic and familiar bird should happen 
 to meet with your approbation, I may probably soon extend my 
 inquiries to the rest of the British hirundines the swallow, the 
 swift, and the bank-martin. 
 
1 68 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 A few house-martins begin to appear about the 1 6th April; 
 usually some few days later than the swallow. For some time 
 after they appear the hirundines in general pay no attention to the 
 business of nidification, but play and sport about, either to recruit 
 from the fatigue of their journey, if they do migrate at all, or else 
 that their blood may recover its true tone and texture after it has 
 been so long benumbed by the severities of winter. About the 
 middle of May, if the weather be fine, the martin begins to think 
 in earnest of providing a mansion for its family. The crust or 
 shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or loam as comes 
 most readily to hand, and is tempered and wrought together with 
 little bits of broken straws to render it tough and tenacious. As 
 this bird often builds against a perpendicular wall without any 
 projecting ledge under, it requires its utmost efforts to get the first 
 foundation firmly fixed, so that it may safely carry the superstruc- 
 ture. On this occasion the bird not only clings with its claws, 
 but partly supports itself by strongly inclining its tail against the 
 wall, making that a fulcrum ; and thus steadied, it works and 
 plasters the materials into the face of the brick or stone. But 
 then, that this work may not, while it is soft and green, pull itself 
 down by Its own weight, the provident architect has prudence and 
 forbearance enough not to advance her work too fast 5 but by 
 building only in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of the 
 day to food and amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry and 
 harden. About half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for a 
 day. Thus careful workmen, when they build mud-walls (informed 
 at first perhaps by this little bird), raise but a moderate layer at a 
 time, and then desist, lest the work should become top-heavy, and 
 so be ruined by its own weight. By this method in about ten or 
 twelve days is formed a hemispheric nest with a small aperture 
 towards the top, strong, compact, and warm ; and perfectly fitted 
 for all the purposes for which it was intended. But then nothing 
 is more common than for the house-sparrow, as soon as the shell 
 is finished, to seize on it as its own, to eject the owner, and to 
 line it after its own manner. 
 
 After so much labour is bestowed in erecting a mansion, as 
 Nature seldom works in vain, martins will breed on for several 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 169 
 
 years together in the same nest, where it happens to be well 
 sheltered and secure from the injuries of weather. The shell or 
 crust of the nest is a sort of rustic work, full of knobs and protu- 
 berances on the outside nor is the inside of those that I have 
 examined smoothed with any exactness at all ; but is rendered soft 
 and warm, and fit for incubation, by a lining of small straws, 
 grasses, and feathers, and sometimes by a bed of moss interwoven 
 with wool. In this nest they tread, or engender, frequently during 
 the time of building ; and the hen lays from three to five white eggs. 
 At first when the young are hatched, and are in a naked and 
 helpless condition, the parent birds, with tender assiduity, carry 
 out what comes away from their young. Was it not for this affec- 
 tionate cleanliness the nestlings would soon be burnt up, and 
 destroyed in so deep and hollow a nest, by their own caustic ex- 
 crement. In the quadruped creation the same neat precaution is 
 made use of; particularly among dogs and cats, where the dams 
 lick away what proceeds from their young. But in birds there 
 seems to be a particular provision, that the dung of nestlings is 
 enveloped in a tough kind of jelly, and therefore is the easier con- 
 veyed off without soiling or daubing. Yet, as nature is cleanly in 
 all her ways, the young perform this office for themselves in a little 
 time by thrusting their tails out at the aperture of their nest. As 
 the young of small birds presently arrive at their ^AiKia, or full 
 growth, they soon become impatient of confinement, and sit all 
 day with their heads out at the orifice, where the dams, by clinging 
 to the nest, supply them with food from morning to night. For a 
 time the young are fed on the wing by their parents ; but the feat 
 is done by so quick and almost imperceptible a flight that a per- 
 son must have attended very exactly to their motions before he 
 would be able to perceive it. As soon as the young are able to 
 shift for themselves, the dams immediately turn their thoughts to 
 the business of a second brood ; while the first flight, shaken off 
 and rejected by their nurses, congregate in great flocks, and are 
 the birds that are seen clustering and hovering on sunny mornings 
 and evenings round towers and steeples, and on the roofs of 
 churches and houses. These congregatings usually begin to take 
 place about the first week in August ; and therefore we may con- 
 
I7o NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 elude that by that time the first flight is pretty well over. The 
 young of this species do not quit their abodes altogether ; but the 
 more forward birds get abroad some days before the rest. These 
 approaching the eaves of buildings, and playing about before them, 
 make people think that several old ones attend one nest. They 
 are often capricious in fixing on a nesting-place, beginning many 
 edifices, and leaving them unfinished ; but when once a nest is 
 completed in a sheltered place, it serves for several seasons. 
 Those which breed in a ready finished house get the start in 
 hatching of those that build new by ten days or a fortnight. 
 These industrious artificers are at their labours in the long days 
 before four in the morning. When they fix their materials they 
 plaster them on with their chins, moving their heads with a quick 
 vibratory motion. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes in 
 very hot weather ; but not so frequently as swallows. It has been 
 observed that martins usually build to a north-east or north-west 
 aspect, that the heat of the sun may not crack and destroy their 
 nests ; but instances are also remembered where they bred for 
 many years in vast abundance in a hot stifled inn -yard against a 
 wall facing to the south. 
 
 Birds in general are wise in their choice of situation ; but in 
 this neighbourhood every summer is seen a strong proof to the 
 contrary at a house without eaves in an exposed district, where 
 some martins build year by year in the corners of the windows. 
 But, as the corners of these windows (which face to the south-east 
 and south-west) are too shallow, the nests are washed down every 
 hard rain ; and yet these birds drudge on to no purpose from 
 summer to summer, without changing their aspect or house. It 
 is a piteous sight to see them labouring when half their nest is 
 washed away and bringing dirt .... "generis lapsi sarcire 
 ruinas." Thus is instinct a most wonderful unequal faculty; in 
 some instances so much above reason, in other respects so far 
 below it ! Martins love to frequent towns, especially if there are 
 great lakes and rivers at hand ; nay they even affect the close 
 air of London. And I have not only seen them nesting in the 
 Borough, but even in the Strand and Fleet Street ; but then it 
 was obvious from the dinginess of their aspect that their feathers 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 171 
 
 partook of the filth of that sooty atmosphere. Martins are by far 
 the least agile of the four species ; their wings and tails are short, 
 and therefore they are not capable of s-uch surprising turns and 
 quick and glancing evolutions as the swallow. Accordingly they 
 make use of a placid easy motion in a middle region of the air, 
 seldom mounting to any great height, and never sweeping long 
 together over the surface of the ground or water. They do not 
 wander far for food, but affect sheltered districts, over some lake, 
 or under some hanging wood, or in some hollow vale, especially 
 in windy weather. They breed the latest of all the swallow kind : 
 in 1772 they had nestlings on to October 2ist, and are never 
 without unfledged young as late as Michaelmas. 
 
 As the summer declines the congregating flocks increase in 
 numbers daily by the constant accession of the second broods ; 
 till at last they swarm in myriads upon myriads round the villages 
 on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as they frequent the 
 aits of that river, where they roost. They retire, the bulk of them 
 I mean, in vast flocks together about the beginning of October ; 
 but have appeared of late years in a considerable flight in this 
 neighbourhood, for one day or two, as late as November 3rd 
 and 6th, after they were supposed to have been gone for more 
 than a fortnight. They therefore withdraw with us the latest of 
 any species. Unless these birds are very short-lived indeed, or 
 unless they do not return to the districts where they are bred, 
 they must undergo vast devastations somehow, and somewhere ; 
 for the birds that return yearly bear no manner of proportion to 
 the birds that retire. 
 
 House-martins are distinguished from their congeners by having 
 their legs covered with soft downy feathers down to their toes. 
 They are no songsters ; but twitter in a pretty inward soft manner 
 in their nests. During the time of breeding they are often greatly 
 molested with fleas. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
172 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 RINGMER, near LEWES, Dec. tyh, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I received your last favour just as I was setting out 
 for this place ; and am pleased to find that my monography met 
 with your approbation. My remarks are the result of many years' 
 observation ; and are I trust true in the whole, though I do not 
 pretend to say that they are perfectly void of mistake, or that a 
 more nice observer might not make many additions, since subjects 
 of this kind are inexhaustible. 
 
 If you think my letter worthy the notice of your respectable 
 society, you are at liberty to lay it before them ; and they will 
 consider it, I hope, as it was intended, as a humble attempt to 
 promote a more minute inquiry into natural history ; into the life 
 and conversation of animals. Perhaps, hereafter, I may be induced 
 to take the house-swallow under consideration; and from that 
 proceed to the rest of the British hirundines. 
 
 Though I have now travelled the Sussex Downs upwards 01 
 thirty years, yet I still investigate that chain of majestic mountains 
 with fresh admiration year by year ; and I think I see new beauties 
 every time I traverse it. This range, which runs from Chichester 
 eastward as far as East Bourn, is about sixty miles in length, and 
 is called the South Downs, properly speaking, only round Lewes. 
 As you pass along you command a noble view of the wild, or 
 weald, on one hand, and the broad downs and sea on the other. 
 Mr. Ray used to visit a family just at the foot of these hills, and 
 was so ravished with the prospect from Plumpton Plain, near 
 Lewes, that he mentions those scapes in his " Wisdom of God 
 in the Works of the Creation" with the utmost satisfaction, and 
 thinks them equal to anything he had seen in the finest parts of 
 Europe. 
 
 For my own part, I think there is somewhat peculiarly sweet 
 and amusing in the shapely-figured aspect of chalk-hills in prefer- 
 ence to those of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt, and 
 shapeless. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 173 
 
 Perhaps I may be singular in my opinion, and not so happy 
 as to convey to you the same idea ; but I never contemplate these 
 mountains without thinking I perceive somewhat analogous to 
 growth in their gentle swellings and smooth fungus-like protuber- 
 ances, their fluted sides, and regular hollows and slopes, that carry 
 
 at once the air of vegetative dilation and expansion 
 
 Or was there ever a time when these immense masses 
 
 of calcareous matter were thrown into fermentation by some ad- 
 ventitious moisture; were raised and leavened into such shapes 
 by some plastic power ; and so made to swell and heave their 
 broad backs into the sky so much above the less animated clay 
 of the wild below ? 
 
 By what I can guess from the admeasurements of the hills that 
 have been taken round my house, I should suppose that these 
 hills surmount the wild at an average at about the rate of five 
 hundred feet. 
 
 One thing is very remarkable as to the sheep : from the west- 
 ward till you get to the river Adur all the flocks have horns, and 
 smooth white faces, and white legs, and a hornless sheep is rarely 
 to be seen ; but as soon as you pass that river eastward, and 
 mount Beeding Hill, all the flocks at once become hornless, or as 
 they call them, poll-sheep ; and have, moreover, black faces with 
 a white tuft of wool on their foreheads, and speckled and spotted 
 legs, so that you would think that the flocks of Laban were 
 pasturing on one side of the stream, and the variegated breed 
 of his son-in-law Jacob were cantoned along on the other. And 
 this diversity holds good respectively on each side from the valley 
 of Bramber and Beeding to the eastward, and westward all the 
 whole length of the downs. If you talk with the shepherds on 
 this subject, they tell you that the case has been so from time 
 Immemorial ; and smile at your simplicity if you ask them whether 
 the situation of these two different breeds might not be reversed ? 
 However, an intelligent friend of mine near Chichester is deter- 
 mined to try the experiment ; and has this autumn, at the hazard 
 of being laughed at, introduced a parcel of black-faced hornless 
 rams among his horned western ewes. The black-faced poll- 
 sheep have the shortest legs and the finest wool. 
 
174 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 As I had hardly ever before travelled these downs at so late a 
 season of the year, I was determined to keep as sharp a look-out 
 as possible so near the southern coast, with respect to the summer 
 short-winged birds of passage. We make great inquiries concern- 
 ing the withdrawing of the swallow kind, without examining 
 enough into the causes why this tribe is never to be seen in 
 winter; for, entre nous, the disappearing of the latter .is more 
 marvellous than that of the former, and much more unaccountable. 
 The hirundines, if they please, are certainly capable of migration, 
 and yet no doubt are often found in a torpid state ; but red-starts, 
 nightingales, white-throats, black-caps, etc., etc., are very ill pro- 
 vided for long flights ; have never been once found, as I ever 
 heard of, in a torpid state, and yet can never be supposed, in 
 such troops, from year to year to dodge and elude the eyes of the 
 curious and inquisitive, which from day to day discern the other 
 small birds that are known to abide our winters. But, notwith- 
 standing all my care, I saw nothing like a summer bird of passage ; 
 and what is more strange not one wheat-ear, though they abound 
 so in the autumn as to be a considerable perquisite to the shep- 
 herds that take them ; and though many are to be seen to my 
 knowledge all the winter through in many parts of the south of 
 England. The most intelligent shepherds tell me that some few 
 of these birds appear on the downs in March, and then withdraw 
 to breed probably in warrens and stone-quarries : now and then a 
 nest is ploughed up in a fallow on the downs under a furrow, but 
 it is thought a rarity. At the time of wheat-harvest they begin to 
 be taken in great numbers ; are sent for sale in vast quantities to 
 Brightelmstone and Tunbridge ; and appear at the tables of all 
 the gentry that entertain with any degree of elegance. About 
 Michaelmas they retire and are seen no more till March. Though 
 these birds are, when in season, in great plenty on the south 
 downs round Lewes, yet at East Bourn, which is the eastern 
 extremity of those downs, they abound much more. One thing 
 is very remarkable, that though in the height of the season so 
 many hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they never are seen to 
 flock ; and it is a rare thing to see more than three or four at a 
 time; so that there must be a perpetual flitting and constant 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 175 
 
 progressive succession. It does not appear that any wheat-ears 
 are taken to the westward of Houghton Bridge, which stands on 
 the river Arun. 
 
 I did not fail to look particularly after my new migration of 
 ring-ousels; and to take notice whether they continued on the 
 downs to this season of the year ; as I had formerly remarked 
 them in the month of October all the way from Chichester to 
 Lewes wherever there were any shrubs and covert : but not one 
 bird of this sort came within my observation. I only saw a few 
 larks and whin-chats, some rooks, and several kites and buzzards. 
 
 About Midsummer a flight of cross-bills comes to the pine- 
 groves about this house, but never makes any long stay. 
 
 The old tortoise, that I have mentioned in a former letter, still 
 continues in this garden; and retired under ground about the 
 2oth November, and came out again for one day on the 3oth : it 
 lies now buried in a wet swampy border under a wall facing 
 to the south, and is enveloped at present in mud and mire ! 
 
 Here is a large rookery round this house, the inhabitants of 
 which seem to get their livelihood very easily ; for they spend the 
 greatest part of the day on their nest-trees when the weather is 
 mild. These rooks retire every evening all the winter from this 
 rookery, where they only call by the way, as they are going to 
 roost in deep woods : at the dawn of day they always revisit their 
 nest-trees, and are preceded a few minutes by a flight of daws, 
 
 that act, as it were, as their harbingers. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. 29*71, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The house-swallow, or chimney-swallow, is un- 
 doubtedly the first comer of all the British hirundinesj and 
 appears in general on or about i3th April, as I have remarked 
 from many years' observation. Not but now and then a straggler 
 is seen much earlier; and, in particular, when I was a boy I 
 observed a swallow for a whole day together on a sunny warm 
 
i:6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Shrove Tuesday; which day could not fall out later than the 
 middle of March, and often happened early in February. 
 
 It is worth remarking that these birds are seen first about lakes 
 and mill-ponds ; and it is also very particular, that if these early 
 visitors happen to find frost and snow, as was the case of the two 
 dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they immediately withdraw 
 for a time. A circumstance this much more in favour of hiding 
 than migration ; since it is much more probable that a bird should 
 retire to its hybernaculum just at hand, than return for a week or 
 two to warmer latitudes. 
 
 The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no means 
 builds altogether in chimneys, but often within barns and out- 
 houses against the rafters ; and so she did in Virgil's time : 
 
 .... "Ante 
 
 Garrula quam tignis nidos suspendat hirundo." 
 
 In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladu swala, the 
 barn swallow. Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe there are 
 no chimneys to houses, except they are English-built : in these 
 countries she constructs her nest in porches, and gateways, and 
 galleries, and open halls. 
 
 Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar place ; 
 as we have known a swallow build down the shaft of an old well, 
 through which chalk had been formerly drawn up for the purpose 
 of manure : but in general with us this hirundo breeds in chim- 
 neys ; and loves to haunt those stacks where there is a constant 
 fire, no doubt for the sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist in 
 the immediate shaft where there is a fire; but prefers one ad- 
 joining to that of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual smoke 
 of that funnel, as I have often observed with some degree of 
 wonder. 
 
 Five or six or more feet down the chimney does this little bird 
 begin to form her nest about the middle of May, which consists, 
 like that of the house-martin, of a crust or shell composed of 
 dirt or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw to render it tough 
 and permanent ; with this difference, that whereas the shell of 
 the martin is nearly hemispheric, that of the swallow is open at 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 177 
 
 the top, and like half a deep dish : this nest is lined with fine 
 grasses, and feathers, which are often collected as they float in 
 the air. 
 
 Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows all day 
 long in ascending and descending with security through so narrow 
 a pass. When hovering over the mouth of the funnel, the vibra- 
 tions of her wings acting on the confined air occasion a rumbling 
 like thunder. It is not improbable that the dam submits to this 
 inconvenient situation so low in the shaft, in order to secure her 
 broods from rapacious birds, and particularly from owls, which 
 frequently fall down chimneys, perhaps in attempting to get at 
 these nestlings. 
 
 The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with red 
 specks; and brings out her first brood about the last week in 
 June, or the first week in July. The progressive method by 
 which the young are introduced into life is very amusing : first, 
 they emerge from the shaft with difficulty enough, and often fall 
 down into the rooms below : for a day or so they are fed on the 
 chimney-top, and then are conducted to the dead leafless bough 
 of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are attended with great 
 assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a day or two 
 more they become flyers, but are still unable to take their own 
 food ; therefore they play about near the place where the dams 
 are hawking for flies ; and, when a mouthful is collected, at a 
 certain signal given, the dam and the nestling advance, rising 
 towards each other, and meeting at an angle; the young one 
 all the while uttering such a little quick note of gratitude and 
 complacency, that a person must have paid very little regard to 
 the wonders of Nature that has not often remarked this feat. 
 
 The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of a 
 second brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first ; which 
 at once associates with the first broods of house-martins ; and 
 with them congregates, clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and 
 trees. This hirundo brings out her second brood towards the 
 middle and end of August. 
 
 All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive pattern 
 01 unwearied industry and affection ; for, from morning to night, 
 
178 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 \ * 
 
 while there is a family to be supported, she spends the whole day 
 in skimming close to the ground, and executing the most sudden 
 turns and quick evolutions. Avenues, and long walks under 
 hedges, and pasture-fields, and mown meadows where cattle 
 graze, are her delight, especially if there are trees interspersed ; 
 because in such spots insects most abound. When a fly is taken 
 a smart snap from her bill is heard, resembling the noise at the 
 shutting of a watch-case ; but the motion of the mandibles is 
 too quick for the eye. 
 
 The swallow, probably the male bird, is the excubitor to house- 
 martins, and other little birds, announcing the approach of birds 
 of prey. For as soon as a hawk appears, with a shrill alarming 
 note he calls all the swallows and martins about him ; who pursue 
 in a body, and buffet and strike their enemy till they have driven 
 him from the village, darting down from above on his back, and 
 rising in a perpendicular line in perfect security. This bird also 
 will sound the alarm, and strike at cats when they climb on the 
 roofs of houses, or otherwise approach the nests. Each species 
 of hirundo drinks as it flies along, sipping the surface of the 
 water ; but the swallow alone, in general, washes on the wing, by 
 dropping into a pool for many times together : in very hot weather 
 house-martins and bank-martins dip and wash a little. 
 
 The swallow is a delicate songster, and in soft sunny weather 
 sings both perching and flying; on trees in a kind of concert, 
 and on chimney tops : is also a bold flyer, ranging to distant 
 downs and commons even in windy weather, which the other 
 species seem much to dislike; nay, even frequenting exposed 
 seaport towns, and making little excursions over the salt water. 
 Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended by a little 
 party of swallows for miles together, which plays before and 
 behind them, sweeping around them, and collecting all the sculking 
 insects that are roused by the trampling of the horses' feet : when 
 the wind blows hard, without this expedient, they are often forced 
 to settle to pick up their lurking prey. 
 
 This species feeds much on little Coleoptera, as well as on 
 gnats and flies; and often settles on dug ground, or paths, for 
 gravels to grind and digest its food. Before they depart, for 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 179 
 
 some weeks, to a bird, they forsake houses and chimneys, and 
 roost in trees ; and usually withdraw about the beginning of 
 October; though some few stragglers may appear on at times 
 till the first week in November. 
 
 Some few pairs haunt the new and open streets of London next 
 the fields, but do not enter, like the house-martin, the close and 
 crowded parts of the city. 
 
 Both male and female are distinguished from their congeners 
 by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are undoubtedly 
 the most nimble of all the species : and when the male pursues 
 the female in amorous chase, they then go beyond their usual 
 speed, and exert a rapidity almost too quick for the eye to follow. 
 
 After this circumstantial detail of the life and discerning a-ropyrj 
 of the swallow, I shall add, for your farther amusement, an 
 anecdote or two not much in favour of her sagacity : 
 
 A certain swallow built for two years together on the handles 
 of a pair of garden-shears, that were stuck up against the boards 
 in an out-house, and therefore must have her nest spoiled when- 
 ever that implement was wanted : and, what is stranger still, 
 another bird of the same species built its nest on the wings and 
 body of an owl, that happened by accident to hang dead and dry 
 from the rafter of a barn. This owl, with the nest on its wings, 
 and with eggs in the nest, was brought as a curiosity worthy the 
 most elegant private museum in Great Britain. The owner, 
 struck with the oddity of the sight, furnished the bringer with 
 a large shell, or conch, desiring him to fix it just where the owl 
 hung : the person did as he was ordered, and the following year 
 a pair, probably the same pair, built their nest in the conch, and 
 laid their eggs. 
 
 The owl and the conch make a strange grotesque appearance, 
 and are not the least curious specimens in that wonderful collection 
 of art and nature. 
 
 Thus is instinct In animals, taken trie least out of its way, an 
 undistinguishing, limited faculty ; and blind to every circumstance 
 that does not immediately respect self-preservation, or lead at 
 once to the propagation or support of their species. 
 
 I am, with all respect, etc., etc, 
 
 12 
 
i So NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNR. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. itfh, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I received your favour of the 8th, and am pleased 
 to find that you read my little history of the swallow with your 
 usual candour : nor was I the less pleased to find that you made 
 objections where you saw reason. 
 
 As to the quotations, it is difficult to say precisely which species 
 of hirundo Virgil might intend in the lines in question, since the 
 ancients did not attend to specific differences like modern natural- 
 ists : yet somewhat may be gathered, enough to incline me to 
 suppose that in the two passages quoted the poet had his eye on 
 the swallow. 
 
 In the first place the epithet garrula suits the swallow well, 
 who is a great songster, and not the martin, which is rather a 
 mute bird ; and when it sings is so inward as scarce to be heard. 
 Besides, \itignum in that place signifies a rafter rather than a beam, 
 as it seems to me to do, then I think it must be the swallow that is 
 alluded to, and not the martin, since the former does frequently 
 build within the roof against the rafters ; while the latter always, 
 as far as I have been able to observe, builds without the roof 
 against eaves and cornices. 
 
 As to the simile, too much stress must not be laid on it ; yet 
 the epithet nigra speaks plainly in favour of the swallow, whose 
 back and wings are very black ; while the rump of the martin is 
 milk-white, its back and wings blue, and all its under part white 
 as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions (comparatively clumsy) 
 of the martin well represent the sudden and artful evolutions and 
 quick turns which Juturna gave to her brother's chariot, so as to 
 elude the eager pursuit of the enraged yEneas. The verb sonat 
 also seems to imply a bird that is somewhat loquacious.* 
 
 * " Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis sedes 
 Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, 
 Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas : 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 181 
 
 We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to raise the 
 springs to a pitch beyond anything since 1764; which was a 
 remarkable year for floods and high waters. The land-springs 
 which we call lavants, break out much on the downs of Sussex, 
 Hampshire and Wiltshire. The country people say when the 
 lavants rise corn will always be dear; meaning that when the 
 earth is so glutted with water as to send forth springs on the 
 downs and uplands, that the corn-vales must be drowned ; and 
 so it has proved for these ten or eleven years past. For land- 
 springs have never obtained more since the memory of man than 
 during that period ; nor has there been known a greater scarcity 
 of all sorts of grain, considering the great improvements of modern 
 husbandry. Such a run of wet seasons a century or two ago 
 would, I am persuaded, have occasioned a famine. Therefore 
 pamphlets and newspaper letters, that talk of combinations, tend 
 to inflame and mislead ; since we must not expect plenty till 
 Providence sends us more favourable seasons. 
 
 The wheat of last year, all round this district, and in the 
 county of Rutland, and elsewhere, yields remarkably bad ; and 
 our wheat on the ground, by the continual late sudden vicissitudes 
 from fierce frost to pouring rains, looks poorly ; and the turnips 
 rot very fast. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 26///, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The sand-martin, or bank-martin, is by much the 
 least of any of the British hirundines ; and as far as we have ever 
 
 Et nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum 
 Stagna sonat " 
 
 " As the black swallow near the palace plies : 
 O'er empty courts, and under arches flies ; 
 Now hawks aloft, now skims along the flood, 
 To furnish her loquacious nests with food." 
 
 DRYD, VIRG. ALn. xii. line 691. 
 
1 82 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 seen, the smallest known hirundo ; though Brisson asserts that 
 there is one much smaller, and that is the hirundo esculenta. 
 
 But it is much to be regretted that it is scarce possible for any 
 observer to be so full and exact as he could wish in reciting the 
 circumstances attending the life and conversation of this little 
 bird, since it is fera natura, at least in this part of the kingdom, 
 disclaiming all domestic attachments, and haunting wild heaths 
 
 THE SAND-MARTIN (Hirundo riparia). 
 
 and commons where there are large lakes ; while the other 
 species, especially the swallow and house-martin, are remarkably 
 gentle and domesticated, and never seem to think themselves safe 
 but under the protection of man. 1 
 
 Here are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks of the lakes 
 of Wolmer forest, several colonies of these birds ; and yet they 
 are never seen in the village ; nor do they at all frequent the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 183 
 
 cottages that are scattered about in that wild district. The only 
 instance I ever remember where this species haunts any building- 
 is at the town of Bishop's Waltham, in this county, where many 
 sand-martins nestle and breed in the scaffold-holes of the back- 
 wall of William of Wykeham's stables ; but then this wall stands in 
 a very sequestered and retired enclosure, and faces upon a large 
 and beautiful lake. And indeed this species seems so to delight 
 in large waters, that no instance occurs of their abounding, but 
 near vast pools or rivers ; 2 and in particular it has been remarked 
 that they swarm in the banks of the Thames in some places 
 below London-bridge. 
 
 It is curious to observe with what different degress of archi- 
 tectonic skill Providence has endowed birds of the same genus, 
 and so nearly correspondent in their general mode of life ! for 
 while the swallow and the house-martin discover the greatest 
 address in raising and securely fixing crusts or shells of loam as 
 cunabula for their young, the bank-martin terebrates a round and 
 regular hole in the sand or earth, which is serpentine, horizontal, 
 and about two feet deep. At the inner end of this burrow does 
 this bird deposit, in a good degree of safety, her rude nest, con- 
 sisting of fine grasses and feathers, usually goose-feathers, very 
 inartificially laid together. 
 
 Perseverance will accomplish anything ; though at first one 
 would be disinclined to believe that this weak bird, with her soft 
 and tender bill and claws, should ever be able to bore the stub- 
 born sand- bank without entirely disabling herself; yet with these 
 feeble instruments have I seen a pair of them make great dis- 
 patch, and could remark how much they had scooped that day by 
 the fresh sand which ran down the bank, and was of a different 
 colour from that which lay loose and bleached in the sun. 
 
 In what space of time these little artists are able to mine and 
 finish these cavities I have not been able to discover, for reasons 
 given above; but it would be a matter worthy of observation, 
 where it falls in the way of any naturalist to make his remarks. 
 This I have often taken notice of, that several holes of different 
 depths are left unfinished at the end of summer. To imagine 
 that these beginnings were intentionally made in order to be in 
 
1 84 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 the greater forwardness for next spring is allowing perhaps too 
 much foresight and rerum prudentia to a simple bird. May not 
 the cause of these latebrce. being left unfinished arise from their 
 meeting in those places with strata too harsh, hard, and solid, for 
 their purpose, which they relinquish, and go to a fresh spot that 
 works more freely ? Or may they not in other places fall in with 
 a soil as much too loose and mouldering, liable to flounder, and 
 threatening to overwhelm them and their labours? 
 
 One thing is remarkable that, after some years, the old holes 
 are forsaken and new ones bored ; perhaps because the old 
 habitations grow foul and fetid from long use, or because they 
 may so abound with fleas as to become untenantable. This 
 species of swallow moreover is strangely annoyed with fleas ; and 
 we have seen fleas, bed-fleas (pulex irritans), swarming at the 
 mouths of these holes, like bees on the stools of their hives. 3 
 
 The following circumstance should by no means be omitted 
 that these birds do not make use of their caverns by way of hyber- 
 nacula, as might be expected ; since banks so perforated have 
 been dug out with care in the winter, when nothing was found 
 but empty nests. 
 
 The sand-martin arrives much about the same time with the 
 swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. But 
 as this species is cryptogame, carrying on the business of nidifica- 
 tion, incubation, and the support of its young in the dark, it would 
 not be so easy to ascertain the time of breeding, were it not for the 
 coming forth of the broods, which appear much about the time, or 
 rather somewhat earlier than those of the swallow. The nestlings 
 are supported in common like those of their 'congeners, with gnats 
 and other small insects ; and sometimes they are fed with libelktltz 
 (dragon-flies) almost as long as themselves. In the last week in 
 June we have seen a row of these sitting on a rail near a great 
 pool as perchers, and so young and helpless, as easily to be taken 
 by hand ; but whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as 
 swallows and house-martins do, we have never yet been able to 
 determine ; nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds 
 of prey. 
 
 When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 185 
 
 are dispossessed of their breeding holes by the house-sparrow, 
 which is on the same account a fell adversary to house-martins. 
 
 These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making 
 only a little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. 
 They seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us congre- 
 gating with their congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly they 
 breed a second time, like the house-martin and swallow ; and 
 withdraw about Michaelmas. 
 
 Though in some particular districts they may happen to abound, 
 yet in the whole, in the south of England at least, is this much 
 the rarest species. For there are few towns or large villages but 
 what abound with house-martins ; few churches, towers, or steeples, 
 but what are haunted by some swifts ; scarce a hamlet or single 
 cottage-chimney that has not its swallow ; while the bank-martins, 
 scattered here and there, live a sequestered life among some 
 abrupt sand-hills, and in the banks of some few rivers. 
 
 These birds have a peculiar manner of flying ; flitting about with 
 odd jerks, and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a butterfly. 
 Doubtless the flight of all hirundines is influenced by, and adapted 
 to, the peculiar sort of insects which furnish their food. Hence it 
 would be worth inquiry to examine what particular genus of insects 
 affords the principal food of each respective species of swallow. 
 
 Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few 
 sand-martins, I see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting the 
 dirty pools in Saint George's Fields, and about Whitechapel. The 
 question is where these build, since there are no banks or bold 
 shores in that neighbourhood ; perhaps they nestle in the scaffold 
 holes of some ojd or new deserted building. They dip and wash 
 as they fly sometimes, like the house-martin and swallow. 
 
 Sand-martins differ from their congeners in the diminutiveness of 
 their size, and in their colour, which is what is usually called a 
 mouse-colour. Near Valencia, in Spain, they are taken, says 
 Willughby, and sold in the markets for the table ; and are called 
 by the country people, probably from their desultory jerking 
 manner of flight, Papilion de Montagua* 
 
1 86 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 1 At Brandon, in Norfolk, are great heaps of sawdust which have settled 
 down into solid masses. In these the sand-martins have burrowed and nested, 
 iust as they do in sand-banks. My attention was first drawn to this singular 
 breeding-place by a note in the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich 
 Naturalist's Field Club. 
 
 2 The largest colony of sand-martins I have ever seen was in a large gravel- 
 pit at Oswestry, far from any large pool or river, although as a general rule 
 these birds like the neighbourhood of water as White says. 
 
 3 This insect is not the bed-flea, but another, distinct also from those 
 which trouble the swallow and the swift. 
 
 4 I once, late one evening, took a sand-martin off its nest, and it lay in the 
 palm of my hand, not attempting to fly away, but apparently arranging itself 
 again for sleep, and almost too lazy to scramble back again into its hole. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. 2%th, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, As the swift or black-martin is the largest of the 
 British hirundines, so it is undoubtedly the latest comer. For I 
 remember but one instance of its appearing before the last week 
 in April ; and in some of our late frosty, harsh springs, it has not 
 been seen till the beginning of May. This species usually arrives 
 in pairs. 
 
 The swift, like the sand-martin, is very defective in architecture, 
 making no crust, or shell, for its nest ; but forming it of dry 
 grasses and feathers, very rudely and inartificially put together. 
 With all my attention to these birds. I have never been able once 
 to discover one in the act of collecting or carrying in materials ; 
 so that I have suspected (since their nests are exactly the same) 
 that they sometimes usurp upon the house-sparrows, and expel 
 them, as sparrows do the house and sand-martin ; well remember- 
 ing that I have seen them squabbling together at the entrance of 
 their holes, and the sparrows up in arms, and much disconcerted 
 at these intruders. And yet I am assured, by a nice observer in 
 such matters, that they do collect feathers for their nests in 
 Andalusia, and that he has shot them with such materials in their 
 mouths. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 187 
 
 Swifts, like sand-martins, carry on the business of nidification 
 quite in the dark, in crannies of castles, and towers, and steeples, 
 and upon the tops of the walls of churches under the roof; and 
 therefore cannot be so narrowly watched as those species that 
 build more openly; but, from what I could ever observe, they 
 begin nesting about the middle of May ; and I have remarked, 
 from eggs taken, that they have sat hard by the Qth June. In 
 general they haunt tall buildings, churches, and steeples, and 
 breed only in such ; yet in this village some pairs frequent the 
 
 '///) 
 
 THE COMMON SWIFT (Cyj>selus apus). 
 
 lowest and meanest cottages, and educate their young under 
 those thatched roofs. We remember but one instance where they 
 breed out of buildings, and that is in the sides of a deep chalk-pit 
 near the town of Odiham, in this county, where we have seen 
 many pairs entering the crevices, and skimming and squeaking 
 round the precipices. 
 
 As I have regarded these amusive birds with no small attention, 
 if I should advance something new and peculiar with respect to 
 them, and different from all other birds, I might perhaps be 
 credited; especially as my assertion is the result of many years' 
 
1 88 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 exact observation. The fact that I would advance is, that swifts 
 tread, or copulate, on the wing ; and I would wish any nice 
 observer, that is startled at this supposition, to use his own 
 eyes, and I think he will soon be convinced. In another class 
 of animals, viz. the insect, nothing is so common as to see the 
 different species of many genera in conjunction as they fly. The 
 swift is almost continually on the wing ; and as it never settles 
 on the ground, on trees, or roofs, would seldom find opportunity 
 for amorous rites, was it not enabled to indulge them in the air. 
 If any person would watch these birds of a fine morning in May, 
 as they are sailing round at a great height from the ground, he 
 would see, every now and then, one drop on the back of another, 
 and both of them sink down together for many fathoms with 
 a loud piercing shriek. This I take to be the juncture when the 
 business of generation is carrying on. 
 
 As the swift eats, drinks, collects materials for its nest, and, as 
 it seems, propagates on the wing, it appears to live more in the 
 air than any other bird, and to perform all functions there save 
 those of sleeping and incubation. 
 
 This hirundo diffei s widely from its congeners in laying invariably 
 but two eggs at a time, which are milk-white, long, and peaked 
 at the small end; whereas the other species lay at each brood 
 from four to six. It is a most alert bird, rising very early, and 
 retiring to roost very late; and is on the wing in the height of 
 summer at least sixteen hours. In the longest days it does not 
 withdraw to rest till a quarter before nine in the evening, being 
 the latest of all day-birds. Just before they retire whole groups 
 of them assemble high in the air, and squeak, and shoot about 
 with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never so much alive as 
 in sultry thundery weather, when it expresses great alacrity, and 
 calls forth all its powers. In hot mornings several, getting 
 together in little parties, dash round the steeples and churches, 
 squeaking as they go in a very clamorous manner; these, by nice 
 observers, are supposed to be males serenading their sitting hens ; 
 and not without reason, since they seldom squeak till they come 
 close to the walls or eaves, and since those within utter at the same 
 time a little inward note of complacency. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 189 
 
 When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes forth just as 
 it is almost dark, and stretches and relieves her weary limbs, and 
 snatches a scanty meal for a few minutes, and then returns to her 
 duty of incubation. Swifts, when wantonly and cruelly shot while 
 they have young, discover a little lump of insects in their mouths, 
 which they pouch and hold under their tongue. In general they 
 feed in a much higher district than the other species ; a proof 
 that gnats and other insects do also abound to a considerable 
 height in the air ; they also range to vast distances, since locomo- 
 tion is no labour to them who are endowed with such wonderful 
 powers of wing. Their powers seem to be in proportion to their 
 levers; and their wings are longer in proportion than those of 
 almost any other bird. When they mute, or case themselves in 
 flight, they raise their wings, and make them meet over their 
 backs. 
 
 At some certain times in the summer I had remarked that swifts 
 were hawking very low for hours together over pools and streams ; 
 and could not help inquiring into the object of their pursuit that 
 induced them to descend so much below their usual range. 
 After some trouble, I found that they were taking phryganece, 
 ephemera, and libellulce (cadew-flies, may-flies, and dragon-flies), 
 that were just emerged out of their aurelia state. I then no longer 
 wondered that they should be so willing to stoop for a prey that 
 afforded them such plentiful and succulent nourishment. 
 
 They bring out their young about the middle or latter end of 
 July ; but as these never become perchers, nor, that ever I could 
 discern, are fed on the wing by their dams, the coming forth of 
 the young is not so notorious as in the other species. 
 
 On the 3oth of last June, I untiled the eaves of a house where 
 many pairs build, and found in each nest only two squab, naked 
 pulli; on the 8th July I repeated the same inquiry, and found 
 that they had made very little progress towards a fledged state, 
 but were still naked and helpless. From whence we may con- 
 clude that birds whose way of life keeps them perpetually on the 
 wing would not be able to quit their nest till the end of the 
 month. Swallows and martins, that have numerous families, are 
 continually feeding them every two or three minutes; while swifts, 
 
190 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 that have but two young to maintain, are much at their leisure^ 
 and do not attend on their nest for hours together. 
 
 Sometimes they pursue and strike at hawks that come in their 
 way ; but not with that vehemence and fury that swallows express 
 on the same occasion. They are out all day long in wet days, 
 feeding about, and disregarding still rain : from whence two things 
 may be gathered ; first, that many insects abide high in the air, 
 even in rain ; and next, that the feathers of these birds must be 
 well preened to resist so much wet. Windy, and particularly 
 windy weather, with heavy showers, they dislike; and on such 
 days withdraw, and are scarce ever seen. 
 
 There is a circumstance respecting the colour of swifts, which 
 seems not to be unworthy of our attention. When they arrive in 
 the spring, they are all over of a glossy, dark soot-colour, except 
 their chins, which are white ; but, by being all day long in the 
 sun and air, they become quite weather-beaten and bleached 
 before they depart, and yet they return glossy again in the spring. 
 Now, if they pursue the sun into lower latitudes, as some suppose, 
 in order to enjoy a perpetual summer, why do they not return 
 bleached ? Do they not rather perhaps retire to rest for a season, 
 and at that juncture moult and change their feathers, since all 
 other birds are known to moult soon after the season of breeding? 
 
 Swifts are very anomalous in many particulars, dissenting from 
 all their congeners not only in the number of their young, but in 
 breeding but once in a summer; whereas all the other British hirun- 
 dines breed invariably twice. It is past all doubt that swifts can 
 breed but once, since they withdraw in a short time after the flight 
 of their young, and some time before their congeners bring out 
 their second broods. We may here remark, that, as swifts breed 
 but once in a summer, and only two at a time, and the other 
 hirundines twice, the latter, who lay from four to six eggs, increase 
 at an average five times as fast as the former. 
 
 But in nothing are swifts more singular than in their early retreat. 
 They retire, as to the main body of them, by the loth August, and 
 sometimes a few days sooner; and every straggler invariably 
 withdraws by the 2oth, while their congeners, all of them, stay till 
 the beginning of October ; many of them all through that month, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 191 
 
 and some occasionally to the beginning of November. This early 
 retreat is mysterious and wonderful, since that time is often the 
 sweetest season in the year. But what is more extraordinary, 
 tney begin to retire still earlier in the most southerly parts of 
 Andalusia, where they can be in no ways influenced by any defect 
 of heat ; or, as one might suppose, failure of food. Are they 
 regulated in their motions with us by a defect of food, or by a 
 propensity to moulting, or by a disposition to rest after so rapid 
 a life, or by what? This is one of those incidents in natural 
 history that not only baffles our searches, but almost eludes our 
 guesses ! 
 
 These hirundines never perch on trees or roofs, and so never 
 congregate with their congeners. They are fearless while haunting 
 their nesting-places, and are not to be scared with a gun ; and are 
 often beaten down with poles and cudgels as they stoop to go 
 under the eaves. Swifts are much infested with those pests to 
 the genus called hippoboscce hirimdinis ; and often wriggle and 
 scratch themselves in their flight to get rid of that clinging 
 annoyance. 
 
 Swifts are no songsters, and have only one harsh screaming 
 note ; yet there are ears to which it is not displeasing, from an 
 agreeable association of ideas, since that note never occurs but in 
 the most lovely summer weather. 
 
 They never can settle on the ground but through accident ; and 
 when down, can hardly rise, on account of the shortness of their 
 legs and the length of their wings; neither can they walk, but only 
 crawl ; but they have a strong grasp with their feet, by which they 
 cling to walls. Their bodies being flat they can enter a very 
 narrow crevice ; and where they cannot pass on their bellies they 
 will turn up edgewise. 
 
 The particular formation of the foot discriminates the swift 
 from all the British hirundines ; and indeed from all other known 
 birds, the hirundo melba, or great white-bellied swift of Gibraltar, 
 excepted ; for it is so disposed as to carry " omnes quatuor digitos 
 anticos " all its four toes forward ; besides, the least toe, which 
 should be the back toe, consists of one bone alone, and the other 
 three only of two apiece, a construction most rare and peculiar, 
 
192 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 but nicely adapted to the purposes in which their feet are employed. 
 This and some peculiarities attending the nostrils and under man- 
 dible, have induced a discerning * naturalist to suppose that this 
 species might constitute a genus per se. 
 
 In London a party of swifts frequents the Tower, playing and 
 feeding over the river just below the bridge ; others haunt some of 
 the churches of the Borough, next the fields, but do not venture, 
 like the house-martin, into the close crowded part of the town. 
 
 The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this 
 swallow, calling it " ring swala," from the perpetual rings or circles 
 that it takes round the scene of its nidification. 
 
 Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with hard cases over 
 their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; but it does not 
 appear how they can procure gravel to grind their food, as swallows 
 do, since they never settle on the ground. Young ones, over-run 
 with hippobosaz, are sometimes found, under their nests, fallen to 
 the ground ; the number of vermin rendering their abode in- 
 supportable any longer. They frequent in this village several 
 abject cottages ; yet a succession still haunts the same unlikely 
 roofs, a good proof this that the same birds return to the same 
 spots. As they must stoop very low to get up under these humble 
 eaves, cats lie in wait, and sometimes catch J;hem on the wing. 
 
 On July 5th, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof over the nest 
 of a swift. The dam sat in the nest ; but so strongly was she 
 affected by natural oropy*/ for her brood, which she supposed to 
 be in danger, that, regardless of her own safety, she would not stir, 
 but lay sullenly by them, permitting herself to be taken in hand. 
 The squab young we brought down and placed on the grass-plot, 
 where they tumbled about, and were as helpless as a new-born 
 child. While we contemplated their naked bodies, their unwieldy 
 disproportioned abdomina, and their heads, too heavy for their 
 necks to support, we could not but wonder when we reflected that 
 these shiftless beings in a little more than a fortnight would be 
 able to dash through the air almost with the inconceivable swift- 
 ness of a meteor ; and perhaps in their emigration must traverse 
 
 * John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 103 
 
 vast continents and oceans as distant as the equator. So soon 
 does iN ature advance small birds to their -^Xi/aa, or state of perfec- 
 tion ; while the progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is 
 slow and tedious ! 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. 13^, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, By means of a straight cottage chimney I had an 
 opportunity this summer of remarking, at my leisure, how swallows 
 ascend and descend through the shaft ; but my pleasure in con- 
 templating the address with which this feat was performed to a 
 considerable depth in the chimney, was somewhat interrupted by 
 apprehensions lest my eyes might undergo the same fate with 
 those of Tobit.* 
 
 Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at what 
 times the different species of hirundines arrived this spring in 
 three very distant counties of this kingdom. With us the swallow 
 was seen first on April 4th, the swift on April 24th, the bank- 
 martin on April i2th, and the house-martin not till April 3oth. 
 At South Zele, Devonshire, swallows did not arrive till April 25th, 
 swifts in plenty on May ist, and house-martins not till the middle 
 of May. At Blackburn, in Lancashire, swifts were seen April 28th, 
 swallows April 29th, house-martins May ist. Do these different 
 dates, in such distant districts, prove anything for or against 
 migration ? 
 
 A farmer, near Weyhill, fallows his land with two teams of asses ; 
 one of which works till noon, and the other. in the afternoon. 
 When these animals have done their work, they are penned all 
 
 * " The same night also I returned from the burial and slept by the wall of 
 my courtyard, being polluted, and my face was uncovered. 
 
 " And I knew not that there were sparrows (swallows ?) in the wall, and 
 mine eyes being open, the sparrows muted warm dung into mine eyes, and a 
 whiteness came in mine eyes ; and I went to the physicians, but they helped 
 i.it not." TOBIT ii. io. 
 
194 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 night, like sheep, on the fallow. In the winter they are confined 
 and foddered in a yard, and make plenty of dung. 
 
 Linnaeus says that hawks " paciscuntur inducia scum avitni** 
 quamdiu cuculus cuculat ; " but it appears to me, that during that 
 period, many little birds are taken and destroyed by birds of prey, 
 as may be seen by their feathers left in lanes and under hedges. 
 
 The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacious, 
 
 THE MISSEL-THRUSH (Turdus viscivoms). 
 
 driving such birds as approach its nest with great fury to a dis- 
 tance. The Welsh call it " pen y llwyn," the head or master of 
 the coppice. He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird, to enter 
 the garden where he haunts ; and is, for the time, a good guard 
 to the new-sown legumens. In general, he is very successful in 
 the defence of his family ; but once I observed in my garden, 
 that several magpies came determined to storm the nest of a 
 missel-thrush : the dams defended their mansion with great vigour, 
 and fought resolutely pro arts etfocis ; but numbers at last pre- 
 vailed, they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive. 
 In the season of nidification the wildest birds are comparativejv 
 tame. Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, though they are 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 195 
 
 continually frequented ; and the missel-thrush, though most shy 
 and wild in the autumn and winter, builds in my garden close to 
 a walk where people are passing all day long. 
 
 Wall-fruit abounds with me this year ; but my grapes, that used 
 to be forward and good, are at present backward beyond all pre- 
 cedent : and this is not the worst of the story; for the same 
 ungenial weather, the same black cold solstice, has injured the 
 more necessary fruits of the earth, and discoloured and blighted 
 our wheat. The crop of hops promises to be very large. 
 
 Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sadly, and half dis- 
 qualify me for a naturalist ; for, when those fits are upon me, I 
 lose all the pleasing notices and little intimations arising from 
 rural sounds ; and May is to me as silent and mute with respect 
 to the notes of birds, etc., as August. My eyesight is, thank God, 
 quick and good ; but with respect to the other sense, I am, at 
 times, disabled : 
 
 "And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." 
 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 SELLORNE, June 8t/i, 1775. 
 
 DEAR SIR, On September 2ist, 1741, being then on a visit, 
 and intent on field-diversions, I rose before daybreak : when I 
 came into the enclosures, I found the stubbles and clover-grounds 
 matted all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in the meshes of 
 which a copious and heavy dew hung so plentifully that the whole 
 face of the country seemed, as it were, covered with two or three 
 setting-nets drawn one over another. When the dogs attempted 
 to hunt, their eyes were so blinded and hoodwinked that they 
 could not proceed, but were obliged to lie down and scrape the 
 incumbrances from their faces with their fore-feet, so that, finding 
 my sport interrupted, I returned home musing in my mind on the 
 oddness of the occurrence. 
 
 As the morning advanced the sun became bright and warm, 
 
 13 
 
196 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 and the day turned out one of those most lovely ones which no 
 season but the autumn produces ; cloudless, calm, serene, and 
 worthy of the South of France itself. 
 
 About nine an appearance very unusual began to demand our 
 attention, a shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated regions, 
 and continuing, without any interruption, till the close of the day. 
 These webs were not single filmy threads, floating in the air in all 
 directions, but perfect flakes or rags ; some near an inch broad, 
 and five or six long, which fell with a degree of velocity that 
 showed they were considerably heavier than the atmosphere. 
 
 On every side as the observer turned his eyes might he behold 
 a continual succession of fresh flakes falling into his sight, and 
 twinkling like stars as they turned their sides towards the sun. 
 
 How far this wonderful shower extended would be difficult to 
 say; but we know that it reached Bradley, Selborne, and Alresford, 
 three places which lie in a sort of a triangle, the shortest of whose 
 sides is about eight miles in extent. 
 
 At the second of those places there was a gentleman (for whose 
 veracity and intelligent turn we have the greatest veneration) who 
 observed it the moment he got abroad \ but concluded that, as 
 soon as he came upon the hill above his house, where he took his 
 morning rides, he should be higher than this meteor, which he 
 imagined might have been blown, like thistle-down, from the com- 
 mon above ; but, to his great astonishment, when he rode to the 
 most elevated part of the down, three hundred feet above his fields, 
 he found the webs in appearance still as much above him as 
 before ; still descending into sight in a constant succession, and 
 twinkling in the sun, so as to draw the attention of the most 
 incurious. 
 
 Neither before nor after was any such fall observed ; but on this 
 day the flakes hung in the trees and hedges so thick that a 
 diligent person sent out might have gathered baskets full. 
 
 The remark that I shall make on these cobweb-like appearances, 
 called gossamer, is, that, strange and superstitious as the notions 
 about them were formerly, nobody in these days doubts but that 
 they are the real production of small spiders, which warm in the 
 fields in fine weather in autumn, and have a power of shooting ou; 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 197 
 
 webs from their tails so as to render themselves buoyant, and 
 lighter than air. But why these apterous insects should that day 
 take such a wonderful aerial excursion, and why their webs should 
 at once become so gross and material as to be considerably more 
 weighty than air, and to descend with precipitation, is a matter 
 beyond my skill. If I might be allowed to hazard a supposition, 
 I should imagine that those filmy threads, when first shot, might 
 be entangled in the rising dew, and so drawn up, spiders and all, 
 by a brisk evaporation, into the regions where clouds are formed : 
 and if the spiders have a power of coiling and thickening their 
 webs in the air, as Dr. Lister says they have [see his Letters to 
 Mr. Ray], then, when they were become heavier than the air, they 
 must fall. 
 
 Every day in fine weather, in autumn chiefly, do I see those 
 spiders shooting out their webs and mounting aloft : they will go 
 off from your finger if you will take them into your hand. Last 
 summer one alighted on my book as I was reading in the parlour; 
 and, running to the top of the page, and shooting out a web, took 
 its departure from thence. But what I most wondered at was, 
 that it went off with considerable velocity in a place where no air 
 was stirring ; and I am sure that I did not assist it with my 
 breath. So that these little crawlers seem to have, while mounting, 
 some locomotive power without the use of wings, and to move in 
 the air faster than the air itself. 1 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXIII. 
 
 1 The appearance of the gossamer-covered fields will be familiar to all who live 
 in the country. It seems clear that the " locomotive power " of the tiny spiders 
 is due solely to the movement of the atmosphere. On the quietest days, if you 
 will wet your finger and hold it up, you will find it grow sensibly cooler on one 
 side than the other, and on that side is there a faint wind blowing. If you 
 will then watch the spiders, you will see them shoot out long silvery threads, 
 which will incline to leeward, and presently the spiders will let go their hold 
 of the grass, and launch themselves into the air, floating away on the slightest 
 movement of it. 
 
198 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELDORNE. 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. 15^, 1775. 
 
 DEAR SIR, There is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the brute 
 creation, independent of sexnal attachment : the congregating of 
 gregarious birds in the winter is a remarkable instance. 
 
 Many horses, though quiet with company, will not stay one 
 minute in a field by themselves : the strongest fences cannot 
 restrain them. My neighbour's horse will not only not stay by 
 himself abroad, but he will not bear to be left alone in a strange 
 stable without discovering the utmost impatience, and endeavour- 
 ing to break the rack and manger with his fore feet. He has 
 been known to leap out at a stable-window, through which dung 
 was thrown, after company ; and yet in other respects is remark- 
 ably quiet. Oxen and cows will not fatten by themselves ; but 
 will neglect the finest pasture that is not recommended by society. 
 It would be needless to instance in sheep, which constantly flock 
 together. 
 
 But this propensity seems not to be confined to animals of the 
 same species ; for we know a doe, still alive, that was brought up 
 from a little fawn with a dairy of cows ; with them it goes a-field, 
 and with them it returns to the yard. The dogs of the house take 
 no notice of this deer, being used to her; but, if strange dogs 
 come by, a chase ensues ; while the master smiles to see his 
 favourite securely leading her pursuers over hedge, or gate, or 
 stile, till she returns to the cows, who, with fierce lowings and 
 menacing horns, drive the assailants quite out of the pasture. 
 
 Even great disparity of kind and size does not always prevent 
 social advances and mutual fellowship. For a very intelligent and 
 observant person has assured me that, in the former part of his 
 life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to have 
 but one solitary hen. These two incongruous animals spent much 
 of their time together in a lonely orchard, where they saw no 
 creature but each other. By degrees an apparent regard began to 
 take place between these two sequestered individuals. The fowl 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 199 
 
 would approach the quadruped with notes of complacency, rubbing 
 herself gently against his legs : while the horse would look down 
 with satisfaction, and move with the greatest caution and circum- 
 spection, lest he should trample on his diminutive companion. 
 Thus, by mutual good offices, each seemed to console the vacant 
 hours of the other : so that Milton, when he puts the following 
 sentiment in the mouth of Adam, seems to be somewhat mistaken : 
 
 ' Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl, 
 So well converse, nor with the ox the ape." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 SELBORNE, Oct. 2nd, 1775. 
 
 DEAR SIR, We have two gangs or hordes of gypsies which 
 infest the south and west of England, and come round in their 
 circuit two or three times in the year. One of these tribes calls 
 4tself by the noble name of Stanley, of which I have nothing par- 
 ticular to say ; but the other is distinguished by an appellative 
 somewhat remarkable. As far as their harsh gibberish can be 
 understood, they seem to say that the name of their clan is Curle- 
 ople; now the termination of this word is apparently Grecian, 
 and as Mezeray and the gravest historians all agree that these 
 vagrants did certainly migrate from Egypt and the East, two or 
 three centuries ago, and so spread by degrees over Europe, may 
 not this family-name, a little corrupted, be the very name they 
 brought with them from the Levant ? It would be matter of some 
 curiosity, could one meet with an intelligent person among them, 
 to inquire whether, in their jargon, they still retain any Greek 
 words ; the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water, 
 earth, etc. It is possible that amidst their cant and corrupted 
 dialect many mutilated remains of their native language might still 
 be discovered. 
 
 With regard to those peculiar people, the gypsies, one thing is 
 very remarkable, and especially as they came from warmer 
 
200 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 climates; and that is, that while other beggars lodge in barns, 
 stables, and cow-houses, these sturdy savages seem to pride them- 
 
 THE GYPSIES. 
 
 selves in braving the severities of winter, and in living sub dio the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 201 
 
 whole year round. Last September was as wet a month as ever 
 was known ; and yet during those deluges did a young gipsy girl lie 
 in the midst of one of our hop-gardens, on the cold ground, with 
 nothing over her but a piece of a blanket extended on a few 
 hazel-rods bent hoop-fashion, and stuck into the earth at each end, 
 in circumstances too trying for a cow in the same condition ; yet 
 within this garden there was a large hop-kiln, into the chambers of 
 which she might have retired, had she thought shelter an object 
 worthy her attention. 
 
 Europe itself, it seems, cannot set bounds to the rovings of these 
 vagabonds ; for Mr. Bell, in his return from Peking, met a gang 
 of those people on the confines of Tartary, who were endeavouring 
 to penetrate those deserts, and try their fortune in China. 
 
 Gypsies are called in French, Bohemians; in Italian and 
 modern Greek, Zingari. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. \st, 1775. 
 
 " Hie .... taedse pingues, hie plurimus ignis 
 Semper, et assidua postes fuligine nigri." 
 
 DEAR SIR, I shall make no apology for troubling you with the 
 detail of a very simple piece of domestic economy, being satisfied 
 that you think nothing beneath your attention that tends to utility ; 
 the matter alluded to is the use of rushes instead of candles, which 
 I am well aware prevails in many districts besides this; but as 
 I know there are countries also where it does not obtain, and as 
 I have considered the subject with some degree of exactness, I 
 shall proceed in my humble story, and leave you to judge of the 
 expediency. 
 
 The proper species of rush for this purpose seems to be the 
 juncus effusus, or common soft rush, which is to be found in most 
 moist pastures, by the sides of streams, and under hedges. These 
 rushes are in best condition in the height of summer ; but may be 
 
2C2 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 gathered, so as to serve the purpose well, quite on to autumn. It 
 would be needless to add that the largest and longest are best. 
 Decayed labourers, women, and children, make it their business 
 to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are cut, they must 
 be flung into water, and kept there, for otherwise they will dry 
 and shrink, and the peel will not run. At first a person would 
 find it no easy matter to divest a rush of its peel or rind, so as to 
 leave one regular, narrow, even rib from top to bottom that may 
 support the pith ; but this, like other feats, soon becomes familiar 
 even to children ; and we have seen an old woman, stone blind, 
 performing this business with great dispatch, and seldom failing to 
 strip them with the nicest regularity. When these junci are thus 
 far prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached, and 
 take the dew for some nights, and afterwards be dried in the sun. 
 Some address is required in dipping these rushes in the scalding 
 fat or grease ; but this knack also is to be attained by practice. 
 The careful wife of an industrious Hampshire labourer obtains all 
 her fat for nothing ; for she saves the scummings of her bacon-pot 
 for this use ; and, if the grease abounds with salt, she causes the 
 salt to precipitate to the bottom, by setting the scummings in a 
 warm oven. Where hogs are not much in use, and especially by 
 the sea-side, the coarser animal-oils will come very cheap. A 
 pound of common grease may be procured for fourpence, and 
 about six pounds of grease will dip a pound of rushes, and one 
 pound of rushes may be bought for one shilling ; so that a pound 
 of rushes, medicated and ready for use, will cost three shillings. 
 If men that keep bees will mix a little wax with the grease, it will 
 give it a consistency, and render it more cleanly, and make the 
 rushes burn longer ; mutton-suet would have the same effect. 
 
 A good rush, which measured in length two feet four inches 
 and a half, being minuted, burnt only three minutes short of an 
 hour ; and a rush of still greater length has been known to burn 
 one hour and a quarter. 
 
 These rushes give a good clear light. Watch-lights (coated 
 with tallow), it is true, shed a dismal one, " darkness visible ;" 
 but then the wick of those have two ribs of the rind, or peel, to 
 support the pith, while the wick of the dipped rush has but one. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 203 
 
 The two ribs are intended to impede the progress of the flame 
 and make the candle last. 
 
 In a pound of dry rushes, avoirdupois, which I caused to be 
 weighed and numbered, we found upwards of one thousand six 
 hundred individuals. Now suppose each of these burns, one with 
 another, only half an hour, then a poor man will purchase eight 
 hundred hours of light, a time exceeding thirty-three entire days, 
 for three shillings. According to this account each rush, before 
 dipping, costs ^ of a farthing, and afterwards. Thus a poor 
 family will enjoy five and a half hours of comfortable light for a 
 farthing. An experienced old housekeeper assures me that one 
 pound and a half of rushes completely supplies his family the year 
 round, since working people burn no candles in the long days, 
 because they rise and go to bed by daylight. 
 
 Little farmers use rushes much in the short days both morning 
 and evening, in the dairy and kitchen ; but the very poor, who 
 are always the worst economists, and therefore must continue 
 very poor, buy a halfpenny candle every evening, which in their 
 blowing open rooms, does not burn much more than two hours. 
 Thus have they only two hours' light for their money instead of 
 eleven. 
 
 While on the subject of rural economy, it may not be improper 
 to mention a pretty implement of housewifery that we have seen 
 nowhere else ; that is, little neat besoms which our foresters make 
 from the stalks of the polytricum commune, or great golden maiden 
 hair, which they call silk-wood, and find plenty in the bogs. 
 When this moss is well combed and dressed, and divested of its 
 outer skin, it becomes of a beautiful bright- chesnut colour ; and, 
 being soft and pliant, is very proper for the dusting of beds, cur- 
 tains, carpets, hangings, etc. If these besoms were known to the 
 brush-makers in town, it is probable they might come much in use 
 for the purpose above-mentioned. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
204 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Dec. iith, 1775. 
 
 DEAR SIR, We had in this village more than twenty years ago 
 an idiot boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed 
 a strong propensity to bees ; they were his food, his amusement, 
 his sole object. And as people of this caste have seldom more 
 than one point in view, so this lad exerted all his few faculties on 
 this one pursuit. In the winter he dozed away his time, within 
 his father's house, by the fireside, in a kind of torpid state, seldom 
 departing from the chimney-corner; but in the summer he was all 
 alert, and in quest of his game in the fields, and on sunny banks. 
 Honey-bees, humble-bees, and wasps, were his prey wherever he 
 found them ; he had no apprehensions from their stings, but would 
 seize them nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their 
 weapons, and suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. 
 Sometimes he would fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin 
 with a number of these captives, and sometimes would confine 
 them in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-bird, and 
 very injurious to men that kept bees ; for he would slide into their 
 bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, would rap with 
 his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as they came out. 
 He has been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of 
 which he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was making 
 he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of 
 what he called bee-wine. As he ran about he used to make a 
 humming noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. 
 This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion ; 
 and, except in his favourite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully 
 adroit, discovered no manner of understanding. Had his capacity 
 been better, and directed to the same object, he had perhaps 
 abated much of our wonder at the feats of a more modern 
 exhibitor of bees ; and we may justly say of him now, 
 " . , . Thou, 
 
 Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 
 Shouldst Wildman 1 be ." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 205 
 
 When a tall youth he was removed from hence to a distant 
 village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at 
 manhood. I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXVII. 
 
 1 Wildman was a writer on bees and their management. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. %th, 1776. 
 
 DEAR SIR, It is the hardest thing in the world to shake off 
 superstitious prejudices : they are sucked in, as it were, with our 
 mother's milk ; and, growing up with us at a time when they take 
 the fastest hold and make the most lasting impressions, become 
 so interwoven into our very constitutions, that the strongest good 
 sense is required to disengage ourselves from them. No wonder, 
 therefore, that the lower people retain them their whole lives 
 through, since their minds are not invigorated by a liberal educa- 
 tion, and therefore not enabled to make any efforts adequate to 
 the occasion. 
 
 Such a preamble seems to be necessary before we enter on 
 the superstitions of this district, lest we should be suspected of 
 exaggeration in a recital of practices too gross for this enlightened 
 age. 
 
 But the people of Tring, in Hertfordshire, would do well to 
 remember, that no longer ago than the year 1751, and within 
 twenty miles of the capital, they seized on two superannuated 
 wretches, crazed with age, and overwhelmed with infirmities, on 
 a suspicion of witchcraft; and, by trying experiments, drowned 
 them in a horse-pond. 
 
 In a farm-yard near the middle of this village stands, at this 
 day, a row of pollard-ashes, which, by the seams and long cica- 
 trices down their sides, manifestly show that, in former times, they 
 have been cleft asunder. These trees, when young and flexible, 
 
206 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 were severed and held open by wedges, while ruptured children, 
 stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures, under a per- 
 suasion that, by such a process, the poor babes would be cured of 
 their infirmity. As soon as the operation was over, the tree, in 
 the suffering part, was plastered with loam, and carefully swathed 
 up. If the parts coalesced and soldered together, as usually fell 
 out, where the feat was performed with any adroitness at all, the 
 party was cured; but, where the cleft continued to gape, the 
 operation, it was supposed, would prove ineffectual. Having 
 
 THE SHREW 
 
 occasion to enlarge my garden not long since, I cut down two 
 or three such trees, one of which did not grow together. 
 
 We have several persons now living in the village, who, in their 
 childhood, were supposed to be healed by this superstitious 
 ceremony, derived down perhaps from our Saxon ancestors, who 
 practised it before their conversion to Christianity. 
 
 At the fourth corner of the Plestor, or area, near the church, 
 there stood, about twenty years ago, a very old grotesque hollow 
 pollard-ash, which for ages had been looked on with no small 
 veneration as a shrew-ash. Now a shrew-ash is an ash whose 
 twigs or branches, when gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 207 
 
 immediately relieve the pains which a beast suffers from the 
 running of a shrew-mouse over the part affected ; for it is supposed 
 that a shrew-mouse is of so baneful and deleterious a nature, that 
 wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, or sheep, the 
 suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, and threatened 
 with the loss of the use of the limb.* Against this accident, to 
 which they were continually liable, our provident forefathers 
 always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medicated, 
 would maintain its virtue for ever. A shrew-ash was made thus : 
 Into the body of the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, 
 and a poor devoted shrew-mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged 
 in, no doubt, with several quaint incantations long since forgotten. 
 As the ceremonies necessary for such a consecration are no longer 
 understood, all succession is at an end, and no such tree is known 
 to subsist in the manor, or hundred. 
 As to that on the Plestor 
 
 "The late Vicar stubb'd and burnt it," 
 
 when he was way-warden, regardless of the remonstrances of the 
 bystanders, who interceded in vain for its preservation, urging its 
 power and efficacy, and alleging that it had been 
 
 ' Rellgione patrum multos servata per annos.' 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. ytk, 1776. 
 
 DEAR SIR, In heavy fogs, on elevated situations especially, 
 trees are perfect alembics; and no one that has not attended to 
 such matters can imagine how much water one tree will distil in a 
 night's time, by condensing the vapour, which trickles down the 
 
 * " When a horse in the fields happened to be suddenly seized with anything 
 like a numbness in his legs, he was immediately judged by the old persons to 
 be either planet-struck, or shrew- struck. The mode of cure which they pre- 
 scribed, and which they considered in all cases infallible, was to drag the 
 animal through a piece of bramble that grew at both ends." BINGLEY. 
 
2 o8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 twigs and boughs, so as to make the ground below quite in a float. 
 In Newton Lane, in October 1775, on a misty day, a particular 
 oak in leaf dropped so fast that the cart-way stood in puddles and 
 the ruts ran with water, though the ground in general was dusty. 
 
 In some of our smaller islands in the West Indies, if I mistake 
 not, there are no springs or rivers ; but the people are supplied 
 with that necessary element, water, merely by the dripping of some 
 la^ge teak trees, which, standing in the bosom of a mountain, keep 
 their heads constantly enveloped with fogs and clouds, from which 
 they dispense their kindly never-ceasing moisture ; and so render 
 those districts habitable by condensation alone. 
 
 Trees in leaf have such a vast proportion more of surface than 
 those that are naked, that, in theory, their condensations should 
 greatly exceed those that are stripped of their leaves ; but, as the 
 former imbibe also a great quantity of moisture, it is difficult to 
 say which drip most ; but this I know, that deciduous trees that 
 are entwined with much ivy seem to distil the greatest quantity. 
 Ivy-leaves are smooth, and thick, and cold, and therefore condense 
 very fast ; and besides, evergreens imbibe very little. These facts 
 may furnish the intelligent with hints concerning what sorts of trees 
 they should plant round small ponds that they would wish to be 
 perennial ; and show them how advantageous some trees are in 
 preference to others. 
 
 Trees perspire profusely, condense largely, and check evapora- 
 tion so much, that woods are always moist; no wonder, therefore, 
 that they contribute much to pools and streams. 
 
 That trees are great promoters of lakes and rivers appears from 
 a well-known fact in North America; for, since the woods and 
 forests have been grubbed and cleared, all bodies of water are 
 much diminished ; so that some streams, that were very consider- 
 able a century ago, will not 'now drive a common mill. Besides, 
 most woodlands, forests, and chases, with us abound with pools 
 and morasses ; no doubt for the reason given above. 
 
 To a thinking mind few phenomena are more strange than the 
 state of little ponds on the summits of chalk-hills, many of which 
 are never dry in the most trying droughts of summer. On chalk- 
 hills I say, because in many rocky and gravelly soils springs usually 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 209 
 
 break out pretty high on the sides of elevated grounds and 
 mountains ; but no person acquainted with chalky districts will 
 allow that they ever saw springs in such a soil but in valleys and 
 bottoms, since the waters of so pervious a stratum as chalk all lie 
 on one dead level, as well-diggers have assured me again and again. 
 Now we have many such little round ponds in this district ; and 
 one in particular on our sheep-down, three hundred feet above my 
 house ; which, though never above three feet deep in the middle, 
 and not more than thirty feet in diameter, and containing perhaps 
 not more than two or three hundred hogsheads of water, yet never 
 is known to fail, though it affords drink for three hundred or four 
 hundred sheep, and for at least twenty head of large cattle beside. 
 This pond, it is true, is overhung with two moderate beeches, that, 
 doubtless, at times afford it much supply : but then we have others 
 as small, that, without the aid of trees, and in spite of evaporation 
 from sun and wind, and perpetual consumption by cattle, yet 
 constantly maintain a moderate share of water, without overflowing 
 in the wettest seasons, as they would do if supplied by springs. 
 By my journal of May, 1775, it appears that " the small and even 
 considerable ponds in the vales are now dried up, while the small 
 ponds on the very tops of hills are but little affected." Can this 
 difference be accounted for from evaporation alone, which certainly 
 is more prevalent in bottoms? or rather have not those elevated 
 pools some unnoticed recruits, which in the night time counter- 
 balance the waste of the day; without which the cattle alone must 
 soon exhaust them ? And here it will be necessary to enter more 
 minutely into the cause. Dr. Hales, in his Vegetable Statics, 
 advances, from experiment, that "the moister the earth is the 
 more dew falls on it in a night; and more than a double 
 quantity of dew falls on a surface of water than there does on an 
 equal surface of moist earth." Hence we see that water, by its 
 coolness, is enabled to assimilate to itself a large quantity of 
 moisture nightly by condensation ; and that the air, when loaded 
 with fogs and vapours, and even with copious dews, can alone 
 advance a considerable and never-failing resource. Persons that 
 are much abroad, and travel early and late, such as shepherds, 
 fishermen, etc., can tell what prodigious fogs prevail in the night 
 
210 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 on elevated downs, even in the hottest parts of summer; and how 
 much the surfaces of things are drenched by those swimming 
 vapours, though, to the senses, all the while, little moisture seems 
 to fall. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 SELBORNE, April yd, 1776. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Monsieur Herissant, a French anatomist, seems per- 
 suaded that he has discovered the reason why cuckoos do not 
 hatch their own eggs ; the impediment, he supposes, arises from 
 the internal structure of their parts, which incapacitates them for 
 incubation. According to this gentleman, the crop, or craw, of a 
 cuckoo does not lie before the sternum at the bottom of the neck, 
 as in the gallince, cohimbce, etc., but immediately behind it, on and 
 over the bowels, so as to make a large protuberance in the belly. 
 
 Induced by this assertion, we procured a cuckoo ; and, cutting 
 open the breast-bone, and exposing the intestines to sight, found 
 the crop lying as mentioned above. This stomach was large and 
 round, and stuffed hard, like a pincushion, with food, which, upon 
 nice examination, we found to consist of various insects ; such as 
 small scarabs, spiders, and dragon-flies ; the last of which we have 
 seen cuckoos catching on the wing as they were just emerging out 
 of the aurelia state. Among this farrago also were to be seen 
 maggots, and many seeds, which belonged either to gooseberries, 
 currants, cranberries, or some such fruit; so that these birds 
 apparently subsist on insects and fruits ; nor was there the least 
 appearance of bones, feathers, or fur, to support the idle notion 
 of their being birds of prey. 
 
 The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be remarkably short, 
 between which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, and immedi- 
 ately behind that the bowels against the back-bone. 
 
 It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the crop 
 placed just upon the bowels must, especially when full, be in a 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 211 
 
 very uneasy situation during the business of incubation ; yet the 
 lest will be to examine whether birds that are actually known to 
 sit for certain are not formed in a similar manner. This inquiry 
 I proposed to myself to make with a fern-owl, or goat- sucker, as 
 soon as opportunity offered : because, if their formation proves 
 the same, the reason for incapacity in the cuckoo will be allowed 
 to have been taken up somewhat hastily. 
 
 Not long after a fern-owl was procured, which, from its habit 
 and shape, we suspected might resemble the cuckoo in its internal 
 construction. Nor were our suspicions ill-grounded; for, upon 
 the dissection, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the sternum, 
 immediately on the viscera, between them and the skin of the 
 belly. It was bulky, and stuffed hard with large phatcentz, moths 
 of several sorts, and their eggs, which no doubt had been forced 
 out of those insects by the action of swallowing. 
 
 Now as it appears that this bird, which is so well known to 
 practise incubation, is formed in a similar manner with cuckoos, 
 Monsieur Herissant's conjecture, that cuckoos are incapable of 
 incubation from the disposition of their intestines, seems to fall 
 to the ground ; and we are still at a loss for the cause of that 
 strange and singular peculiarity in the instance of the cuculus 
 cancrus. 
 
 We found the case to be the same with the ring-tail hawk, in 
 respect to formation; and, as far as I can recollect, with the 
 swift ; and probably it is so with many more sorts of birds that 
 are not granivorous. I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 SELBORNE, April 2tyh, 1776. 
 
 DEAR SIR, On August 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, 
 which seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass bask- 
 ing in the sun. When we came to cut it up, we found that the 
 abdomen was crowded with young, fifteen in number ; the shortest 
 of which measured full seven inches, and were about the size of 
 
r.12 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 full-grown earth-worms. This little fry issued into the world with 
 the true viper-spirit about them, showing great alertness as soon 
 as disengaged from the belly of the dam : they twisted and wrig- 
 gled about, and set themselves up, and gaped very wide when 
 touched with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace and 
 defiance, though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we could 
 nnd, even with the help of our glasses. 
 
 To a thinking mind nothing is more wonderful than that early 
 instinct which impresses young animals with a notion of the 
 situation of their natural weapons, and of using them properly 
 in their own defence, even before those weapons subsist or are 
 formed. Thus a young cock will spar at his adversary before his 
 spurs are grown ; and a calf or a lamb will push with their heads 
 before their horns are sprouted. In the same manner did these 
 young adders attempt to bite before their fangs were in being. 
 The dam however was furnished with very formidable ones, which 
 we lifted up (for they fold down when not used) and cut them oft 
 with the point of our scissors. 
 
 There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever been 
 in the open air before ; and that they were taken in for refuge, 
 at the mouth of the dam, when she perceived that danger was 
 aoproaching ; because then probably we should have found them 
 somewhere in the neck, and not in the abdomen. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 CASTRATION has a strange effect : it emasculates both man, beast, 
 and bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the other sex. 
 Thus eunuchs have smooth unmuscular arms, thighs and legs ; 
 and broad hips, and beardless chins, and squeaking voices. Gelt 
 stags and bucks have hornless heads, like hinds and does. Thus 
 wethers have small horns, like ewes ; and oxen large bent horns, 
 and hoarse voices when they low, like cows : for bulls have short 
 straight horns ; and though they mutter and grumble in a deep 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 213 
 
 tremendous tone, yet they low in a shrill high key. Capons have 
 small combs and gills, and look pallid about the head, like pullets ; 
 they also walk without any parade, and hover chickens like hens. 
 Barrow-hogs have also small tusks like sows. 
 
 Thus far it is plain that the deprivation of masculine vigour 
 puts a stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that are 
 looked upon as its insignia. But the ingenious Mr. Lisle, in his 
 book on husbandry, carries it much farther ; for he says that the 
 loss of those insignia alone has sometimes a strange effect on the 
 ability itself: he had a boar so fierce and venereous, that, to 
 prevent mischief, orders were given for his tusks to be broken 
 off. No sooner had the beast suffered this injury than his powers 
 forsook him, and he neglected those females to whom before he 
 was passionately attached, and from whom no fences would 
 restiain him. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE natural term of a hog's life is little known, and the reason 
 is plain because it is neither profitable nor convenient to keep 
 that turbulent animal to the full extent of its time : however, my 
 neighbour, a man of substance, who had no occasion to study 
 every little advantage to a nicety, kept a half-bred bantam-sow, 
 who was as thick as she was long, and whose belly swept on the 
 ground till she was advanced to her seventeenth year, at which 
 period she showed some tokens of age by the decay of her teeth 
 and the decline of her fertility. 
 
 For about ten years this prolific mother produced two litters 
 in the year of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a 
 litter ; but, as there were near double the number of pigs to that 
 of teats, many died. From long experience in the world this 
 female was grown very sagacious and artful. When she found 
 occasion to converse with a boar she used to open all the inter- 
 vening gates, and march, by herself, up to a distant farm where 
 one was kept ; and when her purpose was served would return by 
 
214 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 the same means. At the age of about fifteen her litters began to 
 be reduced to four or five ; and such a litter she exhibited when 
 in her fatting-pen. She proved, when fat, good bacon, juicy, and 
 tender ; the rind, or sward, was remarkably thin. At a moderate 
 computation she was allowed to have been the fruitful parent of 
 three hundred pigs : a prodigious instance of fecundity in so large 
 a quadruped ! She was killed in spring 1775. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 SELBORNE, May gf/i, 1776. 
 " . . . admorunt ubera tigres." 
 
 DEAR SIR, We have remarked in a former letter* how much 
 incongruous animals, in a lonely state, may be attached to each 
 other from a spirit of sociality ; in this it may not be amiss to 
 recount a different motive which has been known to create as 
 strange a fondness. 
 
 My friend had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which 
 the servants fed with milk in a spoon, and about the same time 
 his cat kittened and the young were dispatched and buried. The 
 hare was soon lost, and supposed to be gone the way of most 
 fondlings, to be killed by some dog or cat. However, in about a 
 fortnight, as the master was sitting in his garden in the dusk of 
 the evening, he observed his cat, with tail erect, trotting towards 
 him, and calling with little short inward notes of complacency, 
 such as they use towards their kittens, and something gambling 
 after, which proved to be the leveret that the cat had supported 
 with her milk, and continued to support with great affection. 1 
 
 Thus was a graminivorous animal nurtured by a carnivorous and 
 predaceous one ! 
 
 Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat, of the ferocious 
 genus of Felis, the murium leo, as Linnaeus calls it, should be 
 
 * Letter XXIV. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 215 
 
 affected with any tenderness towards an animal which is its natural 
 prey, is not so easy to determine. 
 
 This strange affection probably was occasioned by that desi- 
 derium, those tender maternal feelings, which the loss of her 
 kittens had awakened in her breast ; and by the complacency and 
 ease she derived to herself from the procuring her teats to be 
 drawn, which were too much distended with milk, till, from habit, 
 she became as much delighted with this foundling as if it had 
 been her real offspring. 
 
 This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance 
 which grave historians as well as the poets assert, of exposed 
 children being sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that 
 probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit more 
 marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, should 
 be nursed by a she- wolf, than that a poor little sucking leveret 
 should be fostered and cherished by a bloody grimalkin. 
 
 " . . . viridi foetam Mavortis in antro 
 Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic ubera circum 
 Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem 
 Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam 
 Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua." * 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 1 An incident told me by Mr. Harrett, of Kirkwhelpington, may well be 
 told here. He has a fine colley bitch which had young ones. She was annoyed 
 by a cat prowling about them, and killed it. This cat had one small kitten, 
 which the maids tried to rear by hand in the kitchen. The bitch hearing its 
 cries fetched it away and laid it among her own pups, suckling it until they 
 were all weaned together, thus atoning as far as she could for the murder of 
 its mother. 
 
 ; The cave of Mars was dressed with mossy greens : 
 There by the wolf were laid the martial twins, 
 Intrepid on her swellings dugs they hung ; 
 The foster dam loll'd out her fawning tongue : 
 They suck'd secure, while bending back her head, 
 She lick'd their tender limbs ; and formed them as they fed." 
 
 DRYD. VIRG. <Ln. viii. line 840. 
 
2i6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 SELBORNE, May 2o/^, 1777. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Lands that are subject to frequent inundations are 
 always poor ; and probably the reason may be because the worms 
 are drowned. The most insignificant insects and reptiles are of 
 much more consequence, and have much more influence in the 
 economy of Nature, than the incurious are aware of; and are 
 mighty in their effect, from their minuteness, which renders them 
 less an object of attention and from their numbers and fecundity. 
 Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and despicable link 
 in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable 
 chasm. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some quad- 
 rupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem 
 to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but 
 lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the 
 soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by 
 drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it ; and, most 
 of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth 
 called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure 
 for grain and grass. Worms probably provide new soil for hills 
 and slopes where the rain washes the earth away ; and they affect 
 slopes, probably to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and farmers 
 express their detestation of worms ; the former because they 
 render their walks unsightly, and make them much work ; and 
 the latter because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. 
 But these men would find that the earth without worms would 
 soon become cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation, and 
 consequently sterile ; and besides, in favour of worms, it should be 
 hinted that green corn, plants, and flowers, are not so much 
 injured by them as by many species of coleoptera (scarabs), and 
 tipulce (long-legs) in their larva, or grub -state ; and by unnoticed 
 myriads of small shell-less snails, called slugs, which silently and 
 imperceptibly make amazing havoc in the field and garden.* 
 
 * Farmer Young, of Norton Farm, says, that this spring (1777) about four 
 acres of his wheat in one field were entirely destroyed by slugs, which swarmed 
 on the blades of corn, and devoured it as fast as it sprang. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 217 
 
 These hints we think proper to throw out in order to set the 
 inquisitive and discerning to work. 
 
 A good monography of worms would afford much entertainment 
 and information at the same time, and would open a large and 
 new field in natural history. Worms work most in the spring ; 
 but by no means lie torpid in the dead months : are out every 
 mild night in the winter, as any person may be convinced that 
 will take the pains to examine his grass-plots with a candle ; are 
 hermaphrodites, and much addicted to venery, and consequently 
 very prolific. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. 22nd, 1777. 
 
 DEAR SIR, You cannot but remember that the 26th and 27th 
 of last March were very hot days, so sultry that everybody com- 
 plained and were restless under those sensations to which they 
 had not been reconciled by gradual approaches. 
 
 This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer 
 coincidences; for on those two days the thermometer rose to 
 66 in the shade ; many species of insects revived and came forth ; 
 some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood ; the old tortoise, near 
 Lewes, in Sussex, awakened and came forth out of its dormitory; 
 and, what is most to my present purpose, many house-swallows 
 appeared and were very alert in many places, and particularly at 
 Chobham, in Surrey. 
 
 But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as pre- 
 ceded by harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and 
 cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired again 
 into the ground, and the swallows were seen no more until the 
 roth April, when, tne rigour ot the spring abating, a softer season 
 began to prevail. 
 
 Again; it appears by my journals for many years past that 
 house-martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October; 
 
2i 8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 so that a person not very observant of such matters would con- 
 clude that they had taken their last farewell ; but then it may be 
 seen in my diaries also that considerable flocks have discovered 
 themselves again in the first week of November, and often on the 
 fourth day of that month only for one day; and that not as if 
 they were in actual migration, but playing about at their leisure 
 and feeding calmly, as if no enterprise of moment at all agitated 
 their spirits. And this was the case in the beginning of this 
 very month ; for on the 4th November, more than twenty house- 
 martins, which, in appearance, had all departed about the yth 
 October, were seen again for that one morning only sporting 
 between my fields and the Hanger, and feasting on insects which 
 swarmed in that sheltered district. The preceding day was wet 
 and blustering, but the 4th was dark, and mild, and soft, the wind 
 at south-west, and the thermometer at 58|; a pitch not common 
 at that season of the year. Moreover, it may not be amiss to add 
 in this place, that whenever the thermometer is above 50, the bat 
 comes flitting out in every autumnal and winter-month. 
 
 From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that 
 torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from their 
 profoundest slumbers by a little untimely warmth ; and therefore 
 that nothing so much promotes its death-like stupor as a defect 
 of heat. And farther, it is reasonable to suppose that two whole 
 species, or at least many individuals of those two species of 
 British hirundines do never leave this island at all, but partake of 
 the same benumbed state ; for we cannot suppose, that after a 
 month's absence, house-martins can return from southern regions 
 to appear for one morning in November, or that house-swallows 
 should leave the districts of Asia to enjoy in March the transient 
 summer of a couple of days. 
 
 1 am, etc. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 219 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. 8tti, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, There was in this village several years ago a miserable 
 pauper, who from his birth was afflicted with a leprosy, as far 
 as we are aware of a singular kind, since it affected only the 
 palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. This scaly eruption 
 usually broke out twice in the year, at the spring and fall ; and, 
 by peeling away, left the skin so thin and tender that neither his 
 hands nor feet were able to perform their functions ; so that the 
 poor object was half his time on crutches, incapable of employ, 
 and languishing in a tiresome state of indolence and inactivity. 
 His habit was lean, lank and cadaverous. In this sad plight he 
 dragged on a miserable existence, a burden to himself and his 
 parish, which was obliged to support him till he was relieved by 
 death at more than thirty years of age. 
 
 The good women, who love to account for every defect in 
 children by the doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt a 
 violent propensity for oysters, which she was unable to gratify; 
 and that the black rough scurf on his hands and feet were the 
 shells of that fish. We knew his parents, neither of which were 
 lepers j his father in particular lived to be far advanced in years. 
 
 In all ages the leprosy has made dreadful havoc among man- 
 kind. The Israelites seem to have been greatly afflicted with it 
 from the most remote times, as appears from the peculiar and 
 repeated injunctions given them in the Levitical law.* Nor was 
 the rancour of this foul disorder much abated in the last period of 
 their commonwealth, as may be seen in many passages of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 Some centuries ago this horrible distemper prevailed all Europe 
 over : and our forefathers were by no means exempt, as appears 
 by the large provision made for objects labouring under this 
 calamity. There was an hospital for female lepers in the diocese 
 of Lincoln; a noble one near Durham; three in London and 
 * See Lev. xiii., xiv. 
 
220 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Southwark; and perhaps many more in or near our great towns and 
 cities. Moreover, some crowned heads, and other wealthy and 
 charitable personages, bequeathed large legacies to such poor 
 people as languished under this hopeless infirmity. 
 
 It must, therefore, in these days be to a humane and thinking 
 person a matter of equal wonder and satisfaction, when he con- 
 templates how nearly this pest is eradicated, and observes that a 
 leper now is a rare sight. He will, moreover, when engaged in 
 such a train of thought naturally inquire for the reason. This 
 happy change, perhaps, may have originated and been continued 
 from the much smaller quantity of salted meat and fish now eaten 
 in these kingdoms ; from the use of linen next the skin ; from the 
 plenty of better bread ; and from the profusion of fruits, roots, 
 legumes, and greens, so common in every family. Three or four 
 centuries ago, before there were any enclosures, sown-grasses, 
 field-turnips, or field-carrots, or hay, all the cattle which had grown 
 fat in summer, and were not killed for winter use, were turned out 
 soon after Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead 
 months ; so that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. 
 Hence the marvellous account of the vast stores of salted flesh 
 found in the larder of the eldest Spencer * in the days of Edward II., 
 even so late in the spring as the 3rd May. It was from maga- 
 zines like these that the turbulent barons supported in idleness 
 their riotous swarms of retainers ready for any disorder or mischief. 
 But agriculture is now arrived at such a pitch of perfection that our 
 best and fattest meats are killed in the winter ; and no man need 
 eat salted flesh unless he prefers it, that has money to buy fresh. 
 
 One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quantity 
 of wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the commonalty at 
 all seasons as well as in Lent ; which our poor now would hardly 
 be persuaded to touch. 
 
 The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the room of sordid 
 and filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter of neatness 
 comparatively modern ; but must prove a great means of pre- 
 venting cutaneous ails. At this very time woollen, instead of linen, 
 prevails among the poorer Welch, who are subject to foul eruptions. 
 * Viz., six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, and six hundred muttons. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 221 
 
 The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is found among all 
 ranks of people in the south, instead of that miserable sort which 
 used in old days to be made of barley or beans, may contribute 
 not a little to the sweetening their blood and correcting their 
 juices ; for the inhabitants of mountainous districts to this day 
 are still liable to the itch and other cutaneous disorders, from a 
 wretchedness and poverty of diet. 
 
 As to the produce of a garden, every middle-aged person of 
 observation may perceive, within his own memory, both in town 
 and country, how vastly the consumption of vegetables is increased. 
 Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in a comfortable 
 state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer also 
 has his garden, which is half his support, as well as his delight ; 
 and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, and greens, 
 for their hinds to eat with their bacon; and those few that do 
 not are despised for their sordid parsimony, and looked upon as 
 regardless of the welfare of their dependents. Potatoes have pre- 
 vailed in this little district by means of premiums within these 
 twenty years only ; and are much esteemed here now by the poor, 
 who would scarce have ventured to taste them in the last reign. 
 
 Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, because 
 they call the month of February " sprout-cale ; " but long after 
 their days the cultivation of gardens was little attended to. The 
 religious, being men of leisure, and keeping up a constant cor- 
 respondence with Italy, were the first people among us that had 
 gardens and fruit-trees in any perfection within the wall of their 
 abbeys * and priories. The barons neglected every pursuit that 
 did not lead to war or tend to the pleasure of the chase. 
 
 It was not till gentlemen took up the study of horticulture 
 themselves that the knowledge of gardening made such hasty 
 advances. Lord Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller, of Beacons- 
 field, were some of the first people of rank that promoted the 
 
 * " In monasteries the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however dimly. 
 In them men of business were formed for the state : the art of writing was 
 cultivated by the monks ; they were the only proficients in mechanics, gardening, 
 and architecture." DALRYMPLE'S Annals of Scotland. 
 
222 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 elegant science of ornamenting without despising the superintend- 
 ence of the kitchen quarters and fruit walls. 
 
 A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray, in his " Tour of 
 Europe," at once surprises us, and corroborates what has been 
 advanced above ; for we find him observing so late as his days, 
 that, "The Italians use several herbs for sallets, which are not 
 yet, or have not been but lately, used in England, viz., seller i 
 (celery), which is nothing else but the sweet smallage; the young 
 shoots whereof, with a little of the head of the root cut off, they 
 eat raw with oil and pepper ; " and further adds : " curled endive 
 blanched is much used beyond seas ; and for a raw sallet, seemed 
 to excell lettuce itself." Now this journey was undertaken no 
 longer ago than in the year 1 663. I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 12th, 1778. 
 
 " Forte puer, comitum seductus ab agmine fido, 
 Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et, adest, respond erat echo, 
 Hie stupet ; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes ; 
 Voce, veni, clamat magna. Vocat ilia vocantem." * 
 
 DEAR SIR, In a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow 
 vales and hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes should 
 abound. Many we have discovered that return the cry of a pack 
 of dogs, the notes of a hunting-horn, a tunable ring of bells, or the 
 melody of birds very agreeably ; but we were still at a loss for a 
 polysyllabical articulate echo, till a young gentleman, who had 
 parted from his company in a summer evening walk, and was 
 calling after them, stumbled upon a very curious one in a spot 
 where it might least be expected. At first he was much surprised, 
 and could not be persuaded but that he was mocked by some 
 boy ; but repeating his trials in several languages, and finding his 
 
 * " Chance parts the youth from his companions dear, 
 
 He cries "Who's here ? " and Echo answers " Here ; " 
 
 He stares around, and for a while stands dumb, 
 
 Then shouts out, " Come," and Echo answers " Come." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 223 
 
 respondent to be a very adroit polyglot, he then discerned the 
 deception. 
 
 This echo in an evening, before rural noises cease, would re- 
 peat ten syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially if 
 quick dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of 
 
 "Tityre, tu patulse recubans . . ." 
 
 were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first ; and there is 
 no doubt, could trial have been made, but that at midnight, when 
 the air is very elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, one or two 
 syllables more might have been obtained ; but the distance 
 rendered so late an experiment very inconvenient. 
 
 Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best ; for when we came 
 to try its powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed spondees of the same 
 number of syllables, 
 
 "Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens . . ." 
 
 we could perceive a return but of four or five. 
 
 All echoes have some one place to which they are returned 
 stronger and more distinct than to any other ; and that is always 
 the place that lies at right angles with the object of repercussion, 
 and is not too near, nor too far off. Buildings, or naked rocks, 
 re-echo much more articulately than hanging woods or vales ; 
 because in the latter the voice is as it were entangled, and 
 embarrassed in the covert, and weakened in the rebound. 
 
 The true object of this echo, as we found by various experi- 
 ments, is the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Gally-lane, which 
 measures in front forty feet, and from the ground to the eaves 
 twelve feet. The true centrum phonicum, or just distance, is one 
 particular spot in the king's field, in the path to Nore-hill, on the 
 very brink of the steep balk above the hollow cart-way. In this 
 case there is no choice of distance; but the path, by mere con- 
 tingency, happens to be the lucky, the identical spot, because the 
 ground rises or falls so immediately, if the speaker either retires 
 or advances, that his mouth would at once be above or below the 
 object. 
 
 We measured this polysyllabical echo with great exactness, and 
 
224 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 found the distance to fall very short of Dr. Plot's rule for distinct 
 articulation j for the Doctor, in his history of Oxfordshire, allows 
 a hundred and twenty feet for the return of each syllable dis- 
 tinctly ; hence this echo, wh/ch gives ten distinct syllables, ought 
 to measure four hundred yards, or one hundred and twenty feet 
 to each syllable ; whereas our distance is only two hundred and 
 fifty-eight yards, or near seventy-five feet, to each syllable. Thus 
 our measure falls short of the Doctor's, as five to eight ; but then 
 it must be acknowledged that this candid philosopher was con- 
 vinced afterwards, that some latitude must be admitted of in the 
 distance of echoes according to time and place. 
 
 When experiments of this sort are making, it should always be 
 remembered that weather and the time of day have a vast influence 
 on an echo ; for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens and clogs the 
 sound ; and hot sunshine renders the air thin and weak, and 
 deprives it of all its springiness, and a ruffling wind quite defeats 
 the whole. In a still, clear, dewy evening the air is most elastic ; 
 and perhaps the later the hour the more so. 
 
 Echo has always been so amusing to the imagination, that the 
 poets have personified her j and in their hands she has been the 
 occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor need the gravest man 
 be ashamed to appear taken with such a phenomenon, since it may 
 become the subject of philosophical or mathematical inquiries. 
 
 One should have imagined that echoes, if not entertaining, 
 must at least have been harmless and inoffensive ; yet, Virgil 
 advances a strange notion, that they are injurious to bees. After 
 enumerating some probable and reasonable annoyances, such as 
 prudent owners would .wish far removed from their bee-gardens, 
 he adds 
 
 "aut ubi concava pulsu 
 
 Saxa sonant, vocisque offensa resultat imago." 
 
 This wild and fanciful assertion will hardly be admitted by the 
 philosophers of these days, especially as they all now seem agreed 
 that insects are not furnished with any organs of hearing at all. 
 But if it should be urged, that though they cannot hear yet perhaps 
 they may feel the repercussions of sounds, I grant it is possible 
 they may. Yet that these impressions are distasteful or hurtful, I 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 225 
 
 deny, because bees, in good summers, thrive well in my outlet, 
 where the echoes are very strong ; for this village is another 
 Anathoth, a place of responses and echoes. Besides, it does not 
 appear from experiment that bees are in any way capable of being 
 affected by sounds ; for I have often tried my own with a large 
 speaking-trumpet held close to their hives, and with such an 
 exertion of voice as would have hailed a ship at the distance of a 
 mile, and still these insects pursued their various employments un- 
 disturbed, and without showing the least sensibility or resentment. 
 
 Some time since its discovery this echo is become totally silent, 
 though the object^ or hop-kiln, remains; nor is there any mystery 
 in this defect ; for the field between is planted as a hop-garden, 
 and the voice of the speaker is totally absorbed and lost among 
 the poles and entangled foliage of the hops. And when the poles 
 are removed in autumn the disappointment is the same ; because 
 a tall quick-set hedge, nurtured up for the purpose of shelter to 
 the hop ground, entirely interrupts the impulse and repercussion 
 of the voice ; so that till those obstructions are removed no more 
 of its garrulity can be expected. 
 
 Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park or 
 outlet a pleasing incident, he might build one at little or no 
 expense. For whenever he had occasion for a new barn, stable, 
 dog-kennel, or the like structure, it would be only needful to erect 
 this building on the gentle declivity of a hill, with a like rising 
 opposite to it, at a few hundred yards distance ; and perhaps 
 success might be the easier insured could some canal, lake, or 
 stream intervene. From a seat at the centrum phonicum he and 
 his friends might amuse themselves sometimes of an evening with 
 the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of whose complacency and 
 decent reserve more may be said than can with truth of every 
 individual of her sex ; since she is 
 
 " quse nee reticere loquenti, 
 
 Nee prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis echo." 
 
 \ am, etc. 
 P.S. The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following lovely 
 
226 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poetically accounting 
 for their causes from popular superstition : 
 
 "Quae bene quom videas, rationem reddere possis 
 Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola 
 Saxa paries formas verborum ex ordine reddant, 
 Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opacos 
 Quoerimus, et magna disperses voce ciemus. 
 Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces 
 Unam quom jaceres : ita colles collibus ipsis 
 Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre. 
 Haec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere 
 Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur ; 
 Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti 
 Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 
 Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 
 Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 
 Et genus agricolum late sentisoere, quom Pan 
 Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 
 Unco ssepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 
 Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam. " * 
 
 LUCRETIUS, Lib. iv. 1. 576. 
 
 * "Whence may'st thou solve, ingenuous ! to the world 
 The rise of echoes, formed in desert scenes, 
 Mid rocks, and mountains, mocking every sound, 
 When late we wander through their solemn glooms, 
 And, with loud voice, some lost companion call. 
 And oft re-echoes echo till the peal 
 Rings seven times round ; so rock to rock repels 
 The mimic shout, reiterated close. 
 
 "Here haunt the goat-foot satyrs, and the nymphs, 
 As rustics tell, and fauns whose frolic dance, 
 And midnight revels oft, they say, are heard 
 Breaking the noiseless silence ; while soft strains 
 Melodious issue, and the vocal band 
 Strike to their madrigals the plaintive lyre, 
 Such, feign they, sees the shepherd obvious oft, 
 J^ed on by Pan, with pine-leaved garland crown'd 
 And seven-mouth'd reed his labouring lip beneath, 
 Waking the woodland muse with ceaseless song." 
 
 J. MASON GCCD. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. : < 2 7 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 SELBORNE, May lyA, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Among the many singularities attending those 
 amusing birds the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion that 
 we have every year the same number of pairs invariably ; at least 
 the result of my inquiry has been exactly the same for a long time 
 past. The swallows and martins are so numerous, and so widely 
 distributed over the village, that it is hardly possible to recount 
 them ; while the swifts, though they do not build in the church, 
 yet so frequently haunt it, and play and rendezvous round it, that 
 they are easily enumerated. The number that I constantly find 
 are eight pairs ; about half of which reside in the church, and the 
 rest build in some of the lowest and meanest thatched cottages. 
 Now as these eight pairs, allowance being made for accidents, 
 breed yearly eight pairs more, what becomes annually of this 
 increase ; and what determines every spring which pairs shall visit 
 us, and reoccupy their ancient haunts ? 
 
 Ever since I have attended to the subject of ornithology, I 
 have always supposed that that sudden ) averse of affection, that 
 strange avricrropyrj, which immediately succeeds in the feathered 
 kind to the most passionate fondness, is the occasion of an equal 
 dispersion of birds over the face of the earth. Without this pro- 
 vision one favourite district would be crowded with inhabitants, 
 while others would be destitute and forsaken. But the parent 
 birds seem to maintain a jealous superiority, and to oblige the 
 young to seek for new abodes ; and the rivalry of the males in 
 many kinds, prevents their crowding the one on the other. 
 Whether the swallows and house-martins return in the same exact 
 number annually is not easy to say, for reasons given above ; but 
 it is apparent, as I have remarked before in my Monographies, 
 that the numbers returning bear no manner of proportion to the 
 numbers retiring. 
 
 IS 
 
228 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 SELBORNE, June 2nd, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The standing objection to botany has always been, 
 that it is a pursuit that amuses the fancy and exercises the memory, 
 without improving the mind or advancing any real knowledge ; 
 and, where the science is carried no farther than a mere systematic 
 classification, the charge is but too true. But the botanist that is 
 desirous of wiping off this aspersion should be by no means con- 
 tent with a list of names ; he should study plants philosophically, 
 should investigate the laws of vegetation, should examine the 
 powers and virtues of efficacious herbs, should promote their culti- 
 vation ; and graft the gardener, the planter, and the husbandman, 
 on the phytologist. Not that system is by any means to be thrown 
 aside; without system the field of Nature would be a pathless 
 wilderness \ but system should be subservient to, not the main 
 object of, pursuit. 
 
 Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention ; and in itself is 
 of the utmost consequence to mankind, and productive of many 
 of the greatest comforts and elegances of life. To plants we owe 
 timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, etc., what not 
 only strengthens our hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but what 
 secures us from inclemencies of weather and adorns our persons. 
 Man, in his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted by spon- 
 taneous vegetation ; in middle climes, where grasses prevail, he 
 mixes some animal food with the produce of the field and garden ; 
 and it is towards the polar extremes only that, like his kindred 
 bears and wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone, and is 
 driven to what hunger has never been known to compel the very 
 beasts, to prey on his own species. 1 
 
 The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on the 
 commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters of navi- 
 gation, as may be seen in the articles of sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, 
 ginsing, betel, paper, etc. As every climate has its peculiar 
 produce, our natural wants bring on a mutual intercourse ; so 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 229 
 
 that by means of trade each distinct part is supplied with the 
 growth of every latitude. But, without the knowledge of plants 
 and their culture, we must have been content with our hips and 
 haws, without enjoying the delicate fruits of India and the saluti- 
 ferous drugs of Peru. 
 
 Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every various 
 species of each obscure genus, the botanist should endeavour to 
 make himself acquainted with those that are useful. You shall 
 see a man readily ascertain every herb of the field, yet hardly 
 know wheat from barley, or at least one sort of wheat or barley 
 from another. 
 
 But of all sorts of vegetation the grasses seem to be most 
 neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to distinguish 
 the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the tender, nor the 
 succulent and nutritive from the dry and juiceless. 
 
 The study of grasses would be of great consequence to a 
 northerly, and grazing kingdom. The botanist that could im- 
 prove the sward of the district where he lived would be an useful 
 member of society : to raise a thick turf on a naked soil would 
 be worth volumes of systematic knowledge ; and he would be 
 the best commonwealth's man that could occasion the growth 
 of " two blades of grass where one alone was seen before." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XL. 
 
 1 Man seems to have a natural craving for flesh meat, and in some parts of 
 Africa where vegetable food is in plenty and even luxuriance, but animal food 
 is not so easily obtained, the desire to eat flesh causes cannibalism. It is not 
 hunger, because hunger could be satisfied by vegetable food, but an irresistible 
 craving for meat. The same cause may first have given rise to the odious 
 custom in some of the South Sea Islands. 
 
2jo NATURAL HISTORY OF &ELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XLT. 
 
 SELBORNE, Juh yd, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, In a district so diversified with such a variety of hill 
 and dale, aspects, and soils, it is no wonder that great choice of 
 plants should be found. Chalks, clays, sands, sheep-walks and 
 downs, bogs, heaths, woodlands, and champaign fields, cannot but 
 furnish an ample Flora. The deep rocky lanes abound with 
 filices, and the pastures and moist woods with fungi. If in any 
 branch of botany we may seem to be wanting, it must be in the 
 large aquatic plants, which are not to be expected on a spot far 
 removed from rivers, and lying up amidst the hill country at the 
 spring heads. To enumerate all the plants that have been dis- 
 covered within our limits would be a needless work ; but a short 
 list of the more rare, and the spots where they are to be found, 
 may be neither unacceptable nor unentertaining : 
 
 Helleborus fcetidus, stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or setter- 
 worth, all over the High-wood and Coney-croft-hanger : this 
 continues a great branching plant the winter through, blossoming 
 about January, and is very ornamental in shady walks and shrub- 
 beries. The good women give the leaves powdered to children 
 troubled with worms; but it is a violent remedy, and ought to be 
 administered with caution. 
 
 Helleborus viridis, green hellebore, in the deep stony lane on 
 the left hand just before the turning to Norton-farm, and at the 
 top of Middle Dorton under the hedge : this plant dies down to 
 the ground early in autumn, and springs again about February, 
 flowering almost as soon as it appears above the ground. 
 
 Vacdnium oxycoccos, creeping bilberries, or cranberries, in the 
 bogs of Bin's-pond. 
 
 Vacdnium wyrtillus, whortle, or bleaberries, on the dry hil- 
 locks of Wolmer-forest. 
 
 Drosera rotundifolia, round leaved sundew, in the bogs of 
 Bin's-pond. 
 
 Drosera longifolia, long-leaved sundew, in the bogs of Bin's- 
 pond. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 231 
 
 Comarum palustre, purple comarum, or marsh cinquefoil, in 
 the bogs of Bin's-pond. 
 
 Hypericum andros&mum, Tutsan, St. John's Wort, in the 
 stony, hollow lanes. 
 
 Vinca minor^ less periwinkle, in Selborne-hanger and Shrub- 
 wood. 
 
 Monotropa hypopithys, yellow monotropa, or birds' nest, in 
 Selborne-hanger under the shady beeches, to whose roots it seems 
 to be parasitical, at the north-west end of the Hanger. 
 
 Chlora perfoliata, Blackstonia perfoliata, Hudsoni, perfoliated 
 yellow-wort, on the banks in the King's-field. 
 
 Paris quadrifolia, herb of Paris, true-love, or one-berry, in the 
 Church-litten-coppice. 
 
 Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, opposite golden saxifrage, in 
 the dark and rocky hollow lanes. 
 
 Gentiana amarella, autumnal gentian, or fellwort, on the Zig- 
 zag and Hanger. 
 
 Lathnvz squamaria, tooth-wort, in the Church-litten-coppice 
 under some hazels near the foot-bridge, in Trimming's garuen 
 hedge, and on the dry wall opposite Grange-yard. 
 
 Dipsacus pilosus^ small teasel, in the Short and Long Lith. 
 
 Lathyrus sylvestris, narrow-leaved, or wild lathyrus, in the 
 bushes at the foot of the Short Lith, near the path. 
 
 Ophrys spiralis, ladies' traces, in the Long Lith, and towards 
 the south corner of the common. 
 
 Ophrys nidus avis, birds' nest ophrys, in the Long Lith under 
 the shady beeches among the dead leaves ; in Great Doriun 
 among the bushes, and on the Hanger plentifully. 
 
 Serapias latifolia^ helleborine, in the High- wood under the 
 shady beeches. 
 
 Daphne laureola, spurge laurel, in Selborne-Hanger and the 
 High-wood. 
 
 Daphne mezereum^ the mezereon, in Selborne-Hanger among 
 the shrubs, at the south-east end above the cottages. 
 
 Lycoperdon tuber, truffles, in the Hanger and High wocd. 
 
 Sambucus ebulus, dwarf elder, walwort, or danewort among 
 the rubbish and ruined foundations of the Priory. 
 
232 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Of all the propensities of plants, none seem more strange than 
 their different periods of blossoming. Some produce their flowers 
 in the winter, or very first dawnings of spring ; many when the 
 spring is established ; some at midsummer, and some not till 
 autumn. When we see the helleborus fcetidus and helleborus niger 
 blowing at Christmas, the helleborus hyemalis in January, and the 
 helleborus viridis as soon as ever it emerges out of the ground, we 
 do not wonder, because they are kindred plants that we expect 
 should keep pace the one with the other; but other congenerous 
 vegetables differ so widely in their time of flowering, that we 
 cannot but admire. I shall only instance at present in the crocus 
 sativus, the vernal and the autumnal crocus, which have such an 
 affinity, that the best botanists only make them varieties of the 
 same genus, of which there is only one species, not being able to 
 discern any difference in the corolla, or in the internal structure. 
 Yet the vernal crocus expands its flowers by the beginning of 
 March at farthest, and often in very rigorous weather ; and can- 
 not be retarded but by some violence offered ; while the autumnal 
 (the saffron) defies the influence of the spring and summer, and 
 will not blow till most plants begin to fade and run to seed. This 
 circumstance is one of the wonders of the creation, little noticed 
 because a common occurrence ; yet ought not to be overlooked 
 on account of its being familiar, since it would be as difficult to 
 be explained as the most stupendous phenomenon in nature. 
 
 " Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow 
 Congeal'd, the crocus, flamy bud to glow ? 
 Say, what retards, amidst the summer's blaze, 
 Th autumnal bulb, till pale, declining days ? 
 The GOD of SEASONS ; whose pervading power 
 Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower : 
 lie bids each flower His quickening word obey, 
 Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 233 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 "Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, et in suo cuique genere 
 incessus est : aves solae vario meatu feruntur, et in terra, et in acre." 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. *]th, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, A good ornithologist should be able to distinguish 
 birds by their air as well as by their colours and shape ; on the 
 ground as well as on the wing : and in the bush as well as in the 
 hand. For, though it must not be said that every species of 
 birds has a manner peculiar to itself, yet there is somewhat in 
 most genera at least, that at first sight discriminates them, and 
 enables a judicious observer to pronounce upon them with some 
 certainty. Put a bird in motion 
 
 " Et vera incessu patuit " 
 
 Thus kites and buzzards sail round in circles with wings ex- 
 panded and motionless ; and it is from their gliding manner that 
 the former are still called in the north of England gleads, from 
 the Saxon verb glidan, to glide. The kestrel, or wind- hover, has 
 a peculiar mode of hanging in the air in one place, his wings all 
 the while being briskly agitated. Hen-harriers fly low over heaths 
 or fields of corn, and beat the ground regularly like a pointer or 
 setting-dog. Owls move in a buoyant manner, as if lighter than 
 the air ; they seem to want ballast. There is a peculiarity be- 
 longing to ravens that must draw the attention even of the most 
 incurious they spend all their leisure time in striking and cuffing 
 each other on the wing in a kind of playful skirmish ; and, when 
 they move from one place to another, frequently turn on their 
 backs with a loud croak, and seem to be falling to the ground. 
 When this odd gesture betides them, they are scratching them- 
 selves with one foot, and thus lose the centre of gravity. Rooks 
 sometimes dive and tumble in a frolicksome manner ; crows and 
 daws swagger in their walk ; wood-peckers fly volatu undoso, 
 opening and closing their wings at every stroke, and so are always 
 rising or falling in curves. All of this genus use their tails, which 
 
234 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 incline downward, as a support while they run up trees. Parrots, 
 like all other hooked- clawed birds, walk awkwardly, and make 
 use of their bill as a third foot, climbing and descending with 
 ridiculous caution. All the gallincz parade and walk gracefully, 
 and run nimbly ; but fly with difficulty, with an impetuous 
 whirring, and in a straight line. Magpies and jays flutter with 
 
 THE RAVEN (Corvus Corcuc). 
 
 powerless wings, and make no dispatch ; herons seem encum- 
 bered with too much sail for their light bodies, but these vast 
 hollow wings are necessary in carrying burdens, such as large 
 fishes and the like - } 1 pigeons, and particularly the sort called 
 smiters, have a way of clashing their wings the one against the 
 other over their backs with a loud snap ; another variety, called 
 tumblers, turn themselves over in the air. Some birds have 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 235 
 
 movements peculiar to the season of love : thus ringdoves, though 
 strong and rapid at other times, yet in the spring hang about on 
 
 
 THE MAGPIE. 
 
 the wing in a toying and playful manner; thus the cock-snipe 
 while breeding, forgetting his former flight, fans the air like the 
 
 =, \ ,\\ 
 
 THE JAY (Garrulus glandarius). 
 
 wind-hover; and the green-finch in particular, exhibits such 
 languishing and faltering gestures as to appear like a wounded 
 
256 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 and dying bird ; the king-fisher darts along like an arrow ; fern- 
 owls, or goat-suckers, glance in the dusk over the tops of trees 
 like a meteor; starlings as it were swim along, while missel- 
 thrushes use a wild and desultory flight ; swallows sweep over 
 the surface of the ground and water, and distinguish themselves 
 by rapid turns and quick evolutions ; swifts dash round in circles ; 
 and the bank-martin moves with frequent vacillations like a 
 butterfly. Most of the small birds fly by jerks, rising and falling 
 as they advance. Most small birds hop ; but wagtails and larks 
 
 THE COMMON MOORHEN (Gallmula. chloro^us). 
 
 walk, moving their legs alternately. Skylarks rise and fall per- 
 pendicularly as they sing ; woodlarks hang poised in the air ; and 
 titlarks rise and fall in large curves, singing in their descent. 
 The white-throat uses odd jerks and gesticulations over the tops 
 of hedges and bushes. All the duck-kind waddle ; divers and 
 auks walk as if fettered, and stand erect on their tails : these are 
 the competes of Linnaeus. Geese and cranes, and most wild fowls, 
 move in figured flights, often changing their position. The 
 secondary remiges of Tringae, wild-ducks, and some others, are 
 very long, and give their wings, when in motion, a hooked 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 237 
 
 appearance. Dabchicks, moor-hens, and coots, fly erect, with 
 their legs hanging down, and hardly make any dispatch ; the 
 reason is plain, their wings are placed too forward out of the 
 
 THE COMMON COOT. 
 
 true centre of gravity ; as the legs of auks and divers are situated 
 too backward. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XLII. 
 
 1 The flight of the heron seems particularly slow, yet the beats of its wings 
 average one hundred and twenty in a minute, and it makes very rapid progress. 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. grh, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, From the motion of birds, the transition is natural 
 enough to their notes and language, of which I shall say some- 
 thing. Not that I would pretend to understand their language 
 like the vizier; who, by the recital of a conversation which passed 
 
238 NATURAL HISTORY OP SELBORNE. 
 
 between two owls, reclaimed a sultan,* before delighting in 
 conquest and devastation ; but I would be thought only to mean 
 that many of the winged tribes have various sounds and voices 
 adapted to express their various passions, wants, and feelings ; 
 such as anger, fear, love, hatred, hunger, and the like. All 
 species are not equally eloquent; some are copious and fluent 
 as it were in their utterance, while others are confined to a few 
 important sounds : no bird, like the fish kind, is quite mute, 1 
 though some are rather silent. The language of birds is very 
 ancient, and, like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical ; 
 Jittle is said, but much is meant and understood. 
 
 The notes of the eagle-kind are shrill and piercing ; and about 
 the season of nidification much diversified, as I have been often 
 assured by a curious observer of Nature, who long resided at 
 Gibraltar, where eagles abound. The notes of our hawks much 
 resemble those of the king of birds. Owls have very expressive 
 notes ; they hoot in a fine vocal sound, much resembling the vox 
 Humana^ and reducible by a pitch-pipe to a musical key. This 
 note seems to express complacency and rivalry among the males ; 
 they use also a quick call and a horrible scream ; and can snore 
 and hiss when they mean to menace. Ravens, besides their loud 
 croak, can exert a deep and solemn note that makes the woods to 
 echo ; the amorous sound of a crow is strange and ridiculous ; 
 rooks, in the breeding season, attempt sometimes in the gaiety of 
 their hearts to sing, but with no great success; the parrot-kind 
 have many modulations of voice, as appears by their aptitude to 
 learn human sounds ; doves coo in an amorous and mournful 
 manner, and are emblems of despairing lovers ; the woodpecker 
 sets up a sort of loud and hearty laugh ; the fern-owl, or goat- 
 sucker, from the dusk till day-break,. serenades his mate with the 
 clattering of castanets. All the tuneful passeres express their 
 complacency by sweet modulations, and a variety of melody. 
 The swallow, as has been observed in a former letter, by a shrill 
 alarm bespeaks the attention of the other hirundines, and bids 
 them be aware the hawk is at hand. Aquatic and gregarious birds, 
 especially the nocturnal, that shift their quarters in the dark, are 
 * See Spectator, Vol. vii., No. 512. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 239 
 
 very noisy and loquacious ; as cranes, wild-geese, wild-ducks, and 
 the like ; their perpetual clamour prevents them from dispersing 
 and losing their companions. 
 
 In so extensive a subject, sketches and outlines are as much as 
 can be expected ; for it would be endless to instance in all the 
 infinite variety of the feathered nation. We shall therefore confine 
 the remainder of this letter to the few domestic fowls of our yards, 
 which are most known, and therefore best understood. And first 
 the peacock, with his gorgeous train, demands our attention ; but, 
 like most of the gaudy birds, his notes are grating and shocking 
 to the ear : the yelling of cats, and the braying of an ass, are not 
 more disgustful. The voice of the goose is trumpet-like, and 
 clanking; and once saved the Capitol at Rome, as grave historians 
 assert; the hiss, also, of the gander, is formidable and full of 
 menace, and " protective of his young." Among ducks the 
 sexual distinction of voice is remarkable ; for, while the quack of 
 the female is loud and sonorous, the voice of the drake is inward 
 and harsh, and feeble, and scarce discernible. The cock turkey 
 struts and gobbles to his mistress in a most uncouth manner ; he 
 hath also a pert and petulant note when he attacks his adversary. 
 When a hen turkey leads forth her young brood she keeps a 
 watchful eye ; and if a bird of prey appear, though ever so high in 
 the air, the careful mother announces the enemy with a little 
 inward moan, and watches him with a steady and attentive look ; 
 but, if he approach, her note becomes earnest and alarming, and 
 her outcries are redoubled. 
 
 No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed of such a variety of 
 expression and so copious a language as common poultry. Take 
 a chicken of four or five days old, and hold it up to a window 
 where there are flies, and it will immediately seize its prey, with 
 little twitterings of complacency ; but if you tender it a wasp or a 
 bee, at once its note becomes harsh, and expressive of disappro- 
 bation and a sense of danger. When a pullet is ready to lay she 
 intimates the event by a joyous and easy soft note. Of all the 
 occurrences of their life that of laying seems to be the most 
 important ; for no sooner has a hen disburdened herself, than she 
 rushes forth with a clamorous kind of joy, which the cock and 
 
240 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 the rest of his mistresses immediately adopt. The tumult is not 
 confined to the family concerned, but catches from yard to yard, 
 and spreads to every homestead within hearing, till at last the 
 whole village is in an uproar. As soon as a hen becomes a 
 mother her new relation demands a new language ; she then runs 
 clocking and screaming about, and seems agitated as if possessed. 
 The father of the flock has also a considerable vocabulary ; if he 
 finds food, he calls a favourite concubine to partake ; and if a 
 bird of prey passes over, with a warning voice he bids his family 
 beware. The gallant chanticleer has, at command, his amorous 
 phrases and his terms of defiance. But the sound by which he is 
 best known is his crowing : by this he has been distinguished in 
 all ages as the countryman's clock or larum, as the watchman 
 that proclaims the divisions of the night. Thus the poet elegantly 
 styles him : 
 
 " the crested cock, \vhoseclarion sounds 
 
 The silent hours." 
 
 A neighbouring gentleman one summer had lost most of his 
 chickens by a sparrow-hawk, that came gliding down between a 
 faggot pile and the end of his house to the place where the coops 
 stood. The owner, inwardly vexed to see his flock thus diminished, 
 hung a setting-net adroitly between the pile and the house, into 
 which the caitiff dashed, and was entangled. Resentment sug- 
 gested the law of retaliation; he therefore clipped the hawk's 
 wings, cut off his talons, and, fixing a cork on his bill, threw him 
 down among the brood-hens. Imagination cannot paint the 
 scene that ensued; the expressions that fear, rage, and revenge 
 inspired, were new, or at least such as had been unnoticed before : 
 the exasperated matrons upbraided, they execrated, they insulted, 
 they triumphed. In a word, they never desisted from buffeting 
 their adversary till they had torn him in a hundred pieces. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XLIII. 
 
 1 Several species of fish utter sounds while dying. The gurnard utters a 
 
 croak, the bream a gasping sound ; but these sounds are accidental and not 
 natural. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 241 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 ' ' Monstrent 
 
 #**## 
 
 Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles 
 Hyberni ; vel quse tardis mora noctibus obstet." 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 GENTLEMEN who have outlets might contrive to make ornament 
 subservient to utility : a pleasing eye-trap might also contribute to 
 promote science : an obelisk in a garden or park might be both 
 an embellishment and an heliotrope. 
 
 Any person that is curious, and enjoys the advantage of a good 
 horizon, might, with little trouble, make two heliotropes ; the one 
 for the winter, the other for the summer solstice : and the two 
 erections might be constructed with very little expense ; for two 
 pieces of timber frame-work, about ten or twelve feet high, and 
 four feet broad at the base, and close lined with plank, would 
 answer the purpose. 
 
 The erection for the former should, if possible, be placed within 
 sight of some window in the common sitting-parlour ; because 
 men, at that dead season of the year, are usually within doors at 
 the close of the day ; while that for the latter might be fixed for 
 any given spot in the garden or outlet ; whence the owner might 
 contemplate, in a fine summer's evening, the utmost extent that 
 the sun makes to the northward at the season of the longest days. 
 Now nothing would be necessary but to place these two objects 
 with so much exactness, that the westerly limb of the sun, at 
 setting, might but just clear the winter heliotrope to the west of it 
 on the shortest day ; and that the whole disc of the sun, at the 
 longest day, might exactly at setting also clear the summer 
 heliotrope to the north of it. 
 
 By this simple expedient it would soon appear that there is no 
 such thing, strictly speaking, as a solstice ; for, from the shortest 
 day, the owner would, every clear evening, see the disc advancing 
 at its setting, to the westward of the object; and, from the longest 
 day, observe the sun retiring backwards every evening at its 
 
242 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 setting, towards the object westward, till, in a few nights, it would 
 set quite behind it, and so by degrees, to the west of it : for when 
 the sun comes near the summer solstice, the whole disc of it 
 would at first set behind the object; after a time the northern 
 limb would first appear, and so every night gradually more, till at 
 length the whole diameter would set northward of it for about 
 three nights ; but on the middle night of the three, sensibly 
 more remote than the former or following. When beginning its 
 recess from the summer tropic, it would continue more and more 
 to be hidden every night, till at length it would descend quite 
 behind the object again ; and so nightly more and more to the 
 westward. 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 -Mugire videbis 
 
 Sub bedibus terrain, et descendere montibus ornos." 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 WHEN I was a boy I used to read, with astonishment and 
 implicit assent, accounts in " Baker's Chronicle " of walking hills 
 and travelling mountains. John Philips, in his " Cyder," alludes 
 to the credit that was given to such stories with a delicate but 
 quaint vein of humour peculiar to the author of the " Splendid 
 Shilling." 
 
 " I nor advise, nor reprehend the choice 
 Of Marcely Hill ; the apple no where finds 
 A kinder mould ; yet 'tis unsafe to trust 
 Deceitful ground ; who knows but that once more 
 This mount may journey, and his present site 
 Forsaken, to thy neighbour's bounds transfer 
 Thy goodly plants, affording matter strange 
 For law debates ? " 
 
 But, when I came to consider better, I began to suspect that 
 though our hills may never have journeyed far, yet that the ends 
 oi many of them have slipped and fallen away at distant periods, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 243 
 
 leaving the cliffs bare and abrupt. This seems to have been 
 tne case with Nore and Whetham Hills ; and especially with the 
 ridge between Harteley Park and Ward-le-Ham, where the ground 
 has slid into vast swellings and furrows ; and lies still in such 
 romantic confusion as cannot be accounted for from any other 
 cause. A strange event, that happened not long since, justifies 
 our suspicions ; which, though it befel not within the limits of this 
 parish, yet as it was within the hundred of Selborne, and as the 
 circumstances were singular, may fairly claim a place in a work 
 of this nature. 
 
 The months of January and February, in the year 1774, were 
 remarkable for great melting snows and vast gluts of rain ; so that 
 by the end of the latter month the land-springs, or lavants, began 
 to prevail, and to be near as high as in the memorable winter of 
 1764. The beginning of March also went on in the same tenor ; 
 when, in the night between the 8th and 9th of that month, a con- 
 siderable part of the great woody hanger at Hawkley was torn 
 from its place, and fell down, leaving a high free-stone cliff naked 
 and bare, and resembling the steep side of a chalk-pit. It appears 
 that this huge fragment, being perhaps sapped and undermined 
 by waters, foundered, and was ingulfed, going down in a per- 
 pendicular direction ; for a gate which stood in the field, on the 
 top of the hill, after sinking with its posts for thirty or forty feet, 
 remained in so true and upright a position as to open and shut 
 with great exactness, just as in its first situation. Several oaks 
 also are still standing, and in a state of vegetation, after taking 
 the same desperate leap. That great part of this prodigious mass 
 was absorbed in some gulf below, is plain also from the inclining 
 ground at the bottom of the hill, which is free and unincumbered; 
 but would have been buried in heaps of rubbish, had the fragment 
 parted and fallen forward. About a hundred yards from the foot 
 of this hanging coppice stood a cottage by the side of a lane ; and 
 two hundred yards lower, on the other side of the lane, was a 
 farm-house, in which lived a labourer and his family; and, just by, 
 a stout new barn. The cottage was inhabited by an old woman 
 and her son, and his wife. These people in the evening, which was 
 very dark and tempestuous, observed that the brick floors of their 
 
 16 
 
244 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 kitchens began to heave and part ; and that the walls seemed to 
 open, and the roofs to crack ; but they all agree that no tremor of 
 the ground, indicating an earthquake, was ever felt ; only that the 
 wind continued to make a most tremendous roaring in the woods 
 and hangers. The miserable inhabitants, not daring to go to bed, 
 remained in the utmost solicitude and confusion, expecting every 
 moment to be buried under the ruins of their shattered edifices. 
 When daylight came they were at leisure to contemplate the 
 devastations of the night : they then found that a deep rift, or 
 chasm, had opened under their houses, and torn them, as it were, 
 in two ; and that one end of the barn had suffered in a similar 
 manner : that a pond near the cottage had undergone a strange 
 reverse, becoming deep at the shallow end, and so vice versa; 
 that many large oaks were removed out of their perpendicular, 
 some thrown down, and some fallen into the heads of neigh- 
 bouring trees ; and that a gate was thrust forward, with its hedge, 
 full six feet, so as to require a new track to be made to it. From 
 the foot of the cliff the general course of the ground, which is 
 pasture, inclines in a moderate descent for half a mile, and is 
 interspersed with some hillocks, which were rifted, in every direc- 
 tion, as well towards the great woody hanger, as from it. In the 
 first pasture the deep clefts began ; and running across the lane, 
 and under the buildings, made such vast shelves that the road was 
 impassable for some time ; and so over to an arable field on the 
 other side, which was strangely torn and disordered. The second 
 pasture-field, being more soft and springy, was protruded forward 
 without many fissures in the turf, which was raised in long ridges 
 resembling graves, lying at right angles to the motion. At the 
 bottom of this enclosure the soil and turf rose many feet against 
 the bodies of some oaks that obstructed their farther course, and 
 terminated this awful commotion. 
 
 The perpendicular height of the precipice in general is twenty- 
 three yards ; the length of the lapse or slip as seen from the fields 
 below, one hundred and eighty-one ; and a partial fall, concealed 
 in the coppice, extends seventy yards more ; so that the total 
 length of this fragment that fell was two hundred and fifty- one 
 yards. About fifty acres of land suffered from this violent con- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 245 
 
 vulsion ; two houses were entirely destroyed ; one end of a new 
 barn was left in ruins, the walls being cracked through the 
 very stones that composed them ; a hanging coppice was changed 
 to a naked rock ; and some grass grounds and an arable field 
 so broken and rifted by the chasms as to be rendered for a time 
 neither fit for the plough nor safe for pasturage, till considerable 
 labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling the surface 
 and filling in the gaping fissures. 
 
 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 " resonant arbusta ." 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 THERE is a steep abrupt pasture field and interspersed with furze 
 close to the back of this village, well known by the name of 
 Short Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the 
 afternoon sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus campestris, or 
 field-cricket; which, though frequent in these parts, is by no 
 means a common insect in many other counties. 
 
 As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention of 
 a naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy of 
 these grylli, and study their mode of life ; but they are so shy and 
 cautious that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them ; for 
 feeling a person's footsteps as he advances, they stop short in 
 the midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into their 
 burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over. 
 
 At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but without 
 any great success ; for either we could not get to the bottom of 
 the hole, which often terminated under a great stone ; or else in 
 breaking up the ground we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect 
 to death. Out of one so bruised we took a multitude of eggs, 
 which were long and narrow, of a yellow colour, and covered 
 with a very tough skin. By this accident we learned to dis- 
 tinguish the male from the female ; the former of which is shining 
 
246 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 black, with a golden stripe across his shoulders ; the latter is more 
 dusky, more capacious about the abdomen, and carries a long 
 sword- shaped weapon at her tail, which probably is the instru- 
 ment with which she deposits her eggs in crannies and safe 
 receptacles. 
 
 Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means will 
 often succeed, and so it proved in the present case ; for, though 
 a spade be too boisterous and rough an implement, a pliant stalk 
 of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, will probe their wind- 
 ings to the bottom, and quickly bring out the inhabitant ; and 
 thus the humane inquirer may gratify his curiosity without injuring 
 the object of it. It is remarkable, that though these insects are 
 furnished with long legs behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, 
 like grasshoppers ; yet when driven from their holes they show no 
 activity, but crawl along in a shiftless manner, so as easily to be 
 taken ; and again, though provided with a curious apparatus of 
 wings, yet they never exert them when there seems to be the 
 greatest occasion. The males only make that shrilling noise, 
 perhaps, out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case with many 
 animals which exert some sprightly note during their breeding- 
 time. It is raised by a brisk friction of one wing against the 
 other. They are solitary beings, living singly male and female, 
 each as it may happen ; but there must be a time when the sexes 
 have some intercourse, and then the wings may be useful perhaps 
 during the hours of night. When the males meet they will 
 fight fiercely, as I found by some which I put into the crevices of 
 a dry stone wall, where I should have been glad to have made 
 them settle. For though they seemed distressed by being taken 
 out of their knowledge, yet the first that got possession of the 
 chinks would seize on any other that were intruded upon them 
 with a vast row of serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, toothed 
 like the shears of a lobster's claws, they perforate and round their 
 curious regular cells, having no fore-claws to dig, like the mole- 
 cricket. When taken in hand I could not but wonder that they 
 never offered to defend themselves, though armed with such for- 
 midable weapons. Of such herbs as grow before the mouths of 
 their burrows they eat indiscriminately, and on a little platform 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 247 
 
 which they make just by, they drop their dung ; and never, in the 
 day time, seem to stir more than two or three inches from home. 
 Sitting in the entrance of their caverns they chirp all night as well 
 as day from the middle of the month of May to the middle of 
 July; and in hot weather, when they are most vigorous, they 
 make the hills echo, and in the stiller hours of darkness may be 
 heard to a considerable distance. In the beginning of the season 
 their notes are more faint and inward ; but become louder as the 
 summer advances, and so die away again by degrees. 
 
 Sounds do not always give us pleasure according to their sweet- 
 ness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always displease. We are 
 more apt to be captivated or disgusted with the associations which 
 they promote than with the notes themselves. Thus the shrilling 
 of the field-cricket, though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously 
 delights some hearers, filling their minds with a train of summer 
 ideas of everything that is rural, verdurous, and joyous. 
 
 About the loth March the crickets appear at the mouths of 
 their cells, which they then open and bore, and shape very ele- 
 gantly. All that ever I have seen at that season were in their 
 pupa state, and had only the rudiments of wings, lying under a 
 skin or coat, which must be cast before the insect can arrive at its 
 perfect state ; from whence I should suppose that the old ones of 
 last year do not always survive the winter. In August their holes 
 begin to be obliterated, and the insects are seen no more till 
 spring. 
 
 Not many summers ago I endeavoured to transplant a colony 
 to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping 
 turf. The new inhabitants stayed some time, and fed and sung ; 
 but wandered away by degrees, and were heard at a farther dis- 
 tance every morning, so that it appears that on this emergency 
 they made use of their wings in attempting to return to the spot 
 from which they were taken. 
 
 One of these crickets when confined in a paper cage and set in 
 the sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water, will feed 
 and thrive, and become so merry and loud as to be irksome in 
 the same room where a person is sitting ; if the plants are not 
 v/etted it will die. 
 
248 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XLVII. 
 
 " Far from all resort of mirth 
 Save the cricket on the hearth." 
 
 MILTON'S // Penseroso. 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 DEAR SIR, While many other insects must be sought after in 
 fields, and woods, and waters, the gryllus domesticus, or house- 
 cricket, resides altogether within our dwellings, intruding itself 
 upon our notice whether we will or no. This species delights in 
 new-built houses, being, like the spider, pleased with the moisture 
 of the walls ; and besides, the softness of the mortar enables them 
 
 to burrow and mine between the 
 joints of the bricks or stones, and 
 to open communications from 
 one room to another. They are 
 particularly fond of kitchens and 
 HOUSE-CRICKET. bakers' ovens, on account of 
 
 their perpetual warmth. 
 
 Tender insects that live abroad either enjoy only the short 
 period of one summer, or else doze away the cold uncomfortable 
 months in profound slumbers ; but these, residing as it were in a 
 torrid zone, are always alert and merry, a good Christmas fire is 
 to them like the heats of the dog-days. Though they are fre- 
 quently heard by day, yet is their natural time of motion only in 
 the night. As soon as it grows dusk, the chirping increases, and 
 they come running forth, and are from the size of a flea to that of 
 their full stature. As one should suppose, from the burning 
 atmosphere which they inhabit, they are a thrifty race, and show 
 a great propensity for liquids, being found frequently drowned in 
 pans of water, milk, broth, or the like. Whatever is moist they 
 affect j and therefore often gnaw holes in wet woollen stockings 
 and aprons that are hung to the fire : they are the housewife's 
 barometer, foretelling her when it will rain, and are prognostic 
 sometimes she thinks of ill or good luck, of the deatfi of a near 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 249 
 
 relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By being the con- 
 stant companions of her solitary hours they naturally become the 
 objects of her superstition. These crickets are not only very 
 thrifty, but very voracious ; for they will eat the scummings of 
 pots, and yeast, salt, and crumbs of bread, and any kitchen offal 
 or sweepings. In the summer we have observed them, to fly when 
 it became dusk out of the windows, and over the neighbouring 
 roofs. This feat of activity accounts for the sudden manner in 
 which they often leave their haunts, as it does for the method by 
 which they come to houses where they were not known before. 
 It is remarkable that many sorts of insects seem never to use their 
 wings but when they have a mind to shift their quarters and settle 
 new colonies. When in the air they move " volatu undoso" in 
 waves or curves, like wood-peckers, opening and shutting their 
 wings at every stroke, and so are always rising or sinking. 
 
 When they increase to a great degree, as they did once in the 
 house where I am now writing, they become noisome pests, flying 
 into the candles, and dashing into people's faces ; but may be 
 blasted and destroyed by gunpowder discharged into their crevices 
 and crannies. In families at such times they are like Pharaoh's 
 plague of frogs, " in their bedchambers, and upon their beds, 
 and in their ovens, and in their kneading troughs." * Their shrill- 
 ing noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition of their wings. Cats, 
 catch hearth- crickets, and, playing with them as they do with 
 mice, devour them. Crickets may be destroyed, like wasps, by 
 phials half filled with beer, or any liquid, and set in their haunts ; 
 for being always eager to drink, they will crowd in till the bottles 
 are full. 
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongruous 
 but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their specific distinc- 
 tions are not more various than their propensities. Thus, while 
 * Exod. viii. 3. 
 
250 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 the field-cricket delights in sunny dry banks, and the house-cricket 
 rejoices amidst the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the 
 Gryllus gryllo talpa (the mole-cricket), haunts moist meadows, and 
 frequents the sides of ponds and banks of streams, performing all its 
 functions in a swampy wet soil. With a pair of fore-feet, curiously 
 adapted to the purpose, it burrows and works under ground like 
 the mole, raising a ridge as it proceeds, but seldom throwing up 
 hillocks. 
 
 As mole-crickets often infest gardens by the sides of canals, 
 they are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising up ridges in 
 
 MOLE-CRICKET. 
 
 their subterraneous progress, and rendering the walks unsightly. 
 If they take to the kitchen quarters they occasion great damage 
 among the plants and roots, by destroying whole beds of cabbages, 
 young legumes, and flowers. When dug out they seem very slow 
 and helpless, and make no use of their wings by day ; but at night 
 they come abroad, and make long excursions, as I have been con- 
 vinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improbable places. 
 In fine weather, about the middle of April, and just at the close of 
 day, they begin to solace themselves with a low, dull, jarring note, 
 continued for a long time without interruption, and not unlike the 
 chattering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more inward. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 251 
 
 About the beginning of May they lay their eggs, as I was once 
 an eye-witness ; for a gardener at a house where I was on a visit, 
 happening to be mowing, on the 6th of that month, by the side of 
 a canal, his scythe struck too deep, pared off a large piece of tuif, 
 and laid open to view a curious scene of domestic economy : 
 
 " Ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram : 
 
 Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt : 
 Apparent penetralia. " 
 
 There were many caverns and winding passages leading to a 
 kind of chamber, neatly smoothed and rounded, and about the 
 size of a moderate snuff-box. Within this secret nursery were 
 deposited near a hundred eggs of a dirty yellow colour, and 
 enveloped in a tough skin, but too lately excluded to contain any 
 rudiments of young, being full of a viscous substance. The eggs 
 lay but shallow, and within the influence of the sun, just under a 
 little heap of fresh-mowed mould, like that which is raised by ants. 
 
 When mole-crickets fly they move " cursu undoso" rising and 
 falling in curves, like the other species mentioned before. In 
 different parts of this kingdom people call them fen-crickets, 
 churr-worms, and eve-churrs, all very apposite panics. 
 
 Anatomists, who have examined the intestines of these insects, 
 astonish me with their accounts; for they say that, from the 
 structure, position, and number of their stomachs, or maws, there 
 seems to be good reason to suppose that this and the two former 
 species ruminate or chew the cud like many quadrupeds ! l 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 1 The use of this peculiar formation of the stomach of the cricket (and the 
 locust has the same peculiarity) is not yet clear to naturalists, but it seems quite 
 clear that it does not chew the cud, and that it would be impossible for the food 
 to be returned for that purpose. 
 
252 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 SELBORNE, May jth, 1779. 
 
 IT is now more than forty years that I have paid some attention 
 to the ornithology of this district, without being able to exhaust 
 the subject : new occurrences still arise as long as any inquiries 
 are kept alive. 
 
 In the last week 1 of last month five of those most rare birds, too 
 uncommon to have obtained an English name, but known to 
 naturalists by the terms of himantopus, or loripes, and charadrius 
 himantopus, 1 were shot upon the verge of Frinsham-pond, a large 
 lake belonging to the Bishop of Winchester, and lying between 
 Wolmer-forest and the town of Farnham, in the county of Surrey. 
 The pond keeper says there were three brace in the flock : but, 
 that after he had satisfied his curiosity, he suffered the sixth to 
 remain unmolested. One of these specimens I procured, and 
 found the length of the legs to be so extraordinary, that, at first 
 sight, one might have supposed the shanks had been fastened on 
 to impose on the credulity of the beholder : they were legs in 
 caricatura ; and had we seen such proportions on a Chinese or 
 Japan screen we should have made large allowances for the fancy 
 of the draughtsman. These birds are of the plover family, and 
 might with propriety be called the stilt plovers. Brisson, under 
 that idea, gives them the apposite name of Vechasse. My specimen, 
 when drawn and stuffed with pepper, weighed only four ounces 
 and a quarter, though the naked part of the thigh measured three 
 inches and a half, and the legs four inches and a half. Hence 
 we may safely assert that these birds exhibit, weight for inches, 
 incomparably the greatest length of legs of any known bird. The 
 flamingo, for instance, is one of the most long-legged birds, and yet 
 it bears no manner of proportion to the himantopus ; for a cock 
 flamingo weighs, at an average, about four pounds avoirdupois ; 
 and his legs and thighs measure usually about twenty inches. 
 But four pounds are fifteen times and a fraction more than four 
 ounces, and one quarter ; and if four ounces and a quarter have 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 253 
 
 eight inches of legs, four pounds must have one hundred and 
 twenty inches and a fraction of legs ; viz., somewhat more than 
 ten feet ; such a monstrous proportion as the world never saw ! 
 If you should try the experiment in still larger birds the disparity 
 would still increase. It must be matter of great curiosity to see 
 the stilt plover move ; to observe how it can wield such a length 
 of lever with such feeble muscles as the thighs seem to be fur- 
 nished with. At best one should expect it to be but a bad 
 walker : but what adds to the wonder is, that it has no back toe. 
 Now without that steady prop to support its steps it must be liable, 
 in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and seldom able to pre- 
 serve the true centre of gravity. 
 
 The old name of himantopus is taken from Pliny ; and, by an 
 awkward metaphor, implies that the legs are as slender and pliant 
 as if cut out of a thong of leather. Neither Willughby nor Ray, 
 in all their curious researches, either at home or abroad, ever saw 
 this bird. Mr. Pennant never met with it in all Great Britain, 
 but observed it often in the cabinets of the curious at Paris. 
 Hasselquist says that it migrates to Egypt in the autumn : and a 
 most accurate observer of Nature has assured me that he has 
 found it on the banks of the streams in Andalusia. 
 
 Our writers record it to have been found only twice in Great 
 Britain. From all these relations it plainly appears that these 
 long-legged plovers are birds of South Europe, and rarely visit our 
 island ; and when they do, are wanderers and stragglers, and 
 impelled to make so distant and northern an excursion from 
 motives or accidents for which we are riot able to account. One 
 thing may fairly be deduced, that these birds come over to us from 
 the continent, since nobody can suppose that a species not noticed 
 once in an age, and of such a remarkable make, can constantly 
 breed unobserved in this kingdom. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER XLIX. 
 
 1 The bird referred to is the black-winged stilt, which is only am occasional 
 visitant to England. 
 
254 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER L. 
 
 SELBORNE, April 2ist, 1780. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to 
 you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of Jts winter 
 dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to express 
 its resentments by hissing; and, packing it in a box with earth, 
 carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of 
 the journey so perfectly roused it that, when I turned it out on a 
 border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden ; how- 
 ever, in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried itself in the 
 loose mould, and continues still concealed. 
 
 As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity of 
 enlarging my observations on its mode of life, and propensities ; 
 and perceive already that, towards the time of coming forth, it 
 opens a breathing place in the ground near its head, requiring, 
 I conclude,, a freer respiration as it becomes more alive. This 
 creature not only goes under the earth from the middle of 
 November to the middle of April, but sleeps great part of the 
 summer : for it goes to bed in the longest days at four in the after- 
 noon, and often does not stir in the morning till late. Besides, 
 it retires to rest for every shower ; and does not move at all in 
 wet days. 
 
 When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a 
 matter of wonder to find that Providence should bestow such a 
 profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile 
 that appears to relish it so little as to squander more than two- 
 thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all 
 sensation for months together in the profoundest of slumbers. 
 
 While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon, 
 with the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of shell-snails ; 
 and, at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and 
 put out its head ; and the next morning came forth, as it were, 
 raised from the dead ; and walked about till four in the afternoon. 
 This was a curious coincidence ! a very amusing occurrence ! to 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. -2^ 
 
 see such a similarity of feelings between the two <jf>epeoiKoi ! for so 
 the Greeks called both the shell-snail and the tortoise. 
 
 Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusually 
 late : I have seen but one swallow yet. This conformity with the 
 weather convinces me more and more that they sleep in the winter, 
 
 LETTER LI. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. $rd, 1781. 
 
 T HAVE now read your miscellanies through with much care and 
 satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks for the honour- 
 able mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I wish I 
 may deserve. 
 
 In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many of 
 the house-martins do not depart in the winter far from this village. 
 I therefore determined to make some search about the south-east 
 end of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the 
 uncomfortable months of winter. But supposing that the examina- 
 tion would be made to the best advantage in the spring, and 
 observing that no martins had appeared by the nth April last; 
 on that day I employed some men to explore the shrubs and 
 cavities of the suspected spot. The persons took pains, but with- 
 out any success ; however, a remarkable incident occurred in the 
 midst of our pursuit : while the labourers were at work a house- 
 martin, the first that had been seen this year, came down the 
 village in the sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, 
 where it stayed a short time, and then flew over the houses ; for 
 some days after no martins were observed, not till the i6th April, 
 and then only a pair. Martins in general were remarkably late 
 this year. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER LIT. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. gtfi, 1781. 
 
 I HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, which 
 furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my observations ever 
 since I have bestowed any attention on that species of hirundines. 
 Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about the first day of 
 August, all save one pair, which in two or three days was reduced 
 to a single bird. The perseverance of this individual made me 
 suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attachment to her 
 young, could alone occasion so late a stay. I watched therefore 
 till the 24th August, and then discovered that, under the eaves 
 of the church, she attended upon two young, which were fledged, 
 and now put out their white chins from a crevice. These remained 
 till the 27th, looking more alert every day, and seeming to long 
 to be on the wing. After this day they were missing at once ; 
 nor could I ever observe them with their dam coursing round 
 the church in the act of learning to fly, as the first broods evidently 
 do. On the 3ist I caused! the eaves to be searched, but we found 
 in the nest only two callow, dead, stinking swifts, on which a 
 second nest had been formed. This double nest was full of the 
 black shining cases of the hippobosccz hirundinis. 
 
 The following remarks on this unusual incident are obvious. 
 The first is, that though it may be disagreeable to swifts to 
 remain beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can subsist 
 longer is undeniable. The second is, that this uncommon event, 
 as it was owing to the loss of the first brood, so it corroborates 
 my former remark, that swifts breed regularly but once ; since, 
 was the contrary the case, the occurrence above could neither be 
 new nor rare. 
 
 P.S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, 
 in 1782, so late as the 3rd September. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 257 
 
 LETTER LIII. 
 
 As I have sometimes known you make inquiries about several 
 kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one sort 
 which I little expected to have found in this kingdom. I had 
 often observed that one particular part of a vine growing on the 
 walls of my house was covered in the autumn with a black dust- 
 like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly ; and that the shoots 
 and leaves thus affected did not thrive ; nor did the fruit ripen. 
 To this substance I applied my glasses ; but could not discover 
 that it had anything to do with animal life, as I at first expected : 
 but, upon a closer examination behind the larger boughs, we were 
 surprised to find that they were coated over with husky shells, from 
 whose sides proceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a mul- 
 titude of eggs. This curious and uncommon production put me 
 upon recollecting what I- have heard and read concerning the 
 coccus vitis vinifercz of Linnaeus, which, in the south of Europe, 
 infests many vines, and is a horrid and loathsome pest. As soon 
 as I had turned to the accounts given of this insect, I saw at once 
 that it swarmed on my vine ; and did not appear to have been at 
 all checked by the preceding winter, which had been uncommonly 
 severe. 
 
 Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do with 
 England, I was much inclined to think that it came from Gibraltar 
 among the many boxes and packages of plants and birds which I 
 had formerly received from thence; and especially as the vine 
 infested grew immediately under my study-window, where I usually 
 kept my specimens. True it is that I had received nothing from 
 thence for some years : but as insects, we know, are conveyed from 
 one country to another in a very unexpected manner, and have a 
 wonderful power of maintaining their existence till they fall into a 
 nidus proper for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect 
 still that these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, 
 all the while, candour obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot 
 has written me word that he once, and but once, saw these insects 
 
258 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 on a vine at Weymouth in Dorsetshire ; which, it is here to 
 be observed, is a sea-port town to which the coccus might be 
 conveyed by shipping. 
 
 As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of this 
 strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a passage from a 
 natural history of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend John White, 
 Jate vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not yet published : 
 
 "In the year 1770 a vine, which grew on the east side of my 
 house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes for 
 years past, was suddenly overspread on all the woody branches 
 with large lumps of a white fibrous substance resembling spiders' 
 webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a very clammy quality 
 sticking fast to everything that touched it, and capable of being 
 spun into long threads. At first I suspected it to be the product 
 of spiders, but could find none. Nothing was to be seen con- 
 nected with it but many brown oval husky shells, which by no 
 means looked like insects, but rather resembled bits of the dry 
 bark of the vine. The tree had a plentiful crop of grapes set, 
 when this pest appeared upon it; but the fruit was manifestly 
 injured by this foul encumbrance. It remained all the summer, 
 still increasing, and loaded the woody and bearing branches to a 
 vast degree. I often pulled off great quantities by handfuls ; but 
 it was so slimy and tenacious that it could by no means be cleared. 
 The grapes never filled to their natural perfection, but turned 
 watery and vapid. Upon perusing the works afterwards of M. de 
 Reaumur, I found this matter perfectly described and accounted 
 for. Those husky shells, which I had observed, were no other 
 than the female coccus, from whose side this cotton-like substance 
 exudes, and serves as a covering and security for their eggs." 
 
 To this account I think proper to add, that, though the female 
 cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the place to which 
 they stick, yet the male is a winged insect ; and that the blacic 
 dust which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement of the females, 
 which is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though the utmost severity 
 of our winter did not destroy these insects, yet the attention of 
 the gardener in a summer or two has entirely relieved my vine 
 from this filthy annoyance. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 259 
 
 As we have remarked above that insects are often conveyed 
 from one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, I 
 shall here mention an emigration of small aphides, which was 
 observed in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August ist, 
 
 About three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was 
 very hot, the people of this village were surprised by a shower of 
 aphides, or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. Those that 
 were walking in the street at that juncture found themselves 
 covered with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and 
 gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they alighted. My 
 annuals were discoloured with them, and the stalks of a bed of 
 onions were quite coated over for six days after. These armies 
 were then, no doubt, in a state of emigration, and shifting their 
 quarters ; and might have come, as far as we know, from the 
 great hop plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that 
 day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at the same 
 time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from 
 Farnham to Alton. 
 
 LETTER LIV. 
 
 DEAR SIR, When I happen to visit a family where gold and 
 silver fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased with 
 the occurrence, because it offers me an opportunity of observing 
 the actions and propensities of those beings with whom we can 
 be little acquainted in their natural state. Not long since I spent 
 a fortnight at the house of a friend where there was such a vivary, 
 to which I paid no small attention, taking every occasion to 
 remark what passed within its narrow limits. It was here that 
 I first observed the manner in which fishes die. 1 As soon as the 
 creature sickens, the head sinks lower and lower, and it stands as 
 it were on its head ; till, getting weaker, and losing all poise, the 
 tail turns over, and at last it floats on the surface of the water 
 with its belly uppermost. The reason why fishes, when dead 
 
 17 
 
260 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 swim in that manner is very obvious ; because, when the body 
 is no longer balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular 
 back preponderates by its own gravity, and turns the belly upper- 
 most, as lighter from its being a cavity, and because it contains 
 the swimming-bladders, which contribute to render it buoyant. 
 Some that delight in gold and silver fishes have adopted a notion 
 that they need no aliment. True it is that they will subsist for a 
 long time without any apparent food but what they can collect 
 from pure water frequently changed ; yet they must draw some 
 support from animalcula, and other nourishment supplied by the 
 water; because, though they seem to eat nothing, yet the conse- 
 quences of eating often drop from them. That they are best 
 pleased with s\u$s\ jejune diet may easily be confuted, since if you 
 toss them crumbs they will seize them with great readiness, not to 
 say greediness; however, bread should be given sparingly, lest, 
 turning sour it corrupt the water. They will also feed on the 
 water-plant called Lemna (ducks' meat), and also on small fry. 2 
 
 When they want to move a little, they gently protrude them- 
 selves with their Pinna pectoraks ; but it is with their strong 
 muscular tails only that they and all fishes shoot along with such 
 inconceivable rapidity. It has been said that the eyes of fishes 
 are immoveable ; but these apparently turn them forward or back- 
 ward in their sockets as occasions require. They take little notice 
 of a lighted candle, though applied close to their heads, but 
 flounce and seem much frightened by a sudden stroke of the hand 
 against the support whereon the bowl is hung ; especially when 
 they have been motionless, and are perhaps asleep. As fishes 
 have no eyelids, it is not easy to discern when they are sleeping 
 or not, because their eyes are always open. 
 
 Nothing can be more amusing than a glass bowl containing 
 such fishes ; the double refractions of the glass and water repre- 
 sent them, when moving, in a shifting and changeable variety of 
 dimensions, shades, and colours ; while the two mediums, assisted 
 by the concavo-convex shape of the vessel, magnify and distort 
 them vastly ; not to mention that the introduction of another 
 element and its inhabitants into our parlours engages the fancy 
 in a very agreeable manner. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 261 
 
 Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives of China and 
 Japan, yet are become so well reconciled to our climate as to 
 thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. Linnaeus 
 ranks this species of fish under the genus of Cyprinus, or carp, 
 and calls it Cyprinus auratus. 
 
 Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very fanciful way ; for 
 they cause a glass bowl to be blown with a large hollow space 
 within, that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they 
 put a bird occasionally ; so that you may see a goldfinch or a 
 linnet hopping as it were in the midst of the water, and the fishes 
 swimming in a circle round it. The simple exhibition of the 
 fishes is agreeable and pleasant ; but in so complicated a way 
 becomes whimsical and unnatural, and liable to the objection due 
 
 to him, 
 
 " Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER LIV. 
 
 1 Only fish which are very heavy in the head and shoulders die in the way 
 described by White. Other fish, such as trout, swim with their noses at the 
 surface of the water, standing on their tails, as it were, until they turn, bellies 
 up, and die. 
 
 2 In favourable waters the gold-fish breeds very fast, and grows to a large 
 size. I know a small pond which is kept warm by waste water from the 
 boilers of an adjoining paper-mill, where these fish are in incredible numbers 
 for so small a space, and grow to four or five pounds in weight. It is excellent 
 sport angling for the larger ones. They take paste freely, and fight well. 
 
 LETTER LV. 
 
 October iQth, 1781. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I think I have observed before that much of the 
 most considerable part of the house-martins withdraw from hence 
 about the first week in October ; but that some, the latter broods 
 I am now convinced, linger on till towards the middle of that 
 month ; and that at times, once perhaps in two or three years, 
 
262 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 a flight, for one day only, has shown itself in the first week in 
 November. 
 
 Having taken notice, in October, 1780, that the last flight was 
 numerous, amounting perhaps to one hundred and fifty ; and that 
 the season was soft and still ; I was resolved to pay uncommon 
 attention to these late birds ; to find, if possible, where they 
 roosted, and to determine the precise time of their retreat. The 
 mode of life of these latter Hirundines is very favourable to such 
 a design ; for they spend the whole day in the sheltered district, 
 between me and the Hanger, sailing about in a placid, easy 
 manner, and feasting on those insects which love to haunt a spot 
 so secure from ruffling winds. As my principal object was to 
 discover the place of their roosting, I took care to wait on them 
 before they retired to rest, and was much pleased to find that for 
 several evenings together, just at a quarter-past five in the after- 
 noon, they all scudded away in great haste towards the south-east, 
 and darted down among the low shrubs above the cottages at the 
 end of the hill. This spot in many respects seemed to be well 
 calculated for their winter residence ; for in many parts it is as 
 steep as the roof of any house, and therefore secure from the 
 annoyances of water; and it is moreover clothed with beechen 
 shrubs, which, being stunted and bitten by sheep, make the 
 thickest covert imaginable ; and are so entangled as to be im- 
 pervious to the smallest spaniel; besides, it is the nature of 
 underwood beech never to cast its leaf all the winter; so that, 
 with the leaves on the ground and those on the twigs, no shelter 
 can be more complete. I watched them on the i3th and i4th 
 October, and found their evening retreat was exact and uniform; 
 but after this they made no regular appearance. Now and then 
 a straggler was seen; and on the 22nd October, I observed two 
 in the morning over the village, and with them my remarks for 
 the season ended. 
 
 From all these circumstances put together, it is more than 
 probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the year, 
 never departed from the island. Had they indulged me that 
 autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I presume 
 that, with proper assistants, I should have settled the matter past 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 263 
 
 all doubt j but though the 3rd November was a sweet day, and 
 in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, yet not a martin was 
 to be seen; and so I was forced, reluctantly, to give up the 
 pursuit. 
 
 I have only to add that were the bushes, which cover some 
 acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and carefully 
 examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the whole 
 aggregate body of the house-martins of this district, might be 
 found there, in different secret dormitories ; and that, so far from 
 withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear that they never 
 depart three hundred yards from the village. 
 
 LETTER LVI. 
 
 THEY who write on natural history cannot too frequently advert 
 to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which in some instances, 
 raises the brute creation, as it were, above reason, and in others 
 leaves them so far below it. Philosophers have denned instinct 
 to be that secret influence by which every species is compelled 
 naturally to pursue, at all times, the same way or track, without 
 any teaching or example ; whereas reason, without instruction, 
 would often vary and do that by many methods which instinct 
 effects by one alone. Now this maxim must be taken in a quali- 
 fied sense ; for there are instances in which instinct does vary and 
 conform to the circumstances of place and convenience. 
 
 It has been remarked that every species of bird has a mode of 
 nidification peculiar to itself, so that a schoolboy would at once 
 pronounce on the sort of nest before him. This is the case 
 among fields and woods, and wilds ; but, in the villages round 
 London, where mosses and gossamer, and cotton from vegetables, 
 are hardly to be found, the nest of the chaffinch has not that 
 elegant finished appearance, nor is it so beautifully studded with 
 lichens, as in a more rural district ; and the wren is obliged to 
 construct its house with straws and dry grasses, which do not 
 give it that rotundity and compactness so remarkable in the edi- 
 
264 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 fices of that little architect. Again, the regular nest of the house- 
 martin is hemispheric ; but where a rafter, or a joist, or a cornice, 
 may happen to stand in the way, the nest is so contrived as to 
 conform to the obstruction, and becomes flat, or compressed. 
 
 In the following instances instinct is perfectly uniform and con- 
 sistent. There are three creatures, the squirrel, the field-mouse, 
 and the bird called the nut-hatch (sitta Europcea\ which live much 
 on hazel-nut ; and yet they open them each in a different way. 
 The first after rasping off the small end, splits the shell in two 
 
 SQUIRREL. 
 
 with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife \ the second 
 nibbles a hole with his teeth, so regular as if drilled with a wimble, 
 and yet so small that one could wonder how the kernel can be 
 extracted through it ; while the last picks an irregular ragged hole 
 with its bill : but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm 
 while he pierces it, like an adroit workman, he fixes it, as it were, 
 in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, or in some crevice ; when stand- 
 ing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. We have often 
 placed nuts in #_ chink of a gate-post where nut-hatches have 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 265 
 
 been known to haunt, and have always found that those birds have 
 readily penetrated them. While at work they make a rapping 
 noise that may be heard at a considerable distance. 
 
 You that understand both the theory and practical part ot music 
 may best inform us why harmony or melody should so strangely 
 assist some men, as it were by recollection, for days after the 
 concert is over. What I mean the following passage will most 
 readily explain : 
 
 " Praehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque harmo- 
 nicis musicam il.lam avium: non quod alia quoque non delectaretur: 
 sed quod ex musica human a relinqueretur in animo continens 
 quaedam, attentionemque et somnum con turbans agitatio ; dum 
 ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illae sonorum, et con- 
 sonantiarum euntque, redeuntque per phantasiam : cum nihil 
 tale relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium, quse, quod non sunt 
 perinde a nobis imitabiles, non possunt perinde internam facul- 
 tatem commovere." Gassendus in Vita PeireskiL 
 
 This curious quotation strikes me much by so well representing 
 my own case, and by describing what I have so often felt, but 
 never could so well express. When I hear fine music I am haunted 
 with passages therefrom night and day ; and especially at first 
 waking, which, by their importunity, give me more uneasiness than 
 pleasure ; elegant lessons still tease my imagination, and recur 
 irresistibly to my recollection at seasons, and even when I am 
 desirous of thinking of more serious matters. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER LVII. 
 
 A RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my garden, 
 which I have great reason to think is the pettichaps : it is common 
 in some parts of the kingdom ; and I have received formerly 
 several dead specimens from Gibraltar. This bird much resembles 
 the white-throat, but has a more white or rather silvery breast and 
 belly ; is restless and active, like the willow-wrens, and hops from 
 
266 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 bough to bough, examining every part for food; it also runs up 
 the stems of the crown-imperials, and, putting its head into the 
 bells of those flowers, sips the liquor which stands in the nectarium 
 of each petal. Sometimes it feeds on the ground like the hedge- 
 sparrow, by hopping about on the grass-plots and mown walks. 1 
 
 One of my neighbours, an intelligent and observing man, informs 
 me that, in the beginning of May, and about ten minutes before 
 eight o'clock in the evening, he discovered a great cluster of house- 
 swallows, thirty, at least, he supposes, perching on a willow that 
 hung over the verge of James Knight's upper-pond. His attention 
 was first drawn by the twittering of these birds, which sat motion- 
 less in a row on the bough, with their heads all one way, and, by 
 their weight, pressing down the twig so that it nearly touched the 
 water. In this situation he watched them till he could see no 
 longer. Repeated accounts of this sort, spring and fall, induce us 
 greatly to suspect that house-swallows have some strong attach- 
 ment to water, independent of the matter of food ; and, though 
 they may not retire into that element, yet they may conceal them- 
 selves in the banks of pools and rivers during the uncomfortable 
 months of winter. 
 
 One of the keepers of Wolmer Forest sent jne a peregrine-falcon, 
 which he shot on the verge of that district as it was devouring a 
 wood-pigeon. The fako peregrinus, or haggard-falcon, is a noble 
 species of hawk seldom seen in the southern counties. In winter 
 1767, one was killed in the neighbouring parish of Farringdon, and 
 sent by me to Mr. Pennant into North Wales.* Since that time 
 I have met with none till now. The specimen mentioned above 
 was in fine preservation, and not injured by the shot : it measured 
 forty-two inches from wing to wing, and twenty-one from beak to 
 tail, and weighed two pounds and a half standing weight. This 
 species is very robust, and wonderfully formed for rapine ; its breast 
 was plump and muscular ; its thighs long, thick, and brawny ; and 
 its legs remarkably short and well set : the feet were armed with 
 most formidable, sharp, long talons : the eyelids and cere of the 
 bill were yellow ; but the irides of the eyes dusky ; the beak was 
 thick and hooked, and of a dark colour, and had a jagged process 
 * See my tenth and eleventh letter to that gentleman. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 267 
 
 near the end of the upper mandible on each side : its tail, or train, 
 was short in proportion to the bulk of its body; yet the wings, 
 when closed, did not extend to the end of the train. From its 
 large and fair proportions it might be supposed to have been a 
 female ; but I was not permitted to cut open the specimen. 2 For 
 one of the birds of prey, which are usually lean, this was in high 
 
 PEREGRINE FALCON. 
 
 case : in its craw were many barley-corns, which probably came 
 from the crop of the wood-pigeon, on which it was feeding when 
 shot ; for voracious birds do not eat grain, but, when devouring 
 their quarry, with undistinguishing vehemence swallow bones and 
 feathers, and all matters, indiscriminately. This falcon was pro- 
 bably driven from the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, 
 where they are known to breed, by rigorous weather and deep 
 snows that had lately fallen. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
268 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER LVII. 
 
 1 The pettichaps is more usually known by the name of the garden warbler, 
 but White's description is more like the lesser white-throat, which is peculiarly 
 restless and active, and has a very silvery breast and belly. 
 
 2 Of the hawk tribe, the female is always the larger, stronger, and handsomer 
 bird; the reverse bein the rule among those birds which are not birds of prey. 
 
 LETTER LVIII. 
 
 MY near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of the 
 East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of the 
 Chinese breed from Canton, such as are fattened in that country 
 for the purpose of being eaten : they are about the size of a 
 moderate spaniel ; of a pale yellow colour, with coarse bristling hairs 
 on their backs ; sharp upright ears, and peaked heads, which give 
 them a very fox-like appearance. Their hind legs are unusually 
 straight, without any bend at the hock or ham, to such a degree as 
 to give them an awkward gait when they trot. When they are in 
 motion their tails are curved high over their backs like those cf 
 some hounds, and have a bare place each on the outside from 
 the tip midway, that does not seem to be matter of accident, but 
 somewhat singular. Their eyes are jet-black, small, and piercing; 
 the insides of their lips and mouths of the same colour, and their 
 tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw on each hind leg ; the 
 dog has none. When taken out into a field the bitch showed 
 some disposition for hunting, and dwelt on the scent of a covey of 
 partridges till she sprung them, giving her tongue all the time. 
 The dogs in South America are dumb ; but these bark much in a 
 short thick manner like foxes, and have a surly, savage demeanour 
 like their ancestors, which are not domesticated, but bred up in 
 sties, where they are fed for the table with rice-meal and other 
 farinaceous food. These dogs, having been taken on board as 
 soon as weaned, could not learn much from their dam ; yet they 
 did not relish flesh when they came to England. In the islands 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 269 
 
 of the Pacific Ocean the dogs are bred upon vegetables, and would 
 not eat flesh when offered them by our circumnavigators. 
 
 We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, up- 
 right, fox-like ears ; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed so 
 graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and cultivation. Thus, 
 in the " Travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China," the 
 dogs which draw the Tartars on snow-sledges, near the river Oby, 
 are engraved with prick-ears, like those from Canton. The Kams- 
 chatdales also train the same sort of sharp-eared, peak-nosed dogs 
 to draw their sledges ; as may be seen in an elegant print engraved 
 for Captain Cook's last voyage round the world. 
 
 Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not be impertinent 
 to add that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though they hun 
 partridges and pheasants as it were by instinct, and with much 
 delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones when offered 
 as food ; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, though he is remark- 
 able for finding that sort of game. But, when we came to offer 
 the bones of partridges to the twa Chinese dogs, they devoured 
 them with much greediness, and licked the platter clean. 
 
 No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent 
 and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with vehemence 
 and transport ; but then they will not touch their bones, but turn 
 from them with abhorrence, even when they are hungry. 
 
 Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such birds 
 as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder ; but why they 
 reject and do not care to eat their natural game is not so easily 
 accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, that the chase 
 pursued should be eaten. Dogs again will not devour the more 
 rancid water-fowls, nor indeed the bones of any wild fowls ; nor 
 will they touch the foetid bodies of birds that feed on offal and 
 garbage ; and indeed there may be somewhat of providential 
 instinct in this circumstance of dislike ; for vultures,* and kites, 
 and ravens, and crows, etc., were intended to be messmates with 
 
 * " Hasselquist, in his travels to the Levant, observes that the dogs and 
 vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such a friendly intercourse as to bring up 
 their young together in the- same place." 
 
270 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 dogs * over their carrion ; and seem to be appointed by Nature as 
 fellow-scavengers to remove all cadaverous nuisances from the face 
 of the earth. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER LIX. 
 
 THE fossil wood buried in the bogs of Wolmer Forest is not yet all 
 exhausted ; for the peat- cutters now and then stumble upon a log. 
 I have just seen a piece which was sent by a labourer of Oak 
 hanger to a carpenter of this village ; this was the butt-end of a 
 small oak, about five feet long, and about five inches in diameter. 
 It had apparently been severed from the ground by an axe, was 
 very ponderous, and as black' as ebony. Upon asking the car- 
 penter for what purpose he had procured it, he told me that it 
 was to be sent to his brother, a joiner at Farnham, who was to 
 make use of it in cabinet-work, by inlaying it along with whiter 
 woods. 
 
 Those that are much abroad on evenings after it is dark, in 
 spring, and summer, frequently hear a nocturnal bird passing by 
 on the wing, and repeating often a short, quick note. This 
 bird I have remarked myself, but never could make out till lately. 
 I am assured now that it is the stone-curlew (charadrius xdic- 
 nemtis). Some of them pass over or near my house almost every 
 evening after it is dark, from the uplands of the hill and North 
 Fields, away down towards Dorton, where, among the streams and 
 meadows, they find a greater plenty of food. Birds that fly by 
 night are obliged to be noisy ; their notes often repeated become 
 signals or watch-words to keep them together, that they may not 
 stray or lose each the other in the dark. 
 
 The evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are 
 curious and amusing in the autumn. Just before dusk they return 
 in long strings from the foraging of the day, and rendezvous by 
 thousands over Selborne Down, where they wheel round in the 
 
 * "The Chinese word for a dog to an European ear sounds like quihloh" 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 271 
 
 air, and sport and dive in a playful manner, all the while exerting 
 their voices, and making a loud cawing, which, being blended and 
 softened by the distance that we at the village are below them, 
 becomes a confused noise or chiding ; or rather a pleasing mur- 
 mur, very engaging to the imagination, and not unlike the cry of 
 a pack of hounds in hollow, echoing woods, or the rushing of the 
 wind in tall trees, or the tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly shore. 
 When this ceremony is over, with the last gleam of day, they 
 retire for the night to the deep beechen woods of Tisted and 
 Ropley. We remember a little girl who, as she was going to bed, 
 used to remark on such an occurrence, in the true spirit of phy- 
 sico-theology, that the rooks were saying their prayers ; and yet 
 this child was much too young to be aware that the Scriptures 
 have said of the Deity -that " He feedeth the ravens who call 
 upon Him." I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER LX. 
 
 IN reading Dr. Huxam's " Observationes de Acre," etc., written at 
 Plymouth, I find by those curious and accurate remarks, which 
 contain an account of the weather from the year 1727 to the year 
 1748, inclusive, that though there is frequent rain in that district 
 of Devonshire, yet the quantity falling is not great ; and that some 
 years it has been very small : for in 1731 the rain measured only 
 17-266 in.; and in 1741, 20-354 in.; and again, in 1743, only 
 20-908 in. Places near the sea have frequent scuds, that keep 
 the atmosphere moist, yet do not reach far up into the country ; 
 making thus the maritime situations appear wet, when the rain is 
 not considerable. In the wettest years at Plymouth the Doctor 
 measured only once 36 ; and again once, viz., 1734, 37*114 in. 
 a quantity of rain that has twice been exceeded at Selborne in the 
 short period of my observations. Dr. Huxam remarks that fre- 
 quent small rains keep the air moist ; while heavy ones render it 
 more dry, by beating down the vapours. He is also of opinion 
 
272 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 that the dingy, smoky appearance in the sky, in very dry seasons, 
 arises from the want of moisture sufficient to let the light through, 
 and render the atmosphere transparent ; because he had observed 
 several bodies more diaphanous when wet than dry; and did 
 never recollect that the air had that look in rainy seasons. 
 
 My friend, who lives just beyond the top of the down, brought 
 his three swivel guns to try them in my outlet, with their muzzles 
 towards the Hanger, supposing that the report would have had a 
 great effect; but the experiment did not answer his expectation. 
 He then removed them to the alcove on the Hanger, when the 
 sound, rushing along the Lythe and Comb Wood, was very grand ; 
 but it was at the hermitage that the echoes and repercussions 
 delighted the hearers ; not only filling the Lythe with the roar, 
 as if all the beeches were tearing up by the roots ; but, turning to 
 the left, they pervaded the vale above Combwood ponds ; and 
 after a pause seemed to take up the crash again, and to extend 
 round Hartley Hangers, and to die away at last among the cop- 
 pices and coverts of Ward-le-Ham. It has been remarked before 
 that this district is an Anathoth, a place of responses or echoes, 
 and therefore proper for such experiments : we may farther add 
 that the pauses in echoes, when they cease and yet are taken up 
 again, like the pauses in music, surprise the hearers, and have a 
 fine effect on the imagination. 
 
 The gentleman above-mentioned has just fixed a barometer in 
 his parlour at Newton Valence. The tube was first filled here (at 
 Selborne) twice with care, when the mercury agreed and stood 
 exactly with my own ; but, being filled twice again at Newton, the 
 mercury stood, on account of the great elevation of that house, 
 three-tenths of an inch lower than the barometers at this village, 
 and so continues to do, be the weight of the atmosphere what it 
 may. The plate of the barometer at Newton is figured as low as 
 27 ; because in stormy weather the mercury there will sometimes 
 descend below 28. We have supposed Newton House to stand 
 two hundred feet higher than this house : but if the rule holds 
 good, which says that mercury in a barometer sinks one-tenth of 
 an inch for every hundred feet elevation, then the Newton baro- 
 meter, by standing three-tenths lower than that of Selborne, proves 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 273 
 
 that Newton House must be three hundred feet higher than that 
 in which I am writing, instead of two hundred. 
 
 It may not be impertinent to add that the barometers at Sel- 
 borne stand three-tenths of an inch lower than the barometers at 
 South Lambeth : whence we may conclude that the former place 
 is about three hundred feet higher than the latter ; and with good 
 reason, because the streams that rise with us run into the Thames 
 at Weybridge, and so to London. Of course therefore there must 
 be lower ground all the way from Selborne to South Lambeth ; 
 the distance between which, all the windings and indentings of 
 the streams considered, cannot be less than a hundred miles. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER LXI. 
 
 SINCE the weather of a district is undoubtedly part of its natural 
 history, I shall make no further apology for the four following 
 letters, which will contain many particulars concerning some of 
 the great frosts, and a few respecting some very hot summers, that 
 have distinguished themselves from the rest during the course of 
 my observations. 
 
 As the frost in January 1768 was, for the small time it lasted, 
 the most severe that we had then known for many years, and was 
 remarkably injurious to evergreens, some account of its rigour, 
 and reason of its ravages, may be useful, and not unacceptable 
 to persons that delight in planting and ornamenting ; and may 
 particularly become a work that professes never to lose sight of 
 utility. 
 
 For the last two or three days of the former year there were 
 considerable falls of snow, which lay deep and uniform on the 
 ground without any drifting, wrapping up the more humble vege- 
 tation in perfect security. From the first day to the filth of the 
 new year more snow succeeded ; but from that day the air became 
 entirely clear ; and the heat of the sun about noon had a con- 
 siderable influence in sheltered situations. 
 
274 NATURAL HISTORY OF SEL BORNE. 
 
 It was in such an aspect that the snow on the author's ever- 
 greens was melted every day, and frozen intensely every night ; 
 so that the laurustines, bays, laurels, and arbutuses looked, in 
 three or four days, as if they had been burnt in the fire ; while a 
 neighbour's plantation of the same kind, in a high cold situation, 
 where the snow was never melted at all, remained uninjured. 
 
 From hence I would infer that it is the repeated melting and 
 freezing of the snow that is so fatal to vegetation, rather than the 
 severity of the cold. Therefore it highly behoves every planter, 
 who wishes to escape the cruel mortification of losing in a few 
 days the labour and hopes of years, to bestir himself on such 
 emergencies ; and if his plantations are small, to avail himself of 
 mats, cloths, pease-haum, straw, reeds, or any such covering, for 
 a short time ; or, if his shrubberies are extensive, to see that his 
 people go about with prongs and forks, and carefully dislodge the 
 snow from the boughs : since the naked foliage will shift much 
 better for itself, than where the snow is partly melted and frozen 
 again. 
 
 It may perhaps appear at first like a paradox ; but doubtless 
 the more tender trees and shrubs should never be planted in hot 
 aspects ; not only for the reason assigned above, but also because, 
 thus circumstanced, they are disposed to shoot earlier in the 
 spring, and to grow on later in the autumn than they would other- 
 wise do, and so are sufferers by lagging or early frosts. For this 
 reason also plants from Siberia will hardly endure our climate ; 
 because, on the very first advances of spring, they shoot away, 
 and so are cut off by the severe nights of March or April. 
 
 Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the same incon- 
 venience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North 
 America, which they therefore plant under north walls. There 
 should also perhaps be a wall to the east to defend them from 
 the piercing blasts from that quarter. 
 
 This observation might without any impropriety be carried into 
 animal life ; for discerning bee-masters now find that their hives 
 should not in the winter be exposed to the hot sun, because such 
 unseasonable warmth awakens the inhabitants too early from their 
 slumbers ; and, by putting their juices into motion too soon, 
 
NATLRAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 275 
 
 subjects them afterwards to inconveniences when rigorous weather 
 returns. 
 
 The coincidents attending this short but intense frost were, that 
 the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which injured the 
 winds of many, and killed some ; that colds and coughs were 
 general among the human species ; that it froze under people's 
 beds for several nights ; that meat was so hard frozen that it 
 could not be spitted, and could not be secured but in cellars ; 
 that several red-wings and thrushes were killed by the frost ; and 
 that the large titmouse continued to pull straws lengthwise from 
 the eaves of thatched houses and barns in a most adroit manner, 
 for a purpose that has been explained already. 1 
 
 On the 3rd January, Benjamin Martin's thermometer within 
 doors, in a close parlour where there was no fire, fell in the night 
 to 20, and on the 4th, to 18, and on the yth, to 174, a degree 
 of cold which the owner never since saw in the same situation ; 
 and he regrets much that he was not able at that juncture to 
 attend his instrument abroad. All this time the wind continued 
 north and north-east j and yet on the 8ih roost-cocks, which had 
 been silent, began to sound their clarions, and crows to clamour, 
 as prognostic of milder weather ; and, moreover, moles began to 
 heave and work, and a manifest thaw took place. From the 
 latter circumstance we may conclude that thaws often originate 
 under ground from warm vapours which arise ; else how should 
 subterraneous animals receive such early intimations of their 
 approach ? Moreover, we have often observed that cold seems to 
 descend from above ; for, when a thermometer hangs abroad in a 
 frosty night, the intervention of a cloud shall immediately raise the 
 mercury 10; and a clear sky shall again compel it to descend to 
 its former guage. 
 
 And here it may be proper to observe, on what has been said 
 above, that though frosts advance to their utmost severity by 
 somewhat of a regular gradation, yet thaws do not usually come 
 on by as regular a declension of cold ; but often take place imme- 
 diately from intense freezing ; as men in sickness often mend at 
 once from a paroxysm. 
 
 To the great credit of Portugal laurels and American junipers, 
 
 18 
 
276 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 be it remembered that they remained untouched amidst the general 
 havoc : hence men should learn to ornament chiefly with such 
 trees as are able to withstand accidental severities, and not subject 
 themselves to the vexation of a loss which may befal them once 
 perhaps in ten years, yet may hardly be recovered through the 
 whole course of their lives. 2 
 
 As it appeared afterwards, the ilexes were much injured, the 
 cypresses were half destroyed, the arbutuses lingered on, but never 
 recovered ; and the bays, laurustines, and laurels, were killed to 
 the ground ; and the very wild hollies, in hot aspects, were so 
 much affected that they cast all their leaves. 
 
 By the 1 4th January the snow was entirely gone ; the turnips 
 emerged not damaged at all, save in sunny places ; the wheat 
 looked delicately, and the garden plants were well preserved ; for 
 snow is the most kindly mantle that infant vegetation can be 
 wrapped in : were it not for that friendly meteor no vegetable life 
 could exist at all in northerly regions. Yet in Sweden the earth 
 in April is not divested of snow for more than a fortnight before 
 the face of the country is covered with flowers. 
 
 NOTES TO LETTER LXI. 
 
 1 The winter of 1878-9 will long be remembered for its unexampled severity. 
 There were 34 and 35 of frost several nights running in Northumberland. 
 Some tench and eels were frozen in a shallow pond and died. Some gold-fish I 
 had were exposed to the cold one night, and in the morning they were all 
 lying at the bottom of the water motionless, and apparently dead ; but on being 
 put in a warmer place four out of seven gradually recovered, but three died. 
 
 2 At the same time the snow fell so fast and in such quantity, and lay so long, 
 that all the thick shrubs were bent to the ground with its weight, and unless 
 the snow was constantly shaken off the branches they perished. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 277 
 
 LETTER LXII. 
 
 THERE were some circumstances attending the remarkable frost 
 in January 1776, so singular and striking, that a short detail of 
 them may not be unacceptable. 
 
 The most certain way to be exact will be to copy the passages 
 from my journal, which were taken from time to time, as things 
 occurred. But it may be proper previously to remark that the 
 first week in January was uncommonly wet, and drowned with 
 vast rains from every quarter : from whence may be inferred, as 
 there is great reason to believe is the case, that intense frosts 
 seldom take place till the earth is perfectly glutted and chilled 
 with water ; * and hence dry autumns are seldom followed by 
 rigorous winters. 
 
 January 7th. Snow driving all the day, which was followed by 
 frost, sleet, and some snow, till the i2th, when a prodigious mass 
 overwhelmed all the works of men, drifting over the tops of the 
 gates and filling the hollow lanes. 
 
 On the 1 4th the writer was obliged to be much abroad ; and 
 thinks he never before or since has encountered such rugged 
 Siberian weather. Many of the narrow roads were now filled 
 above the tops of the hedges ; through which the snow was driven 
 into most romantic and grotesque shapes, so striking to the ima- 
 gination as not to be seen without wonder and pleasure. The 
 poultry dared not to stir out of their roosting places ; for cocks and 
 hens are so dazzled and confounded by the glare of snow that 
 they would soon perish without assistance. The hares also lay 
 sullenly in their seats, and would not move till compelled by 
 hunger ; being conscious poor animals that the drifts and heaps 
 treacherously betray their footsteps, and prove fatal to numbers of 
 them. 
 
 .* The autumn preceding January 1768 was very wet, and particularly the 
 month of September, during which there fell at Lyndon, in the county of 
 Rutland, six inches and a half of rain. And the terrible long frost in 1739-40 
 set in after a rainy season, and when the springs were very high. 
 
278 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 From the i4th the snow continued to increase, and began to 
 stop the road waggons, and coaches, which could no longer keep 
 on their regular stages ; and especially on the western roads, 
 where the fall appears to have been deeper than in the south. 
 The company at .Bath, that wanted to attend the Queen's birth- 
 day, were strangely incommoded : many carriages of persons, who 
 got in their way to town from Bath as far as Marlborough, after 
 strange embarrassments, here met with a ne plus ultra. The ladies 
 fretted, and offered large rewards to labourers if they would shovel 
 them a track to London ; but the relentless heaps of snow were 
 too bulky to be removed; and so the i8th passed over, leaving 
 the company in very uncomfortable circumstances at the Castle 
 and other inns. 
 
 On the 2oth the sun shone out for the first time since the frost 
 began ; a circumstance that has been remarked before much in 
 favour of vegetation. All this time the cold was not very intense, 
 for the thermometer stood at 29, 28, 25, and thereabout; but 
 on the 2ist it descended to 20. The birds now began to be in 
 a very pitiable and starving condition. Tamed by the season, 
 sky-larks settled in the streets of towns, because they saw the 
 ground was bare ; rooks frequented dunghills close to houses ; and 
 crows watched horses as they passed, and greedily devoured what 
 dropped from them : hares now came into men's gardens, and, 
 scraping away the snow, devoured such plants as they could find. 
 
 On the 22nd the author had occasion to go to London through 
 a sort of Laplandian scene, very wild and grotesque indeed. But 
 the metropolis itself exhibited a still more singular appearance 
 than the country ; for, being bedded deep in snow, the pavement 
 of the streets could not be touched by the wheels or the horse's 
 feet, so that the carriages ran about without the least noise."' Such 
 an exemption from din and clatter was strange, but not pleasant ; 
 it seemed to convey an uncomfortable idea of desolation : 
 
 " Ipsa silentia terrent." 
 
 On the 2yth much snow fell all day, and in the evening the 
 frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, for the four 
 following nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6; and a 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 279 
 
 Selborne to 7, 6, 10; and on the 3ist January, just before sun- 
 rise, with rime on the trees and on the tube of the glass, the 
 quicksilver sunk exactly to zero, being 32 below the freezing 
 point; but by eleven in the morning, though in the shade, it 
 sprang up to i6|,* a most unusual degree of cold this for the 
 south of England ! During these four nights the cold was so 
 penetrating that it occasioned ice in warm chambers and under 
 beds and in the day the wind was so keen that persons of robust 
 constitutions could scarcely endure to face it. The Thames was 
 at once so frozen over both above and below bridge that crowds 
 ran about on the ice. The streets were now strangely encumbered 
 with snow, which crumbled and trod dusty ; and, turning grey, 
 resembled bay-salt ; what had fallen on the roofs was so perfectly 
 dry that, from first to last, it lay twenty- six days on the houses in 
 the city : a longer time than had been remembered by the oldest 
 housekeepers living. According to all appearances we might now 
 have expected the continuance of this rigorous weather for weeks 
 to come, since every night increased in severity ; but behold, 
 without any apparent cause, on the ist February a thaw took 
 place, and some rain followed before night, making good the 
 observation above, that frosts often go off as it were at once, 
 without any gradual declension of cold. On the 2nd February 
 the thaw persisted ; and on the 3rd swarms of little insects were 
 frisking and sporting in a courtyard at South Lambeth, as if they 
 had felt no frost. Why the juices in the small bodies and smaller 
 limbs of such minute beings are not frozen is a matter of curious 
 inquiry. 
 
 Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in currents ; for at 
 the same juncture, as the author was informed by accurate corre- 
 spondents, at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, the thermo- 
 meter stood at 19 ; at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 19 ; and at 
 Manchester, at 21, 20, and 18. Thus does some unknown 
 
 * At Selborne the cold was greater than at any other place that the author 
 could hear of with certainty : though some reported at the time that at a village 
 in Kent the thermometer fell two degrees below zero; viz., thirty-four degrees 
 below the freezing point. 
 
 The thermometer used at Selborne was graduated by Benjamin Martin. 
 
280 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 circumstance strangely overbalance latitude, and render the cold 
 sometimes much greater in the southern than the northern parts 
 of this kingdom. 
 
 The consequences of this severity were, that in Hampshire, at 
 the melting of the snow, the wheat looked well, and the turnips 
 came forth little injured. The laurels and laurustines were some- 
 what damaged, but only in hot aspects. No evergreens were 
 quite destroyed ; and not half the damage sustained that befell in 
 January 1768. Those laurels that were a little scorched on the 
 south sides were perfectly untouched on their north sides. The 
 care taken to shake the snow day by day from the branches 
 seemed greatly to avail the author's evergreens. A neighbour's 
 laurel-hedge, in a high situation, and facing to the north, was 
 perfectly green and vigorous ; and the Portugal laurels remained 
 unhurt. 
 
 As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly 
 destroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, 
 were so thinned that few remained to breed the following year. 
 
 LETTER LXIII. 
 
 As the frost in December 1784 was very extraordinary, you, I 
 trust, will not be displeased to hear the particulars ; and especially 
 when I promise to say no more about the severities of winter after 
 I have finished this letter. 
 
 The first week in December was very wet, with the barometer 
 very low. On the 7th, with the barometer at 2 8' 5 came on a 
 vast .snow, which continued all that day and the next, and most 
 part of the following night : so that by the morning of the 9th the 
 works of men were quite overwhelmed, the lanes filled so as to be 
 impassable, and the ground covered twelve or fifteen inches without 
 any drifting. In the evening of the Qth the air began to be so 
 very sharp that we thought it would be curious to attend to the 
 motions of a thermometer ~ } we therefore hung out two, one made 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 281 
 
 by Martin and one by Dollond, which soon began to show us what 
 we were to expect; for by ten o'clock they fell to 21, and at 
 eleven to 4, when we went to bed. On the loth, in the morning, 
 the quicksilver of Dollond's glass was down to half a degree below 
 zero ; and that of Martin's, which was absurdly graduated only to 
 four degrees above zero, sunk quite into the brass guard of the 
 ball ; so that when the weather became most interesting this was 
 useless. On the loth, at eleven at night, though the air was per- 
 fectly still, Dollond's glass went down to one degree below zero ! 
 This strange severity of the weather made me very desirous to 
 know what degree of cold there might be in such an exalted and 
 near situation as Newton. We had, therefore, on the morning of 
 
 the loth, written to Mr. , and intreated him to hang out his 
 
 thermometer, made by Adams, and to pay some attention to it 
 morning and evening, expecting wonderful phenomena, in so ele- 
 vated a region, at two hundred feet or more above my house. 
 But, behold ! on the loth, at eleven at night, it was down only to 
 17, and the next morning at 22, when mine was at 10 I We 
 were so disturbed at this unexpected reverse of comparative local 
 
 cold, that we sent one of my glasses up, thinking that of Mr. 
 
 must, somehow, be wrongly constructed. But, when the instru- 
 ments came to be confronted, they went exactly together ; so that, 
 for one night at least, the cold at Newton was 18 less than at 
 Selborne; and, through the whole frost, 10 or 12; and indeed, 
 when we came to observe consequences, we could readily credit 
 this ; for all my laurustines, bays, ilexes, arbutuses, cypresses, and 
 even my Portugal laurels, and (which occasions more regret) my 
 fine sloping laurel-hedge, were scorched up ; while, at Newton, 
 the same trees have not lost a leaf. 
 
 We had steady frost on the 25th, when the thermometer in the 
 morning was down to 10 with us, and at Newton only to 21. 
 Strong frost continued till the 3ist, when some tendency to thaw 
 was observed ; and, by January 3rd, 1785, the thaw was confirmed, 
 and some rain fell. 
 
 A circumstance that I must not omit, because it was new to us, 
 is, that on Friday, December roth, being bright sunshine, the air 
 was full of icy spiculce, floating in all directions, like atoms in a 
 
282 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 sunbeam let into a dark room. We thought them at first particles 
 of the rime falling from my tall hedges ; but were soon convinced 
 to the contrary, by making our observations in open places where 
 no rime could reach us. Were they watery particles of the air 
 frozen as they floated, or were they evaporations from the snow 
 frozen as they mounted ! 
 
 We were much obliged to the thermometers for the early infor- 
 mation they gave us; and hurried our apples, pears, onions, pota- 
 toes, etc., into the cellar, and warm closets ; while those who had 
 not, or neglected such warnings, lost all their store of roots and 
 fruits, and had their very bread and cheese frozen. 
 
 I must not omit to tell you that, during these two Siberian days, 
 my parlour cat was so electric, that had a person stroked her, and 
 been properly insulated, the shock might have been given to a 
 whole circle of people. 
 
 I forgot to mention before, that, during the two severe days, 
 two men, who were tracing hares in the snow, had their feet frozen, 
 and two men, who were much better employed, had their fingers 
 so affected by the frost, while they were thrashing in a barn, that 
 a mortification followed, from which they did not recover for 
 many weeks. 
 
 This frost killed all the furze and most of the ivy, and in many 
 places stripped the hollies of all their leaves. It came at a very 
 early time of the year, before old November ended ; and yet may 
 be allowed from its effects to have exceeded any since 1730-40. 
 
 LETTER LXIV. 
 
 As the effects of heat are seldom very remarkable in the 
 northerly climate of England, where the summers are often so 
 defective in warmth and sunshine as not to ripen the fruits of the 
 earth so well as might be wished, I shall be more concise in my 
 account of the severity of a summer season, and so make a little 
 amends for the prolix account of the degrees of cold, and the 
 inconveniences that we suffered from some late rigorous winters. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 283 
 
 The summers of 1781 and 1783 were unusually hot and dry; to 
 them therefore I shall turn back in my journals, without recurring 
 to any more distant period. In the former of these years my 
 peach and nectarine-trees suffered so much from the heat that the 
 rind on the bodies was scalded and came off; since which the 
 trees have been in a decaying state. This may prove a hint to 
 assiduous gardeners to fence and shelter their wall-trees with mats 
 or boards, as they may easily do, because such annoyance is 
 seldom of long continuance. During that summer also, I observed 
 that my apples were coddled, as it were, on the trees; so that they 
 had no quickness of flavour, and would not keep in the winter. 
 This circumstance put me in mind of what I have heard travellers 
 assert, that they never ate a good apple or apricot in the south ot 
 Europe, where the heats were so great as to render the juices 
 vapid and insipid. 
 
 The great pests of a garden are wasps, which destroy all the 
 finer fruits just as they are coming into perfection. In 1781 we 
 had none ; in 1 7 83 there were myriads ; which would have 
 devoured all the produce of my garden, had not we set the boys 
 to take the nests, and caught thousands with hazel-twigs tipped 
 with bird-lime : we have since employed the boys to take and 
 destroy the large breeding wasps in the spring. Such expedients 
 have a great effect on these marauders, and will keep them under. 
 Though wasps do not abound but in hot summers, yet they do 
 not prevail in every hot summer, as I have instanced in the two 
 years above-mentioned. 
 
 In the sultry season of 1783, honey-dews were so frequent as to 
 deface and destroy the beauties of my garden. My honeysuckles, 
 which were one week the most sweet and lovely objects that the 
 eye could behold, became the next the most loathsome ; being 
 enveloped in a viscous substance, and loaded with black aphides, 
 or smother-flies. The occasion of this clammy appearance seems 
 to be this, that in hot weather the effluvia of flowers in fields and 
 meadows and gardens are drawn up in the day by a brisk evapora- 
 tion, and then in the night fall down again with the dews, in which 
 they are entangled ; that the air is strongly scented, and therefore 
 impregnated with the particles of flowers in summer weather, our 
 
284 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 senses will inform us ; and that this clammy sweet substance is of 
 the vegetable kind we may learn from bees, to whom it is very 
 grateful : and we may be assured that it falls in the night, because 
 it is always first seen in warm still mornings. 1 
 
 On chalky and sandy soils, and in the hot villages about London, 
 the thermometer has been often observed to mount as high as 83 
 or 84 ; but with us, in this hilly and woody district, I have hardly 
 ever seen it exceed 80 ; nor does it often arrive at that pitch. 
 The reason, I conclude, is, that our dense clayey soil, so much 
 shaded by trees, is not so easily heated through as those above- 
 mentioned ; and, besides, our mountains cause currents of air and 
 breezes ; and the vast effluvia from our woodlands temper and 
 moderate our heats. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER LXIV. 
 
 1 White's explanation of the origin of honeydew is ingenious, but incorrect. 
 It is now ascertained to be an exudation from the aphides themselves. It is by 
 some called their excrement. 
 
 LETTER LXV. 
 
 THE summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and portentous 
 one, and full of horrible phenomena ; for, besides the alarming 
 meteors and tremendous thunder-storms that affrighted and dis- 
 tressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze, 
 or smoky fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and in 
 every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extra- 
 ordinary appearance, unlike anything known within the memory 
 of man. By my journal I find that I had noticed this strange 
 occurrence from June 23rd to July 2oth inclusive, during which 
 period the wind varied to every quarter without making any alter- 
 ation in the air. The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded 
 moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground, 
 and floors of rooms ; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 285 
 
 at rising and setting. All the time the heat was so intense that 
 butchers' meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it was 
 killed; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that they 
 rendered the horses half frantic, and riding irksome. The country 
 people began to look with a superstitious awe at the red, louring 
 aspect of the sun; and indeed there was reason for the most 
 enlightened person to be apprehensive; for, all the while, Calabria 
 and part of the Isle of Sicily, were torn and convulsed with earth- 
 quakes; and about that juncture a volcano sprang out of the sea 
 on the coast of Norway. On this occasion Milton's noble simile 
 of the sun, in his first book of " Paradise Lost," frequently occurred 
 to my mind; and it is indeed particularly applicable, because, 
 towards the end, it alludes to a superstitious kind of dread, with 
 which the minds of men are always impressed by such strange and 
 unusual phenomena. 
 
 " As when the sun, new risen, 
 
 Looks through the horizontal, misty air, 
 Shorn of his beams ; or from behind the moon, 
 In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
 On half the nations, and with/mr of change 
 Perplexes monarchs ." 
 
 LETTER LXVI. 
 
 WE are very seldom annoyed with thunderstorms : and it is no 
 less remarkable than true, that those which arise in the south have 
 hardly been known to reach this village ; for, before they get over 
 us, they take a direction to the east or to the west, or sometimes 
 divide in two, go in part to one of those quarters, and in part to 
 the other; as was truly the case in summer 1783, when, though 
 the country round was continually harassed with tempests, and 
 often from the south, yet we escaped them all, as appears by my 
 journal of that summer. The only way that I can at all account 
 for this fact for such it is is that, on that quarter, between us 
 and the sea, there are continual mountains, hill behind hill, such 
 
286 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
 
 as Nore-hill, the Barnet, Butser-hill, and Ports-down, which some- 
 how divert the storms, and give them a different direction. High 
 promontories, and elevated grounds, have always been observed to 
 attract clouds and disarm them of their mischievous contents, 
 which are discharged into the trees and summits as soon as they 
 come in contact with those turbulent meteors while the humble 
 vales escape, because they are so far beneath them. 
 
 But, when I say I do not remember a thunder-storm from the 
 south, I do not mean that we never have suffered from thunder- 
 storms at all; for on June 5th, 1784, the thermometer in the 
 morning being at 64, and at noon at 70, the barometer at 29-6! 
 and the wind north, I observed a blue mist, smelling strongly 
 of sulphur, hanging along our sloping woods, and seeming to 
 indicate that thunder was at hand. I was called in about two in 
 the afternoon, and so missed seeing the gathering of the clouds in 
 the north ; which they who were abroad assured me had some- 
 thing uncommon in its appearance. At about a quarter after two 
 the storm began in the parish of Hartley, moving slowly from 
 north to south : and from thence it came over Norton-farm, and 
 so to Grange-farm, both in this parish. It began with vast drops 
 of rain, which were soon succeeded by round hail, and then by 
 convex pieces of ice, which measured three inches in girth. Had 
 it been as extensive as it was violent, and of any continuance (for 
 it was very short), it must have ravaged all the neighbourhood. 
 In the parish of Hartley it did some damage to one farm ; but 
 Norton, which lay in the centre of the storm, was greatly injured ; 
 as was Grange, which lay next to it. It did but just reach to the 
 middle of the village, where the hail broke my north windows, 
 and all my garden-lights and hand-glasses, and many of my neigh- 
 bours' windows. The extent of the storm was about two miles in 
 length and one in breadth. We were just sitting down to dinner ; 
 but were soon diverted from our repast by the clattering of tiles 
 and the jingling of glass. There fell at the same time prodigious 
 torrents of rain on the farms above-mentioned, which occasioned 
 a flood as violent as it was sudden ; doing great damage to the 
 meadows and fallows, by deluging the one and washing away the 
 soil of the other. The hollow lane towards Alton was so torn 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 287 
 
 and disordered as not to be passable till mended, rocks being 
 removed that weighed two hundred-weight. Those that saw the 
 effect which the great hail had on ponds and pools say that the 
 dashing of the water made an extraordinary appearance, the froth 
 and spray standing up in the air three feet above the surface. 
 The rushing and roaring of the hail, as it approached, was truly 
 tremendous. 
 
 Though the clouds at South Lambeth, near London, were at 
 that juncture thin and light, and no storm was in sight, nor 
 within hearing, yet the air was strongly electric ; for the bells of 
 an electric machine at that place rang repeatedly, and fierce 
 sparks were discharged. 
 
 When I first took the present work in hand I proposed to have 
 added an " Annus Historico-naturalis, or The Natural History of 
 the Twelve Months of the Year ; " which would have comprised 
 many incidents and occurrences that have not fallen in my way to 
 be mentioned in my series of letters ; but, as Mr. Aikin of War- 
 rington has lately published somewhat of this sort, and as the 
 length of my correspondence has sufficiently put your patience 
 to the test, I shall here take a respectful leave of you and natural 
 history together, 1 and am, 
 
 With all due deference and regard, 
 
 Your most obliged and most humble servant, 
 
 GIL. WHITE. 
 
 SELBORNE, 
 June 2$th, 178 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER LXVI. 
 
 1 White certainly did not "take leave ot natural history," for his love of 
 Nature was as keen as ever until he died. 
 
THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 IT is reasonable to suppose that in remote ages this woody and 
 mountainous district was inhabited only by bears and wolves. 
 Whether the Britons ever thoug ht it worthy their attention, is not 
 in our power to determine ; but we may safely conclude, from 
 circumstances, that it was not unknown to the Romans. Old 
 people remember to have heard their fathers and grandfathers 
 say that, in dry summers and in windy weather, pieces of money 
 were sometimes found round the verge of Wolmer pond ; and 
 tradition had inspired the foresters with a notion that the bottom 
 of that lake contained great stores of tre asure. During the spring 
 and summer of 1740 there was little rain ; and the following sum- 
 mer also, 1741, was so uncommonly dry, that many springs and 
 ponds failed, and this lake in particular, whose bed became as 
 dusty as the surrounding heaths and wastes. This favourable 
 juncture induced some of the forest-cottagers to begin a search, 
 which was attended with such success, that all the labourers in 
 the neighbourhood flocked to the spot, and with spades and hoes 
 turned up great part of that large area, Instead of pots of coins, 
 as they expected, they found great heaps, the one lying on the 
 other, as if shot out of a bag; many of which were in good 
 preservation. Silver and gold these inquirers expected to find ; 
 but their discoveries consisted solely of many hundreds of Roman 
 copper-coins, and some medallions, all of the lower empire. 
 There was not much virtu stirring at that time in this neighbour- 
 hood ; however, some of the gentry and clergy around bought 
 what pleased them best, and some dozens fell to the share of the 
 author. 1 
 
 19 
 
292 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 The owners at first held their commodity at a high price ; but, 
 finding that they were not likely to meet with dealers at such 
 a rate, they soon lowered their terms, and sold the fairest as they 
 could. The coins that were rejected became current, and passed 
 for farthings at the petty shops. Of those that we saw, the greater 
 part were of Marcus Aurelius, and the Empress Faustina, his 
 wife, the father and mother of Commodus. Some of Faustina 
 were in high relief, and exhibited a very agreeable set of features, 
 which probably resembled that lady, who was more celebrated 
 for her beauty than for her virtues. The medallions in general 
 were of a paler colour than the coins. To pretend to account 
 for the means of their coming to this place would be spending 
 time in conjecture. The spot, I think, could not be a Roman 
 camp, because it is commanded by hills on two sides ; nor does 
 it show the least traces of entrenchments ; nor can I suppose 
 that it was a Roman town, because I have too good an opinion 
 of the taste and judgment of those polished conquerors to imagine 
 that they would settle on so barren and dreary a waste. 
 
 NOTE TO LETTER I. 
 
 1 In October 1873 two earthenware vessels were found two feet under the 
 surface of a field near Selborne containing about thirty thousand Roman and 
 Roman-British coins. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 THAT Selborne was a place of some distinction and note in the 
 time of the Saxons we can give most undoubted proofs. But, as 
 there are few if any accounts of the villages before Domesday, it 
 will be best to begin with that venerable record. " Ipse rex 
 tenet Selesburne. Eddid regina tenuit, et nunquam geldavit. 
 De isto manerio dono dedit rex Radfredo presbytero dimidiam 
 hidam cum ecclesia. Tempore regis Edwardi et post, valuit 
 duodecim solidos et sex denarios ; modo octo solidos et quatuor 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 293 
 
 denarios." Here we see that Selborne was a royal manor : and 
 that Editha, the queen of Edward the Confessor, had been lady 
 of that manor, and was succeeded in it by the Conqueror, and 
 that it had a church. Besides these, many circumstances concur 
 to prove it to have been a Saxon village ; such as the name of 
 the place itself,* the names of many fields, and some families, t 
 with a variety of words in husbandry and common life, still sub- 
 sisting among the country people. 
 
 What probably first drew the attention of the Saxons to this 
 spot was the beautiful spring or fountain called Well Head,:}: 
 which induced them to build by the banks of that perennial 
 
 * Selesburne, Seleburne, Selburn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as it has 
 been variously spelt at different periods, is of Saxon derivation ; for Set signi- 
 fies great, and burn torrens, a brook or rivulet : so that the name seems to be 
 derived from the great perennial stream that breaks out at the upper end of 
 the village. Sel also signifies bonus, \\.zm. fcecundus, fertilis. " Sel ss&pp-cun : 
 f&cunda gtaminis clausura ; fertile pascuum : a meadow in the parish of 
 Godelming is still called Sal-gars-ton" LYE'S Saxon Dictionary ', in the Sup- 
 plement, by Mr. Manning. 
 
 f Thus, the name of Aldred signifies all-reverend, and that of Kemp means 
 a soldier. Thus we have a church-litton, or enclosure for dead bodies, and 
 not a church-yard ; there is also a Culver-croft near the Grange-farm, being 
 the enclosure where the priory pigeon-house stood, from culver a pigeon. 
 Again there are three steep pastures in this parish called the Lithe, from 
 Hlithe, clivus. The wicker-work that binds and fastens down a hedge on the 
 top is called ether, from ether, a hedge. When the good women call their 
 hogs they cry sic, sic, 1 not knowing that sic is Saxon, or rather Celtic, for a 
 hog. Coppice or brushwood our countrymen call rise, from Arts, frondes 
 and talk of a load of rise. Within the author's memory the Saxon plurals, 
 housen and peason, were in common use. But it would be endless to instance 
 in every circumstance : he that wishes for more specimens must frequent a 
 farmer's kitchen. I have therefore selected some words to show how familiar 
 the Saxon dialect was to this district, since in more than seven hundred years 
 is far from being obliterated. 
 
 J Well-head signifies spring-head, and not a d eep pit from whence we draw 
 water. For particulars about which see Letter I. to Mr. Pennant. 
 
 1 2i*a, porcus, apud Lacones ; un Porceau chez les Lacedemonians : ce mot a sans doute 
 este pris des Celtes, qui disoent sic, pour marquer un porceau. Encore aujour'huy quand le 
 Bretons chassent ces animaux, ils ne disent autrement, que sic, sic. Antiquitt de la Nation 
 it de la Langue des Celtes, par Pezron, 
 
294 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 current; for ancient settlers loved to reside by brooks and 
 livulets, where they could dip for their water without the trouble 
 and expense of digging wells and of drawing. 
 
 It remains still unsettled among the antiquaries at what time 
 tracts of land were first appropriated to the chase alone for the 
 amusement of the Sovereign. Whether our Saxon monarchs had 
 any royal forests, does not, I believe, appear on record ; but the 
 " Constitutiones de Foresta," of Canute, the Dane, are come 
 down to us. We shall not, therefore, pretend to say whether 
 Wolmer Forest existed as a royal domain before the conquest. 
 If it did not, we may suppose it was laid out by some of our 
 earliest Norman kings, who were exceedingly attached to the 
 pleasures of the chase, and resided much at Winchester, which 
 lies at a moderate distance from this district. The Plantagenet 
 princes seem to have been pleased with Wolmer, for tradition 
 says that King John resided just upon the verge, at Ward-le-ham, 
 on a regular and remarkable mount, still called King John's Hill, 
 and Lodge Hill; and Edward III. had a chapel in his park, or 
 enclosure, at Kingsley.* Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and 
 Richard, Duke of York, say my evidences, were both, in their 
 turns, wardens of Wolmer Forest, which seems to have served 
 for an appointment for the younger princes of the royal family, as 
 it may again. 
 
 I have intentionally mentioned Edward III. and the dukes 
 Humphrey and Richard, before King Edward II., because I have 
 reserved, for the entertainment of my readers, a pleasant anecdote 
 respecting that prince, with which I shall close this letter. 
 
 As Edward II. was hunting on Wolmer Forest, Morris Ken, 
 of the kitchen, fell from his horse several times, at which accidents 
 the king laughed immoderately ; and, when the chase was over, 
 ordered him twenty shillings,t an enormous sum for those days ! 
 
 * The parish of Kingsley lies between and divides Wolmer Forest from Ayles 
 Holt Forest. See Letter IX. to Mr. Pennant. 
 
 f "Item, paid at the lodge at Wolmer, when the king was stag-hunting 
 there, to Morris Ken, of the kitchen, because he rode before the king and 
 often fell from his horse, at which the king laughed exceedingly a gift, by 
 command, of twenty shillings." A MS. in possession of Thomas Astle, Esq., 
 containing the private expenses of Edward II. : -.1 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 295 
 
 Proper allowances ought to be made for the youth of this monarch, 
 whose spirits also, we may suppose, were much exhilarated by 
 the sport of the day ; but, at the same time, it is reasonable to 
 remark, that, whatever might be the occasions of Ken's first fall, 
 the subsequent ones seem to have been designed. The scullion 
 appears to have been an artful fellow, and to have seen the king's 
 foible, which furnishes an early specimen of that his easy softness 
 and facility of temper, of which the infamous Gaveston took such 
 advantages, as brought innumerable calamities on the nation, and 
 involved the prince at last in misfortunes and sufferings too 
 deplorable to be mentioned, without horror and amazement. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 FROM the silence of Domesday respecting churches, it has been 
 supposed that few villages had any at the time when that record 
 was taken ; but Selborne, we see, enjoyed the benefit of one : 
 hence, we may conclude, that this place was in no abject state 
 even at that very distant period. How many fabrics have suc- 
 ceeded each other since the days of Radfredrus the presbyter, we 
 cannot pretend to say \ our business leads us to a description of 
 the present edifice, in which we shall be circumstantial. 
 
 Our church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, consists 
 of three aisles, and measures fifty-four feet in length, by forty-seven 
 in breadth, being almost as broad as it is long. The present 
 building has no pretensions to antiquity, and is, as I suppose, 
 of no earlier date than the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. 
 It is perfectly plain and unadorned, without painted glass, carved 
 work, sculpture, or tracery. But when I say it has no claim to 
 antiquity, I would mean to be understood the fabric in general ; 
 for the pillars, which support the roof, are undoubtedly old, being 
 of that low, squat, thick order, usually called Saxon. These, 
 I should imagine, upheld the roof of a former church, which, 
 falling into decay, was rebuilt on those massy props, because 
 
296 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 their strength had preserved them from the injuries of time.* 
 Upon these rest blunt Gothic arches, such as prevailed in the 
 reign above-mentioned, and by which, as a criterion, we would 
 prove the date of the building. 
 
 At the bottom of the south aisle, between the west and south 
 doors, stands the font, which is deep and capacious, and consists 
 of three massy round stones, piled one on another, without the 
 least ornament or sculpture : the cavity at the top is lined with 
 lead, and has a pipe at the bottom to convey off the water after 
 the sacred ceremony is performed. 
 
 The east end of the south aisle is called the South Chancel, 
 and, till within these thirty years, was divided off by old carved 
 Gothic framework of timber, having been a private chantry. In 
 this opinion we are more confirmed by observing two Gothic 
 niches within the space, the one in the east wall and the other in 
 the south, near which there probably stood images and altars. 
 
 In the middle aisle there is nothing remarkable : but I remember 
 when its beams were hung with garlands in honour of young 
 women of the parish, reputed to have died virgins ; and recollect 
 to have seen the clerk's wife cutting, in white paper, the resem- 
 blances of gloves, and ribbons to be twisted in knots and roses, to 
 decorate these memorials of chastity. In the church of Faringdon, 
 which is the next parish, many garlands of this sort still remain. 
 
 The north aisle is narrow and low, with a sloping ceiling, reach- 
 ing within eight or nine feet of the floor. It had originally a flat 
 roof, covered with lead, till, within a century past, a churchwarden 
 stripping off the lead, in order, as he said, to have it mended, 
 sold it to a plumber, and ran away with the money. This aisle 
 has no door, for an obvious reason ; because the north side of the 
 churchyard, being surrounded by the vicarage-garden, affords no 
 path to that side of the church. Nothing can be more irregular 
 than the pews of this church, which are of all dimensions and 
 
 * In the same manner, to compare great things with small, did Wykeham, 
 when he new-built the cathedral at Winchester, from the tower westward, 
 apply to his purpose the old piers or pillars of Bishop Walkelin's church, by 
 blending Saxon and Gothic architecture together. See LOWTH'S Life oj 
 Wykeham. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 297 
 
 heights, being patched up according to the fancy of the owners ; 
 but whoever nicely examines them will find that the middle aisle 
 had, on each side, a regular row of benches of solid oak, all alike, 
 with a low back-board to each. These we should not hesitate to 
 say are coeval with the present church ; and especially as it is to 
 be observed that, at their ends, they are ornamented with carved 
 blunt Gothic niches, exactly correspondent to the arches of the 
 church, and to a niche in the south wall. The fourth aisle also 
 has a row of these benches ; but some are decayed through age, 
 and the rest much disguised by modern alterations. 
 
 At the upper end of this aisle, and running out to the north, 
 stands a transept, known by the name of the North Chancel, 
 measuring twenty-one feet from south to north, and nineteen feet 
 from east to west: this was intended, no doubt, as a private 
 chantry ; and was also, till of late, divided off by a Gothic frame- 
 work of timber. In its north wall, under a very blunt Gothic 
 arch, lies perhaps the founder of this edifice, which, from the shape 
 of its arch, may be deemed no older than the latter end of the 
 reign of Henry VII. The tomb was examined some years ago, 
 but contained nothing except the skull and thigh-bones of a large 
 tall man, and the bones of a youth or woman, lying in a very 
 irregular manner, without any escutcheon or other token to ascer- 
 tain the names or rank of the deceased. The grave was very 
 shallow, and lined with stone at the bottom and on the sides. 
 
 From the east wall project four stone brackets, which I conclude 
 supported images and crucifixes. In the great thick pilaster, 
 jutting out between this transept and the chancel, there is a very 
 sharp Gothic niche, of older date than the present chantry or 
 church. But the chief pieces of antiquity are two narrow stone 
 coffin-lids, which compose part of the floor, and lie from west to 
 east, with the very narrow ends eastward : these belong to remote 
 times ; and, if originally placed here, which I doubt, must have 
 been part of the pavement of an older transept. At present 
 there are no coffins under them, whence I conclude they have 
 been removed to this place from some part of a former church. 
 One of these lids is so eaten by time, that no sculpture can be 
 discovered upon it ; or, perhaps, it may be the wrong side upper- 
 
298 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. ' 
 
 most ; but on the other, which seems to be of stone of a closer 
 and harder texture, is to be discerned a discus, with a cross on it, 
 at the end of a staff or rod, the well-known symbol of a Knight 
 Templar.* 
 
 This order was distinguished by a red cross on the left shoulder 
 of their cloak, and by this attribute in their hand. Now, if these 
 stones belonged to Knights Templars, they must have lain here 
 many centuries ; for this order came into England early in the 
 reign of King Stephen in 1113 ; and was dissolved in the time of 
 Edward II. in 1312, having subsisted only one hundred and 
 thirty-nine years. Why I should suppose that Knights Templars 
 were occasionally buried at this church, will appear in some future 
 letter, when we come to treat more particularly concerning the 
 property they possessed here, and the intercourse that subsisted 
 between them and the priors of Selborne. 
 
 We must now proceed to the chancel, properly so called, which 
 seems to be coeval with the church, and is in the same plain 
 unadorned style, though neatly kept. This room measures thirty- 
 one feet in length, and sixteen feet and a half in breadth, and is 
 wainscoted all round, as high as to the bottom of the windows. 
 The space for the communion-table is raised two steps above the 
 rest of the floor, and railed in with oaken balusters. Here I shall 
 say somewhat of the windows of the chancel in particular, and of 
 the whole fabric in general. They are mostly of that simple and 
 unadorned sort called Lancet, some single, some double* and 
 some in triplets. At the east end of the chancel are two of a 
 moderate size, near each other ; and in the north wall two very 
 distant small ones, unequal in length and height : and in the south 
 wall are two, one on each side of the chancel-door, that are broad 
 and squat, and of a different order. At the east end of the south 
 aisle of the church there is a large lancet-window in a triplet ; and 
 two very small, narrow, single ones in the south wall, and a broad 
 squat window beside, and a double lancet one in the west end ; 
 so that the appearance is very irregular. In the north aisle are 
 two windows, made shorter when the roof was sloped ; and in the 
 
 * See DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. ii., where there is a fine 
 engraving of a Knight -Templar, by Hollar. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 299 
 
 north transept a large triple window, shortened at the time of a 
 repair in 1721 : when over it was opened a round one of consider- 
 able size, which affords an agreeable light, and renders that 
 chantry the most cheerful part of the edifice. 
 
 The church and chancels have all covered roofs, ceiled about 
 the year 1633; before which they were open to the tiles and 
 shingles, showing the naked rafters, and threatening the congrega- 
 tion with the fall of a spar, or a blow from a piece of loose 
 mortar. 
 
 On the north wall of the chancel is fixed a large oval white 
 marble monument, with the following inscription ; and at the foot 
 of the wall, over the deceased, and inscribed with his name, age, 
 arms, and time of death, lies a large slab of black marble : 
 
 Prope hunc parietem sepelitur 
 GTLBERTU3 WHITE, SAMSONIS WHITE, de 
 
 Oxon, militis filius tertms, Collegii Magdale- 
 
 -nensis ibidem alumnus, & socius. Tandem faven- 
 
 -te collegio ad hanc ecclesiam promotus ; ubi primse- 
 
 -va morum simplicitate, et diffusa erga omnes bene- 
 
 volentia feliciter consenuit. 
 Pastor fidelis, comis, affabilis, 
 Maritus, et pater amantissimus, 
 A conjuge invicem, et liberis, atque 
 A parochianis impense dilectus. 
 Pauperibus ita beneficus 
 ut decimam partem census 
 
 moribundus 
 piis usibus consecravit. 
 Meritis demum juxta et annis plenus 
 ex hac vita migravit Feb. 13 
 anno salutis 172^ 
 yEtatis suse 77. 
 Hoc posuit Rebecca 
 Conjux illius mgestissima, 
 mox secutura. 
 
 On the same wall is newly fixed a small square table-monument 
 of white marble, inscribed in the following manner : 
 
300 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 
 
 Sacred to the memory 
 of the Rev d . ANDREW ETTY, B.D. 
 
 23 Years Vicar of this parish : 
 
 In whose character 
 The conjugal, the parental, and the sacerdotal virtues 
 
 were so happily combined 
 
 as to deserve the imitation of mankind. 
 
 And if in any particular he followed more invariably 
 
 the steps of his blessed Master, 
 
 It was in his humility. 
 
 His parishioners, 
 
 especially the sick and necessitous, 
 as long as any traces of his memory shall remain, 
 
 must lament his death. 
 
 To perpetuate such an example, this stone is erected ; 
 
 as while living he was a preacher of righteousness, 
 
 so, by it, he being dead yet speaketh. 
 
 He died April 8 th , 1784, aged 66 years. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 WE have now taken leave of the inside of the church, and shall 
 pass by a door at the west end of the middle aisle into the belfry. 
 This room is part of a handsome square embattled tower of forty- 
 five feet in height, and of much more modern date than the 
 church; but old enough to have needed a thorough repair in 
 1781, when it was neatly stuccoed at a considerable expense, by 
 a set of workmen who were employed on it for the greatest part 
 of the summer. The old bells, three in number, loud and out of 
 tune, were taken down in 1735, and cast into four; to which Sir 
 Simon Stuart, the grandfather of the present baronet, added a 
 fifth at his own expense ; and, bestowing it in the name of his 
 favourite daughter, Mrs. Mary Stuart, caused it to be cast with 
 the following motto round it : 
 
 <' Clara puella dedit, dixitque mihi esto Maiia : 
 Illius et laudes nomen ad astra sono." 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 301 
 
 The day of the arrival of this tuneable peal was observed as a 
 high festival by the village, and rendered more joyous, by an 
 order from the donor, that the treble bell should be fixed bottom 
 upward in the ground and filled with punch, of which all present 
 were permitted to partake. 
 
 The porch of the church, to the south, is modern, and would 
 not be worthy attention did it not shelter a fine sharp Gothic 
 doorway. This is undoubtedly much older than the present fabric ; 
 and, being found in good preservation, was worked into the wall, 
 and is the grand entrance into the church ; nor are the folding- 
 doors to be passed over in silence ; since, from their thick and 
 clumsy structure, and the rude flourished- work of their hinges, 
 they may possibly be as ancient as the doorway itself. 
 
 The whole roof of the south aisle, and the south side of the roof 
 of the middle aisle, is covered with oaken shingles instead of tiles, 
 on account of their lightness, which favours the ancient and crazy 
 timber-frame. And, indeed, the consideration of accidents by 
 fire excepted, this sort of roofing is much more eligible than tiles. 
 For shingles well seasoned, and cleft from quartered timber, never 
 warp, nor let in drifting snow ; nor do they shiver with frost ; nor 
 are they liable to be blown off, like tiles ; but, when nailed down 
 ast for a long period, as experience has shown us in this place, 
 where those that face to the north are known to have endured, 
 untouched, by undoubted tradition, for more than a century. 
 
 Considering the size of the church, and the extent of the parish, 
 the churchyard is very scanty ; and especially as all wish to be 
 buried on the south side, which is become such a mass of mortality 
 that no person can be there interred without disturbing or dis- 
 placing the bones of his ancestors. There is reason to suppose 
 that it once was larger, and extended to what is now the vicarage 
 court and garden ; because many human bones have been dug up 
 in those parts several yards without the present limits. At the 
 east end are a few graves ; yet none till very lately on the north 
 side ; but, as two or three families of best repute have begun to 
 bury in that quarter, prejudice may wear out by degrees, and their 
 example be followed by the rest of the neighbourhood. 
 
 In speaking of the church, I have all along talked of the east and 
 
302 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 west-end, as if the chancel stood exactly true to those points of 
 the compass; but this is by no means the case, for the fabric 
 bears so much to the north of the east that the four corners of the 
 tower, and not the four sides, stand to the four cardinal points. 
 The best method of accounting for this deviation seems to be, that 
 the workmen, who probably were employed in the longest days, 
 endeavoured to set the chancels to the rising of the sun. 
 
 Close by the church, at the west end, stands the vicarage-house ; 
 an old, but roomy and convenient edifice. It faces very agreeably 
 to the morning sun, and is divided from the village by a neat and 
 cheerful court. According to the manner of old times, the hall 
 was open to the roof; and so continued, probably, till the 
 vicars became family-men, and began to want more conveniences ; 
 when they flung a floor across, and, by partitions, divided the 
 space into chambers. In this hall we remember a date, some 
 time in the reign of Elizabeth ; it was over the door that leads to 
 the stairs. 
 
 Behind the house is a garden of an irregular shape, but well laid 
 out ; whose terrace commands so romantic and picturesque a 
 prospect, that the first master in landscape might contemplate it 
 with pleasure, and deem it an object well worthy of his pencil. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 IN the churchyard of this village is a yew-tree, whose aspect 
 bespeaks it to be of a great age : it seems to have seen several 
 centuries, and is probably coeval with the church, and therefore 
 may be deemed an antiquity : the body is squat, short, and thick, 
 and measures twenty- three feet in the girth, supporting a head of 
 suitable extent to its bulk. This is a male tree, which in the 
 spring sheds clouds of dust, and fills the atmosphere around with 
 ts farina. 
 
 As far as we have been able to observe, the males of this species 
 become much larger than the females ; and it has so fallen out 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 303 
 
 that most of the yew-trees in the churchyards of this neighbour- 
 hood are males : but this must have been matter of mere accident, 
 since men, when they first planted yews, little dreamed that there 
 were sexes in trees. 
 
 In a yard, in the midst of the street, till very lately grew a 
 middle-sized female tree of the same species, which commonly 
 bore great crops of berries. By the high winds usually prevailing 
 about the autumnal equinox, these berries, then ripe, were blown 
 down into the road, where the hogs ate them. And it was very 
 remarkable, that, though barrow-hogs and young sows found no 
 inconvenience from this food, yet milch-sows often died after 
 such a repast : a circumstance that can be accounted for only by 
 supposing that the latter, being much exhausted and hungry, 
 devoured a larger quantity. 
 
 While mention is making of the bad effects ot yew-berries, it 
 may be proper to remind the unwary that the twigs and leaves of 
 yew, though eaten in a very small quantity, are certain death to 
 horses and cows, and that in a few minutes. A horse tied to a 
 yew-hedge, or to a faggot-stack of dead yew, shall be found dead 
 before the owner can be aware that any danger is at hand ; and 
 the writer has been several times a sorrowful witness to losses of 
 this kind among his friends ; and in the island of Ely had once 
 the mortification to see nine young steers or bullocks of his own 
 all lying dead in a heap from browsing a little on a hedge of yew 
 in an old garden, into which they had broken in snowy weather. 
 Even the clippings of a yew hedge have destroyed a whole dairy 
 of cows when thrown inadvertently into a yard. And yet sheep 
 and turkeys, and, as park-keepers say, deer will crop these trees 
 with impunity. 
 
 Some intelligent persons assert that the branches of yew, while 
 green, are not noxious ; and that they will kill only when dead and 
 withered, by lacerating the stomach ; but to . this assertion we 
 cannot by any means assent, because, among the number of cattle 
 that we have known fall victims to this deadly food, not one has 
 been found, when it was opened, but had a lump of green yew in 
 its paunch. True it is, "hat yew-trees stand for twenty years or 
 more in a field, and no bad consequences ensue ; but at some 
 
304 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 time or other cattle, either from wantonness when fall, or from 
 hunger when empty (from both which circumstances we have seen 
 them perish), will be meddling, to their certain destruction; the 
 yew seems to be a very improper tree for a pasture-field. 
 
 Antiquaries seem much at a loss to determine at what period 
 this tree first obtained a place in churchyards. A statute passed 
 A.D. 1307 and 35 Edward I., the title of which is " Ne rector 
 arbores in cemeterio prosternat." Now if it is recollected that we 
 seldom see any other very large or ancient tree in a churchyard 
 but yews, this statute must have principally related to this species 
 of tree; and consequently their being planted in churchyards is 01 
 much more ancient date than the year 1307. 
 
 As to the use of these trees, possibly the more respectable 
 parishioners were buried under their shade before the improper 
 custom was introduced of burying within the body of the church, 
 where the living are to assemble. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse,* 
 was buried under an oak j the most honourable place of interment 
 probably next to the cave of Machpelah,t which seems to have 
 been appropriated to the remains of the patriarchal family alone. 
 
 The farther use of yew-trees might be as a screen to churches, 
 by their thick foliage, from the violence of winds ; perhaps also for 
 the purpose of archery, the best long bows being made of that 
 material ; and we do not hear that they are planted in the church- 
 yards of other parts of Europe, where long bows were not so 
 much in use. They might also be placed as a shelter to the 
 congregation assembling before the church doors were opened, 
 and as an emblem of mortality by their funereal appearance. In 
 the south of England every churchyard almost has its tree, and 
 some two j but in the north, we understand, few are to be found. 
 
 The idea of R. C. that the yew-tree afforded its branches instead 
 of palms for the processions on Palm Sunday, is a good one, and 
 deserves attention. See "Gent. Mag." vol. 1. p. 128. 
 
 * Gen. xxxv. 8. t Gen. xxiii. 9. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 305 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 THE living of Selborne was a very small vicarage ; but, being in 
 the patronage of Magdalen College, in the university of Oxford, 
 that society endowed it with the great tithes of Selborne, more 
 than a century ago ; and since the year 1758 again with the great 
 tithes of Oakhanger, called Bene's parsonage ; so that, together, 
 it is become a respectable piece of preferment, to which one of 
 the fellows is always presented. The vicar holds the great tithes, 
 by lease, under the college. The great disadvantage of this living 
 is, that it has not one foot of glebe near home.* 
 
 ITS PAYMENTS ARE s. d. 
 
 King's books . 821 
 
 Yearly tenths 0162^ 
 
 Yearly procurations for Blackmore and Oakhanger 
 
 Chap, with acquit .017 
 
 Selborne procurations and acquit 090 
 
 I am unable to give a complete list of the vicars of this parish 
 till towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; from which 
 period the registers furnish a regular series. 
 
 In Domesday we find thus " De isto manerio dono dedit Rex 
 Radfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam cum ecclesia." So that 
 before Domesday, which was compiled between the years 1081 
 and 1086, here was an officiating minister at this place. 
 
 After this, among my documents, I find occasional mention of 
 a vicar here and there ; the first is 
 
 Roger, instituted in 1254. 
 
 In 1410 John Lynne was vicar of Selborne. 
 
 In 1411 Hugo Tybbe was vicar. 
 
 The presentations to the vicarage of Selborne generally ran in 
 the name of the prior and the convent j but Tybbe was presented 
 by Prior John Wynechestre only. 
 
 * At Bene's, or Bin's, parsonage there is a house and stout barn, and seven 
 acres of glebe ; Bene's parsonage is three miles from the church. 
 
306 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 June 29th, 1528, William Fisher, vicar of Selborne, resigned to 
 Miles Peyrson. 
 
 1594, William White appears to have been vicar to this time. 
 Of this person there is nothing remarkable, but that he hath made 
 a regular entry twice in the register of Selborne of the funeral of 
 Thomas Cowper, bishop of Winchester, as if he had been buried 
 at Selborne; yet this learned prelate, who died 1594, was buried 
 at Winchester, in the cathedral, near the episcopal throne.* 
 
 1595, Richard Bough ton, vicar. 
 
 1596, William Inkforbye, vicar. 
 May 1606, Thomas Phippes, vicar. 
 June 1031, Ralph Austine, vicar. 
 
 July 1632, John Longworth. This unfortunate gentleman, 
 living in the time of Cromwell's usurpation, was deprived of his 
 preferment for many years, probably because he would not take 
 the league and covenant ; for I observe that his father-in-law, the 
 Reverend Jethro Beal, rector of Faringdon, which is the next 
 parish, enjoyed his benefice during the whole of that unhappy 
 period. Longworth, after he was dispossessed, retired to a little 
 tenement about one hundred and fifty yards from the church, 
 where he earned a small pittance by the practice of physic. 
 During those dismal times it was not uncommon for the deposed 
 clergy to take up a medical character \ as was the case in par- 
 ticular, I know, with the Reverend Mr. Yalden, rector of Compton, 
 near Guildford, in the county of Surrey. Vicar Longworth used 
 frequently to mention to his sons, who told it to my relations, 
 that, the Sunday after his deprivation, his puritanical successor 
 stepped into the pulpit with no small petulance and exultation : 
 and began his sermon from Psalm xx. 8, " They are brought down 
 and fallen ; but we are risen and stand upright." This person 
 lived to be restored in 1660, and continued vicar for eighteen years ; 
 but was so impoverished by his misfortunes, that he left the 
 vicarage-house and premises in a very abject and dilapidated state. 
 
 July 1678. Richard By field, who left eighty pounds by will, 
 the interest to be applied to apprentice out poor children ; but 
 
 * See "Godwin de Praesulibus," Folio Cant. 1743, p. 239. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 307 
 
 this money, lent on private security, was in danger of being lost, 
 and the bequest remained in an unsettled state for near twenty 
 years, till 1700 ; so that little or no advantage was derived from it. 
 About the year 1759 it was again in the utmost danger by the 
 failure of a borrower; but, by prudent management, has since been 
 raised to one hundred pounds stock in the three per cents reduced. 
 The trustees are the vicar -and the renters or owners of Temple, 
 Priory, Grange, Blackmore, and Oakhanger-house, for the time 
 being. This gentleman seemed inclined to have put the vicarial 
 premises in a comfortable state ; and began by building a solid 
 stone wall round the front court, and another in the lower yard, 
 between that and the neighbouring garden ; but was interrupted 
 by death from fulfilling his laudable intentions. 
 
 April 1680, Barnabas Long became vicar. 
 
 June, 1 68 1. This living was now in such low estimation in 
 Magdalen College that it descended to a junior fellow, Gilbert 
 White, M.A., who was instituted to it in the thirty-first year of his 
 age. At his first coming he ceiled the chancel, and also floored 
 and wainscoted the parlour and hall, which before were paved 
 with stone, and had naked walls ; he enlarged the kitchen and 
 brewhouse, and dug a cellar and well ; he also built a large new 
 barn in the lower yard, removed the hovels in the front court, 
 which he laid out in walks and borders ; and entirely planned the 
 back garden, before a rude field with a stone-pit in the midst of 
 it. By his will he gave and bequeathed " the sum of forty pounds 
 to be laid out in the most necessary repairs of the church; that 
 is, in strengthening and securing such parts as seem decaying and 
 dangerous." With this sum two large buttresses were erected to 
 support the east end of the south wall of the church, and the 
 gable- end wall of the west end of the south aisle was new built 
 irom the ground. 
 
 By his will also he gave " one hundred pounds to be laid out 
 on lands ; the yearly rents whereof shall be employed in teaching 
 the poor children of Selbourn parish to read and write, and say 
 their prayers and catechism, and to sew and knit; and be under 
 the direction of his executrix as long as she lives; and, after her, 
 under the direction of such of his children and their issue, as shall 
 
 20 
 
3o8 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 live in or within five miles of the said parish ; and on failure of 
 any such, then under the direction of the vicar of Selbourn for 
 the time being; but still to the uses above-named." With this 
 sum was purchased, of Thomas Turville, of Hawkeley, in the 
 county of Southampton, yeoman, and Hannah his wife, two closes 
 of freehold land, commonly called Collier's, containing, by esti- 
 mation, eleven acres, lying in Hawkeley aforesaid. These closes 
 are let at this time, 1785, on lease, at the rate of three pounds by 
 the year. 
 
 This vicar also gave by will two hundred pounds towards the 
 repairs of the highways* in the parish of Selborne. That sum 
 was carefully and judiciously laid out in the summer of the year 
 1730, by his son John White, who made a solid and firm causey 
 from Rood Green, all down Honey Lane, to a farm called Oak 
 Woods, where the sandy soil begins. This miry and gulfy lane 
 was chosen as worthy of repair, because it leads to the forest, and 
 thence through the Holt to the town of Farnham in Surrey, the 
 only market in those days for men who had wheat to sell in this 
 neighbourhood. This causey was so deeply bedded with stone, 
 so properly raised above the level of the soil, and so well drained, 
 that it has, in some degree, withstood fifty-four years of neglect 
 and abuse; and might, with moderate attention, be rendered a 
 solid and comfortable road. The space from Rood Green to Oak 
 Woods measures about three-quarters of a mile. 
 
 In 1727, William Henry Cane, B.D., became vicar, and, among 
 several alterations and repairs, new-built the back front of the 
 vicarage-house. 
 
 On February ist, 1740, Duncombe Bristowe, D.D., was insti- 
 tuted to this living. What benefactions this vicar bestowed on 
 the parish will be best explained by the following passages from 
 his will : " Item, I hereby give and beaqueath to the minister 
 and church-wardens of the parish of Selbourn, in the county of 
 Southampton, a mahogany table, which I have ordered to be 
 made for the celebration of the Holy Communion ; and also the 
 
 * " Such legacies were very common in former times, before any effectual 
 laws were made for the repairs of highways." Sir John Cullum's Hawsted, 
 p. 15. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 309 
 
 sum of thirty pounds, in trust, to be applied in manner following ; 
 that is, ten pounds towards the charge of erecting a gallery at 
 the west end of the church ; and ten pounds to be laid out for 
 cloathing, and such like necessaries, among the poor (and espe- 
 cially among the ancient and infirm) of the said parish : and the 
 remaining ten pounds to be distributed in bread, at twenty shillings 
 a week, at the discretion of John White, Esq., or any of his family, 
 who shall be resident in the said parish." 
 
 On November i2th, 1758, Andrew Etty, B.D., became vicar. 
 Among many useful repairs he new-roofed the body of the vicarage- 
 house; and wainscoted, up to the bottom of the windows, the 
 whole of the chancel ; to the neatness and decency of which he 
 always paid the most exact attention. 
 
 On September 25th, 1784, Christopher Taylor, B.D., was 
 inducted into the vicarage of Selborne. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 I SHALL now proceed to the priory, which is undoubtedly the 
 most interesting part of our history. 
 
 The Priory of Selborne was founded by Peter de la Roche, or 
 de Rupibus,* one of those accomplished foreigners that resorted 
 to the court of King John, where they were usually caressed, and 
 met with a more favourable reception than ought, in prudence, to 
 have been shown by any monarch to strangers. This adventurer 
 was a Poictevin by birth, had been bred to arms in his youth, and 
 distinguished by knighthood. Historians all agree not to speak 
 very favourably of this remarkable man ; they allow that he was 
 possessed of courage and fine abilities, but then they charge him 
 with arbitrary principles, and violent conduct. By his insinuating 
 manners he soon rose high in the favour of John; and in 1205, 
 early in the reign of that prince, was appointed bishop of Win- 
 
 * See " Godwin de Prsesulibus Angliae." Folio. London, 1743, p. 217. 
 
310 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Chester. In 1214, he became lord chief justiciary of England, 
 the first magistrate of the state, and a kind of viceroy, on whom 
 depended all the civil affairs in the kingdom. After the death of 
 John, and during the minority of his son Henry, this prelate took 
 upon him the entire management of the realm, and was soon 
 appointed protector of the king and kingdom. 
 
 The barons saw with indignation a stranger possessed of all the 
 power and influence, to part of which they thought they had a 
 claim ; they therefore entered into an association against him, and 
 determined to wrest some of that authority from him which he 
 had so unreasonably usurped. The bishop discerned the storm 
 at a distance ; and, prudently resolving to give way to that torrent 
 of envy which he knew not how to withstand, withdrew quietly to 
 the Holy Land, where he resided some time. 
 
 At this juncture a very small part of Palestine remained in the 
 hands of the Christians ; they had been by Saladine dispossessed 
 of Jerusalem, and all the internal parts, near forty years before; 
 and with difficulty maintained some maritime towns and garrisons ; 
 yet the busy and enterprising spirit of de Rupibus could not be 
 at rest ; he distinguished himself by the splendour and magnifi- 
 cence of his expenses, and amused his mind by strengthening 
 fortresses and castles, and by removing and endowing of churches. 
 Before his expedition to the east he had signalised himself as 
 the founder of convents, and as a benefactor to hospitals and 
 monasteries. 
 
 In the year 1231 he returned again to England; and the very 
 next year, in 1232, began to build and endow the Priory of 
 Selborne. As this great work followed so close upon his return, 
 i': is not improbable that it wa's the result of a vow made during 
 his voyage, and especially as it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 
 Why the bishop made choice of Selborne for the scene of his 
 munificence can never be determined now ; it can only be said 
 that the parish was in his diocese, and lay almost midway between 
 Winchester and Farnham, or South Waltham and Farnham ; from 
 either of which places he could without much trouble overlook his 
 workmen, and observe what progress they made; arid that -the' 
 situation was retired, with a stream running by it, and sequestered 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 311 
 
 from the world, amidst woods and meadows, and so far proper for 
 the site of a religious house. * 
 
 The first person with whom the founder treated about the 
 purchase of land was Jacobus de Achangre, or Ochangre, a 
 gentleman of property who resided in that hamlet; and, as 
 appears, at the house now called Oakhanger-house. With him he 
 agreed for a croft, or little close of land, known by the name 
 of La liega, or La lyge, which was to be the immediate site of the 
 Priory. 
 
 De Achangre also accommodated the bishop at the same instant 
 with three more adjoining crofts, which for a time was all the 
 footing that this institution obtained in the parish. The seller in 
 the conveyance says, " Warantizabimus, defendemus, et aequieta- 
 bimus contra omnes gentes ;" viz., "We will warrant the thing sold 
 against all claims from any quarter." In modern conveyancing 
 this would be termed a covenant for further assurance. After- 
 wards is added" Pro hac autem donacione, &c., dedit mini pred. 
 Episcopus sexdecem marcas argenti in Gersumam : " i.e., "The 
 bishop gave me sixteen silver marks as a consideration for the 
 thing purchased." 
 
 As the grant from Jac. de Achangre was without date,t and the 
 next is circumstanced in the same manner, we cannot say exactly 
 what interval there was between the two purchases ; but we find 
 that Jacobus de Nortun, a neighbouring gentleman, also soon sold 
 
 * The institution at Selborne was a priory of black-canons of the order ot 
 St. Augustine, called also canons-regular. Regular-canons were such as lived 
 in a conventual manner under one roof, had a common refectory and dormitory, 
 and were bound by vows to observe the rules and statutes of their order : in 
 fine, they were a kind of religious, whose discipline was less rigid than the 
 monks. The chief rule of these canons was that of St. Augustine, who was 
 constituted bishop of Hippo, A.D. 395 ; but they were not brought into England 
 till after the conquest ; and seem not to have obtained the appellation of 
 Augustine canons till some years after. Their habit was a long black cassock, 
 with a white rocket over it ; and over that a black cloak and hood. The monks 
 were always shaved ; but these canons wore their hair and beards, and caps on 
 their heads. There were of these canons, and women of the same order called 
 Canonesses, about 175 houses. 
 
 f The custom of affixing dates to deeds was not become general in the reign 
 of Henry III. 
 
3 i2 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 to the bishop of Winchester some adjoining grounds, through 
 which our stream passes, that the priory might be accommodated 
 with a mill, which was a common necessary appendage to every 
 manor ; he also allowed access to these lands by a road for carts 
 and waggons. "Jacobus de Nortun concedit Petro Winton 
 episcopo totum cursum aque que descendit de Molendino de 
 Durton usq ; ad boscum Will. Mauduit, et croftam terre vocat : 
 Edriche croft, cum extensione ejusdem et abuttamentis ; ad fun- 
 dandam domum religiosam de ordine Sti. Augustini. Concedit 
 etiam viam ad carros, et caretas," etc. This vale, down which 
 runs the brook, is now called the Long Lithe, or Lythe. Bating 
 the following particular expression, this grant runs much in the 
 style of the former : " Dedit mihi episcopus predictus triginta 
 quinque marcas argenti ad me acquietandum versus Judaos ;" 
 that is, " The bishop advanced me thirty-five marks of silver to 
 pay my debts to the Jews," who were then the only lenders of 
 money. 
 
 Finding himself still straitened for room, the founder applied to 
 his royal master, Henry, who was graciously pleased to bestow 
 certain lands in the manor of Selborne on the new priory of his 
 favourite minister. These grounds had been the property of 
 Stephen de Lucy; and, abutting upon the narrow limits of th 
 convent, became a very commodious and agreeable acquisition. 
 This grant, I find, was made on March Qth, in the eighteenth year 
 of Henry, viz., 1234, being two years after the foundation of the 
 monastery. The royal donor bestowed his favour with good grace, 
 by adding to it almost every immunity and privilege that could 
 have been specified in the law-language of the times. " Quare 
 volumus prior, &c., habeant totam terram &c., cum omnibus 
 libertatibus in bosco et piano, in viis et semitis, pratis et pascuis ; 
 aquis et piscariis; infra burgum, et extra burgum, cum soka et 
 saca, Thol et Them, Infangenethef et Utfangenethef, et hamsocne 
 et blodwite, et pecunia que dari solet pro murdro et forstal, et 
 flemenestrick, et cum quietancia de omni scotto et geldo, et de 
 omnibus auxiliis regum, vicecomitum, et omn : ministralium suo- 
 rum ; et hidagio et exercitibus, et scutagiis, et tallagiis, et shiris et 
 hundredis, et placitis et querelis, et warda et wardpeny, et opibus 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 313 
 
 castellcrum et pontium, et clausuris parcorum, et omni carcio et 
 sumagio, et domor : regal : edification e, et ommmoda reparatione, 
 et cum omnibus aliis libertatibus." This grant was made out by 
 Richard bishop of Chichester, then chancellor, at the town of 
 Northampton, before the lord chief justiciary, who was the founder 
 himself. 
 
 The charter of foundation of the Priory, dated 1233, comes 
 next in order to be considered ; but being of some length, I shall 
 not interrupt my narrative by placing it here. This my copy, 
 taken from the original, I have compared with Dugdale's copy, 
 and find that they perfectly agree ; except that in the latter the 
 preamble and the names of the witnesses are omitted. Yet I 
 think it proper to quote a passage from this charter : " Et ipsa 
 domus religiosa a ciijuslibet alterius domus religiose subjectione libera 
 perrnaneat, et in omnibus absoluta" to show how much Dugdale 
 was mistaken when he inserted Selborne among the alien priories ; 
 forgetting that this disposition of the convent contradicted the 
 grant that he had published. In the " Monasticon Anglicanum," 
 in English, p. 119, is part of his catalogue of alien priories, sup- 
 pressed 2 Henry V., viz., 1414, where may be seen as follows : 
 
 S. 
 Sele, Sussex, 
 
 SELEBURN. 
 
 Shirburn, 
 
 This appeared to me from the first to have been an oversight, 
 before I had seen my authentic evidences. For priories alien> a 
 few conventual ones excepted, were little better than granges to 
 foreign abbeys, and their priors little more than bailiffs removable 
 at will; whereas the priory of Selborne possessed the valuable 
 estates and manors of Selborne, Achangre, Norton, Brompden, 
 Bassinges, Basingstoke, and Natele ; and the prior challenged the 
 right of pillory, thurcet, and furcas, and every manorial privilege. 
 
 I find next a grant from Jo. de Venur, or Venuz, to the prior 
 of Selborne, " de tota mora [a moor or bog] ubi Berne oritur, 
 usque ad campum vivarii, et de prato voc. Sydenmeade cum 
 abutt : et de cursu aque molendini." And also a grant in rever- 
 sion " unius virgate terre " (a yard land), in Achangre at the deat> 
 
314 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 of Richard Actedene his sister's husband, who had no child. He 
 was to present a pair of gloves of one penny value to the prior and 
 canons, to be given annually by the said Richard ; and to quit all 
 claim to the said lands in reversion, provided the prior and canons 
 would engage annually to pay to the king, through the hands of 
 his bailiffs of Aulton, ten shillings at four quarterly payments, "pro 
 omnibus serviciis, consuetudinibus, exactionibus, et demandis." 
 
 This Jo. de Venur was a man of property at Oakhanger, and 
 lived probably at the spot now called Chapel-farm. The grant 
 bears date the lyth year of the reign of Henry III. (viz. 1233). 
 
 It would be tedious to enumerate every little grant for lands or 
 tenements that might be produced from my vouchers. I shall 
 therefore pass over all such for the present, and conclude this 
 letter with a remark that must strike every thinking person with 
 some degree of wonder. No sooner had a monastic institution 
 got a footing, but the neighbourhood began to be touched with a 
 secret and religious awe. Every person round was desirous to 
 promote so good a work ; and either by sale, by grant, or by gift 
 in reversion, was ambitious of appearing a benefactor. They who 
 had not lands to spare gave roads to accommodate the infant 
 foundation. The religious were not backward in keeping up this 
 pious propensity, which they observed so readily influenced the 
 breasts of men. Thus did the more opulent monasteries add 
 house to house, and field to field, and by degrees manor to manor, 
 till at last " there was no place left ; " but every district around 
 became appropriated to the purposes of their founders, and every 
 precinct was drawn into the vortex. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 OUR forefathers in this village were no doubt as busy and bustling, 
 and as important, as ourselves : yet have their names and trans- 
 actions been forgotten from century to century, and have sunk 
 into oblivion j nor has this happened only to the vulgar, but even 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 315 
 
 to men remarkable and famous in their generation. I was led 
 into this train of thinking by finding in my vouchers that Sir Adam 
 Gurdon was an inhabitant of Selborne, and a man of the first 
 rank and property in the parish. By Sir Adam Gurdon I would 
 be understood to mean that leading and accomplished malcontent 
 in the Mountfort faction, who distinguished himself by his daring 
 conduct in the reign of Henry III. The first that we hear of this 
 person in my papers is, that with two others he was bailiff of Alton 
 before the sixteenth of Henry III., viz., about 1231, and then not 
 knighted. Who Gurdon was, and whence he came, does not 
 appear: yet there is reason to suspect that he was originally a 
 mere soldier of fortune, who had raised himself by marrying 
 women of property. The name of Gurdon does not seem to be 
 known in the south ; but there is a name so like it in an adjoining 
 kingdom, and which belongs to two or three noble families, that 
 it is probable this remarkable person was a North Briton ; and 
 the more so, since the Christian name of Adam is a distinguished 
 one to this day among the family of the Gordons. But, be this 
 as it may, Sir Adam Gurdon has been noticed by all the writers ot 
 English history for his bold disposition and disaffected spirit, in 
 that he not only figured during the successful rebellion of Leicester 
 but kept up the war after the defeat and death of that baron, 
 entrenching himself in the woods of Hampshire, towards the town 
 of Farnham. After the battle of Evesham, in which Mountfort 
 fell, in the year 1265, Gurdon might not think it safe to return to 
 his house for fear of a surprise ; but cautiously fortified himself 
 amidst the forests and woodlands with which he was so well 
 acquainted. Prince Edward, desirous of putting an end to the 
 troubles which had so long harassed the kingdom, pursued the 
 arch-rebel into his fastnesses, attacked his camp, leaped over the 
 entrenchments, and, singling out Gurdon, ran him down, wounded 
 him, and took him prisoner.* 
 
 There is not perhaps in all history a more remarkable instance 
 
 of command of temper, and magnanimity, than this before us : 
 
 that a young prince, in the moment of victory, when he had the 
 
 fell adversary of the crown and royal family at his mercy, should 
 
 * M. Paris, p. 675, and Triveti Annale. 
 
3 i6 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 be able to withhold his hand from that vengeance which the 
 vanquished so well deserved. A cowardly disposition would 
 have been blinded by resentment ; but this gallant heir apparent 
 saw at once a method of converting a most desperate foe into a 
 lasting friend. He raised the fallen veteran from the ground, he 
 pardoned him, he admitted him into his confidence, and intro- 
 duced him to the queen, then lying at Guildford, that very even- 
 ing. This unmerited and unexpected lenity melted the heart of 
 the rugged Gurdon at once ; he became in an instant a loyal and 
 useful subject, trusted and employed in matters of moment by 
 Edward when king, and confided in till the day of his death. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 IT has been hinted in a former letter that Sir Adam Gurdon had 
 availed himself by marrying women of property. By my evidences 
 it appears that he had three wives, and probably in the following 
 order : Constantia, Ameria, and Agnes. The first of these ladies, 
 who was the companion of his middle life, seems to have been a 
 person of considerable fortune, which she inherited from Thomas 
 Makerel, a gentleman of Selborne, who was either her father or 
 uncle. The second, Ameria, calls herself the quondam wife of 
 Sir Adam, " quae fui uxor," etc., and talks of her sons under age. 
 Now Gurdon had no son : and beside, Agnes, in another docu- 
 ment, says, " Ego Agnes quondam uxor Domini Adtz Gurdon in 
 pura et ligea viduitate mea:" but Gurdon could not leave two 
 widows ; and therefore it seems probable that he had been 
 divorced from Ameria, who afterwards married and had sons. 
 By Agnes Sir Adam had a daughter Johanna, who was his heiress, 
 to whom Agnes in her life-time surrendered part of her jointure : 
 he had also a bastard son. 
 
 Sir Adam seems to have inhabited the house now called Temple, 
 lying about two miles east of the church, which had been the 
 property of Thomas Makerel. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 317 
 
 In the year 1262 he petitioned the prior of Selborne in his own 
 name, and that of his wife Constantia only, for leave to build him 
 an oratory in his manor-house, " in curia sua." Licenses of this 
 sort were frequently obtained by men of fortune and rank from 
 the bishop of the diocese, the archbishop, and sometimes, as I 
 have seen instances, from the Pope ; not only for convenience' 
 sake, and on account of distance, and the badness of the roads, 
 but as a matter of state and distinction. Why the owner should 
 apply to the prior, in preference to the bishop of the diocese, and 
 how the former became competent to such a grant, I cannot say ; 
 but that the priors of Selborne did take that privilege is plain, 
 because some years afterwards, in 1280, Prior Richard granted to 
 Henry Waterford and his wife Nicholaa, a licence to build an 
 oratory in their court-house, " curia sua de Waterford," in which 
 they might celebrate divine service, saving the rights of the 
 mother church of Basynges. Yet all the while the prior of Sel- 
 borne grants with such reserve and caution, as if in doubt of his 
 power, and leaves Gurdon and his lady answerable in future to 
 the bishop, or his ordinary, or to the vicar for the time being, 
 in case they should infringe the rights of the mother church of 
 Selborne. 
 
 The manor-house, called " Temple," is at present a single 
 building, running in length from south to north, and has been 
 occupied as a common farmhouse from time immemorial. The 
 south end is modern, and consists of a brewhouse, and then a 
 kitchen. The middle part is a hall twenty-seven feet in length, 
 and nineteen feet in breadth ; and has been formerly open to 
 the top, but there is now a floor above it, and also a chimney in 
 the western wall. The roofing consists of strong massive rafter- 
 work ornamented with carved roses. I have often looked for the 
 lamb and flag, the arms of the knights templars, without success ; 
 but in one corner found a fox with a goose on his back, so 
 coarsely executed, that it required some attention to make out 
 the device. 
 
 Beyond the hall to the north is a small parlour with a vast 
 heavy stone chimney-piece, and at the end of all the chapel or 
 oratory, whose massive thick walls and narrow windows at once 
 
3i 8 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 bespeak great antiquity. This room is only sixteen feet by sixteen 
 feet eight inches ; and full seventeen feet nine inches in height. 
 The ceiling is formed of vast joists, placed only five or six inches 
 apart. Modern delicacy would not much approve of such a place 
 of worship ; for it has at present much more the appearance of 
 a dungeon than of a room fit for the reception of people of con- 
 dition. The field on which this oratory abuts is called Chapel- 
 field. The situation of this house is very particular, for it stands 
 upon the immediate verge of a steep abrupt hill. 
 
 Not many years since this place was used for a hop-kiln, and 
 was divided into two stories by a loft, part of which remains at 
 present, and makes it convenient for peat and turf, with which it 
 is stowed. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 THE Priory at times was much obliged to Gurdon and his family. 
 As Sir Adam began to advance in years he found his mind influenced 
 by the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness and efficacy of 
 prayers for the dead ; and therefore, in conjunction with his wife 
 Constantia, in the year 1271, granted to the prior and convent 
 of Selborne all his right and claim to a certain place, placea, called 
 "La Playstow," in the village aforesaid, " in liberam, pur am, et 
 perpetuam elemosinam" This Pleystow,* loais ludorum, or play- 
 place, is a level area near the church of about forty-four yards by 
 thirty-six, and is known now by the name of the Plestor.f 
 
 It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of 
 recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; and 
 impresses an idea on the mind that this village, even in Saxon 
 times, could not be the most abject of places, when the inhabitants 
 
 * In Saxon Plegestow, or Plegstow. 
 
 f At this juncture probably the vast oak was planted by the prior, as an 
 ornament to his new acquired market-place. According to this supposition 
 the oak was aged 432 years when blown down. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 319 
 
 thDught proper to assign so spacious a spot for the sports and 
 amusements of its young people.* 
 
 As soon as the prior became possessed of this piece of ground, 
 he procured a charter for a market t from King Henry III., and 
 began to erect houses and stalls, " seldas" around it. From this 
 period Selborne became a market town ; but how long it enjoyed 
 that privilege does not appear. At the same time, Gurdon 
 reserved to himself, and his heirs, a way through the said Plestor 
 to a tenement and some crofts at the upper end, abutting on the 
 south corner of the churchyard. This was in old days the 
 manerial house of the street manor, though now a poor cottage, 
 and is known at present by the modern name of Elliot's. Sir Adam 
 also did, for the health of his own soul and that of his wife 
 Constantia, their predecessors and successors, grant to the prior 
 and canons quiet possession of all the tenements and gardens, 
 " curtillagia? which they had built and laid out on the lands in 
 Selborne, on which he and his vassals, " homines" had undoubted 
 right of common ; and moreover did grant to the convent the full 
 privilege of that right of common, and empowered the religious 
 to build tenements and make gardens along the king's highway 
 in the village of Selborne. 
 
 From circumstances put together, it appears that the above 
 were the first grants obtained by the Priory in the village of 
 Selborne after it had subsisted about thirty-nine years ; moreovei , 
 they explain the nature of the mixed manor still remaining in and 
 about the village, where one field or tenement shall belong to 
 Magdalen College in the University of Oxford, and the next to 
 Norton Powlet, Esq., of Rotherfield House, and so down the 
 whole street. The case was, that the whole was once the pro- 
 
 * For more circumstances respecting the Plestor, see Letter 1 1. to Mr. Pennant. 
 
 f Bishop Tanner, in his " Notitia Monastica^ has made a mistake respecting 
 the market and fair at Selborne ; for in his references to Dodsworth, cart. 54 
 Hen. III., m. 3., he says, " De mercatu, et feria de Seleburn." But this 
 reference is wrong ; for, instead of Seleburn, it proves that the place there 
 meant was Lekeborne, or Legeborne, in the county of Lincoln. This error 
 was copied from the index of the Cat. MSS. Angl. It does not appear that 
 there ever was a chartered fair at Selborne. For several particulars respecting 
 the present fair at Selborne, see Letter XXVI. of these Antiquities. 
 
320 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 perty of Gurdon, till he made his grants to the convent, since 
 which some belongs to the successors of Gurdon in the manor, 
 and some to the college ; and this is the occasion of the strange 
 jumble of property. It is remarkable that the tenement and 
 crofts which Sir Adam reserved at the time of granting the Plestor 
 should still remain a part of the Gurdon Manor, though so desirable 
 an addition to the vicarage, that is not as yet possessed of one 
 inch of glebe at home; but of late, viz., in January, 1785, Mag- 
 dalen College purchased that little estate, which is life-holding, in 
 reversion, for the generous purpose of bestowing it, and its lands, 
 being twelve acres (three of which abut on the churchyard and 
 vicarage garden) as an improvement hereafter to the living, and 
 an eligible advantage to future incumbents. 
 
 The year after Gurdon had bestowed the Plestor on the Priory, 
 viz., in 1272, Henry III., King of England, died, and was 
 succeeded by his son Edward. This magnanimous prince con- 
 tinued his regard for Sir Adam, whom he esteemed as a brave 
 man, and made him warden, " custos" of the forest of Wolmer.* 
 
 * Since the letters respecting Wolmer-forest and Ayles-holt were printed, 
 the author has been favoured with the following extracts : 
 
 " In the 'Act of Resumption, I Hen. VII.' it was provided, that it be not 
 prejudicial to * Harry at Lode,' ranger of our forest of Wolmere, to him by 
 cure letters patents before tyme gevyn." Rolls of Part., vol. vi. p. 370. 
 
 "In the II Hen. VII., 1495, ' Warlham (Wardleham) and the office of 
 forest (forester) of Wolmere,' were held by Edmund, duke of Suffolk." -AW/r, 
 ib. 474. 
 
 "Act of general pardon, 14 Hen. VIII., 1523, not to extend to 'Rich. Bp. 
 of Wynton (bishop Fox) for any seizure or forfeiture of liberties, &c., within 
 the forest of Wolmer, Alysholt, and Newe Forest ; nor to any person for 
 waste, &c., within the manor of Wardlam, or parish of Wardlam (Wardle- 
 ham) ; nor to abusing, &c., of any office or fee, within the said forests of 
 Wolmer or Alysholt, or the said park of Wardlam.' " County Suth't. Rolls 
 prefixt to 1st Vol. of Journals of the Lords, p. xciii. b. 
 
 To these may be added some other particulars, taken from a book lately 
 published, entitled " An Account of all the Manors, Messuages, lands, &c., in 
 the different Counties of England and Wales, held by Lease from the Crown ; 
 as contained in the Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the 
 Stale and Condition of the Royal Forests, &c." London, 1787. 
 " Southampton. 
 
 P. 64. "A fee-farm rent of 31 2s. lid. out of the manors of East and 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 321 
 
 Though little emolument might hang to this appointment, yet are 
 there reasons why it might be highly acceptable ; and, in a few- 
 reigns after, it was given to princes of the blood.* In old days 
 gentry resided more at home on their estates, and having fewer 
 resources of elegant indoor amusement, spent most of their leisure 
 hours in the field and the pleasures of the chase. A large domain, 
 therefore, at little more than a mile distance, and well stocked 
 with game must have been a very eligible acquisition, affording 
 him influence as well as entertainment; and especially as the 
 manerial house of Temple, by its exalted situation, could com- 
 mand a view of near two-thirds of the forest. 
 
 That Gurdon, who had lived some years the life of an outlaw 
 and at the head of an army of insurgents, was for a considerable 
 time in high rebellion against his sovereign, should have been 
 guilty of some outrages, and should have committed some depre- 
 dations, is by no means matter of wonder. Accordingly we find 
 a distringas against him, ordering him to restore to the Bishop of 
 Winchester some of the temporalities of that see, which he had 
 taken by violence and detained, viz., some lands in Hocheleye, 
 and a mill.t By a breve^ or writ, from the king, he is also enjoined 
 
 West Wardleham ; and also the office of lieutenant or keeper of the forest 
 or chase of Aliceholt and Wolmer, with all offices, fees, commodities, and 
 privileges thereto belonging. 
 
 " Names of lessees, William, earl of Dartmouth, and others (in trust). 
 
 " Date of the last lease, March 23rd, 1780 ; granted for such term as would 
 fill up the subsisting term to 31 years. 
 
 "Expiration March 23, 1811. 
 
 " Southampton. 
 
 " Hundreds Selborne and Finchdeane. 
 " Honours and manors, etc. 
 
 ' ' Aliceholt forest, three parks there. 
 
 " Bens ted and Kingsley ; a petition of the parishioners concerning the three 
 parks in Aliceholt Forest." 
 
 " William, first earl of Dartmouth, and paternal grandfather to the present 
 Lord Stawel, was a lessee of the forests of Aliceholt and Wolmer before 
 brigadier-general Emanuel Scroope Howe." 
 
 * See Letter II. of these Antiquities. 
 
 f Hocheleye, now spelt Hawkley, is in the hundred of Selborne, and has a 
 mil lat this day. 
 
322 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 to readmit the Bishop of Winchester, and his tenants of the parish 
 and town of Farnhara, to pasture their horses, and other larger 
 cattle, " averia" in the forest of Wolmer, as had been the usage 
 from time immemorial. This writ is dated in the tenth year of 
 the reign of Edward, viz., 1282. 
 
 All the king's writs directed to Gurdon are addressed in the 
 following manner, " Edwardus Dei gratia, &c., dilecto et fideli 
 suo Ade Gurdon salutem^" and again, " Custodi foreste sue de 
 Wolvemere." 
 
 In the year 1293 a quarrel between the crews of an English 
 and a Norman ship about some trifle, brought on by degrees such 
 serious consequences, that in 1293 a war broke out between the 
 two nations. The French king, Philip the Hardy, gained some 
 advantages in Gascony j and, not content with those, threatened 
 England with an invasion, and by a sudden attempt took and 
 burnt Dover. 
 
 Upon this emergency, Edward sent a writ to Gurdon, ordering 
 him and four others to enlist three thousand soldiers in the 
 counties of Surrey, Dorset, and Wiltshire, able-bodied men, "tarn 
 sagittare quam balistare potentes ; " and to see that they were 
 marched by the feast of All Saints, to Winchelsea, there to be 
 embarked aboard the king's transports. 
 
 The occasion of this armament appears also from a summons 
 to the Bishop of Winchester to Parliament, part of which I shall 
 transcribe on account of the insolent menace which is said therein 
 to have been denounced against the English language : " qualiter 
 rex Franciae de terra nostra Gascon nos fraudulenter et cautelose 
 
 decepit, earn nobis nequiter detinendo vero pre- 
 
 dictis fraude et nequitia non contentus, ad expugnationem regni 
 nostri classe maxima et bellatorum copiosa multitudine congregatis, 
 cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni ejusdem incolas hostiliter 
 jam invasurus, linguam Anglicam si concepte iniquitatis proposito 
 detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod Deus avertat omnino de 
 terra delere proponit" Dated 3oth September, in the year of 
 King Edward's reign xxiii.* 
 
 * Reg. Winton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not bishop 
 of Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 323 
 
 The above are the last traces that I can discover of Garden's 
 appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evi- 
 dences give of him is that in 1232, being the i6th of Henry III., 
 he was the King's bailiff, with others, for the town of Alton. 
 Now, froVn 1232 to 1295 is a space of sixty-three years, a long 
 period for one man to be employed in active life ! Should any 
 one doubt whether all these particulars can relate to one and the 
 same person, I should wish him to attend to the following reasons 
 why they might. In the first place, the documents from the priory 
 mention but one Sir Adam Gurdon, who had no son lawfully 
 begotten ; and in the next, we are to recollect that he must have 
 probably been a man of uncommon vigour, both of mind and 
 body, since no one unsupported by such accomplishments could 
 have engaged in such adventures, or could have borne up against 
 the difficulties which he sometimes must have encountered ; and 
 moreover, we have modern instances of persons that have main- 
 tained their abilities for near that period. 
 
 Were we to suppose Gurdon to be only twenty years of age in 
 1232, in 1295 he would be eighty-three; after which advanced 
 period it could not be expected that he should live long. From 
 the silence, therefore, of my evidences, it seems probable that this 
 extraordinary person finished his life in peace, not long after, at 
 his mansion of Temple. Gurdon's seal had for its device a man, 
 with a helmet on his head, drawing a cross-bow ; the legend, 
 " Sigillum Ade de Gurdon } " his arms were, " Goulis, iii floures 
 argent issant de testes de leopards." * 
 
 If the stout and unsubmitting spirit of Gurdon could be so 
 much influenced by the belief and superstition of the times, much 
 more might the hearts of his ladies and daughter. And accord- 
 ingly we find that Ameria, by the consent and advice of her sons, 
 though said to be all under age, makes a grant for ever of some 
 lands down by the stream at Durton ; and also of her right of the 
 common of Durton itself, f Johanna, the daughter and heiress of 
 
 * From the collection of Thomas Martin, Esq., in the "Antiquarian Re- 
 pertory,'' p. 109, No. XXXI. 
 
 t Durton, now called Dorton, is still a coninon for the copyholders of 
 Selbcrne manor. 
 
 21 
 
3H ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Sir Adam, was married, I find, to Richard Achard ; she also grants 
 to the prior and convent lands and tenements in the village of 
 Selborne, which her father obtained from Thomas Makerel ; and 
 also all her goods and chattels in Selborne for the consideration 
 of two hundred pounds sterling. This last business was transacted 
 in the first year of Edward II., viz., 1307. It has been observed 
 before that Gurdon had a natural son ; this person was called by 
 the name of John Dastard, alias Wastard, but more probably 
 Bastard ; since bastardy, in those days, was not deemed any dis- 
 grace, though dastardy was esteemed the greatest. He was married 
 to Gunnorie Duncun ; and had a tenement and some land granted 
 him in Selborne by his sister Johanna. 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 THE Knights Templars,* who have been mentioned in a foimer 
 
 * THE MILITARY ORDERS OF THE RELIGIOUS. 
 
 The Knights Hospitalars of St. John of Jerusalem, afterwards called Knights 
 of Rhodes, now of Malta, came into England about the year uoo, I Hen. I. 
 
 The Knights Templars came into England pretty early in Stephen's reign, 
 which commenced 1135. The order was dissolved in 1312, and their estates 
 given by Act of Parliament to the Hospitalars in 1323 (all in Edw. II.) though 
 many of their estates were never actually enjoyed by the said Hospitalars. 
 Vid. TANNER, p. 24, 10. 
 
 The commandries of the Hospitalars, and preceptories of Templars, were 
 each subordinate to the principal house of their respective religion in London. 
 Although these are the different denominations, which ''Tanner" at p. 37 
 assigns to the cells of these different orders, yet throughout the work very fre- 
 quent instances occur of preceptories attributed to the Hospitalars ; and if in 
 some passages of "Notitia Monast." commandries are attributed to the 
 Templars, it is only where the place afterwards became the property of the 
 Hospitalars, and so is there indifferently styled preceptory or commandry ; see 
 p. 243, 263, 276, 577, 678. But, to account for the first observed inaccuracy, 
 it is probable the preceptories of the Templars, when given to the Hospitalars, 
 were still vulgarly, however, called by their old name of preceptories ; whereas 
 in propriety societies of the Hospitalars were indeed (as has been said) com- 
 mandaries. And such deviation from the strictness of expression in this case 
 mi^ht occasion those societies of Hospitalars also to be indifferently called pre- 
 

 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 325 
 
 letter, had considerable property in Selborne; and also a pre- 
 ceptory at Sudington, now called Southington, a hamlet lying one 
 mile to the east of the village. Bishop Tanner mentions only 
 two such houses of the Templars in all the county of Southampton, 
 viz., Godesfield, founded by Henry de Blois, bishop of Winchester, 
 and South Badeisley, a preceptory of the Knights Templars, and 
 afterwards of St. John of Jerusalem, valued at one hundred and 
 eighteen pounds sixteen shillings and sevenpence per annum. 
 Here then was a preceptory unnoticed by antiquaries, between 
 the village and Temple. Whatever the edifice of the preceptory 
 might have been, it has long since been dilapidated; and the 
 whole hamlet contains now only one mean farm-house, though 
 there were two in the memory of man. 
 
 It has been usual for the religious of different orders to fall into 
 great dissensions, and especially when they were near neighbours. 
 Instances of this sort we have heard of between the monks of 
 Canterbury ; and again between the old abbey of St. Swythun, 
 
 ceptories, which had originally been vested in them, having never belonged to 
 the Templars at all. See in ARCHER, p. 609 ; TANNER, p. 300, col. I, 720, n.e. 
 
 It is observable that the very statute for the dissolution of the Hospitalars 
 holds the same language ; for there, in the enumeration of particulars occur 
 " commandries, preceptories." CODEX, p. 1190. Now this intercommunity 
 of names, and that in an Act of Parliament too, made some of our ablest anti- 
 quaries look upon a preceptory and command ry as strictly synonymous ; ac- 
 cordingly we find Camden, in his " Britannia,'' explaining prseceptoria in the 
 text by a command ry in the margin, p. 356. 510. J. L. 
 
 Commandry, a manor or chief messuage with lands, etc., belonging to the 
 priory of St. John of Jerusalem ; and he who had the government of such 
 house was called the commander, who could not dispose of it but to the use of 
 the priory, only taking thence his own sustenance, according to his degree, who 
 was usually a brother of the same priory. COWELL. He adds (confounding 
 these with preceptories) they are in many places termed temples, as Temple 
 Bruere in Lincolnshire, etc. Preceptories were possessed by the more eminent 
 sort of Templars, whom the chief master created and called Praeceptores Templi. 
 COWELL, who refers to STEPHENS De Jurisd. lib. iv. c. 10, no. 27. 
 
 Placita de juratis et assis coram Salom. de Roff et sociis suis justic. Itiner. 
 apud Wynton, &c., anno regni R. Edwardi fil. Reg. Hen. octavo. "et 
 Magr. Milicie Templi in Angl. ht emendasse panis, et suis [cerevisiae] in Sodin^- 
 ton, et nescint q. war. et et magist. Milicie Templi non ven id distr." Chapter 
 House ) Westminster. 
 
326 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 and the comparatively new minster of Hyde in the city of Win- 
 chester.* These feuds arose probably from different orders being 
 crowded within the narrow limits of a city, or garrison-town, where 
 every inch of ground was precious, and an object of contention. 
 But with us, as far as my evidences extend, and while Robert 
 Saunford was master, f and Richard Carpenter was preceptor, the 
 Templars and the Priors lived in an intercourse of mutual good 
 offices. 
 
 My papers mention three transactions, the exact time of which 
 cannot be ascertained, because they fell out before dates were 
 usually inserted ; though probably they happened about the middle 
 of the thirteenth century, not long after Saunford became master. 
 The first of these is that the Templars shall pay to the priory of 
 Selborne, annually, the sum of ten shillings at two half-yearly 
 payments from their chamber, " camera," at Sudington, " per 
 
 * NOTITIA MONASTICA, p. 155. 
 
 "Winchester, Newminster. King Alfred founded here first only a house 
 and chapel for the learned monk Grimbald, whom he had brought out of 
 Flanders ; but afterwards projected, and by his will ordered, a noble Church 
 or religious house to be built in the cemetery on the north side of the old 
 minster or cathedral, and designed that Grimbald should preside over it. This 
 was begun A.D. 901, and finished to the honour of the Holy Trinity, Virgin 
 Mary, and St. Peter, by his son King Edward, who placed therein secular 
 canons, but A.D. 963 they were expelled, and an abbot and monks put in 
 possession by bishop Ethelwold. 
 
 " Now the churches and habitations of these two societies being so very near 
 together, the differences which were occasioned by their singing, bells, and 
 other matters, arose to so great a height, that the religious of the new monastery 
 thought fit, about A.D. 1119, to remove to a better and more quiet situation 
 without the walls, on the north part of the city called Hyde, where King 
 Edward I., at the instance of Will. Gifford, Bishop of Winton, founded a 
 stately abbey for them. St. Peter was generally accounted patron ; though it 
 is sometimes called the monastery of St. Grimbald, and sometimes of St. 
 Barnabas," etc. 
 
 NOTE. A few years since a county bridewell, or house of correction, has 
 been built on the immediate site of Hyde Abbey. In digging up the old 
 foundations the workmen found the head of a crosier in good preservation. 
 
 f Robert Saunforde was Master of the Temple in 1241 ; Guido de Foresta 
 was the next in 1292. The for.nsr is fifth in a list of the masters, in a MS. 
 "Bib. Cotton. Nero. E. VI." 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 327 
 
 manum preceptoris, vel ballivi nostri, qui pro tempore fuerit ibi- 
 dem," till they can provide the prior and canons with an equivalent 
 in lands or rents within four or five miles of the said convent. It 
 is also further agreed that, if the Templars shall be in arrears for 
 one year, then the prior shall be empowered to distrain upon 
 their live stock in Bradeseth. The next matter was a grant from 
 Robert de Sunford to the priory for ever, of a good and sufficient 
 road, " cheminum," capable of admitting carriages, and proper 
 for the drift of their larger cattle, from the way which extends 
 from Sudington towards Blakemere, on to the lands which the 
 convent possesses in Bradeseth. 
 
 The third transaction (though for want of dates we cannot say 
 which happened first and which last) was a grant from Robert 
 Samford to the priory of a tenement and its appurtenances in the 
 village of Selborne, given to the Templars by Americus de Vasci.* 
 This property, by the manner of describing it, " totum tene- 
 mentum cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, scilicet in terris, & 
 hominibus, in pratis & pascuis, & nemoribus," etc., seems to have, 
 been no inconsiderable purchase, and was sold for two hundred 
 marks sterling, to be applied for the buying of more land for the 
 support of the holy war. 
 
 Prior John is mentioned as the person to whom Vasci's land is 
 conveyed. But in Willis's list there is no Prior John till 1339, 
 several years after the dissolution of the order of the Templars in 
 1312, so that, unless Willis is wrong, and has omitted a prior John 
 since 1262 (that being the date of his first prior), these transac- 
 tions must have fallen out before that date. 
 
 I find not the least traces of any concerns between Gurdon and 
 the Knight Templars ; but probably after his death his daughter 
 Johanna might have, and might bestow, Temple on that order in 
 support of the holy land ; and, moreover, she seems to have been 
 removing from Selborne, when she sold her goods and chattels to 
 the priory, as mentioned above. 
 
 Temple, no doubt, did belong to the knights, as may be 
 
 * Americus Vasci, by his name, must have been an Italian, and had been 
 probably a soldier of fortune, and one of Gurdon's captains. Americus Ves- 
 pucio, the person who gave name to the new world, was a Florentine. 
 
328 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 asserted, not only from its name, but also from another corro- 
 borating circumstance of its being still a manor, tithe-free ; " for, 
 by virtue of their order," says Blackstone, " the lands of the 
 Knights Templars were privileged by the Pope with a discharge 
 from tithes." 
 
 Antiquaries have been much puzzled about the terms preceptores 
 and preceptorium^ not being able to determine what officer or 
 edifice was meant. But perhaps all the while the passage quoted 
 above from one of my papers, " per manum preceptoris vel ballivt 
 nostri, qui pro tempore fuerit, ibidem," may help to explain the 
 difficulty. For if it be allowed here that preceptor and ballivus are 
 synonymous words, then the brother who took on him that office 
 resided in the house of the Templars at Sudington, a preceptory ; 
 where he was their preceptor, superintended their affairs, received 
 their money, and, as in the instance there mentioned, paid from 
 their chamber, " camera" as directed ; so that, according to this 
 explanation, a preceptor was no other than a steward, and a pre- 
 ceptorium was his residence. I am well aware that, according to 
 strict Latin, the vel should have been seu or st've, and the order of 
 the words " preceptor is nostri, velballivi, qui" et "ibidem" should 
 have been ibi ; ibidem necessarily having reference to two or more 
 persons ; but it will hardly be thought fair to apply the niceties of 
 classic rules to the Latinity of the thirteenth century, the writers 
 of which seem to have aimed at nothing farther than to render 
 themselves intelligible. 
 
 There is another remark that we have made, which, I think, 
 corroborates what has been advanced ; and that is, that Richard 
 Carpenter, preceptor of Sudington, at the time of the transactions 
 between the Templars and Selborne Priory, did always sign last 
 as a witness in the three deeds ; he calls himself f rater, it is true, 
 among many other brothers, but subscribes with a kind of defer- 
 ence, as if, for the time being, his office rendered him an inferior 
 in the community.* 
 
 * In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald's Hospital in the 
 city of Worcester, printed by Dr. Nash, pp. 227, 228, of his collections for the 
 history of Worcestershire, the words preceptorium and preceptoria signify the 
 mastership of the said hospital : ' 'ad preceptorium si ve magisterium presentavit 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 329 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 THE ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon were not the only 
 benefactresses to the Priory of Selborne; for, in the year 1281, 
 Ela Longspee obtained masses to be performed for her soul's 
 health ; and the prior entered into an engagement that one of the 
 convent should every day say a special mass for ever for the said 
 benefactress, whether living or dead. She also engaged within 
 five years to pay to the said convent one hundred marks of silver 
 for the support of a chantry and chantry chaplain, who should 
 perform his masses daily in the parish church of Selborne.* In 
 the east end of the south aisle there are two sharp-pointed Gothic 
 niches ; one of these probably was the place under which these 
 masses were performed ; and there is the more reason to suppose 
 as much, because, till within these thirty years, this space was 
 fenced off with Gothic wooden railing, and was known by the 
 name of the south chancel, t 
 
 preceptorii sive magisterii patronas. Vacavit dicta preceptoria seu magis- 
 terium ad preceptoriam et regimen dicti hospitalis Te preceptorem sive 
 magistrum prefecimus." 
 
 Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean 
 the master's lodgings, or at least the preceptor's apartment, whatsoever may 
 have been the office or employment of the said preceptor. 
 
 A preceptor is mentioned in Thoresby's "Ducatus Leodiensis," or History 
 of Leeds, p. 225, and a deed witnessed by the preceptor and chaplain before 
 dates were inserted. Du Fresne's Supplement : " Preceptorise, praedia pre- 
 ceptoribus assignata." Cowel, in his " Law Dictionary," enumerates sixteen 
 preceptoriae, or preceptories, in England ; but Sudington is not among them. 
 It is remarkable that Gurtlerus, in his "Historia Templariorum, " Amstel. 
 1691, never once mentions the words preceptor or preceptorium. 
 
 * A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish church, and 
 endowed with annual revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests to 
 sing mass daily for the soul of the founder, and others. 
 
 f For what is said more respecting this chantry see Letter III. of these 
 Antiquities. Mention is made of a Nicholas Langrish, capellanus de Selborne, 
 in the time of Henry VIII. Was he chantry-chaplain to Ela Longspee, whose 
 masses were probably continued to the time of the Reformation ? More will 
 be said of this person hereafter. 
 
330 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 The solicitude expressed by the donor plainly shows her piety 
 and firm persuasion of the efficacy of prayers for the dead ; for she 
 seems to have made every provision for the payment of the sum 
 stipulated within the appointed time, and to have felt much 
 anxiety lest her death, or the neglect of her executors or assigns, 
 might frustrate her intentions. " Et si contingat me in solucione 
 perdicte pecunie annis predictis in parte aut in toto deficerej quod 
 absit ; concede et obligo pro me et assignatis meis, quod Vice- 
 Comes . . . Oxon et qui pro tempore fuerint, per omnes 
 
 terras et tenementa, et omnia bona mea mobilia et immobilia 
 ubicunque in balliva sua fuerint inventa ad solucionem predictam 
 faciendam possent nos compellere." And again " Et si con- 
 tingat dictos religiosos labores seu expensas facere circa predictam 
 pecuniam, seu circa partem dicte pecunie ; volo quod dictorum 
 religiosorum impense et labores levantur ita quod predicto priori 
 vel uni canonicorum suorum superhiis simplici verbo credatur sine 
 alterius honere probacionis ; et quod utrique predictorum virorum 
 in unam marcam argenti pro cujuslibet distrincione super me 
 facienda tenear. Dat. apud Wareborn die sabati proxima ante 
 festum St. Marci evangeliste, anno regni regis Edwardi tertio 
 decimo."* 
 
 But the reader, perhaps, would wish to be better informed 
 respecting this benefactress, of whom as yet he has heard no 
 particulars. 
 
 The Ela Longspee, therefore, above-mentioned, was a lady of 
 high birth and rank, and became countess to Thomas de New- 
 burgh, the sixth earl of Warwick : she was the second daughter of 
 the famous Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, by William 
 Longspee, natural son of King Edward II., by Rosamond. 
 
 Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother,t " was a 
 
 * Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in 
 churches and churchyards for the sake of notoriety, and for the conveniency 
 of procuring several witnesses to attest. 
 
 f Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, in 1232, founded a monastery at 
 Lacock, in the county of Wilts, and also another at .Hendon, in the county of 
 Somerset, in her widowhood, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin and 
 St. Bernard. CAMDEN. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 33* 
 
 great benefactress to the University of Oxford, to the canons of 
 Oseney, the nuns of Godstovv, and other religious houses in 
 Oxfordshire. She died very aged, in the year 1300,* and was 
 buried before the high altar in the abbey church of Oseney, at the 
 head of the tomb of Henry D'Oily, under a flat marble, on which 
 was inlaid her portraiture, in the habit of a vowess, engraved on a 
 copper-plate." " Edmondson's History and Genealogical Account 
 of the Grevilles," p. 23. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 THE reader is here presented with the titles of five forms respect- 
 ing the choosing of a prior. " Charta petens licentiam elegendi 
 prelatum a Domino episcopo Wintoniensi : " "Forma licentie 
 concesse :" " Forma decreti post electionem conficiendi : " 108. 
 "Modus procedendi ad electionem per formam scrutinii:" et 
 " Forma ricte presentandi electum." Such evidences are rare and 
 curious, and throw great light upon the general monastico-ecde- 
 siastical history of this kingdom, not yet sufficiently understood. 
 
 In the year 1324 there was an election for a prior at Selborne ; 
 when some difficulties occurring, and a devolution taking place, 
 application was made to Stratford, who was bishop of Winchester 
 at that time, and of course the visitor and patron of the convent 
 at the spot above-mention ed.t 
 
 An Extract from " Reg. Stratford." Winton. 
 P. 4. "Commissio facta sub-priori de Selebourne," by the 
 bishop enjoining him to preserve the discipline of the order in the 
 convent during the vacancy made by the late death of the prior, 
 ("nuper pastoris solatio destituta,") dated 4th kal. Maii. ann. 2do 
 sc. of his consecration. [Sc. 1324.] 
 
 * Thus she survived the foundation of her chantry at Selborne fifteen years. 
 About this lady and her mother consult Dugdale's "Baronage," i. 7 2 > J 75 
 177; Dugdale's "Warwickshire," i. 383; Leland's "Itin." ii. 45. 
 
 f Stratford was Bishop of Winchester from 1323 to 1333, when he was 
 translated to Canterbury. 
 
332 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 P. 6. "Custodia Prioratus de Seleburne vacantis," committed 
 
 by the bishop to Nicholas de la , a layman, it belonging to 
 
 the bishop, "ratione vacationis ejusdem," in July, 1324, ibid. 
 " negotium electionis de Selebourne. Acta coram Johanne Epis- 
 copo, &c. 1324 in negotio electionis de fratre Waltero de Insula 
 concanonico prioratus de Selebourne," lately elected by the sub- 
 prior and convent, by way of scrutiny ; that it appeared to the 
 bishop, by certificate from the dean of Alton, that solemn citation 
 and proclamation had been made in the church of the convent 
 where the election was held that any who opposed the said 
 election or elected should appear. Some difficulties were started, 
 which the bishop overruled, and confirmed the election, and 
 admitted the new prior sub hac forma : 
 
 "In Dei nomine Amen. Ego Johannes permissiorie divina, 
 &c. te Walterum de Insula ecclesie de Selebourne nostre dioceseos 
 nostrique patronatus vacantis, canonicum et cantorem, virum 
 utique providum, et discretum, literarum scientia preditum, vita 
 moribus et conversatione merito commendatum, in ordine sacer- 
 dotali et etate legitima constitutum, de legitimo matrimonio pro- 
 creatum, in ordine et religione Sancti Augustini de Selebourne 
 expresse professum, in spiritualibus et temporalibus circumspec- 
 tum, jure nobis hac devoluto in hac parte, in dicte ecclesie de 
 Selebourne perfectum priorem; curam et administrationem ejusdem 
 tibi in spiritualibus et temporalibus committentes. Dat. apud 
 Selebourne XIII. kalend. Augusti anno supradicto." 
 
 There follows an order to the sub-prior and convent pro 
 obedientia : 
 
 A mandate to Nicholas above-named to release the priory to the 
 new prior : 
 
 A mandate for the induction of the new prior. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 333 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 "!N the year 1373 Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, held a visita- 
 tion of his whole diocese ; not only of the secular clergy through 
 the several deaneries, but also of the monasteries, and religious 
 houses of all sorts, which he visited in person. The next year he 
 sent his commissioners with power to correct and reform the 
 several irregularities and abuses which he had discovered in the 
 course of his visitation. 
 
 "Some years afterward, the bishop having visited three several 
 times all the religious houses throughout his diocese, and being 
 well informed of the state and condition of each, and of the par- 
 ticular abuses which required correction and reformation, besides 
 the orders which he had already given, and the remedies which 
 he had occasionally applied by his commissioners, now issued his 
 injunctions to each of them. They were accommodated to their 
 several exigencies, and intended to' correct the abuses introduced, 
 and to recall them all to a strict observation of the rules of their 
 respective orders. Many of these injunctions are still extant, and 
 are evident monuments of the care and attention with which he 
 discharged this part of his episcopal duty."* 
 
 Some of these injunctions I shall here produce ; and they are 
 such as will not fail, I think, to give satisfaction to the antiquary, 
 both as never having been published before, and as they are a 
 curious picture of monastic irregularities at that time. 
 
 The documents that I allude to are contained in the " Notabilis 
 Visitatio de Seleburne," held at the priory of that place, by 
 Wykeham in person, in the year 1387. 
 
 This evidence, in the original, is written on two skins of parch- 
 ment ; the one large, and the other smaller, and consists of a pre- 
 amble, thirty-six items, and a conclusion, which altogether evince 
 the patient investigation of the visitor, for which he had always been 
 so remarkable in all matters of moment, and how much he had at 
 heart the regularity of those institutions, of whose efficacy in their 
 prayers for the dead he was so firmly persuaded. As the bishop 
 * See Lowth's Life of Wykeham. 
 
534 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 was so much in earnest, we may be assured that he had nothing 
 in view but to correct and reform what he found amiss ; and was 
 under no bias to blacken, or misrepresent as the commissioners of 
 Thomas Lord Cromwell seem in part to have done at the time of 
 the Reformation.* We may therefore with reason suppose that 
 the bishop gives us an exact delineation of the morals and 
 manners of the canons of Selborne at that juncture ; and that 
 what he found they had omitted he enjoins them ; and for what 
 they have done amiss, and contrary to their rules and statutes, he 
 reproves them ; and threatens them with punishment suitable to 
 their irregularities. 
 
 The visitatio is of considerable length, and cannot be introduced 
 into the body of this work ; we shall therefore refer the reader to 
 the Appendix, where he will find every particular, while we shall 
 take some notice, and make some remarks on the most singular 
 items as they occur. 
 
 In the preamble the visitor says <c Considering the charge 
 lying upon us, that your blood may not be required at our hands, 
 we came down to visit your priory, as our office required : and 
 every time we repeated our visitation we found something still not 
 only contrary to regular rules but also repugnant to religion and 
 good reputation.'* 
 
 In the first article after the preamble " he commands them on 
 their obedience, and on pain of the greater excommunication, to see 
 that the canonical hours by night and by day be sung in their choir, 
 and the masses of the Blessed Mary, and other accustomed masses, 
 be celebrated at the proper hours with devotion, and at moderate 
 pauses ; and that it be not allowed to any to absent themselves 
 from the hours and masses, or to withdraw before they are finished." 
 
 Item 2nd. He enjoins them to observe that silence to which 
 they are so strictly bound by the rule of Saint Augustine at stated 
 times, and wholly to abstain from frivolous conversation. 
 
 Item 4th. "Not to permit such frequent passing of secular 
 people of both sexes through their convent, as if a thoroughfare, 
 from whence many disorders may and have arisen." 
 
 * Letters of this sort from Dr. Layton to Thomas Lord Cromwell are still 
 extant. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 335 
 
 Item 5th. " To take care that the doors of their church and 
 priory be so attended to that no suspected and disorderly females, 
 ' suspectae et aliae inhonestae,' pass through their choir and 
 cloister in the dark ; " and to see that the doors of their church 
 between the nave and the choir, and the gates of their cloister 
 opening into the fields, be constantly kept shut until their first 
 choir service is over in the morning, at dinner time, and when 
 they meet at their evening collation.* 
 
 Item 6th mentions that several of the canons are found to be 
 very ignorant and illiterate, and enjoins the prior to see that they 
 be better instructed by a proper master. 
 
 Item 8th. The canons are here accused of refusing to accept 
 of their .statutable clothing year by year, and of demanding a cer- 
 tain specified sum of money, as if it were their annual rent and 
 due. This the bishop forbids, and orders that the canons shall be 
 clothed out of the revenue of the priory, and the old garments be 
 laid by in a chamber and given to the poor according to the rule 
 of Saint Augustine. 
 
 In Item 9th is a complaint that some of the canons are given 
 to wander out of the precincts of the convent without leave; 
 and that others ride to their manors and farms, under pretence of 
 inspecting the concerns of the society, when they please, and stay 
 as long as they please. But they are enjoined never to stir 
 either about their own private concerns or the business of the 
 convent without leave from the prior : and no canon is to go alone, 
 but to have a brave brother to accompany him. 
 
 The injunction in Item loth, at this distance of time appears 
 rather ludicrous ; but the visitor seems to be very serious on the 
 occasion, and says that it has been evidently proved to him that 
 some of the canons, living dissolutely after the flesh, and not after 
 the spirit, sleep naked in their beds without their breeches and 
 shirts, "absque femoralibus et camisiis."t He enjoins that these 
 
 * A collation was a meal or repast on a fast-day in lieu of a supper. 
 
 f The rule alluded to in Item loth, of not sleeping naked, was enjoined the 
 Knights Templars, who were also subject to the rules of St. Augustine. See 
 GURTLERI Hist. Teinplarionim. 
 
33 6 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 culprits shall be punished by severe fasting, especially if they shall 
 be found to be faulty a third time ; and threatens the prior and 
 sub-prior with suspension if they do not correct this enormity. 
 
 In Item nth the good bishop is very wroth with some of the 
 canons, whom he finds to be professed hunters and sportsmen, 
 keeping hounds, and publicly attending hunting- matches. These 
 pursuits, he says, occasion much dissipation, danger to the soul 
 and body, and frequent expense ; he, therefore, wishing to extir- 
 pate this vice wholly from the convent, " radicibus exlirpare" does 
 absolutely enjoin the canons never intentionally to be present at 
 any public noisy tumultuous huntings ; or to keep any hounds, by 
 themselves or by others, openly or by stealth, within the convent, 
 or without.* 
 
 In Item i2th he forbids the canons in office to make their 
 business a plea for not attending the service of the choir; since by 
 these means either divine worship is neglected or their brother 
 canons are over-burdened. 
 
 By Item i4th we are informed that the original number of 
 canons at the Priory of Selborne was fourteen ; but that at this 
 visitation they were found to be let down to eleven. The visitor 
 therefore strongly and earnestly enjoins them that, with all due 
 speed and diligence, they should proceed to the election of proper 
 persons to fill up the vacancies, under pain of the greater excom- 
 munication. 
 
 In Item i7th the prior and canons are accused of suffering, 
 through neglect, notorious dilapidations to take place among their 
 manorial houses and tenements, and in the walls and inclosures of 
 the convent itself, to the shame and scandal of the institution ; 
 they are therefore enjoined, under pain of suspension, to repair all 
 defects within the space of six months. 
 
 * Considering the strong propensity in human nature towards the pleasures 
 of the chase, it is not to be wondered that the canons of Canterbury should 
 languish after hunting, when from their situation so near the precincts of 
 Wolmer Forest, the king's hounds must have been often in hearing, and 
 sometimes in sight from their windows. If the bishop was so offended at 
 these sporting canons, what would he have said to our modern fox-hunting 
 divines 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 337 
 
 Item 1 8th charges them with grievously burthening the said 
 Priory by means ot sales, and grants ot liveries* and corrodies.f 
 
 The bishop, in Item iQth, accuses the canons of neglect and 
 omission with respect to their perpetual chantry-services. 
 
 Item 2oth. The visitor here conjures the prior and canons not 
 to withhold their original alms, " eleemosynas ; " nor those that they 
 were enjoined to distribute for the good of the souls of founders 
 and benefactors ; he also strictly orders that the fragments and 
 broken victuals, both from the hall of their prior and their common 
 refectory, should be carefully collected together by their eleemosy- 
 narius, and given to the poor without any diminution ; the officer 
 to be suspended for neglect or omission. 
 
 Item 23rd. He bids them distribute their pittances, "pitancias"% 
 regularly on obits, anniversaries, festivals, etc. 
 
 Item 25th. All and every one of the canons are hereby in- 
 hibited from standing godfather to any boy for the future, " ne 
 compatres alicujus pueri de cetero fieri presumatis," unless by 
 express license from the bishop obtained ; because from such 
 relationship favour and affection, nepotism, and undue influence, 
 arise, to the injury and detriment of religious institutions. 
 
 * ' ' Liberationes, or liberaturae, allowances of corn, etc., to servants 
 delivered at certain times, and in certain quantities, as clothes were among 
 the allowances from religious houses to their dependents. See the corrodies 
 granted by Croyland Abbey. Hist, of Croyland, Appendix No. XXXIV. 
 
 "It is not improbable that the word in after-ages came to be confined to the 
 uniform of the retainers or servants of the great, who were hence called livery 
 servants." SIR JOHN CULLUM'S Hist, of Hawsted. 
 
 f A corrody is an allowance to a servant living in an abbey or priory. 
 
 J Pitancia, an allowance of bread and beer, or other provision to any pious 
 use, " especially to the religious in a monastery, &c., for augmentation of their 
 commons." Gloss, to Kennefs Par. Ant. 
 
 The relationship between sponsors and their god-children, who were 
 called spiritual sons and daughters, was formerly esteemed much more sacred 
 than at present. The presents at christenings were sometimes very consider- 
 able : the connexion lasted through life, and was closed with a legacy. This 
 last mark of attention seems to have been thought almost indispensable : for, in 
 a will from whence no extracts have been given, the testator left every one of 
 his god-children a bushel of barley." SIR JOHN CULLUM'S Hist, of Hawsted. 
 
 " De Margaretae filiae regis primo^enitas, quam nliolam, quia ejus in bap- 
 
333 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 Item 26th. The visitor herein severely reprimands the canons 
 for appearing publicly in what would be called in the universities 
 an unstatutable manner, and for wearing of boots, "caligae de 
 
 Burneto, et sotularium in ocrearum loco, ad modum sotu- 
 
 larium." * 
 
 It is remarkable that the bishop expresses more warmth against 
 this than any other irregularity ; and strictly enjoins them, under 
 pain of ecclesiastical censures, and even imprisonment if necessary 
 (a threat not made use of before), for the future to wear boots, 
 "ocreis seu botis," according to the regular usage of their ancient 
 order. 
 
 Item 291)1. He here again, but with less earnestness, forbids 
 them foppish ornaments, and the affectation of appearing like 
 beaux with garments edged with costly furs, with fringed gloves, 
 and silken girdles trimmed with gold and silver. It is remarkable 
 that no punishment is annexed to this injunction. 
 
 Item 3 1 st. He here singly and severally forbids each canon 
 not admitted to a cure of souls to administer extreme unction, or 
 the sacrament, to clergy or laity; or to perform the service of 
 matrimony, till he has taken out the license of the parish priest. 
 
 Item 32nd. The bishop says in this item that he had observed 
 and found, in his several visitations, that the sacramental plate 
 and cloths of the altar, surplices, etc., were sometimes left in such 
 an uncleanly and disgusting condition as to make the beholders 
 shudder with horror : " Quod aliquibus sunt horrori : " f he 
 tismo compater fuit, appellat, cyphum aureum et quadraginta libras, legavit." 
 ARCHBISHOP PARKER de Autiquitate Ecdes. Brit, speaking of Archbishop 
 Morion. 
 
 * De Fresne is copious on caligse of several sorts, "Hoc item de Clericis, 
 presertim beneficiatis : caligis scacatis (chequered) rube's, et viridibus publice 
 utentibus dicimus esse censendum." Statut. Ecdes. 7titel. The chequered 
 boots seem to be the highland plaid stockings. "Burnetum, i.e. Brunetum, 
 pannus non ex lana nativi coloris confectus." "Sotularium, i.e., subtalaris, 
 quia sub talo est. Peculium genus, quibus maxime Monachi nocte utebantur 
 in sestate ; in hyeme vero Soccis. " 
 
 This writer gives many quotations concerning Sotularia, which were not to be 
 made too shapely ; nor were the caligae to be laced on too nicely. 
 
 f "Men abhorred the offering of the Lord." I Sam. ii. 17. Strange as 
 this account may appear to modern delicacy, the author, when first in orders, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 339 
 
 therefore enjoins them for the future to see that the plate, cloths, 
 and vestments, be kept bright, clean, anci in decent order : and, 
 what must surprise the reader, adds that he expects for the 
 future that the sacrist should provide for the sacrament good wine, 
 pure and unadulterated ; and not, as had often been the practice, 
 that which was sour, and tending to decay : he says farther, that 
 it seems quite preposterous to omit in sacred matters that atten- 
 tion to decent cleanliness, the neglect of which would disgrace a 
 common convivial meeting.* 
 
 Item 33rd says that, though the relics of saints, the plate, holy 
 vestments, and books of religious houses, are forbidden by 
 canonical institutes to be pledged or lent out upon pawn ; yet, 
 as the visitor finds this to be the case in his several visitations, he 
 therefore strictly enjoins the prior forthwith to recall those pledges, 
 and to restore them to the convent ; and orders that all the papers 
 and title-deeds thereto belonging should be safely deposited, and 
 kept under three locks and keys. 
 
 In the course of the " Visitatio Notabilis " the constitutions of 
 Legate Ottobonus are frequently referred to. Ottobonus was 
 afterwards Pope Adrian V., and died in 1276. His constitutions 
 are in " Lyndewood's Provinciate," and were drawn up in the 
 52nd of Henry III. 
 
 In the " Visitatio Notabilis " the usual punishment is fasting on 
 bread and beer ; and in cases of repeated delinquency on bread 
 and water. On these occasions quarta feria, et sexta feria, are 
 mentioned often, and are to be understood of the days of the 
 week numerically on which such punishment is to be inflicted. 
 
 twice met with similar circumstances attending the sacrament at two churches 
 belonging to two obscure villages. In the first he found the inside of the 
 chalice covered with birds' dung ; and in the other the communion-cloth soiled 
 with cabbage and the greasy drippings of a gammon of bacon. The good 
 dame at the great farm-house, who was to furnish the cloth, being a notable 
 woman, thought it best to save her clean linen, and so sent a foul cloth that had 
 covered her own table for two or three Sundays before. 
 
 * " ne turpe toral, ne sordida mappa 
 
 Corruget nares : ne non et cantharus, et lanx 
 Ostendat tibi te." 
 
ANTIQUITIES OP SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 THOUGH Bishop Wykeham appears somewhat stern and rigid 
 in his visitatorial character towards the Priory of Selborne, yet he 
 was on the whole a liberal friend and benefactor to that convent, 
 which, like every society or individual that fell in his way, partook 
 of the generosity and benevolence of that munificent prelate. 
 
 "In the year 1377 William of Wykeham, out of his mere good 
 will and liberality, discharged the whole debts of the prior and 
 convent of Selborne, to the amount of one hundred and ten marks 
 eleven shillings and sixpence f and, a few years before he died, 
 he made a free gift of one hundred marks to the same priory : on 
 which account the prior and convent voluntarily engaged for the 
 celebration of two masses a day by two canons of the convent for 
 ten years, for the bishop's welfare, if he should live so long ; and 
 for his soul if he should die before the expiration of this term." f 
 
 At this distance of time it seems matter of great wonder to us 
 how these societies, so nobly endowed, and whose members were 
 exempt by their very institution from every means of personal and 
 family expense, could possibly run in debt without squandering 
 their revenues in a manner incompatible with their function. 
 
 Religious houses might sometimes be distressed in their 
 revenues by fires among their buildings or large dilapidations 
 from storms, etc. ; but no such accident appears to have befallen 
 the priory at Selborne. Those situate on public roads, or in 
 great towns where there were shrines of saints, were liable to be 
 intruded on by travellers, devotees, and pilgrims ; and were sub- 
 ject to the importunity of the poor, who swarmed at their gates to 
 partake of doles and broken victuals. Of these disadvantages 
 some convents used to complain, and especially those at Canter- 
 bury ; but this priory, from its sequestered situation, could seldom 
 be subject to either of these inconveniences, and therefore we 
 
 * Yet in ten years' time we find, by the "Notabilis Visitatio," that all their 
 relics, plate, vestments, title-deeds, etc., were in pawn, 
 t Lowth's Life of Wykeham. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 341 
 
 must attribute its frequent debts and embarrassments, well endowed 
 as it was, to the bad conduct of its members, and a general 
 inattention to the interests of the institution. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 BEAUFORT was bishop of Winchester from 1405 to 1447 ; and yet, 
 notwithstanding this long episcopate, only torn. i. of " Beaufort's 
 Register " is to be found. This loss is much to be regretted, as 
 it must unavoidably make a gap in the history of Selborne Priory, 
 and perhaps in the list of its priors. 
 
 In 1410 there was an election for a prior, and again in 1411. 
 
 In vol. i., p. 24, of " Beaufort's Register," is the instrument of 
 the election of John Wynchestre to be prior the substance as 
 follows : 
 
 Richard Elstede, senior canon, signifies to the bishop that 
 brother Thomas Weston, the late prior, died October i8th, 1410, 
 and was buried November nth. That the bishop's license to 
 elect having been obtained he and the whole convent met in the 
 chapter-house, on the same day about the hour of vespers, to con- 
 sider of the election ; that brother John Wynchestre, then sub- 
 prior, with the general consent, appointed the i2th November,^ 
 horam ejusdem diet capitularem, for the business ; when they met 
 in the chapter-house, post missam de sancto Spiritu, solemnly 
 celebrated in the church ; to wit, Richard Elstede, Thomas 
 Halyborne, John Lemyngton, sacrista; John Stepe, cantor; Walter 
 Ffarnham, Richard Putworth, celerarius ; Hugh London, Henry 
 Brampton, alias Brompton ; John Wynchestre, senior, John Wyn- 
 chestre, junior; then *' Proposito primitis verbo Dei," and then 
 ympno "Veni Creator Spiritus" being solemnly sung, cum "versi 
 culo et oratione," as usual, and his letter of license, with the 
 appointment of the hour and place of election being read, alta 
 -voce, in valvis of the chapter-house ; John Wynchestre, senior, the 
 sub-prior, in his own behalf and that of all the canons, and by 
 
342 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 their mandate, " quasdam monicionem et protestacionem in scriptis 
 redactas fecit, legit, interposuit " that all persons disqualified, or 
 not having right to be present, should immediately withdraw, and 
 protesting against their voting, etc. ; that then having read the 
 constitution of the general council " Quia propter," and explained 
 the modes of proceeding to election, they agreed unanimously to 
 proceed "per viam seu formam simplicis compromissi ; " when 
 John Wynchestre, sub-prior, and all the others (the commissaries 
 undernamed excepted) named and chose brothers Richard Elstede, 
 Thomas Halyborne, John Lemyngton, the sacrist, John Stepe, 
 chantor, and Richard Putworth, canons, to be commissaries, who 
 were sworn each to nominate and elect a fit person to be prior, 
 and empowered by letters patent under the common seal, to be in 
 force only until the darkness of the night of the same day ; that 
 they, or the greater part of them, should elect for the whole con- 
 vent, within the limited time from their own number, or from the 
 rest of the convent ; that one of them should publish their consent 
 in common before the clergy and people : they then all promised 
 to receive as prior the person these five canons should fix on. 
 These commissaries seceded from the chapter -house to the re- 
 fectory of the Priory, and were shut in with Master John Penkester, 
 bachelor of laws, and John Couke and John Lynne, perpetual 
 vicars of the parish churches of Newton and Selborne, and with 
 Sampson Maycock, a public notary, where they treated of the 
 election; when they unanimously agreed on John Wynchestre, 
 and appointed Thomas Halyborne to choose him in common for 
 all, and to publish the election as customary, and returned long 
 before it was dark to the chapter-house, where Thomas Halyborne 
 read publicly the instrument of election ; when all the brothers, 
 the new prior excepted, singing solemnly the hymn " Te Deum 
 laudamus," fecerunt deportari novum electum, by some of the 
 brothers from the chapter-house to the high altar of the church ; * 
 and the hymn being sung, dictisque versiculo et oratione consuetis in 
 
 * It seems here as if the canons used to chair their new elected prior from 
 the chapter-house to the high altar of their Convent Church. In Letter XXI., 
 on the same occasion it is said " et sic canentes dictum electum ad majas 
 altare ecclesie deduximus, ut apud nos moris est." 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE, 343 
 
 hac parte, Thomas Halyborne, mox tune ibidem, before the clergy 
 and people of both sexes solemnly published the election in vulgari. 
 Then Richard Elstede, and the whole convent by their proctors 
 and nuncios appointed for the purposes, Thomas Halyborne and 
 John Stepe, required several times the assent of the elected ; " et 
 tandem post diutinas interpellationes, et deliberationes, et deli- 
 berationem providam penes se habitam, in hac parte divine nolens, 
 lit asseruit, resistere voluntati," within the limited time he signified 
 his acceptance in the usual written form of words. The bishop is 
 then supplicated to confirm their election, and do the needful, 
 under common seal, in the chapter-house. November i4th, 1410. 
 The bishop, January 6th, 1410, apud Esher in camera inferiori, 
 declared the election duly made, and ordered the new prior to be 
 inducted, for this the archdeacon of Winchester was written to ; 
 " stallumque in choro, et locum in capitulo juxta morem preteriti 
 temporis," to be assigned to him, and everything beside necessary 
 to be done. 
 
 "BEAUFORT'S REGISTER," VOL. I. 
 
 P. 2. Taxatio spirituals Decanatus de Aultcn, Ecclesia de 
 Selebourn, cum Capella, xxx marc, decima xlib. iii. fol. Vicaria 
 de Selebourn non taxatur propter exilitatem. 
 
 P. 9. Taxatio bonorum temporalium religiosorum in Archidiac. 
 Wynton. 
 
 Prior de Selebourn habet meneria de 
 
 Bromdene taxat. ad ..... xxx s. ii d. 
 
 Apud Schete ad ...... xvii s. 
 
 P. Selebourne ad . . . . . . vi lib. 
 
 In civitate Wynton de reddit . . . . vi lib. viii ob. 
 
 Tannaria sua taxat ad . . . . x lib. s. 
 
 Summa tax. xxxviii lib. xiiii d. ob. Inde aecima. vi lib. s. q. ob. 
 
344 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 INFORMATION being sent to Rome respecting the havoc and spoil 
 that was carrying on among the revenues and lands of the Priory 
 of Selborne, as we may suppose by the Bishop of Winchester, its 
 visitor, Pope Martin,* as soon as the news of these proceedings 
 came before him, issued forth a bull, in which he enjoins his 
 commissary immediately to revoke all the property that had been 
 alienated. 
 
 In this instrument his holiness accuses the prior and canons of 
 having granted away (they themselves and their predecessors) to 
 certain clerks and laymen their tithes, lands, rents, tenements, and 
 possessions, to some of them for their lives, to others for an undue 
 term of years, and to some again for a perpetuity, to the great and 
 heavy detriment of the monastery ; and these leases were granted, 
 he continues to add, under their own hands, with the sanction of 
 an oath and the renunciation of all right and claims, and under 
 penalties, if the right was not made good. But it will be best to 
 give an abstract from the bull. 
 
 N. 298. Pope Martin's bull touching the revoking of certaine 
 things alienated from the Priory of Seleburne. Pontif. sui ann. i. 
 
 "Martinus Eps. servus servorum Dei. Dilecto filio Priori d 
 Suthvale t Wyntonien, dioc. Salutem & apostolicam ben. Ad 
 audientiam nostram pervenit quam tarn dilecti filii prior et con- 
 ventus monasterii de Seleburn per Priorem soliti gubernari ordinis 
 S". Augustini Winton, dioc. quam de predecessores eorum decimas, 
 terras, redditus, domes, possessiones, vineas,J et quedam alia bona 
 
 * Pope Martin V. chosen about 1417. He attempted to reform the church, 
 but died in 1431, just as he had summoned the Council of Basil. 
 
 f Should have been no doubt Southwick, a priory under Portsdown. 
 
 j Mr. Barrington is of opinion that anciently the English vinea was in almost 
 every instance an orchard ; not perhaps always of apples merely, but of other 
 fruits ; as cherries, plums, and currants. We still say a plum or cherry-orchard. 
 See Archisologia, vol. iii. 
 
 In the instance above, the Pope's secretary might insert vineas merely because 
 they were a species of cultivation familiar to him in Italy. 
 

 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORA'E. 345 
 
 ad monasterium ipsum spectantia, datis super hoc litteris, inter- 
 positis juramentis, factis renuntiationibus, et penis adjectis, in 
 gravem ipsius monasterii lesionem nonnullis clericis et laicis, 
 aliquibus eorum ad vitam, quibusdam vero ad non modicum 
 tempus, & aliis perpetuo ad firmam, vel sub censu annuo con- 
 cesserunt; quorum aliqui dicunt super hiis a sede aplica in 
 communi forma confirmationis litteras impetrasse. Quia vero 
 nostra interest lesis monasteriis subvenire [He the Pope here 
 commands] ea ad jus et proprietatem monasterii studeas legitime 
 revocare," etc. 
 
 The conduct of the religious had now for some time been 
 generally bad. Many of the monastic societies, being very opulent, 
 were become voluptuous and licentious, and had deviated entirely 
 from their original institutions. The laity saw with indignation 
 the wealth and possessions of their pious ancestors perverted to 
 the service of sensuality and indulgence, and spent in gratifications 
 highly unbecoming the purposes for which they were given. A 
 total disregard to their respective rules and discipline drew on the 
 monks and canons a heavy load of popular odium. Some good 
 men there were who endeavoured to oppose the general delin- 
 quency ; but their efforts were too feeble to stem the torrent of 
 monastic luxury. As far back as the year 1381, Wickliffe's 
 principles and doctrines had made some progress, were well 
 received by men who wished for a reformation, and were defended 
 and maintained by them as long as they dared, till the bishops 
 and clergy began to be so greatly alarmed, that they procured an 
 act to be passed by which the secular arm was empowered to 
 support the corrupt doctrines of the Church j but the first Lollard 
 was not burnt until the year 1401. 
 
 The wits also of those times did not spare the gross morals of 
 the clergy, but bodily ridiculed their ignorance and profligacy. 
 The most remarkable of these were Chaucer, and his contempo- 
 rary Robert Langelande, better known by the name of Piers 
 Plowman. The laughable tales of the former are familiar to 
 almost every reader ; while the visions of the latter are but in few 
 hands. With a quotation from the Passus Dedmus of this writer 
 I shall conclude my letter; not only on account of the remarkable 
 
346 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 prediction therein contained, which carries with it somewhat of 
 the air of a prophecy ; but also as it seems to have been a striking 
 picture of monastic insolence and dissipation ; and a specimen of 
 one of the keenest pieces of satire now perhaps subsisting in any 
 language, ancient or modern. 
 
 " Now is religion a rider, a romer by streate ; 
 A leader of love-days, and a loud begger ; 
 A pricker on a palfrey from maner to maner, 
 A heape of hounds at his arse, as he a lord were. 
 And but if his knave kneel, that shall his cope bring, 
 He loureth at him, and asketh him who taught him curtesie, 
 Little had lords to done, to give hnds from her heirs, 
 To religious that have no ruth if it rain on her altars. 
 In many places ther they persons be, by himself at ease : 
 Of the poor have they no pity, and that is her charitie ; 
 And they letten hem as lords, her lands lie so broad. 
 And there shal come a king,* and confess you religious ; 
 And beate you, as the bible telleth, for breaking your rule, 
 And amend monials, and monks, and chanons, 
 And put hem to her penaunce ad pristinum statum ire." 
 
 * F. 1. a. 4t This prediction, although a probable conclusion concerning a 
 king who after a time would suppress the religious houses, is remarkable. 
 I imagined it might have been foisted into the copies in the reign of king 
 Henry VIII., but it is to be found in MSS. of this poem, older than the 
 year 1400." fol. 1. a. b. 
 
 1 ' Again, where he, Piers Plowman, alludes to the Knights Templars, lately 
 suppressed, he says, 
 
 " Menofholiekirk 
 
 Shall turn as Templars did ; the tyme approacheth nere." 
 
 "This I suppose, was a favourite doctrine in Wickliffe's discourses." 
 WARTON'S Hist, of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 282. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 347 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 WILLIAM of Waynflete became bishop of Winchester in the year 
 1447, and seems to have pursued the generous plan of Wykeham 
 in endeavouring to reform the priory of Selborne. 
 
 When Waynflete came to the see he found prior Stype. alias 
 Stepe, still living, who had been elected as long ago as the year 
 1411. 
 
 Among my documents I find a curious paper of the things put 
 into the custody of Peter Bernes the sacrist, and especially some 
 relics : the title of this evidence is " No. 50, Indentura prioris de 
 Selborne quorundam tradit Petro Bernes, sacrista ibidem, ann. 
 
 Hen. VI una cum connss. ejusdem Petri script." The 
 
 occasion of this catalogue or list of effects, being drawn between 
 the prior and sacrist does not appear, nor the date when ; only 
 that it happened in the reign of Hen. VI. This transaction pro- 
 bably took place when Bernes entered on his office ; and there is 
 the more reason to suppose that to be the case, because the list 
 consists of vestments and implements, and relics, such as belonged 
 to the church of the priory, and fell under the care of the sacrist. 
 For the numerous items I shall refer the curious reader to the 
 Appendix, and shall just mention the relics, although they are not 
 all specified ; and the state of the live stock of the monastery at 
 that juncture. 
 
 "Item 2. oscillator, argent. 
 
 "Item i. osculatorium cum osse digitt auricular. Sti. Johannis 
 Baptista* 
 
 " Item i. parvam crucem cum V. reliquiis. 
 
 * How the Convent came by the bone of the little finger of St. John the 
 Baptist does not appear : probably the founder, while in Palestine, purchased 
 it among the Asiatics, who were at that time great traders in relics. We know 
 from the best authority that as soon as Herod had cruelly beheaded that holy 
 man "his disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and went and 
 told Jesus." Matt. iv. 12. Farther would be difficult to say. 
 
348 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 " Item i. anulum argent, et deauratum St. 
 
 " Item 2. osculat. de coper. 
 
 " Item i. junctorium St. Ricardi.^ 
 
 "Item i. pecten St. Ricardi"% 
 
 The staumm, or live stock, is quite ridiculous, consisting only 
 of " 2 vacce, i sus, 4 hoggett. et 4 porcell." viz., two cows one 
 sow, four porkers, and four pigs. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 STEPE died towards the end of the year 1453, as we may suppose 
 pretty far advanced in life, having been prior forty- four years. 
 
 On the very day that the vacancy happened, viz., January 26th 
 1453-4, the sub-prior and convent petitioned the visitor " vos 
 unicum levam en nostrum, et spem unanimiter rogamus, quatinus 
 eligendum ex nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro, in nostra 
 religione probatum et expertem, licenciam vestram paternalem 
 cum plena libertate nobis concedere dignemini graciose." Reg. 
 Waynflete, torn. I. 
 
 Instead of the license requested we find next a commission 
 " custodie prioratus de Selebourne durante vacatione," addressed 
 to brother Peter Berne, canon-regular of the priory of Selebourne, 
 and of the order of St. Augustine, appointing him keeper of the 
 
 * November 2Oth, in the calendar, Edmund king and Martyr, in the 9th 
 century. See also a Sanctus Edmundus in Godwin, among the archbishops of 
 Canterbury, in the 1 3th century ; his surname Rich, in 1234. 
 
 t April 3rd, ibid. Richard Bishop of Chichester, in the I3th century, his 
 surname De la Wich in 1245. 
 
 Junctorium, perhaps a joint or limb of St. Richard ; but what particular joint 
 the religious were not such osteologists as to specify. This barbarous word was 
 not to be found in any dictionary consulted by the author. 
 
 J " Pecten inter ministeria sacra recensetur, quo scil. sacerdotes ac clerici, 
 antequam in ecclesiam procederent, crines pecterent. E quibus colligitur 
 monachos, tune temporis, non omnino tonsos fuisse." Du FRESNE. 
 
 The author remembers to have seen in great farm-houses a family comb 
 chained to a post for the use of the hinds when they came in to their meals. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 349 
 
 said priory, and empowering him to collect and receive the profits 
 and revenues and " alia bona " of the said priory ; and to exercise 
 in every respect the full power and authority of a prior ; but to 
 be responsible to the visitor finally, and to maintain this superiority 
 during the bishop's pleasure only. This instrument is dated from 
 the bishop's manor-house in Southwark, March ist, 1453-4, and 
 the seventh of his consecration. 
 
 After this transaction it does not appear that the chapter of the 
 Priory proceeded to any election ; on the contrary, we find that 
 at six months' end from the vacancy the visitor declared that a 
 lapse had taken place ; and that therefore he did confer the prior- 
 ship on canon Peter Berne " Prioratum vacantem et ad nostram 
 collationem, seu provisionem jure ad nos in hac parte per lapsum 
 temporis legitime devoluto spectantem, tibi (sc. P. Berne) de 
 legitimo matrimonio procreato, &c., conferimus," etc. This deed 
 bears date July 28th, 1454. Reg. Waynflete, torn. I. p. 69. 
 
 On February 8th, 1462, the visitor issued out a power of 
 sequestration against the priory of Selborne on account of noto- 
 rious dilapidations, which threatened manifest ruin to the roofs, 
 walls, and edifices, of the said convent; and appointing John 
 Hammond, B.D., rector of the parish church of Hetlegh, John 
 Hylling, vicar of the parish church of Newton Valence, and 
 Walter Gorfin, inhabitant of the parish of Selborne, his seques- 
 trators, to exact, collect, levy, and receive, all the profits and 
 revenues of the said convent : he adds " ac ea sub arcto, et tuto 
 custodiatis, custodirive faciatis ; " as they would answer it to the 
 bishop at their peril. 
 
 In consequence of these proceedings Prior Berne, on the last 
 day of February, and the next year, produced a state of the 
 revenues of the Priory, No. 381, called "A paper conteyning the 
 value of the manors and lands pertayning to the Priory of Selborne, 
 4 Edward III., with a note of charges yssuing out of it." 
 
 This is a curious document, and will appear in the Appendix. 
 From circumstances in this paper it is plain that the sequestration 
 produced good effects ; for in it are to be found bills of repairs to 
 a considerable amount. 
 
 By this evidence also it appears that there were at that juncture 
 
350 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 only four canons at the Priory;* and that these, and their four 
 household servants, during this sequestration for their clothing, 
 wages, and diet, were allowed per annum xxx lib. ; and that the 
 annual pension of the lord prior, reside where he would, was to 
 be x lib. 
 
 In the year 1468, Prior Berne, probably wearied out by the dis- 
 sensions and want of order that prevailed in the convent, resigned 
 his priorship into the hands of the bishop. Reg. Waynflete, torn. 
 I., pars i ma ., fol. 157. 
 
 March 28th, A.D. 1468. " In quadam alta camera juxta magnam 
 portam manerii of the Bishop of Wynton de Waltham coram eodem 
 rev. patre ibidem tune sedente, Peter Berne, prior of Selborne, 
 ipsum prioratum in sacras, et venerabiles manus of the bishop, 
 viva vocelibere resignavit : and his resignation was admitted before 
 two witnesses and a notary- public. In consequence, March 2Qth, 
 before the bishop, in capella manerii sui ante dicti pro tribunali 
 sedente, comparuerunt fratres " Peter Berne, Thomas London, 
 William Wyndesor, and William Paynell, alias Stretford, canons 
 regular of the priory, "capitulum, et conventum ejusdem ecclesie 
 facientes ; ac jus et voces in electione futura prioris dicti prioratus 
 solum et in solidum, ut asseruerunt, habentes ;" and after the 
 bishop had notified to them the vacancy of a prior, with his free 
 license to elect, deliberated awhile, and then, by way of compromise, 
 as they affirmed, unanimously transferred their right of election to 
 the bishop before witnesses. In consequence of this the bishop, 
 after full deliberation, proceeded, April 7th, "in capella manerii 
 sui de Waltham," to the election of a prior; "etfratrem Johannem 
 Morton, priorem ecclesie conventualis de Reygate dicti ordinis 
 S tf . Augustini Wynton. dioc. in priorem vice et nomine omnium 
 et singulorum canonicorum predictorum elegit, in ordine sacer- 
 dotali, et etate licita constitutum, c." And on the same day, 
 in the same place, and before the same witnesses, John Morton 
 resigned to the bishop the priorship of Reygate viva voce. The 
 bishop then required his consent to his own election : " qui licet 
 
 * If Bishop Wykeham was so disturbed (see "Notab. Visitatio") to find the 
 number of canons reduced from fourteen to eleven, what would he have said 
 to have seen it diminished below one-third of that number? 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 351 
 
 in parte renitens tatiti reverend! patris se confirmans," obeyed, and 
 signified his consent oraculo vive vods. Then was there a mandate 
 citing any one who would gainsay the said election to appear before 
 the bishop or his commissary in his chapel at Farnham on the 
 second day of May next. The dean of the deanery of Aulton then 
 appeared before the chancellor, his commissary, and returned the 
 citation or mandate dated April 22nd, 1468, with signification, in 
 writing, of his having published it as required, dated Newton 
 Valence, May ist, 1468. This certificate being read, the four 
 canons of Selborne appeared and required the election to be con- 
 firmed; et ex superabundant} appointed William Long their proctor 
 to solicit in their name that he might be canonically confirmed. 
 John Morton also appeared, and proclamation was made; and 
 no one appearing against him, the commissary pronounced all 
 absentees contumacious, and precluded them from objecting at 
 any other time ; and, at the instance of John Morton and the 
 proctor, confirmed the election by his decree, and directed his 
 mandate to the rector of Hedley and the vicar of Newton Valence 
 to instal him in the usual form. 
 
 Thus, for the first time, was a person, a stranger to the convent 
 of Selborne, and never canon of that monastery, elected prior; 
 though the style of the petitions in former elections used to run 
 thus, " Vos - - - - rogamus quatinus eligendum ex nobis unum 
 confratrem de gremio nostro, licentiam vestram nobis concedere 
 dignemini." 
 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 PRIOR MORTON dying in 1401, two canons, by themselves, pro- 
 ceeded to election, and chose a prior; but two more (one of 
 them Berne) complaining of not being summoned, objected to 
 the proceedings as informal ; till at last the matter was compro- 
 mised that the bishop should again, for that turn, nominate as he 
 had before. But the circumstances of this election will be best 
 explained by the following extract : 
 
 
352 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 REG. WAYNFLETE, torn. II., pars i ma ., fol. 7. 
 
 Memorandum. A.D. 1471. August 22. 
 
 William Wyndesor, a canon-regular of the priory of Selborne, 
 having been elected prior on the death of brother John, appeared 
 in person before the bishop in his chapel at South Waltham. He 
 was attended on this occasion by Thomas London and John 
 Bromesgrove, canons, who had elected him. Peter Berne and 
 William Stratfield, canons, also presented themselves at the same 
 time, complaining that in this business they had been overlooked, 
 and not summoned ; and that therefore the validity of the election 
 might with reason be called in question, and quarrels and dissen- 
 sions might probably arise between the newly chosen prior and 
 the parties thus neglected. 
 
 After some altercation and dispute they all came to an agreement 
 with the new prior, that what had been done should be rejected 
 and annulled ; and that they would again, for this turn, transfer to 
 the bishop their power to elect, order, and provide them another 
 prior, whom they promised unanimously to admit. 
 
 The bishop accepted of this offer before witnesses : and on 
 September 27th, in an inner chamber near the chapel above-men- 
 tioned, after full deliberation, chose brother Thomas Fairwise, 
 vicar of Somborne, a canon-regular of Saint Augustine in the priory 
 of Bruscough, in the diocese of Coventry and Litchfield, to be 
 prior of Selborne. The form is nearly as above in the last election. 
 The canons are again enumerated; W. Wyndesor, sub-prior, 
 P. Berne, T. London, W. Stratfeld, J. Bromesgrove, who had formed 
 the chapter, and had requested and obtained license to elect, but 
 had unanimously conferred their power on the bishop. In con- 
 sequence of this proceeding, the bishop taking the business upon 
 himself, that the priory might not suffer detriment for want of a 
 governor, appoints the aforesaid T. Fairwise to be prior. A citation 
 was ordered as above for gainsayers to appear October 4th, before 
 the bishop or his commissaries at South Waltham ; but none 
 appearing, the commissaries admitted the said Thomas, ordered 
 him to be installed, and sent the usual letter to the convent to 
 render him due obedience. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 353 
 
 Thus did the bishop of Winchester a second time appoint a 
 stranger to be prior of Selborne, instead of one chosen out of the 
 chapter. For this seeming irregularity the visitor had no doubt 
 good and sufficient reasons, as probably may appear hereafter. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 WHATEVER might have been the abilities and disposition of Prior 
 Fairwise, it could not have been in his power to have brought 
 about any material, reformation in the priory of Selborne, because 
 he departed this life in the month of August, 1472, before he had 
 presided one twelvemonth. 
 
 As soon as their governor was buried the chapter applied to their 
 visitor for leave to choose a new prior, which being granted, after 
 deliberating for a time, they proceeded to an election by a scrutiny. 
 But as this mode of voting has not been described but by the mere 
 form in the Appendix, an extract from the bishop's register, repre- 
 senting the manner more fully, may not be disagreeable to several 
 readers. 
 
 WAYNEFLETE REG. torn. II. pars. i ma ., fol. 15. 
 
 " Reverendo, &c., ac nostro patrono graciosissimo vestri humiles, 
 et devote obedientie filii," etc. 
 
 To the right reverend Father in God, and our most gracious 
 patron, we, your obedient and devoted sons, William Wyndesor, 
 president of the chapter of the priory of Selborne, and the convent 
 of that place, do make known to your lordship, that our priorship 
 being lately vacant by the death of Thomas Fairwise, our late 
 prior, who died August nth, 1472, having committed his body to 
 decent sepulture, and having requested, according to custom, leave 
 to elect another, and having obtained it under your seal, we, 
 William Wyndesor, president of the convent on the 2Qth August, 
 in our chapter-house assembled, and making a chapter, taking to 
 us in this business Richard ap Jenkyn, and Galfrid Bryan, chaplains, 
 
354 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 that our said priory might not by means of this vacancy incur harm 
 or loss, unanimously agreed on August the last for the day of 
 election ; on which day, having first celebrated mass, " De sancto 
 spiritu," at the high altar, and having called a chapter by tolling a 
 bell about ten o' the clock, we, William Wyndesor, president, Peter 
 Berne, Thomas London, and William Stratfeld, canons, who alone 
 had voices, being the only canons, about ten o' the clock, first sung 
 " Veni Creator," the letters and license being read in the presence 
 of many persons there. Then William Wyndesor, in his own 
 name, and that of all the canons, made solemn proclamation, 
 enjoining all who had no right to vote to depart out of the 
 chapter-house. When all were withdrawn except Guyllery de 
 Lacuna, in decretis Baccalarius, and Robert Peverell, notary- 
 public, and also the two chaplains, the first was requested to stay, 
 that he might direct and inform us in the mode of election ; the 
 other, that he might record and attest the transactions ; and the 
 two last that they might be witness to them. 
 
 Then, having read the constitution of the general council " Quia 
 propter," and the forms of elections contained in it being sufficiently 
 explained to them by De Lacuna, as well in Latin as the vulgar 
 tongue, and having deliberated in what mode to proceed in this 
 election, they resolved on that of scrutiny. Three of the canons, 
 Wyndesor, Bere, and London, were made scrutators ; Berne, 
 London, and Stratfeld, choosing Wyndesor; Wyndesor, London, 
 and Stratfeld, choosing Berne j Wyndesor, Berne, and Stratfeld, 
 choosing London. 
 
 They were empowered to take each other's vote, and then that 
 of Stratfeld ; " et ad inferiorem partem angularem " of the chapter- 
 house, " juxta ostium ejusdem declinentes," with the other persons 
 (except Stratfeld, who stayed behind), proceeded to voting, two 
 swearing, and taking the voice of the third, in succession, privately. 
 Wyndesor voted first ; " Ego credo Petrum Berne meliorem et 
 utiliorem ad regimen istius ecclesie, et in ipsum consentio, ac eum 
 nomino," etc. Berne was next sworn, and in like manner nomi- 
 nated Wyndesor ; London nominated Berne ; Stratfeld was then 
 called and sworn, and nominated Berne. 
 
 " Quibus in scriptis redactis," by the notary public, they returned 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 355 
 
 to the upper part of the chapter-house, where by Wyndesor " sic 
 purecta fecerunt in communi," and then solemnly, in form written, 
 declared the election of Berne ; when all, " antedicto nostro electo 
 excepto, approbantes et ratificantes, cepimus decantare solemniter 
 * Te Deum laudamus? et sic canentes dictum electum ad majus 
 altare ecclesie deduximus, ut apud nos est moris. Then Wyndesor 
 electionem clero et populo infra chorum dicte ecclesie congregatis 
 publicavit, et personam electi publice et personaliter ostendit." 
 We then returned to the chapter-house, except our prior; and 
 Wyndesor was appointed by the other two their proctor, to desire 
 the assent of the elected, and to notify what had been done to the 
 bishop ; and to desire him to confirm the election, and do whatever 
 else was necessary. Then their proctor, before the witnesses 
 required Berne's assent in the chapter-house; "qui quidem in- 
 stanciis et precibus multiplicatis devictus," consented, "licet 
 ndignus electus," in writing. They therefore request the bishop's 
 confirmation of their election "sic canonice et solemniter celebrata," 
 etc., etc. Sealed with their common seal, and subscribed and 
 attested by the notary. Dat. in the chapter-house September 5th, 
 1472. 
 
 In consequence, September nth, 1472, in the bishop's chapel at 
 Esher, and before the bishop's commissary, appeared W. Wyndesor, 
 and exhibited the above instrument, and a mandate from the bishop 
 for the appearance of gainsayers of the election there on that day ; 
 and no one appearing, the absentees were declared contumacious 
 and the election confirmed ; and the vicar of Aulton was directed 
 to induct and instal the prior in the usual manner. 
 
 Thus did Canon Berne, though advanced in years, reassume his 
 abdicated priorship for the second time, to the no small satisfac- 
 tion, as it may seem, of the Bishop of Winchester, who professed, 
 as will be shown not long hence, a high opinion of his abilities and 
 
 iritecrrif-v. 
 
 23- 
 
356 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 As Prior Berne, when chosen in 1454, held his priorship only to 
 1468, and then made a voluntary resignation, wearied and dis- 
 gusted, as we may conclude, by the disorder that prevailed in his 
 convent; it is no matter of wonder that, when re-chosen in 1472, 
 he should not long maintain his station ; as old age was then 
 coming fast upon him, and the increasing anarchy and misrule 
 of that declining institution required unusual vigour and resolution 
 to stem that torrent of profligacy which was hurrying it on to its 
 dissolution. We find, accordingly, that in 1478 he resigned his 
 dignity again into the hands of the bishop. 
 
 WAYNFLETE REG. fol. 55. 
 
 Resignatio Prioris de Seleborne. 
 
 May 14, 1478. Peter Berne resigned the priorship. May 16, the 
 bishop admitted his resignation " in manerio suo de Waltham," and 
 declared the priorship void ; " et priorat. solacio destitutum esse ; " 
 and granted his letters for proceeding to a new election ; when 
 all the religious, assembled in the chapter-house, did transfer their 
 power under their seal to the bishop, by the following public 
 instrument. 
 
 "In Dei nomine Amen," etc. A.D. 1478, Maii 19. In the 
 chapter-house for the election of a prior for that day, on the free 
 resignation of Peter Berne, having celebrated in the first place 
 mass at the high altar " De spiritu sancto," and having called a 
 chapter by tolling a bell, ut moris est ; in the presence of a notary 
 and witnesses appeared personally Peter Berne, Thomas Ashford 
 Stephen Clydgrove, and John Ashton, presbyters, and Henry 
 Canwood,* in chapter assembled; and after singing the hymn 
 
 * Here we see that all the canons were changed in six years ; and that there 
 was quite a new chapter, Berne excepted, between 1472 and 1478 ; for, instead 
 of Wyndesor, London, and Stratfeld, we find Ashford, Clydgrove, Ashton, and 
 Canwood, all new men, who were soon gone in their turn off the stage, and are 
 heard of no more. For, in six years after, there seem to have been no canons 
 at all. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 357 
 
 " c Vent Creator Spiritus' cum versiculo et oratione ( Deus qui 
 corda;'' declaratque licentia Fundatoris et patroni ; futurum priorem 
 eligendi concessa, et constitutione consilii generalis que incipit 
 ' Quia propter ' declaratis : viisque per quas possent ad hanc 
 electionem procedere," by the decretorum doctor em, whom the 
 canons had taken to direct them they all and every one " dixe- 
 runt et affirmarunt se nolle ad aliquam viam procedere ; " but 
 for this turn only, renounced their right, and unanimously trans- 
 ferred their power to the bishop, the ordinary of the place, pro- 
 mising to receive whom he should provide ; and appointed a 
 proctor to present the instrument to the bishop under their seal ; 
 and required their notary to draw it up in due form, etc., subscribed 
 by the notary. 
 
 After the visitor had fully deliberated on the matter, he proceeded 
 to the choice of a prior, and elected, by the following instrument, 
 John Sharp, alias Glastenbury. 
 
 Fol. 56. PROVISIO PRIORIS per EPM. 
 
 Willmus, etc., to our beloved brother in Christ, John Sharp, alias 
 Glastenbury, Ecclesie conventualis de Bruton, of the order of St. 
 Austin, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, canon-regular salutem, 
 etc., " De tue circumspectionis industria plurimum confidentes, te 
 virum providum et discretum, literarum scientia, et moribus merito 
 commendandum," etc. do appoint you prior under our seal. 
 "Dat in manerio nostro de Suthwaltham, May 20," 1478, "et 
 nostre Consec. 31." 
 
 Thus did the bishop, three times out of the four that he was at 
 liberty to nominate, appoint a prior from a distance, a stranger to 
 the place, to govern the convent of Selborne, hoping by this method 
 to have broken the cabal, and to have interrupted that habit of 
 mismanagement that had pervaded the society ; but he acknow- 
 ledges, in an evidence lying before us, that he never did succeed 
 to his wishes with respect to those late governors, " quos tamen 
 male se habuisse, et inutiliter administrare, et administrasse usque 
 ad presentia tempora post debitam investigationem, etc., invenit." 
 The only time that he appointed from among the canons, he made 
 
358 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 choice of Peter Berne, lor whom he had conceived the greatest 
 esteem and regard. 
 
 When Prior Berne first relinquished his priorship, he returned 
 again to his former condition of canon, in which he continued for 
 some years j but when he was re-chosen, and had abdicated a 
 second time, we find him in a forlorn state, and in danger of 
 being reduced to beggary, had not the Bishop of Winchester 
 interposed in his favour, and with great humanity insisted on a 
 provision for him for life. The reason for this difference seems 
 to have been, that, in the first case, though in years, he might have 
 been hale and capable of taking his share in the duty of the con- 
 vent j in the second he was broken with age, and no longer equal 
 to the functions of a canon. 
 
 Impressed with this idea, the bishop very benevolently inter- 
 ceded in his favour, and laid his injunctions on the new-elected 
 prior in the following manner : 
 
 Fol. 56. " In Dei nomine Amen. Nos Willmus, &c., consi- 
 derantes Petrum Berne," late prior, "in administratione spiritualium 
 et temporalium prioratus laudabiliter vixisse et rexisse ; ipsumque 
 senio et corporis debilitate confractum; ne in opprobrium reli- 
 gionis mendicari cogatur ; eidem annuam pensionem a Domino 
 Johanne Sharpe, alias Glastonbury, priore moderno," and his 
 successors, and, from the priory or church, to be paid every 
 year during his life, "de voluntate et ex consensu expressis" 
 of the said John Sharp, " sub ea que sequitur forma verborum 
 assignamus : " 
 
 i st. That the said prior and his successors, for the time being, 
 honeste exhibebunt of the fruits and profits of the priorship, " eidem 
 esculenta et poculenta," while he remained in the priory, " sub 
 consimili portione eorundem prout convenientur priori," for the 
 time being, ministrari contigerit ; and in like manner uni famulo, 
 whom he should choose to wait on him, as to the servientibus of 
 the prior. 
 
 Item. " Invenient seu exhibebunt eidem unam honestam 
 cameram," in the priory, " cum socalibus necessariis seu oppor- 
 tunis ad eundem." 
 
 Item. We will, ordain, etc, to the said P. Berne an annual 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 359 
 
 pension of ten marks, from the revenue of the priory, to be paid 
 by the hands of the prior quarterly. 
 
 The Bishop decrees farther, that John Sharp, and his successors, 
 shall take an oath to observe this injunction, and that before their 
 installation. 
 
 " Lecta et facta sunt hsec in quodam alto oratorio," belonging 
 to the bishop at Suthwaltham, May 25th, 1478, in the presence 
 of John Sharp, who gave his assent, and then took the oath 
 before witnesses, with the other oaths before the chancellor, who 
 decreed he should be inducted and installed, as was done that 
 same day. 
 
 How John Sharp, alias Glastonbury, acquitted himself in his 
 priorship, and in what manner he made a vacancy, whether by 
 resignation, or death, or whether he was removed by the visitor, 
 does not appear ; we only find that some time in the year 1484 
 there was no prior, and that the bishop nominated Canon Ashford 
 to fill the vacancy. 
 
 LETTER, XXIII. 
 
 THIS Thomas Ashford was most undoubtedly the last prior of 
 Selborne ; and, therefore, here will be the proper place to say 
 something concerning a list of the priors, and to endeavour to 
 improve that already given by others. 
 
 At the end of Bishop Tanner's " Notitia Monastica," the folio 
 edition, among Brown Willis's " Principals of Religious Houses," 
 occur the names of eleven of the priors of Selborne, with dates. 
 But this list is imperfect, and particularly at the beginning; 
 for though the priory was founded in 1232, yet it commences 
 with Nich. de Cantia, elected in 1262, so that, for the first thirty 
 years, no prior is mentioned ; yet there must have been one or 
 more. We were in hopes that the register of Peter de Rupibus 
 would have rectified this omission ; but, when it was examined, no 
 information of the sort was to be found. From the year 1410 the 
 
360 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 list is much corrected and improved, and the reader may depend 
 on its being thenceforward very exact. 
 
 A LIST OF THE PRIORS OF SELBORNE PRIORY, FROM BROWN 
 WILLIS'S " PRINCIPALS OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES," WITH 
 ADDITIONS WITHIN [ ] BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 [John .... was prior, sine dat.'Y' 
 
 Nich. de Cantia el 1262 
 
 [Peter was prior in 1271] 
 
 [Richard was prior in 1280] 
 
 Will. Basing was prior in 1299 
 
 Walter de Insula el. in 1324 
 
 [Some difficulties and a devolution ; but the 
 election confirmed by Bishop Stratford.] 
 
 John de Whiten 1339 
 
 Thomas Weston 1377 
 
 John Winchester, [Wynchestre] . . . . . .1410 
 
 [Elected by Bishop Beaufort "per viam vel 
 formam simplicis compromissi."] 
 
 [John Sty pe, alias Stepe, in 1411] 
 
 Peter Bene [alias Berne or Bernes, appointed 
 keeper, and, by lapse to Bishop Waynflete, 
 
 prior] in . . . 1454 
 
 [He resigns in 1468.] 
 
 John Morton [Prior of Reygate] in 1468 
 
 [The canons by compromise transfer the power 
 
 of election to the bishop.] 
 Will. Winsor [Wyndesor, prior for a few days] . .1471 
 
 [But removed on account of an irregular election.] 
 Thomas Farwill [Fairwise, vicar of Samborne] . . 1471 
 
 [By compromise again elected by the bishop.] 
 [Peter Berne, re-elected by scrutiny in . . . .1472] 
 [Resigns again in 1478.] 
 
 * See, in Letter XL of these Antiquities, the reason why Prior John .... 
 who had transac.ions with the Knights Temolars, is placed in the list before 
 the year 1262, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 361 
 
 John Sharper [Sharp], alias Glastonbury . . . .1478 
 [Canon-reg. of Bruton, elected by the bishop 
 
 by compromise.] 
 
 [Thomas Ashford, canon of Selborne, last prior 
 elected by the Bishop of Winchester, some time 
 
 in the year 1484 
 
 And deposed at the dissolution.] 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 BISHOP WAYNFLETE'S efforts to continue the Priory still proved 
 unsuccessful ; and the convent, without any canons, and for some 
 time without a prior, was tending swiftly to its dissolution. 
 
 When Sharp's alias Glastonbury's priorship ended does not 
 appear. The bishop says that he had been obliged to remove 
 some priors for mal-administration ; but it is not well explained 
 how that could be the case with any unless with Sharp, because 
 all the others chosen during his episcopate died in their office, 
 viz., Morton and Fairwise ; Berne only excepted, who relinquished 
 twice voluntarily, and was, moreover, approved of by Waynflete as 
 a person of integrity. But the way to show what ineffectual pains 
 the bishop took, and what difficulties he met with, will be to quote 
 the words of the libel of his proctor, Rudolphus Langley, who 
 appeared for the bishop in the process of the impropriation of the 
 Priory of Selborne. The extract is taken from an attested copy. 
 
 "Item that the said bishop, dicto prioratui et personis 
 ejusdem pie compatiens, sollicitudines pastorales, labores, et 
 diligentias gravissimas quam plurimas, tarn per se quam per suos, 
 pro reformatione premissorum impendebat ; et aliquando illius 
 loci prioribus, propter malam et inutilem administrationem, et 
 dispensationem bonorum predicti prioratus, suis demeritis exigen- 
 tibus, amotis ; alios priores in quorum circumspectione et diligentia 
 confidebat, prefecit ; quos tamen male se habuisse ac inutiliter 
 administrare, et administrasse, usque ad presentia tempora post 
 
362 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 debitam investigationem, &c., invenit." So that he despaired 
 with all his care : " statum ejusdem reparare vel restaurare : ; et 
 considerata temporis malicia, et preteritis timendo et conjectu- 
 rando futura, de aliqua bona et sancta religione ejusdem ordinis, 
 &c., juxta piam intentionem prime vi fundatoris ibidem habend. 
 desperatur." 
 
 William Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester, founded his college 
 of Saint Mary Magdalene, in the University of Oxford, in or about 
 the year 1459 ; but the revenues proving insufficient for so large 
 and noble an establishment, the college supplicated the founder 
 to augment its income by putting it in possession of the estates 
 belonging to the Priory of Selborne, now become a deserted con- 
 vent, without canons or prior. The president and fellows state 
 the circumstances of their numerous institutions and scanty pro- 
 vision, and the ruinous and perverted condition of the Priory. 
 The bishop appoints commissaries to ' inquire into the state of 
 the said monastery ; and, if found expedient, to confirm the appro- 
 priation of it to the college, which soon after appoints attorneys 
 to take possession, September 24th, 1484. But the way to give the 
 reader a thorough insight respecting this transaction, will be to 
 transcribe a farther proportion of the process of the impropriation, 
 from the beginning, which will lay open the manner of proceeding, 
 and show the consent of the parties. 
 
 IMPROPRIATIO SELBORNE, 1485. 
 
 " Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus Dei 
 gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &c.,* ad uni- 
 versitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c., quod coram nobis 
 commissario predicto in ecclesia parochiali S 1 * Georgii de Esher 
 
 * Ecclesia Conventualis de Novo Loco was the monastery afterwards called 
 the New Minster, or Abbey of Hyde, in the city of Winchester. Should any 
 intelligent reader wonder to see that the prior of Hyde Abbey was commissary 
 to the Bishop of Winton, and should conclude that there was a mistake in 
 titles, and that the abbot must have been here meant ; he will be pleased to 
 recollect that this, person was the second in rank ; for, " next under the abbot, 
 in every abbey, was the prior." Pref. to Notit. Monast.,^. 29. Besides, abbots 
 were great personages, and too high in station to submit to any office under 
 the bishop. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 363 
 
 Diet. Winton. dioc. 3. die Augusti, A.D. 1485; Indictione 
 tertia pontifical. Innocenti 8 . ann. i m . judicialiter comparuit 
 venerabilis vir Jacobus Preston, S. T. P. infrascriptus, et exhibuit 
 literas comissionis quas quidem per magistrum Thomam Somer- 
 crotes notarium publicum, &c., legi fecimus, tenorem sequentem 
 in se continentes." The same as in No. 103, but dated " In 
 manerio nostro de Esher, Augusti i . A.D. 1485, et nostre 
 confec. anno. 39." [No 103 is repeated in a book containing the 
 like process in the preceding year by the same commissary, in 
 the parish church of St. Andrew the Apostle, at Farnham, Sept. 
 6th, anno 1434.] "Post quarum literarum lecturam dictus 
 magister Jacobus Preston, quasdam procuratorias literas mag. 
 Richardi Mayhewe presidentis, ut asseruit, collegii beate Marie 
 Magdalene, &c., sigillo rotundo communi, &c., in cera rubea 
 impresso sigillatas realiter exhibuit, &c., et pro eisdem dnis suis 
 &c., fecit se partem, ac nobis supplicavit ut juxta formam in 
 eisdem traditam procedere dignaremur," &c. After these procla- 
 mations no contradictor or objector appearing " ad instantem pe- 
 titionem ipsius mag. Jac. Preston, procuratoris, &c., procedendum 
 fore decrevimus vocatis jure vocandis ; nee non mag. Tho. Somer- 
 cotes, &c., in actorum nostrorum scribam nominavimus. Conse- 
 quenter et ibidem tune comparuit magister Michael Clyff, &c., et 
 exhibuit in ea parte procuratorium suum," for the prior and 
 convent of the cathedral of Winton, " et fecit se partem pro 
 eisdem. Deinde comperuit coram nobis, &c., honestus vir Willmus 
 Cowper," proctor for the bishop as patron of the Priory of Sel- 
 borne, and exhibited his " procuratorium," &c. After these were 
 read in the presence of Clyff and Cowper, " Preston, viva voce," 
 petitioned the commissary to annex and appropriate the Priory 
 of Selborne to the college "propter quod fructus, redditus, et 
 proventus ejusdem coll. adeo tenues sunt, et exiles, quod ad 
 sustentationem ejus, &c., non sufficiunt." The commissary, "ad 
 libellandum et articulandum in scriptis," adjourned the court to 
 the 5th August, then to be held again in the parish church of Esher. 
 W. Cowper being then absent, Radulphus Langley appeared for 
 the bishop, and was admitted his proctor. Preston produced his 
 libel or article in scriptis for the union, &c. ; " et admitti petiit 
 
364 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 eundem cum effectu ; cujus libelli tenor sequitur.-^In Dei nomine. 
 Amen. Coram nobis venerabili in Christo patre Richardo, priore, 
 &c., de Novo Loco, &c., commissario, &c." Part of the College 
 ofMagd. dicit. allegat, and in his "scriptis proponit," &c. 
 
 " Imprimis that said college consists of a president and eighty 
 scholars, besides sixteen choristers, thirteen servientes inibi altissimo 
 famulantibus, et in scientiis plerisque liberalibus, presertim in sacra 
 theologia studentibus, nedum ad ipsorum presidentis et scholarium 
 pro presenti et imposterum, annuente deo, incorporandorum in 
 eodem relevamen ; verum etiam ad omnium et singulorum tarn 
 scholarium quam religiosorum cujuscunque ordinis undequaque 
 illuc confluere pro salubri doctrina volentium utilitatem multiplicem 
 ad incrementa virtutis fideique catholice stabilimentum. Ita 
 videlicet quod omnes et singuli absque personarum seu nationum 
 delectu illuc accedere volentes, lecturas publicas et doctrinas tarn 
 in grammatica in loco ad collegium contiguo, ac philosophiis 
 morali, et natural! quam in sacra theologia in eodem collegio 
 perpetuis temporibus continuandas libere atque gratis audire 
 valeant et possint, ad laudem gloriam et honorem Dei, &c., 
 .extitit fundatum et stabilitum." 
 
 For the first item in this process see the beginning of this letter. 
 Then follows item the second " that the revenues of the college 
 non sufificiunt his diebus." "Item that the premises are true, 
 &c., et super eisdem laborarunt, et laborante publica vox et fama. 
 Unde facta fide petit pars eorundem that the priory be annexed to 
 the college : ita quod dicto prioratu vacante liceat iis ex tune to 
 take possession, &c." This libel, with the express consent of the 
 other proctors, we, the commissary, admitted, and appointed the 
 6th August for proctor Preston to prove the premisses. 
 
 Preston produced witnesses, W. Gyfford, S.T.P., John Nele, 
 A.M., John Chapman, chaplain, and Robert Baron, literatus, who 
 were admitted and sworn, when the court was prorogued to the 
 6th August ; and the witnesses, on the same 5th August, were 
 examined by the commissary, " in capella infra manerium de 
 Essher situata secrete et singillatim." Then follow the " literae 
 procuratoriae : " first that of the college, appointing Preston and 
 Langport their proctors, dated August 3oth, 1484 ; then that of 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 365 
 
 the prior and convent of the cathedral of Winton, appointing 
 David Husband and Michael Cleve, dated September 4th, 1484 
 then that of the bishop, appointing W. Gyfford, Radulphus 
 Langley and Will. Cowper, dated September 3rd, 1484. Consec. 
 38. "Quo die adveniente in dicta ecclesia parochiali," appeared, 
 " coram nobis," James Preston to prove the contents of his libel, 
 and exhibited some letters testimonial with the seal of the bishop, 
 and these were admitted ; and consequenter Preston produced 
 two witnesses, viz., Dominum Thomam Ashforde, nuper priorem 
 dicti prioratus, et Willm. Rabbys, literatum, who were admitted 
 and sworn, and examined as the others, by the commissary ; 
 "tune & ibidem assistente scriba secrete & singillatim " ; and 
 their depositions were read and made public, as follows : 
 
 Mr. W. Gyfford, S. T. P., aged 57, of the state of Magd. Coll. 
 etc., etc., as before. 
 
 Mr. John Nele, aged 57, proves the articles also. 
 
 Robert Baron, aged 56. 
 
 Johannes Chapman, aged 35, also affirmed all the five articles. 
 
 Dompnus Thomas Ashforde, aged 72 years " dicit 2 dum . "*. 
 4 um . articulos in eodem libello contentos, concernentes statum dicti 
 prioratus de Selbourne, fuisse et esse veros." 
 
 W. Rabbys, setat 40 ann., agrees with Gyfford, etc. 
 
 Then follows the letter from the bishop, " in subsidium pro- 
 bationis," above-mentioned " Willmus, &c., salutem, &c., noverint 
 universitas vestra, quod licet nos prioratui de Selbourne, &c. pie 
 compacientes sollicitudines pastorales, labores, diligentias quam 
 plurimas per nos & commissaries nostros pro reformatione status 
 ejus impenderimus, justiciaid poscente; nihilominus tamen," etc., 
 as in the article to " desperatur," dated " in manerio nostro de 
 Esher, Aug. 3d, 1485, & consec. 39." Then on the 6th August, 
 Presto n, in the presence of the other proctors, required that they 
 should be compelled to answer ; when they all allowed the 
 articles, " fuisse & esse vera ; " and the commissary, at the request 
 of Preston, concluded the business, and appointed Monday, 
 August 8th, for giving his decree in the same church of Esher, 
 and it was that day read, and contains a recapitulation, with the 
 sentence of union, etc., witnessed and attested. 
 
366 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 As soon as the president and fellows of Magdalen College had 
 obtained the decision of the commissary in their favour, they 
 proceeded to supplicate the Pope, and to entreat His Holiness 
 that he would give his sanction to the sentence of union. Some 
 difficulties were started at Rome ; but they were surmounted by 
 the c ollege agent, as appears by his letters from that city. At 
 length Pope Innocent VIII., by a bull* bearing date 8th June, 
 in the year of our Lord 1486, and in the second year of his 
 pontificate, confirmed what had been done, and suppressed the 
 convent. 
 
 Thus fell the considerable and well- endowed priory of Selborne 
 after it had subsisted about two hundred and fifty-four years ; 
 about seventy-four years after the suppression of priories alien by 
 Henry V., and about fifty years before the general dissolution of 
 monasteries by Henry VIII. The founder, it is probable, had 
 fondly imagined that the sacredness of the institution, and the 
 pious motives on which it was established, might have preserved 
 it inviolate to the end of time yet it fell 
 
 " To teach us that God attributes to place 
 No sanctity, if none be thither brought 
 By men, who there frequent, or therein dwell." 
 
 MILTON'S Paradise Lost. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 WAINFLEET did not long enjoy the satisfaction arising from this 
 new acquisition; but departed this life in a few months after he 
 had effected the union of the priory with his late founded college ; 
 and was succeeded in the see of Winchester, by Peter Courtney, 
 some time towards the end of the year 1486. 
 
 * There is nothing remarkable in this bull of Pope Innocentj^xcept the 
 statement of the annual revenue of the Priory of Selborne, which is therein 
 estimated at 160 flor. auri ; whereas Bishop Godwin sets it at ^337 l$s. 6\d. 
 Now a floren, so named, says Camden, because made by Florentius, was a gold 
 coin of King Edward III., in value 6s., whereof 160 is not one-seventh part of 
 ^337 15'- 6i</. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 367 
 
 In the beginning of the following year, the new bishop released 
 the president and fellows of Magdalen College from all actions 
 respecting the priory of Selborne ; and the priory and convent of 
 Saint Swithun, as the chapter of Winchester cathedral, confirmed 
 the release.* 
 
 N. 293. "Relaxatio Petri epi Winton, Ricardo Mayew, Presi- 
 denti omnium actionum occasione indempnitatis sibi debite pro 
 unione Prioratus de Selborne dicto collegio. Jan. 2. 1487, et 
 translat. anno i." 
 
 N. 374. "Relaxatio prioris et conventus Sti. Swithini Winton 
 confinnans relaxationem Petri ep. Winton." 1487., Jan. 13. 
 
 Ashforde, the deposed prior, who had appeared as an evidence 
 for the impropriation of the priory at the age of severity-two years, 
 that he might not be destitute of a maintenance, was pensioned 
 by the college to the day of his death; and was living on till 1490, 
 as appears by his acquittances. 
 
 REG. A. ff. 46, 
 
 "Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos presens scriptum per- 
 venerit, Richardus Mayew, presidens, &c. et scolares, salutem in 
 Domino. 
 
 " Noveritis nos prefatos presidentem et scolares, dedisse, con- 
 cessisse, et hoc presenti scripto confirmasse Thome Ashforde, 
 capellano, quendam annualem redditum sex librarum tresdecim 
 solidorum et quatuor denariorum bone et legalis monete Anglie 
 ad terminum vite prefati Thome" to be paid from the possessions 
 of the college in Basingstoke. " In cujus rei testimonium sigillum 
 nostrum commune presentibus apponimus. Dat. Oxon. in coll. 
 nostro supra dicto primo die mensis Junii anno regis Ricardi tertii 
 secundo," viz. 1484. The college, in their grant to Ashforde, 
 style him only capellanus ; but the annuitant very naturally, and 
 with a becoming dignity, asserts his late title in his acquittances, 
 and identifies himself by the addition of the nuper priorem, or late 
 prior. 
 
 As, according to the persuasion of the times, the depriving the 
 founder and benefactors of the priory of their masses and services 
 * The Bishops of Winchester were patrons of the Priory. 
 
368 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 would have been deemed the most impious of frauds, Bishop 
 Wainfleet, having by statute ordained four obits for himself to be 
 celebrated in the chapel of Magdalen College, enjoined in one of 
 them a special collect for the anniversary of Peter de Rupibus, 
 with a particular prayer " Dens Indulgentiarum" 
 
 The college also sent Nicholas Langrish, who had been a 
 chantry priest at Selborne, to celebrate mass for the souls of all 
 that had been benefactors to the said priory and college, and for 
 all the faithful who had departed this life. 
 
 N. 356. Thomas Knowles, presidens, etc. " damus et con- 
 cedimus Nicholao Langrish quandum capellaniam, vel salarium, 
 sive alio quocunque nomine censeatur, in prioratu quondam de 
 Selborne pro termino 40 annorum, si tarn diu vixerit. Ubi dictus 
 mag. Nicholaus celebrabit pro animabus omnium benefactorum 
 dicti prioratus et coll. nostri, et omnium fidelium defunctorum. 
 Insuper nos, &c. concedimus eidem ibidem celebranti in susten- 
 tationem suam quandam annual em pensionem sive annuitatem 
 octo librarum, &c. in dicta capella dicti prioratus concedimus 
 duas cameras contiguas ex parte boreali dicte capelle, cum una 
 coquina, et cum uno stabulo conveniente pro tribus equis, cum 
 pomerio eidem adjacente voc. le Orcheyard Preterea 265. 8d. 
 per ann. ad inveniendum unum clericum ad serviendum sibi ad 
 altare, et aliis negotiis necessariis ejus." His wood to be granted 
 him by the president on the progress. He was not to absent 
 himself beyond a certain time ; and was to superintend the cop- 
 pices, wood, and hedges. Dat. 5*. die Julii. an . Hen. VIII". 
 36." [viz. 1546.] 
 
 Here we see the priory in a new light, reduced, as it were, to 
 the state of a chantry, without prior and without canons, and 
 attended only by a priest, who was also a sort of bailiff or wood- 
 man, his assistant clerk, and his female cook. Owen Oglethorpe, 
 president, and Magd. Coll. in the fourth year of Edward VI., viz. 
 1551, granted an annuity of ten pounds a year for life to Nich. 
 Langrish, who, from the preamble, appears then to have been 
 fellow of that society : but, being now superannuated for business, 
 this pension is granted him for thirty years, if he should live so long. 
 It is said of him "cum jam sit provectioris etatis qua mut," etc. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 369 
 
 Laurence Stubb, president of Magd. Coll., leased out the priory 
 lands to John Sharp, husbandman, for the term of twenty years, 
 as early as the seventeenth year of Henry VIII., viz., 1526 : and it 
 appears that Henry Newlyn had been in possession of the lease 
 before, probably towards the end of the reign of Henry VII. 
 Sharp's rent was vi 11 . per ann. Regist. B. p. 43. 
 
 By an abstract from a lease lying before me, it appears that Sharp 
 found a house, two barns, a stable, and a duf-house [dove-house] 
 built, and standing on the south side of the old priory, and late 
 in the occupation of Newlyn. In this abstract also are to be seen 
 the names of all the fields, many of which continue the same to 
 this day.* Of some of them I shall take notice, where anything 
 singular occurs. 
 
 And here first we meet with Paradyss [Paradise] mede. Every 
 convent had its paradise ; which probably was an enclosed 
 orchard, pleasantly laid out, and planted with fruit-trees. Tyle- 
 house grove, so distinguished from having a tiled house near it.f 
 Butt-wood close ; here the servants of the priory and the village- 
 swains exercised themselves with their long bows, and shot at 
 a mark against a butt, or bank.J Cundyth [conduit] wood : the 
 engrosser of the lease not understanding this name, has made a 
 strange barbarous word of it. Conduit wood was and is a steep, 
 rough cow-pasture, lying above the priory, at about a quarter of a 
 mile to the south-west. In the side of this field there is a spring 
 
 * It may not be amiss to mention here that various names of tithings, farms, 
 fields, woods, etc., which appear in the ancient deeds, and evidences of several 
 centuries standing, are still preserved in common use with little or no varia- 
 tion : as Norton, Southington, Durton, Achangre, Blackmore, Bradshot, 
 Rood, Plestor, etc., etc. At the same time it should be acknowledged that 
 other places have entirely lost their original titles, as le Buri and Trucstede in 
 this village ; and la Liege, or la Lyge, which was the name of the original site 
 of the Priory, etc. 
 
 f Men at first heaped sods, or fern, or heath, on their roofs to keep off the 
 inclemencies of weather ; and then by degrees laid straw or haum. The first 
 refinements on roofing were shingles which are very ancient. Tiles are a late 
 and imperfect covering, and were not much in use till the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century, The first tiled house at Nottingham was in 1503. 
 
 J There is also a Butt-close just at the back of the village. 
 
370 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 of water that never fails ; at the head of which a cistern was built 
 which communicated with leaden pipes that conveyed water to 
 the monastery. When this reservoir was first constructed does 
 not appear; we only know that it underwent a repair in the 
 episcopate of Bishop Wainfleet, about the year 1462.* Whether 
 these pipes only conveyed the water to the priory for common 
 and culinary purposes, or contributed to any matters of ornament 
 and elegance, we shall not pretend to say ; nor when artists and 
 mechanics first understood anything of hydraulics, and that water 
 confined in tubes would rise to its original level. There is a 
 person now living who had been employed formerly in digging for 
 these pipes, and once discovered several yards, which they sold 
 for old lead. 
 
 There was also a plot of ground called Tan-house garden : and 
 " Tannaria sua," a tan-yard of their own, has been mentioned in 
 Letter XVI. This circumstance I just take notice of, as an 
 instance that monasteries had trades and occupations carried on 
 within themselves.t 
 
 Registr. B., p. 112. Here we find a lease of the parsonage of 
 Selborne to Thomas Sylvester and Miles Arnold, husbandmen 
 of the tythes of all manner of corne pertaining to the parsonage 
 with the offerings at the chapel of Whaddon belonging to the said 
 parsonage. Dat. June i. 27 th . Hen. 8 th . [viz. 1536.] 
 
 As the chapel of Whaddon has never been mentioned till now, 
 and as it is not noticed by Bishop Tanner in his " Notitia 
 Monastica," some more particular account of it will be proper in 
 this place. Whaddon was a chapel of ease to the mother church 
 of Selborne, and was situated in the tithing of Oakhanger, at 
 about two miles distance from the village. The farm and field 
 whereon it stood are still called chapel farm and field : i but 
 there are no remains or traces of the building itself, the very 
 
 * N. 381. " Clausure terre abbatie ecclesie parochial! de Seleburne, ixj. ink/. 
 Reparacionibus domorum predict! prioratus iiii. lib. xis. Aque conduct, 
 ibidem, xxiik/." 
 
 f There is still a wood near the Priory, called Tanner's wood. 
 
 \ This is a manor-farm, at present the property of Lord Stawell ; and 
 belonged probably in ancient times to Jo, de Venur, or Venuz, one of the first 
 benefactors to the Priory. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 371 
 
 foundations having been destroyed before the memory of man. 
 In the farmyard at Oakhanger we remember a large hollow stone, 
 of a close substance, which had been used as a hog-trough, but 
 was then broken. This stone, tradition said, had been the 
 baptismal font of Whaddon chapel. The chapel had been in 
 a very ruinous state in old days ; but was new-built at the instance 
 of Bishop Wainfleet, about w the year 1463, during the first prior- 
 ship of Berne, in consequence of a sequestration issued forth by 
 that visitor against the priory on account of notorious and shame- 
 ful dilapidations.* 
 
 The Selborne rivulet becomes of some breadth at Oakhanger, 
 and, in very wet seasons, swells to a large flood. There is a 
 bridge over the stream at this hamlet of considerable antiquity 
 and peculiar shape, known by the name of Tunbridge : it consists 
 of one single blunt Gothic arch, so high and sharp as to render 
 the passage not very convenient or safe. Here was also, we find, 
 a bridge in very early times ; for Jacobus de Hochangre, the first 
 benefactor to the priory of Selborne, held his estate at Hochangre 
 by the service of providing the king one foot-soldier for forty 
 days, and by building this bridge. "Jacobus de Hochangre 
 tenet Hochangre in com. Southampton, per Serjantiam,t inveni- 
 endi unum valectum in exercitu Domini regis [scil. Henrici III tu .] 
 per 40 dies; et ad faciendum pontem de Hochangre : et valet 
 per ann. C. s." " Blount's Ancient Tenures," p. 84. 
 
 A dove-house was a constant appendant to a manerial dwelling : 
 of this convenience more will be said hereafter. 
 
 A corn-mill was also esteemed a necessary appendage of every 
 manor; and therefore was to be expected of course at the priory 
 of Selborne. 
 
 The prior had secta molendini, or ad mokndinum ; \ a power of 
 
 * See Letter XIX. of these Antiquities. " Summa total, solut. de novis 
 edificationibus, et raparacionibus per idem tempus, tit patet per comput." 
 
 " Videlicet de nova edificat. Capelle Marie de Wadden. xiiii. lib. v s. viiiaT. 
 Reparacionibus ecclesie Prioratus, csncellor. et capellar. ecclesiarum et ca- 
 pellarum de Selborne, et Estworhlam." etc., etc. 
 
 t Sargentia, a sort of tenure of doing something for the king. 
 
 J " Servitium, quo feudatorii granasua ad Domini molendinum, ibimolenda 
 perferre, ex consuetidine, astringuntur. n 
 
 24 
 
372 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 compelling his vassals to bring their corn to be ground at his mill 
 according to an old custom. He had also, according to Bishop 
 Tanner, secta molendini de strete ; but the purport of strete, we 
 must confess, we do not understand. Strete, in old English, 
 signifies a road or highway, as Wat ling Strete, etc., therefore the 
 prior might have some mill on a high road. The priory had only 
 one mill originally at Selborne ; but, by grants of lands, it came 
 possessed of one at Durton, and one at Oakhanger, and probably 
 some on its other several manors.* The mill of the priory was in 
 use within the memory of man, and the ruins of the mill-house 
 were standing within these thirty years : the pond and dam, and 
 miller's dwelling still remain. As the stream was apt to fail in 
 very dry summers, the tenants found their situation very distress- 
 ing, for want of water, and so were forced to abandon the spot. 
 This inconvenience was probably never felt in old times, when 
 the whole district was nothing but woodlands : and yet several 
 centuries ago there seem to have been two or three mills between 
 Well Head and the priory. For the reason of this assertion, see 
 Letter XXIX. to Mr. Barrington. 
 
 Occasional mention has been made of the many privileges and 
 immunities enjoyed by the convent and its priors ; but a more 
 particular state seems to be necessary. The author, therefore, 
 thinks this the proper place, before he concludes these antiquities, 
 to introduce all that has been collected by the judicious Bishop 
 Tanner, respecting the priory and its advantages, in his " Notitia 
 Monastica," a book now seldom seen, on account of the ex- 
 travagance of its price, and being but in few hands cannot 
 be easily consulted.t He also adds a few of its many privileges 
 from other authorities : the account is as follows. Tanner, 
 page i 66. 
 
 * Thomas Knowles, president, etc. aim. Hen. 8vi. xxiii . [1532] demised to 
 J. Whitelie their mills, etc., for twenty years. Rent xxiiLr. iiiu/. Accepted 
 Frewen, president, etc. ann. Caroli xv. [viz. 1640.] demised to Jo. Hook and 
 Elizabeth his wife, the said mills. Rent as above. 
 
 f A few days after this was written a new edition of this valuable work 
 was announced, in the month of April of the year 1787, as published by 
 Mr. Nasmith. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 373 
 
 SELBURNE. 
 
 A priory of black canons, founded by the often-mentioned 
 Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, A. D. 1233, an d dedi- 
 cated to the blessed Virgin Mary ; but was suppressed, and 
 granted to William Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester, who made 
 it part of the endowment of St. Mary Magdalene College in 
 Oxford. The Bishops of Winchester were patrons of it. [Pat. 
 17, Edward II.] Vide. Mon. Ang. torn ii. p. 343. " Cartam 
 fundationis ex ipso autographo in archivis Coll. Magd. Oxon. ubi 
 etiam conservata sunt registra, cartae, rentali et alia munimenta ad 
 hunc prioratum spectantia, 
 
 " Extracta qu sedam e registro MSS. in bibl. Bodl. Dodworth 
 vol. 89, f. 140. 
 
 "Cart, antiq. N. N. n. 33. P. P. n. 48. et. 71. Q. Q. n. 40. 
 plac. coram justit. itin. [Southampton] 20. Hen. rot. 25. De eccl, 
 de Basing & Basingstoke. Plac. de juratis apud Winton. 40 
 Hen. III. rot. Protecta molendini de Strete. Cart. 54. Hen. III. 
 m. 3. [De mercatu, & feria apud Seleborne, a mistake.] Pat. 9. 
 Edw. I. m. Pat. 30. Edw. I. m. Pat 33. Edw. I. p. i. m. Pat. 
 35. Edw. I. m. Pat. i. Edw. II. p. i. m. 9. Pat. 5. Edw. II. 
 p. i. m. 21. De terris in Achanger. Pat. 6. Edw. II. p. i. m. 7 
 de. eisdem. Brev. in Scacc. 6. Edw. II. Pasch. rot. 8. Pat 
 17. Edw. II. p. i. m. Cart. 10. Edw. III. n. 24. Quod terrse 
 suae in Ssleburn, Achangre, Norton, Basings, Basingstoke, an 
 Nately, sint de afforestatae, and pro aliis libertatibus. Pat. 12. 
 Edw. III. p. 3. m. 3. Pat. 10. Edw. III. p. i. m. Cart. 18. Edw, 
 III. n. 24." 
 
 "N. N. 33. Rex concessit quod prior, et canonici de 
 Seleburn habeant per terras suas de Seleburne, Achangre, 
 Norton, Brompden, Basinges, Basingstoke, & Nately, diversas 
 libertates. 
 
 " P. P. 48. Quod prior de Seleburne, habeat terras suas 
 quietas de vasto, et regardo." Extracts from Ayloffe's Calendars 
 of Ancient Charters. 
 
 " Placita de juratis & assis coram Salom de RofT, & sociis suis 
 justic. itiner. apud Wvnton in comitatu Sutht. anno regni R. 
 
374 ANTIQUITIES OP SELBORNE. 
 
 Edwardi filii reg. Henr. octavo. Et For de Seleborn ht in Selebr. 
 fure, thurset. pillory, emendasse panis, & suis." [cerevisae.] 
 Chapter House, Westminster. 
 
 " Placita Foreste apud Wynton in com. Sutham. Anno reg. 
 Edwardi octavo coram Rog. de_ClirTord, &c. Justic. ad eadem 
 placita audienda et tminand. assigtis. 
 
 ' Carta Pror de Seleburn, H. Dei gra. rex. angl. &c. Conces- 
 sim, prior ^sce. Marie de Seleburn. et^anonicis ibidem Deo servient. 
 
 q ipi et oes hoies sui in pdcis terris suis et tenements 
 
 manentes sint in ppetum quieti de seeds Swanemotor. et omnium 
 alior. placitor. for. et de espeltamentis canum. et de omnibus sub- 
 monitoibz. placitis querelis et exaccoibus et occoibz. ad for. et for 
 et viridar. et eor. ministros ptinentibz." Chapter-house, Westminster. 
 
 " Plita Forestarum in_com. Sutht. apud Suthamton anno 
 
 regnijregis Edwardi tcii post consequentum quarto coram Johz 
 Mantvers. &c., justic. itinand. &c., 
 
 " De hiis qui clamant libtates infra Forestas in com. Sutht. 
 
 " Prior de Selebourne clamat esse quietus erga dnm regem de 
 omnibus finibus et amerciamentis p tnsgr. et omnibus, exaccoibe 
 ad Dom. regem vel hered. suos ptinent. pret. plita corone reg. 
 
 " Item clamat q d si aliquis hominum suorum de terris et ten p. 
 deliciato suo vitam aut membrum debeat amittere velfugiat, & 
 judico stare noluerit vel aliud delictum fecit pro quo debeat 
 catella su,a amittere, ubicuncq ; justitia fieri debeat omnia catella 
 ilia sint pFci Prioris et successor, suor. Et liceat eidem priori et 
 batlis suis ponere se in seisinam in hujusmodi catall. in casibus 
 pdcis sine disturbacone ballivor. dni. reg. quorumcunque. 
 
 " Item clam, quod licet aliqua "fibtatum p dnm regem concessar, 
 pcessu temporis quocunqj casu contingente_ usi non fuerint, 
 nlominus postea eadm libtate uti possit. Et pdcus prior quesitus 
 p justic. quo waranto clamat omn. terr. et ten. sua in Seleburne, 
 Norton, Basynges, Bas^gestoke, & Nattele. que prior domus 
 pdte huit & tenuit X mo . die April anno regni dni Hen. reg. nue 
 XVIII. imppm effe quieta de vasto etregardo, et visu forestarior. et 
 viridarior. regardator. et omnium ministrorum foreste." etc., etc. 
 Chapter House, Westminster. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 375 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 THOUGH the evidences and documents of the Priory and parish of 
 Selborne are now at an end, yet as the author has still several things 
 to say respecting the present state of that convent and its Grange, 
 and other matters, he does not see how he can acquit himself of 
 the subject without trespassing again on the patience of the reader 
 by adding one supplementary letter. 
 
 No sooner did the Priory (perhaps much out of repair at the 
 time) become an appendage to the college, but it must at once 
 have tended to swift decay. Magdalen College wanted now only 
 two chambers for the chantry priest and his assistant ; and therefore 
 had no occasion for the hall, dormitory, and other spacious apart- 
 ments belonging to so large a foundation. The roofs neglected, 
 would soon become the possession of daws and owls ; and, being 
 rotted and' decayed by the weather, would fall in upon the floors, 
 so that all parts must have hastened to speedy dilapidation and a 
 scene of broken ruins. Three full centuries have now passed since 
 the dissolution a series of years that would craze the stoutest 
 edifices. But, besides the slow hand of time, many circumstances 
 have contributed to level this venerable structure with the ground, 
 of which nothing now remains but one piece of wall about ten feet 
 long, and as many feet high, which probably was a part of an 
 outhouse. As early as the latter end of the reign of Henry VII., 
 we find that a farmhouse and two barns were built to the south of 
 the Priory, and undoubtedly out of its materials. . Avarice again 
 has much contributed to the overthrow of this stately pile, as long 
 as the tenants could make money of its stones or timbers. 
 Wantonness, no doubt, has had a share in the demolition ; for 
 boys love to destroy what men venerate and admire. A remark- 
 able instance of this propensity the writer can give from his own 
 knowledge. When a school-boy, more than fifty years ago, he 
 was eye-witness, perhaps a party concerned, in the undermining 
 a portion of that fine old ruin at the north end of Basingstoke 
 town, well known by the name of Holy Ghost Chapel. Very 
 
376 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 providentially the vast fragment, which these thoughtless little 
 engineers endeavoured to sap, did not give way so soon as might 
 have been expected ; but it fell the night following, and with such 
 violence that it shook the very ground, and, awakening the inha- 
 bitants of the neighbouring cottages, made them start up in their 
 beds as if they had felt an earthquake. The motive for this 
 dangerous attempt does not so readily appear ; perhaps the more 
 danger the more honour thought the boys, and the notion of 
 doing some mischief gave a zest to the enterprise. As Dryden 
 says upon another occasion 
 
 " It look'd so like a sin it pleas'd the more." 
 
 Had the Priory been only levelled to the surface of the ground, 
 the discerning eye of an antiquary might have ascertained its 
 ichnography, and some judicious hand might have developed its 
 dimensions. But besides other ravages, the very foundations 
 have been torn up for the repair of the highways ; so that the site 
 of this convent is now become a rough, rugged pasture-field, full 
 of hillocks and pits, choked with nettles and dwarf-elder, and 
 trampled by the feet of the ox and the heifer. 
 
 As the tenant at the priory was lately digging among the founda- 
 tions for materials to mend the highways, his labourers discovered 
 two large stones, with which the farmer was so pleased that he 
 ordered them to be taken out whole. One of these proved to be 
 a large Doric capital, worked in good taste ; and the other a base 
 of a pillar, both formed out of the soft freestone of this district. 
 These ornaments, from their dimensions, seemed to have belonged 
 to massive columns, and show that the church of this convent was 
 a large and costly edifice. They were found in the space which 
 has always been supposed to have contained the south transept of 
 the priory church. Some fragments of large pilasters were also 
 found at the same time. The diameter of the capital was two feet 
 three inches and a half; and of the column, where it had stood 
 on the base, eighteen inches and three-quarters. 
 
 Two years ago, some labourers, digging again among the ruins 
 sounded a sort of rude thick vase or urn of soft stone, containing 
 about two gallons in measure, on the verge of the brook, in the 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 377 
 
 very spot which tradition has always pointed out as having been 
 the site of the convent kitchen. This clumsy utensil,* whether 
 intended for holy water, or whatever purpose, we were going to 
 procure, but found that the labourers had just broken it in pieces, 
 and carried it out on the highways. 
 
 The priory of Selborne had possessed in this village a grange, 
 an usual appendage to manerial estates, where the fruits of their 
 lands were stowed and laid up for use, at a time when men took 
 the natural produce of their estates in kind. The mansion of this 
 spot is still called the Grange, and is the manor-house of the con- 
 vent possessions in this place. The author has conversed with 
 very ancient people who remembered the old original Grange 
 but it has long given place to a modern farm-house. Magdalen 
 College holds a court-leet and court-baron t in the great wheat- 
 barn of the said Grange, annually, where the president usually 
 superintends, attended by the bursar and steward of the college.:}: 
 
 The following uncommon presentment at the court is not un- 
 worthy of notice. There is on the south side of the king's field 
 (a large common-field, so called) a considerable tumulus, or hillock, 
 now covered with thorns and bushes, and known by the name of 
 Kite's Hill, which is presented, year by year, in court as not 
 ploughed. Why this injunction is still kept up respecting this 
 spot, which is surrounded on all sides by arable land, may be a 
 question not easily solved, since the usage has long survived the 
 knowledge of the intention thereof. We can only suppose that 
 as the prior, besides thurset and pillory, had also furcas, a power 
 of life and death, he might have reserved this little eminence as 
 the place of execution for delinquents. And there is the more 
 
 * A judicious antiquary who saw this vase, observed, that it possibly 
 might have been a standard measure between the monastery and its tenants. 
 The priory we have mentioned claimed the assize of bread and beer in Selborne 
 manor ; and probably the adjustment of dry measures for grain, etc. 
 
 t The time when this court is held is the mid-week between Easter and 
 Whitsuntide. 
 
 J Owen Oglethorpe, president, etc., an. Edw. Sexti, primo [viz. 1547.] 
 demised to Robert Arden Selborne Grange for twenty years. Rent vi 11 . 
 Index of Leases. 
 
378 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 reason to suppose so, since a spot just by is called Gaily (Gallows) 
 Hill. 
 
 The lower part of the village, next the Grange, in which is a 
 pond and a stream, is well known by the name of Gracious Street, 
 an appellation not at all understood. There is a lake in Surrey, 
 near Chobham, called also Gracious Pond ; and another, if we 
 mistake not, near Hedleigh, in the county of Hants. This 
 strange denomination we do not at all comprehend, and conclude 
 that it may be a corruption from some Saxon word, itself perhaps 
 forgotten. 
 
 It has been observed already, that Bishop Tanner was mistaken 
 when he refers to an evidence of Dodsworth, " De mercante feria 
 de Seleburne." Selborne never had a chartered fair; the present 
 fair was set up since the year 1681, by a set of jovial fellows, who 
 had found in an old almanack that there had been a fair here in 
 former days on the ist August; and were desirous to revive so 
 joyous a festival. Against this innovation the vicar set his face, 
 and persisted in crying it down, as the probable occasion of much 
 intemperance. However, the fair prevailed, but was altered to 
 the 2 Qth May, because the former day often interfered with wheat- 
 harvest. On that day it still continues to be held, and is become 
 an useful mart for cows and calves. Most of the lower house- 
 keepers brew beer against this holiday, which is dutied by the 
 exciseman, and their becoming victuallers for the day without a 
 license is overlooked. 
 
 Monasteries enjoyed all sorts of conveniences within themselves. 
 Thus, at the priory, a low and moist situation, there were ponds 
 and stews for their fish ; at the same place also, and at the Grange 
 in Culver* Croft, there were dove-houses ; and on the hill opposite 
 to the Grange the prior had a warren, as the names of The Coney- 
 Crofts and Coney Croft Hanger plainly testify, t 
 
 Nothing has been said, as yet, respecting the tenure or holding 
 of the Selborne estates. Temple and Norton are manor farms, 
 and freeholds ; as is the manor of Chapel, near Oakhanger, and 
 also the estate at Oakhanger House and Blackmoor. The priory 
 * Culver, as has been observed before, is Saxon for a pigeon, 
 t A warren was an usual appendage to a manor. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 379 
 
 and grange are leasehold under Magdalen College, for twenty-one 
 years, renewable every seven ; all the smaller estates in and round 
 the village are copyhold of inheritance under the college, except 
 the little remains of the Gurdon Manor, which had been of old 
 leased out upon lives, but have been freed of late by their present 
 lord, as fast as those lives have dropped. 
 
 Selborne seems to have derived much of its prosperity from the 
 near neighbourhood of the priory. For monasteries were of con- 
 siderable advantage to places where they had their sites and 
 estates, by causing great resort, by procuring markets and fairs, 
 by freeing them from the cruel oppression of forest laws, and by 
 letting their lands at easy rates. But, as soon as the convent was 
 suppressed, the town which it had occasioned began to decline, 
 and the market was less frequented ; the rough and sequestered 
 situation gave a check to resort, and the neglected roads rendered 
 it less and less accessible. 
 
 That it had been a considerable place for size, formerly, appears 
 from the largeness of the church, which much exceeds those of 
 the neighbouring villages ; by the ancient extent of the burying- 
 <*round, which, from human bones occasionally dug up, is found 
 to have been much encroached upon ; by giving a name to the 
 hundred; by the old foundations and ornamented stones, and 
 tracery of windows that have been discovered on the north-east 
 side of the village ; and by the many vestiges of disused fish-ponds 
 still to be seen around it. For ponds and stews were multiplied 
 in the times of popery, that the affluent might enjoy some variety 
 at their tables on fast days ; therefore, the more they abounded 
 the better probably was the condition of the inhabitants. 
 
 MORE PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE OLD FAMILY TORTOISE, 
 
 OMITTED IN THE NATURAL HlSTORY. 
 
 BECAUSE we call this creature an abject reptile, we are too apt 
 to undervalue his abilities, and depreciate his powers of instinct. 
 Yet he is, as Mr. Pope says of his lord, 
 
 " Much too wise to walk into a well :" 
 
380 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
 
 and has so much discernment as not to fall down a haha, but to 
 stop and withdraw from the brink with the readiest precaution. 
 
 Though he loves warm weather he avoids the hot sun ; because 
 his thick shell, when once heated, would, as the poet says of solid 
 armour, " scald with safety." He therefore spends the more sultry 
 hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage-leaf, or amidst the 
 waving forests of an asparagus bed. 
 
 But, as he avoids heat in the summer, so, in the decline of the 
 year, he improves the. faint autumnal beams, by getting within 
 the reflection of a fruit-wall ; and, though he never has read that 
 planes inclining to the horizon receive a greater share of warmth,* 
 he inclines his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and 
 admit every feeble ray. 
 
 Pitiable seems the condition of this poor embarrassed reptile ; 
 to be cased in a suit of ponderous armour, which he cannot lay 
 aside ; to be imprisoned, as it were, within his own shell, must 
 preclude, we should suppose, all activity and disposition for 
 enterprise. Yet there is a season of the year (usually the begin- 
 ning of June) when his exertions are remarkable. He then walks 
 on tiptoe, and is stirring by five in the morning; and, traversing 
 the garden, examines every wicket and interstice in the fences, 
 through which he will escape if possible ; and often has eluded 
 the care of the gardener, and wandered to some distant field. 
 The motives that impel him to undertake these rambles seem to 
 be of the amorous kind ; his fancy then becomes intent on sexual 
 attachments, which transport him beyond his usual gravity, and 
 induce him to forget for a time his ordinary solemn deportment. 
 
 * Several years ago a book was written entitled "Fruit Walls Improved by 
 Inclining them to the Horizon :" in which the author has shown, by calcula- 
 tion, that a much greater number of the rays of the sun will fall on such walls 
 than on those which are perpendicular. 
 
OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE, 
 
 FROM MR. WHITE'S MSS. 
 WITH REMARKS BY MR. MARKW1CK. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 8VO EDITION, PUBLISHED IN 1802, EDITED BY JOHN 
 WHITE, THE BROTHER OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 favourable reception with which the works on natural 
 history of my late respected relation, the Rev. Gilbert White of 
 Selborne, have been honoured by the persons best qualified to 
 judge of their merit, has induced me to present them to the public 
 in a collected and commodious form, free from the encumbrance 
 of any extraneous matter. His largest work, entitled ' The 
 Natural History of Selborne,' has probably been supposed by 
 many to be formed upon a more local and confined plan than it 
 really is. In fact, the greater part of the observations are ap- 
 plicable to al that portion of the island in which he resided, and 
 were indeedl made in various places. Almost the only matter 
 absolutely local is the account of the antiquities of the village of 
 Selborne ; and this seemed to stand so much apart, that, however 
 well calculated to gratify the lovers of topographical studies, it 
 was thought that its entire omission would be considered no loss 
 to the work, considered as a publication on natural history. Its 
 place is occupied by the ' Naturalists' Calendar, and Miscellaneous 
 Observations,' which appeared in a separate volume since the 
 author's decease, extracted from his papers by Dr. Aitkin. That 
 gentleman has also made some farther selections from the papers, 
 which are now all in my possession ; and has undertaken the 
 revision and arrangement of the whole. A very valuable ad- 
 dition to the calendar and observations has been obtained from 
 the kindness of William Mark wick, Esq., F.L.S., well known as 
 an accurate observer of nature, whose parallel calendar, kept in 
 the county of Sussex, is given upon the opposite columns. 
 
 " The Editor flatters himself that the publication in its present 
 form will prove an acceptable addition to the library of the 
 naturalist ; and will in particular, be useful in inspiring young 
 persons, and those who pass their time in retirement, with a taste 
 for the very pleasing branch of knowledge on which it treats. 
 
 "T. W. 
 
 " FLEET STREET, 1802." 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 BIRDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 IN severe weather, fieldfares, redwings, sky-larks, and tit-larks, 
 resort to watered meadows for food ; the latter wades up to its 
 belly in pursuit of the pupae of insects, and runs along upon the 
 floating grass and weeds. Many gnats are on the snow near the 
 water, these support the birds in part. 
 
 Birds are much influenced in their choice of food by colour, 
 for though white currants are a much sweeter fruit than red, yet 
 they seldom touch the former till they have devoured every 
 bunch of the latter. 
 
 Red-starts, fly-catchers, and black-caps, arrive early in April. 
 If these little delicate beings are birds of passage (as we have 
 reason to suppose they are, because they are never seen in winter), 
 how could they, feeble as they seem, bear up against such storms 
 of snow and rain, and make their way through such meteorous 
 turbulences, as one should suppose would embarrass and retard 
 the most hardy and resolute of the winged nation ? Yet they 
 keep their appointed times and seasons; and in spite of frosts 
 and winds return to their stations periodically as if they had met 
 with nothing to obstruct them. The withdrawing and appearance 
 of the short-winged summer birds is a very puzzling circumstance 
 in natural history. 
 
 When the boys bring me wasps' nests, my bantam fowls fare 
 deliciously, and when the combs are pulled to pieces, devour the 
 young wasps in their maggot state with the highest glee and 
 
384 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 delight. Any insect-eating bird would do the same ; and there- 
 fore I have often wondered that the accurate Mr. Ray should call 
 one species of buzzard buteo apivorus sive vespivoms, or the honey 
 buzzard, because some combs of wasps happened to be found in 
 one of their nests. The combs were conveyed thither doubtless 
 for the sake of the maggots or nymphs, and not for their honey, 
 since none is to be found in the combs of wasps. Birds of 
 prey occasionally feed on insects ; thus have I seen a tame kite 
 picking up the female ants full of eggs, with much satisfaction. 
 WHITE. 
 
 That red-starts, fly-catchers, black-caps, and other slender- 
 billed insectivorous small birds, particularly the swallow tribe, 
 make their first appearance very early in the spring, is a well- 
 known fact ; though the fly-catcher is the latest of them all in its 
 visit (as this accurate naturalist observes in another place), for it 
 is never seen before the month of May. If these delicate creatures 
 come to us from a distant country, they will probably be exposed 
 in their passage, as Mr. White justly remarks, to much greater 
 difficulties from storms and tempests than their feeble powers 
 appear to be able to surmount : on the other hand, if we suppose 
 them to pass the winter in a dormant state in this country, con- 
 cealed in caverns or other hiding-places sufficiently guarded from 
 the extreme cold of our winter to preserve their life, and that at 
 the approach of spring they revive from their torpid state and 
 reassume their usual powers of action, it will entirely remove the 
 first difficulty, arising from the storms and tempests they are 
 liable to meet with in their passage ; but how are we to get over 
 the still greater difficulty of their revivification from their torpid 
 state ? What degree of warmth in the temperature of the air is 
 necessary to produce that effect, and how it operates on the 
 functions of animal life, are questions not easily answered. 
 
 How could Mr. White suppose that Ray named this species 
 the honey buzzard, because it fed on honey, when he not only 
 named it in Latin buteo apivorus et vespivorus, but expressly says 
 that "it feeds on insects, and brings up its young with the 
 maggots or nymphs of wasps "? 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 385 
 
 That birds of prey, when in want of their proper food, flesh, 
 sometimes feed on insects I have little doubt, and I think I have 
 observed the common buzzard, falco buteo, to settle on the ground 
 and pick up insects of some kind or other. MARKWICK. 
 
 ROOKS. 
 
 Rooks are continually fighting, and pulling each other's nests 
 to pieces : these proceedings are inconsistent with living in such 
 close community. And yet if a pair offer to build on a single 
 tree, the nest is plundered and demolished at once. Some rooks 
 roost on their nest trees. The twigs which the rooks drop in 
 building supply the poor with brushwood to light their fires. 
 Some unhappy pairs are not permitted to finish any nest till the 
 rest have completed their building. As soon as they get a few 
 sticks together, a party comes and demolishes the whole. As 
 soon as rooks have finished their nests, and before they lay, the 
 cocks begin to feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a 
 fondling tremulous voice and fluttering wings, and all the little 
 blandishments that are expressed by the young, while in a help- 
 less state. This gallant deportment of the males is continued 
 through the whole season of incubation. These birds do not 
 copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but on the ground in the 
 open fields. WHITE. 
 
 After the first brood of rooks is sufficiently fledged, they all 
 leave their nest trees in the day-time, and resort to some distant 
 place in search of food, but return regularly every evening, in vast 
 flights, to their nest trees, where, after flying round several times 
 with much noise and clamour till they are all assembled together, 
 they take up their abode for the night. MARKWICK 
 
 THRUSHES. 
 
 Thrushes during long droughts are of great service in hunting 
 out shell snails, which they pull to pieces for their young, and are 
 thereby very serviceable in gardens. Missel thrushes do not 
 
386 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of turdi, but 
 feed on the berries of misletoe, and in the spring on ivy berries, 
 which then begin to ripen. In the summer, when their young 
 become fledged, they leave neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep- 
 walks and wild commons. 
 
 The magpies, when they have young, destroy the broods of 
 missel thrushes, though the dams are fierce birds, and fight boldly 
 in defence of their nests. It is probably to avoid such insults, 
 that this species of thrush, though wild at other times, delights 
 to build near houses, and in frequented walks and gardens. 
 WHITE. 
 
 Of the truth of this I have been an eye-witness, having seen 
 the common thrush feeding on the shell snail. 
 
 In the very early part of this spring (1797) a bird of this 
 species used to sit every morning on the top of some high elms 
 close by my windows, and delight me with its charming song, 
 attracted thither, probably, by some ripe ivy berries that grew 
 near the place. 
 
 I have remarked something like the latter fact, for I remember, 
 many years ago, seeing a pair of these birds fly up repeatedly and 
 attack some larger bird, which I suppose disturbed their nest in 
 my orchard, uttering at the same time violent shrieks. Since 
 writing the above, I have seen more than once a pair of these 
 birds attack some magpies that had disturbed their nest, with 
 great violence and loud shrieks. MARK WICK. 
 
 POULTRY. 
 
 Many creatures are endowed with a ready discernment to see 
 what will turn to their own advantage and emolument : and often 
 discover more sagacity than could be expected. Thus my 
 neighbour's poultry watch for waggons loaded with wheat, and 
 running after them, pick up a number of grains which are shaken 
 from the sheaves by the agitation of the carriages. Thus, when 
 my brother used to take down his gun to shoot sparrows, his cats 
 would run out before him, to be ready to catch up the birds as 
 they fell. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 387 
 
 The earnest and early propensity of the gallinae to roost on high 
 is very observable; and discovers a strong dread impressed on 
 their spirits respecting vermin that may annoy them on the ground 
 during the hours of darkness. Hence poultry, if left to themselves 
 and not housed, will perch the winter through on yew-trees and 
 fir-trees ; turkeys and guinea fowls, heavy as they are, get up into 
 apple-trees ; pheasants also in woods sleep on trees to avoid foxes } 
 while pea-fowls climb to the tops of the highest trees round their 
 owner's house for security, let the weather be ever so cold or blowing. 
 Partridges, it is true, roost on the ground, not having the faculty 
 of perching \ but then the same fear prevails in their minds ; for 
 through apprehension from pole- cats and stoats, they never trust 
 themselves to coverts, but nestle together in the midst of large 
 fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which they love to 
 haunt in the day, and where at that season they can skulk more 
 secure from the ravages of rapacious birds. 
 
 As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web-feet forbid 
 them to settle on trees : they therefore, in the hours of darkness 
 and danger, betake themselves to their own element the water, 
 where amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding at anchor, 
 they float the whole night long in peace and security. WHITE. 
 
 Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather resort, 
 even in the daytime, to the very tops of the highest trees. Last 
 winter, when the ground was covered with snow, I discovered all 
 my guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, sitting on the highest 
 boughs of some very tall elms, chattering and making a great 
 clamour : I ordered them to be driven down lest they should be 
 frozen to death in so elevated a situation, but this was not effected 
 without much difficulty; they being very unwilling to quit their 
 lofty abode, notwithstanding one of them had its feet so much 
 frozen that we were obliged to kill it. I know not how to ac- 
 count for this, unless it was occasioned by their aversion to the 
 
 1 The pheasants run into equal danger when they roost in the trees ; for, 
 although they are secure from ground vermin, yet do they often fall victims to 
 the poacher, who can see them plainly against the sky. 
 
 25 
 
3 88 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 snow on the ground, they being birds that come originally from a 
 hot climate. 
 
 Notwithstanding the awkward splay web-feet (as Mr. White calls 
 them) of the duck genus, some of the foreign species have the 
 power of settling on the boughs of trees apparently with great 
 ease; an instance of which I have seen in the Earl of Ashburn- 
 ham's menagerie, where the summer duck, anas sponsa, flew up, 
 and settled on the branch of an oak-tree in my presence : 
 but whether any of' them roost on trees in the night, we are not 
 informed by any author that I am acquainted with. I suppose 
 not, but that, like the rest of the genus, they sleep on the water, 
 where the birds of this genus are not always perfectly secure, as 
 will appear from the following circumstance which happened in 
 this neighbourhood a few years since, as I was credibly informed- 
 A female fox was found in the morning drowned in the same pond 
 in which were several geese, and it was supposed that in the night 
 the fox swam into the pond to devour the geese, but was attacked 
 by the gander, which being most powerful in its own element, 
 buffeted the fox with its wings about the head till it was drowned. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 HEN PARTRIDGE. 
 
 A hen partridge came out of a ditch, and ran along shivering 
 with her wings and crying out as if wounded and unable to get 
 from us. While the dam acted this distress, the boy who attended 
 me saw her brood, that was small and unable to fly, run for shelter 
 into an old fox-earth under the bank. So wonderful a power is 
 instinct. WHITE. 
 
 It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself wounded 
 and run along on the ground fluttering and crying before either 
 dog or man, to, draw them away from its helpless unfledged young 
 ones. I have seen it often, and once in particular I saw a re- 
 markable instance of the old bird's solicitude to save its brood. 
 As I was hunting a young pointer, the dog ran on a brood of very 
 small partridges : the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 389 
 
 along just before the dog's nose till she had drawn him to a con- 
 siderable distance, when she took wing, and flew still farther off, 
 but not out of the field : on this the dog returned to me, near 
 which *place the young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the 
 old bird no sooner perceived than she flew back again to us, 
 settled just before the dog's nose again, and by rolling and 
 tumbling about, drew off his attention from her young, and thus 
 preserved her brood a second time. I have also seen, when a 
 kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the old 
 birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fighting with all 
 their might to preserve their brood. MARKWICK. 
 
 A HYBRID PHEASANT. 
 
 Lord Stawell sent me from the great lodge in the Holt a curious 
 bird for my inspection. It was found by the spaniels of one of 
 his keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. The shape, air, 
 and habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed 
 well with the appearance of a cock pheasant; but then the head, 
 and neck, and breast, and belly were of a glossy black : and though 
 it weighed three pounds three ounces and a half, 5 " the weight of a 
 full-grown cock pheasant, yet there were no signs of any spurs on 
 the legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheasants, who have long 
 ones. The legs and feet were naked of feathers and therefore it 
 could be nothing of the grouse kind. In the tail were no bending 
 feathers such as cock pheasants usually have, and are characteristic 
 of the sex. The tail was much shorter than the tail of a hen 
 pheasant, and blunt and square at the end. The back, wing, 
 feathers, and tail, were all of a pale russet curiously streaked 
 somewhat like the upper parts of a hen partridge. I returned it 
 with my verdict, that it was probably a spurious or hybrid hen 
 bird, bred between a cock pheasant and some domestic fowl. 
 When I came to talk with the keeper who brought it, he told me 
 that some pea-hens had been known last summer to haunt the 
 coppices and coverts where this mule was found. 
 
 * Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces 
 
390 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 Mr. Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game painter, was em- 
 ployed to take an exact copy of this curious bird. 
 
 N.B. It ought to be mentioned, that some good judges have 
 imagined this bird to have been a stray grouse or blackcock*; it is 
 however to be observed, that Mr. W. remarks, that its legs and 
 feet were naked, whereas those of the grouse are feathered to the 
 toes. WHITE. 
 
 Mr. Latham observes that "pea-hens, after they have done 
 laying, sometimes assume the plumage of the male bird," and has 
 given a figure of the male- feathered pea-hen now to be seen in 
 the Leverian Museum ; and M. Salerne remarks, that " the hen 
 pheasant, when she has done laying and sitting, will get the 
 plumage of the male." May not this hybrid pheasant (as Mr. 
 White calls it) be a bird of this kind ? that is, an old hen phea- 
 sant which had just begun to assume the plumage of the cock. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 LAND-RAIL. 
 
 A man brought me a land-rail or daker-hen, a bird so rare in 
 this district, that we seldom see more than one or two in a season, 
 and those only in autumn. 2 This is deemed a bird of passage by 
 all the writers ; yet from its formation, seems to be poorly qualified 
 for migration ; for its wings are short, and placed so forward, and 
 out of the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and em- 
 barrassed manner, with its legs hanging down ; and can hardly be 
 sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, and seems to depend 
 more on the swiftness of its feet than on its flying. 
 
 When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft and 
 tender in appearance, they might have been dressed like the ropes 
 of a wood-cock. The craw or crop was small and lank, containing 
 a mucus ; the gizzard thick and strong, and filled with small shell 
 
 2 The land -rail is common in Shropshire, and I have found three or four 
 nests in a single hayfield. One of these birds was once brought in, in a load 
 of hay, and when discovered feigned to be dead. It was laid aside, and re- 
 covered so quickly, that it made good its escape with remarkable speed 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 391 
 
 snails, some whole, and many ground to pieces through the attri- 
 tion which is occasioned by the muscular force and motion of that 
 intestine. We saw no gravels among the food : perhaps the shell 
 snails might perform the functions of gravels or pebbles, and might 
 grind one another. Land -rails used to abound formerly, I re- 
 member, in the low wet bean-fields of Christian Malford in North 
 Wilts, and in the meadows near Paradise Gardens at Oxford, 
 where I have often heard them cry crex, crex. The bird rnen- 
 
 LAND-RAIL. 
 
 tioned above weighed seven and a half ounces, was fat and tender, 
 and in flavour like the flesh of a woodcock. The liver was very 
 large and delicate. WHITE. 
 
 Land-rails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbourhood 
 of Selborne. I have found four brace in an afternoon, and a friend 
 of mine lately shot nine in two adjoining fields ; but I never saw 
 them in any other season than the autumn. 
 
 That it is a bird of passage there can be little doubt, though 
 Mr. White thinks it poorly qualified for migration, on account of 
 the wings being short, and not placed in the exact centre of gravity ; 
 how that may be I cannot say, but I know that its heavy sluggish 
 
392 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 flight is not owing to its inability of flying faster, for I have seen 
 it fly very swiftly, although in general its actions are sluggish. Its 
 unwillingness to rise proceeds, I imagine, from its sluggish dispo- 
 sition, and its great timidity, for it will sometimes squat so close 
 to the ground as to suffer itself to be taken up by the hand, rather 
 than rise ; and yet it will at times run very fast. 
 
 What Mr. White remarks respecting the small shell snails found 
 in its gizzard, confirms my opinion, that it frequents corn-fields, 
 seed clover, and brakes or fern, more for the sake of snails, slugs, 
 and other insects which abound in such places, than for the grain 
 or seeds j and that it is entirely an insectivorous bird. MARKWICK. 
 
 FOOD OF THE RING-DOVE. 
 
 One of my neighbours shot a ring-dove on an evening as it was 
 returning from feed, and going to roost. When his wife had picked 
 and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most nice and 
 tender tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled, and so sat 
 down to a choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided 
 in this extraordinary manner. 
 
 Hence .we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, 
 can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to sup- 
 pose that they would not long be healthy without \ for turkeys, 
 though corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, 
 lettuce, endive, etc., and poultry pick much grass ; while geese 
 live for months together on commons by grazing alone. 
 
 " Nought is useless made ; 
 
 On the barren heath 
 
 The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop 
 Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 
 Sufficient : after them the cackling goose, 
 Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want." 
 
 PHILIPS'S Cyder. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 That many graminivorous birds feed also on the herbage or 
 leaves of plants, there can be no doubt : partridges and larks fre- 
 quently feed on the green leaves of turnips, which give a peculiar 
 
OBSERVATIOA 7 S ON BIRDS. 393 
 
 flavour to their flesh, that is, to me, very palatable : the flavour 
 also of wild ducks and geese greatly depends on the nature of 
 their food ; and their flesh frequently contracts a rank unpleasant 
 taste, from their having lately fed on strong marshy aquatic plants, 
 as I suppose. 
 
 That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome and conducive to 
 the health of birds, seems probable, for many people fat their 
 ducks and turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped small. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 THE HEN-HARRIER (Circus cyaneus). 
 
 HEN-HARRIER. 
 
 A neighbouring gentleman sprung a pheasant in a wheat stubble, 
 and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding the report of the gun, it 
 was immediately pursued by the blue hawk, known by the name 
 of the hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He then sprung 
 a second, and a third, in the same field, that got away in the same 
 manner ; the hawk hovering round him all the while that he was 
 
394 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 beating the field, conscious no doubt of the game that lurked in 
 the stubble. Hence we may conclude that this bird of prey was 
 rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot 
 always seize their game when they please. We may farther ob- 
 serve, that they cannot pounce their quarry on the ground where 
 it might be able to make a stout resistance, since so large a fowl 
 as a pheasant could not but be visible to the piercing eye of a 
 hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence that propensity of 
 cowering and squatting till they are almost trod on, which no doubt 
 was intended as a mode of security ; though long rendered de- 
 structive to the whole race of gallinse by the invention of nets and 
 guns. WHITE. 
 
 Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey when urged 
 on by hunger, I have seen several instances ; particularly, when 
 shooting in the winter in company with two friends, a woodcock 
 flew across us, closely pursued by a small hawk : we all three fired 
 at the woodcock instead of the hawk, which, notwithstanding the 
 report of three guns close by it, continued its pursuit of the 
 woodcock, struck it down, and carried it off, as we afterwards 
 discovered. 
 
 At another time, when partridge- shooting with a friend, we saw 
 a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in its claws ; 
 though at a great distance ; we both fired and obliged it to drop 
 its prey, which proved to be one of the partridges which we were 
 in pursuit of; and lastly, in an evening, I shot at and plainly saw 
 that I had wounded a partridge, but it being late, was obliged 
 to go home without finding it again. The next morning I walked 
 round my land without any gun, but a favourite old spaniel 
 followed my heels. When I came near the field where I wounded 
 the bird the evening before, I heard the partridges call, and 
 seeming to be much disturbed. On my approaching the bar-way, 
 they all rose, some on my right and some on my left hand ; and 
 just before and over my head, I perceived (though indistinctly 
 from the extreme velocity of their motion) two birds fly directly 
 against each other, when instantly, to my great astonishment, 
 down dropped a partridge at my feet; the dog immediately 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 395 
 
 seized it, and on examination, I found the blood flow very fast 
 from a flesh wound in the head, but there was some dry clotted 
 blood on its wings and side ; whence I concluded that a hawk 
 had singled out my wounded bird as the object of his prey, and 
 had struck it down the instant that my approach had obliged the 
 birds to rise on the wing ; but the space between the hedges was 
 so small, and the motion of the birds so instantaneous and quick, 
 that I could not distinctly observe the operation. MARKWICK. 
 
 THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER (Colymbus glacialis) 
 
 GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON. 
 As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer Forest from 
 .bramshot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird 
 fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home 
 alive. On examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis, Linn., 
 the great speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently described 
 in Willughby's Ornithology. 
 
396 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably 
 adapted to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the 
 wisdom of God in the creation to more advantage. The head is 
 sharp and smaller than the part of the neck adjoining, in order 
 that it may pierce the water ; the wings are placed forward, and 
 out of the centre of gravity, for a purpose which shall be noticed 
 hereafter; the thighs quite at the podex, in order to facilitate 
 diving ; and the legs are quite flat, and as sharp backwards almost 
 as the edge of a knife, that in striking they may easily cut the 
 water ; while the feet are palmated, and broad for swimming, yet 
 so folded up when advanced forward to take a fresh stroke, as to 
 be full as narrow as the shank. The two exterior toes of the feet 
 are longest ; the nails flat and broad, resembling the human, 
 which give strength, and increase the power of swimming. The 
 foot, when expanded, is not at right angles to the leg or body of 
 the bird : but the exterior part inclining towards the head, forms 
 an acute angle with the body; the intention being not to give 
 motion in the line of the legs themselves, but by the combined 
 impulse of both in an intermediate line, the line of the body. 
 
 Most people know, that have observed at all, that the swimming 
 of birds is nothing more than a walking in the water, where one 
 foot succeeds the other as on the land ; yet no one, as far I am 
 aware, has remarked that diving fowls, while under water, impel 
 and row themselves forward by a motion of their wings, as well 
 as by the impulse of their feet : but such is really the case, as 
 any person may easily be convinced, who will observe ducks when 
 hunted by dogs in a clear pond. Nor do I know that any one 
 has given a reason why the wings of diving fowls are placed so 
 forward : doubtless, not for the purpose of promoting their speed 
 in flying, since that position certainly impedes it ; but probably 
 for the increase of their motion under water, by the use of four 
 oars instead of two ; yet were the wings and feet nearer together, 
 as in land-birds, they would, when in action, rather hinder than 
 assist one another. 
 
 This colymbus was of considerable bulk, weighing only three 
 drachms short of three pounds avoirdupois. It measured in 
 length from the bill to the tail (which was very short) two feet, 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 397 
 
 and to the extremities of the toes four inches more; and the 
 breadth of the wings expanded was forty-two inches. A person 
 attempted to eat the body, but found it very strong and rancid, 
 as is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers or loons, though 
 bred in the most northerly parts of Europe, yet are seen with us 
 in very severe winters ; and on the Thames they are called sprat 
 loons, because they prey much on that sort of fish. 
 
 The legs of the colymbi and mergi are placed so very backward, 
 and so out of all centre of gravity, that .these birds cannot walk 
 at all. They are called by Linnaeus compedes, because they move 
 on the ground as if shackled or fettered. WHITE. 
 
 These accurate and ingenious observations, tending to set forth 
 in a proper light the wonderful works of God in the creation, and 
 to point out His wisdom in adapting the singular form and position 
 of the limbs of this bird to the particular mode in which it is 
 destined to pass the greatest part of its life in an element much 
 denser than the air, do Mr. White credit, not only as a naturalist, 
 but as a man, and as a philosopher, in the truest sense of the 
 word, in my opinion \ for were we enabled to trace the works of 
 nature minutely and accurately, we should find, not only that 
 every bird, but every creature was equally well adapted to the 
 purpose for which it was intended; though this fitness and 
 propriety of form is more striking in such animals as are destined 
 to any uncommon mode of life. 
 
 I have had in my possession two birds, which, though of a 
 different genus, bear a great resemblance to Mr. White's Colymbus, 
 in their manner of life, which is spent chiefly in the water, wher a . 
 they swim and dive with astonishing rapidity, for which purpose 
 their fin-toed feet, placed far behind, and very short wings, are 
 particularly well adapted, and show the wisdom of God in th< 
 creation as conspicuously as the bird before mentioned. Thesv 
 birds were the greater and lesser crested grebe, podiceps cristate 
 et auritsu. What surprised me most was, that the first of these 
 birds was found alive on dry ground, about seven miles from the 
 sea, to which place there was no communication by water. How 
 did it get so far from the sea? its wings and legs being so ill 
 
39^ OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 adapted either to flying or walking. The lesser crested grebe was 
 also found in a fresh water pond which had no communication with 
 other water at some miles' distance from the sea. MARKWICK. 
 
 STONE-CURLEW. 
 
 On the 2;th February, 1788, stone-curlews were heard to 
 pipe : and on March ist, after it was dark, some were passing 
 over the village, as might be perceived by their quick short note, 
 which they use in their nocturnal excursions by way of watchword, 
 that they may not stray and lose their companions. 
 
 Thus, we see, that retire whithersoever they may in the winter, 
 they return again early in the spring, and are, as it now appears, 
 the first summer birds that come back. Perhaps the mildness of 
 the season may have quickened the emigration of the curlews this 
 year. 
 
 They spend the day in high elevated fields and sheep walks ; 
 but seem to descend in the night to streams and meadows, 
 perhaps for water, which their upland haunts do not afford them. 
 WHITE. 
 
 On the 3ist January, 1792, I received a bird of this species 
 which had been recently killed by a neighbouring farmer, who 
 said he had frequently seen it in his fields during the former part 
 of the winter : this perhaps was an occasional straggler, which by 
 some accident was prevented from accompanying its companions 
 in their migration. MARKWICK. 
 
 THE SMALLEST UNCRESTED WILLOW WREN. 
 
 The smallest uncrested willow wren, or chiff-chaff, is the next 
 early summer bird which we have remarked ; it utters two sharp 
 piercing notes, so loud in hollow woods, as to occasion an echo, 
 and is usually first heard about the 2oth March. WHITE. 
 
 This bird, which Mr. White calls the smallest willow-wren or 
 chiff-chaff, makes its appearance very early in the spring, and is 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 399 
 
 very common with us ; but I cannot make out the three different 
 species of willow-wrens which he assures us he has discovered. 
 Ever since the publication of his History of Selborne I have used 
 my utmost endeavours to discover his three birds, but hitherto 
 without success. I have frequently shot the bird which " haunts 
 only the tops of trees, and makes a sibilous noise," even in the 
 very act of uttering that sibilous note, but it always proved to be 
 the common willow wren or his chiff-chaft. In short, I never 
 could discover more than one species, unless my greater petty- 
 chaps, sylvia hortensis of Latham, is his greatest willow wren. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 FERN-OWL, OR GOAT-SUCKER. 
 
 The country people have a notion that the fern-owl, or churn- 
 owl, or eve-jarr, which they also call a puckeridge, is very injurious 
 to weanling calves, by inflicting as it strikes at them, the fatal 
 distemper known to cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge. 3 
 Thus does this harmless ill-fated bird fall under a double impu- 
 tation which it by no means deserves in Italy, of sucking the 
 teats of goats, whence it is called caprimulgus ; and with us, of 
 communicating a deadly disorder to cattle. But the truth of the 
 matter is, the malady above-mentioned is occasioned by the cestrus 
 bovisj a dipterous insect, which lays its eggs along the chines of 
 kine, where the maggots, when hatched, eat their way through the 
 hide of the beast into the flesh, and grow to a very large size. I 
 have just talked with a man who says he has more than once 
 stripped calves who have died of the puckeridge j that the ail or 
 complaint lay along the chine, where the flesh was much swelled, 
 and filled with purulent matter. Once I myself saw a large rough 
 maggot of this sort squeezed out of the back of a cow. 
 
 These maggots in Essex are called wornils. 
 
 The least observation and attention would convince men, that 
 these birds neither injure the goatherd nor the grazier, but are 
 
 3 The goat-sucker, like other birds, finds insects in attendance on cattle ; 
 hence its apparent "striking at them." Magpies and starlings will coolly perch 
 on the backs of animals and leisurely make their meal. 
 
400 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 perfectly harmless, and subsist alone, being night birds, on night 
 insects, such as scarabai and phalcence ; and through the month 
 of July mostly on the scarabxus solstitialis, which in many districts 
 abounds at that season. Those that we have opened, have always 
 had their craws stuffed with large night moths and their eggs, and 
 pieces of chaffers : nor does it anywise appear how they can, weak 
 and unarmed as they seem, inflict any harm upon kine, unless they 
 possess the powers of animal magnetism and can affect them by 
 fluttering over them. 
 
 A fern-owl, this evening (August 27th) showed off in a very 
 unusual and entertaining manner, by hawking round and round 
 the circumference of my great spreading oak for twenty times 
 following, keeping mostly close to the grass, but occasionally 
 glancing up amidst the boughs of the tree. This amusing bird 
 was then in pursuit of a brood of some particular phalaena belonging 
 to the oak, of which there are several sorts ; and exhibited on the 
 occasion a command of wing superior, I think, to that of the 
 swallow itself. 
 
 When a person approaches the haunt of fern-owls in an evening, 
 they continue flying round the head of the obtruder ; and by 
 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, and 
 their noise and gesture are intended by way of menace. 
 
 Fern-owls have attachment to oaks, no doubt on account of 
 food ; for the next evening we saw one again several times among 
 the boughs of the same tree \ but it did not skim round its stem 
 over the grass, as on the evening before. In May these birds find 
 the Scarabceus melolontha on the oak, and the Scarabczus sohtitialis 
 at midsummer. These peculiar birds can only be watched and 
 observed for two hours in the twenty-four ; and then in dubious 
 twilight an hour after sunset and an hour before sunrise. 
 
 On this day (July i4th, 1 789), a woman brought me two eggs of a 
 fern-owl or evening jarr, which she found on the verge of the Hanger, 
 to the left of the hermitage under a beechen shrub. This person, 
 who lives just at the foot 01 the Hanger, seems well acquainted 
 with these nocturnal swallows, and says she has often found their 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 40* 
 
 eggs near that place, and that they lay only two at a time on the 
 bare ground. The eggs were oblong, dusky, and streaked some- 
 what in the manner of the plumage of the parent bird, and were 
 equal in size at each end. The dam was sitting on the eggs when 
 found, which contained the rudiments of young, and would have 
 been 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. 
 
 July 4th, 1790. The woman who brought me two fern-owl's eggs 
 last year on July i4th, on this day produced me two more, one of 
 which had been laid this morning, as appears plainly, because 
 there was only one in the nest the evening before. They were 
 found, as last July, on the verge of the down above the hermitage 
 under a beechen shrub, on the naked ground. Last year those 
 eggs were full of young, just ready to be hatched. 
 
 These circumstances point out the exact time when these curious 
 nocturnal migratory birds lay their eggs and hatch their young. 
 Fern-owls, like snipes, stone-curlews, and some other birds, make 
 no nest. Birds that build on the ground do not make much of 
 nests. WHITE. 
 
 No author that I am acquainted with has given so accurate and 
 pleasing an account of the manners and habits of the goat- sucker 
 as Mr. White, taken entirely from his own observations. Its 
 being a nocturnal bird, has prevented my having many opportu- 
 nities of observing it. I suspect that it passes the day in conceal- 
 ment amidst the dark and shady gloom of deep-wooded dells, or 
 as they are called here gills ; having more than once seen it roused 
 from such solitary places by my dogs, when shooting in the day- 
 time. I have also sometimes seen it in an evening, but not long 
 enough to take notice of its habits and manners. I have never 
 seen it but in the summer, between the months of May and Sep- 
 tember. MARKWICK. 
 
402 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 SAND-MARTINS. 
 
 March 23rd, 1788. A gentleman, who was this week on a visit 
 at Waverley, took the opportunity of examining some of the hol'-s 
 in the sand-banks with which that district abounds. As these are 
 undoubtedly bored by bank martins, and are the places where they 
 avowedly breed, he was in hopes they might have slept there also, 
 and that he might have surprised them just as they were awaking 
 from their winter slumbers. When he had dug for some time, he 
 found the holes were horizontal and serpentine, as I had observed 
 before ; and that the nests were deposited at the inner end, and had 
 been occupied by broods in former summers, but no torpid birds 
 were to be found. He opened and examined about a dozen holes. 
 Another gentleman made the same search many years ago, with 
 as little success. 
 
 These holes were in depth about two feet. 
 
 March 2ist, 1790. A single bank or sand-martin was seen 
 hovering and playing round the sand-pit at Short Heath, where 
 in the summer they abound. 
 
 April 9th, 1793. A sober hind assures us, that this day, on 
 Wishhanger common between Hedleigh and Frinsham, he saw 
 several bank martins playing in and out, and hanging before some 
 nest-holes in a sand-hill, where these birds usually nestle. 
 
 The incident confirms my suspicions, that this species of hirundo 
 is to be seen first of any ; and gives great reason to suppose that 
 they do not leave their wild haunts at all, but are secreted amidst 
 the clefts and caverns of those abrupt cliffs, where they usually 
 spend their summers. 
 
 The late severe weather considered, it is not very probable that 
 these birds should have migrated so early from a tropical region, 
 through all these cutting winds and pinching frosts ; but it is easy 
 to suppose that they may, like bats and flies, have been awakened 
 by the influence of the sun, amidst their secret latebrse, where they 
 have spent the uncomfortable foodless months in a torpid state, 
 and the profoundest of slumbers. 
 
 There is a large pond at Wish-hanger, which induces these sand- 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 403 
 
 martins to frequent that district. For I have ever remarked that 
 they haunt near great waters, either rivers or lakes. WHITE. 
 
 Here, and in many other passages of his writings, this very 
 ingenious naturalist savours the opinion that part, at least, of 
 the swallow tribe pass their winter in a torpid state in the same 
 manner as bats and flies, and revive again on the approach of 
 spring, 
 
 I have frequently taken notice of all these circumstances, which 
 induced Mr. White to suppose that some of these hirundines lie 
 torpid during winter. I have seen so late as November, on a 
 finer day than usual at that season of the year, two or three 
 swallows flying backwards and forwards under a warm hedge, or 
 on the sunny side of some old building ; nay, I once saw on the 
 8th December two martins flying about very briskly, the weather 
 being mild. I had not seen any considerable number either of 
 swallows or martins for a considerable time before ; from whence, 
 then, could these few birds come, if not from some hole or cavern 
 where they had laid themselves up for the winter? Surely it will 
 not be asserted that these birds migrate back again from some 
 distant tropical region, merely on the appearance of a fine day or 
 two at this late season of the year. Again, very early in the spring, 
 and sometimes immediately after very cold severe weather, on its 
 growing a little warmer, a few of these birds suddenly make their 
 appearance, long before the generality of them are seen. These 
 appearances certainly favour the opinion of their passing the winter 
 in a torpid state, but do not absolutely prove the fact ; for who 
 ever saw them reviving of their own accord from their torpid state, 
 without being first brought to the fire, and as it were, forced into 
 life again ; soon after which revivification they constantly die. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 SWALLOWS, CONGREGATING AND 
 
 DISAPPEARANCE OF. 
 
 During the severe winds that often prevail late in the spring, it 
 is not easy to say how the hirundines subsist ; for they withdraw 
 themselves, and are hardly ever seen, nor do any insects appear 
 
 26 
 
404 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 for their support. That they can retire to rest, and sleep away 
 these uncomfortable periods, as bats do, is a matter rather to be 
 suspected than proved ; or do they not rather spend their time in 
 deep and sheltered vales near waters, where insects are more likely 
 to be found ? Certain it is, that hardly any individuals of this 
 genus have at such times been seen for several days together. 
 
 Sept. 1 3th, 1791. The congregating flocks of hirundines on the 
 church and tower are very beautiful and amusing ! When they 
 fly off together from the roof, on any alarm, they quite swarm in 
 the air. But they soon settle in heaps, and preening their feathers, 
 and lifting up their wings to admit the sun, seem highly to enjoy 
 the warm situation. Thus they spend the heat of the day, pre- 
 paring for their emigration, and, as it were, consulting when and 
 where they are to go. The flight about the churcn seems to con- 
 sist chiefly of house- martins, about 400 in number ; but there are 
 other places of rendezvous about the village frequented at the 
 same time. 
 
 It is remarkable that though most of them sit on the battlements 
 and roof, yet many hang or cling for some time by their claws 
 against the surface of the walls, in a manner not practised by 
 them at any other time of their remaining with us. 
 
 The swallows seem to delight more in holding their assemblies 
 on trees. 
 
 November 3rd, 1789. Two swallows were seen this morning at 
 Newton vicarage-house, hovering and settling on the roofs and out- 
 buildings. None have been observed at Selborne since October nth. 
 It is very remarkable, that after the hirundines have disappeared 
 for some weeks, a few are occasionally seen again ; sometimes, 
 in the first week in November, and that only for one day. Do 
 they not withdraw and slumber in some hiding-place in the 
 interval ? For we cannot suppose they had emigrated to warmer 
 climes and so returned again for one day. Is it not more probable 
 that they are awakened from sleep, and like the bats, are come 
 forth to collect a little food ? Bats appear at all seasons through 
 the autumn and spring months, when the thermometer is at 50, 
 because then phalsenae and moths are stirring. 
 
 These swallows looked like young ones. WHITE. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 405 
 
 Of their migration the proofs are such as will scarcely admit of 
 a doubt. Sir Charles Wager and Captain Wright saw vast flocks 
 of them at sea, when on their passage from one country to another 
 Our author, Mr. White, saw what he deemed the actual migration 
 of these birds, and which he has described at p. 184 of his 
 " History of Selborne " ; and of their congregating together on 
 the roofs of churches and other buildings, and on trees, previous 
 to their departure, many instances occur ; particularly I once ob- 
 served a large stock of house-martins on the roof of the church 
 here at Catsfield, which acted exactly in the manner here described 
 by Mr. White, sometimes preening their feathers and spreading 
 their wings to the sun, and then flying off all together, but soon 
 returning to their former situation. The greatest part of these 
 birds seemed to be young ones. MARKWICK. 
 
 WAGTAILS. 
 
 While the cows are feeding in the moist low pastures, broods of 
 wagtails, white and gray, run round them, close up to their noses, 
 and under their very bellies, availing themselves of the flies that 
 settle on their legs, and probably finding worms and larva that 
 are roused by the trampling of their feet. Nature is such an 
 economist, that the most incongruous animals can avail themselves 
 of each other ! 
 
 Interest makes strange friendships. WHITE. 
 
 Birds continually avail themselves of particular and unusual 
 circumstances to procure their food ; thus wagtails keep playing 
 about the noses and legs of cattle as they feed, in quest of flies 
 and other insects which abound near those animals ; and great 
 numbers of them will follow close to the plough to devour the 
 worms, etc., that are turned up by that instrument. The red- 
 breast attends the gardener when digging his borders ; and will, 
 with great familiarity and tameness, pick out the worms, almost 
 close to his spade, as I have frequently seen. Starlings and 
 magpies very often sit on the backs of sheep and deer to pick out 
 their ticks. MARKWICK. 
 
406 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 WRYNECK. 
 
 These birds appear on the grass plots and walks ; they walk a 
 little as well as hop, and thrust their bills into the turf, in quest, I 
 conclude, of ants, which are their food. While they hold their 
 
 THE WRYNECK (Yunx torquilld). 
 
 bills in the grass, they draw out their prey with their tongues, 
 which are so long as to be coiled round their heads. WHITE. 
 
 GROSBEAK. 
 
 Mr. B. shot a cock grosbeak which he had observed to haunt 
 his garden for more than a fortnight. I began to accuse this bird 
 of making sad havoc among the buds of the cherries, gooseberries, 
 and wall-fruit of all the neighbouring orchards. Upon opening 
 its crop or craw, no buds were to be seen ; but a mass of kernels 
 of the stones of fruits. Mr. B. observed that this bird frequented 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 407 
 
 the spot where plum-trees grow, and that he had seen it with 
 somewhat hard in its mouth, which it broke with difficulty ; these 
 were the stones of damsons. The Latin ornithologists call this 
 bird Coccothraustes, i.e. , berry-breaker, because with its large homy 
 beak it cracks and breaks the shells of stone-fruits for the sake of 
 the seed or kernel. Birds of this sort are rarely seen in England, 
 and only in winter.' WHITE. 
 
 I have never seen this rare bird but during the severest cold of 
 the hardest winters ; at which season of the year I have had in 
 my possession two or three that were killed in this neighbourhood 
 in different years. MARKWICK. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 
 
 SHEEP. 
 
 THE sheep on the downs this winter (1769) are very ragged, and 
 their coats much torn ; the shepherds say they tear their fleeces 
 with their own mouths and horns, and they are always in that way 
 in mild wet winters, being teased and tickled with a kind of lice. 
 
 After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great confusion and 
 bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to distinguish 
 one another as before. This embarrassment seems not so much 
 to arise from the loss of the fleece, which may occasion an altera- 
 tion in their appearance, as from the defect of that notus odor, 
 discriminating each individual personally ; which also is confounded 
 by the strong scent of pitch and tar wherewith they are newly 
 marked ; for the brute creation recognise each other more from 
 the smell than the sight ; and in matters of identity and diversity, 
 appeal much more to their noses than their eyes. After sheep 
 have been washed there is the same confusion, from the reason 
 given above. WHITE. 
 
408 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 
 
 RABBITS. 
 
 Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not only 
 bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no bents to 
 rise j hence warrens produce much the most delicate turf for 
 gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses. WHITE. 
 
 CAT AND SQUIRRELS. 
 
 A boy has taken three young squirrels in their nest or drey as 
 it is called in these parts. These small creatures he put under 
 the care of a cat who had lately lost her kittens, and finds that she 
 nurses and suckles them with the same assiduity and affection as 
 if they were her own offspring. This circumstance corroborates 
 my suspicion, that the mention of exposed and deserted children 
 being nurtured by female beasts of prey who had lost their young, 
 may not be so improbable an incident as many have supposed ; 
 and therefore may be a justification of those authors who have 
 gravely mentioned, what some have deemed to be a wild and 
 improbable story. 
 
 So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by a cat, 
 that the foster mother became jealous of her charge, and in pain 
 for their safety ; and therefore hid them over the ceiling, where 
 one died. This circumstance shows her affection for these fond- 
 lings, and that she supposes the squirrels to be her own young. 
 Thus hens, when they have hatched ducklings, are equally attached 
 to them as if they were their own chickens. WHITE. 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 An old hunting mare, which ran on the common, being taken 
 very ill, ran down into the village, as it were, to implore the help 
 of men, and died the night following in the street. WHITE. 
 
 HOUNDS. 
 
 The king's stag-hounds came down to Alton, attended by a 
 huntsman and six yeomen prickers, with horns, to try for the stag 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 409 
 
 that has haunted Hartley Wood for so long a time. Many 
 hundreds of people, horse and foot, attended the dogs to see the 
 deer unharboured ; but though the huntsmen drew Hartley Wood, 
 and Long Coppice, and Shrubwood, and Temple Hangers, and 
 in their way back Hartley and Wardle-ham Hangers, yet no stag 
 could be found. 
 
 The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out before 
 them, never drew the coverts with any address and spirit, as many 
 people that were present observed ; and this remark the event has 
 proved to be a true one. For as a person was lately pursuing a 
 pheasant that was wing-broken in Hartley Wood, he stumbled 
 upon the stag by accident, and ran in upon him as he lay con- 
 cealed amidst a thick brake of brambles and bushes. WHITE. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND 
 VERMES. 
 
 INSECTS IN GENERAL. 
 
 THE day and night insects occupy the annuals alternately; the 
 papilios, muscae, and apes, are succeeded at the close of day by 
 phalaenae, earwigs, woodlice, etc. In the dusk of the evening, 
 when beetles begin to buz, partridges begin to call ; these two 
 circumstances are exactly coincident. 
 
 Ivy is the last flower that supports the hymenopterous and dip- 
 terous insects. On sunny days quite on to November they swarm 
 on trees covered with this plant ; and when they disappear, 
 probably retire under the shelter of its leaves, concealing them- 
 selves between its fibres and the trees which it entwines. 4 WHITE. 
 
 This I have often observed, having seen bees and other winged 
 
 4 The ivy is haunted at night by swarms of moths and other insects. I have 
 seen an ivy bush, on a warm summer night, literally moving with the number 
 of moths which were feeding on it. The eyes of the larger ones glowed like 
 sparks of fire. 
 
410 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 insects swarming about the flowers of the ivy, very late in the 
 autumn. MARKWICK. 
 
 Spiders, woodlice, lepismae in cupboards and among sugar, 
 some empedec, gnats, flies of several species, some phalaenae in 
 hedges, earth-worms, etc., are stirring at all times when winters 
 are mild ; and are of great service to those soft-billed birds that 
 never leave us. 
 
 On every sunny day the winter through, clouds of insects usually 
 called gnats (I suppose tipulae and empedes) appear sporting and 
 dancing over the tops of the evergreen trees in the shrubbery, and 
 striking about as if the business of generation was still going on. 
 Hence it appears that these diptera (which by their sizes appear 
 to be of different species, are not subject to a torpid state in the 
 winter, as most winged insects are. At night, and in frosty weather, 
 and when it rains and blows, they seem to retire into those trees. 
 They often are out in a fog. WHITE. 
 
 This I have also seen, and have frequently observed swarms of 
 little winged insects playing up and down in the air in the middle 
 of winter, even when the ground has been covered with snow. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 HUMMING IN THE AIR. 
 
 There is a natural occurrence to be met with upon the highest 
 part of our down in hot summer days, which always amuses me 
 much, without giving me any satisfaction with respect to the cause 
 of it ; and that is, a loud audible humming of bees in the air, 
 though not one insect is to be seen. The sound is to be heard 
 distinctly the whole common through, from the Money-dells to 
 Mr. White's avenue gate. Any person would suppose that a large 
 swarm of bees was in motion, and playing about over his head. 
 This noise was heard last week, on June 28th. 
 
 " Resounds the living surface of the ground, 
 Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 
 To him who muses at noon." 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 411 
 
 " Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways. 
 Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv'd, 
 The quivering nations sport. " THOMSON'S SEASONS. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 CHAFFERS. 
 
 Cockchaffers seldom abound oftener than once in three or four 
 years; when they swarm, they deface the trees and hedges. 
 Whole woods of oaks are stripped bare by them. 
 
 Chaffers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the house- 
 sparrow. 
 
 The scarabceus solstitialis first appears about June 2 6th : they 
 are very punctual in their coming out every year. They are a 
 small species, about half the size of the May-chaffer, and are 
 known in some parts by the name of the fern-chaffer. WHITE. 
 
 A singular circumstance relative to the cockchaffer, or, as it is 
 called here, the May-bug, scarabceus mclolontha, happened this 
 year (1800). My gardener, in digging some ground, found, about 
 six inches under the surface, two of these insects alive and per- 
 fectly formed, so early as the 24th March. When he brought 
 them to me, they appeared to be as perfect, and as much alive 
 as in the midst of summer, crawling about as briskly as ever ; 
 yet I saw no more of this insect till the 22nd May, when it 
 began to make its appearance. How comes it, that though 
 it was perfectly formed so early as the 24th March, it did not 
 show itself above ground till nearly two months afterwards ? 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 PTINUS PECTINICORNIS. 
 
 Those maggots that make worm-holes in tables, chairs, bed- 
 posts, etc., and destroy wooden furniture, especially where there 
 is any sap, are the larvae of the ptinus pectinicornis. This insect, 
 it is probable, deposits its eggs on the surface, and the worms eat 
 their way in. 
 
412 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 In their holes they turn into their pupae state, and so come 
 forth winged in July ; eating their way through the valances or 
 curtains of a bed, or any other furniture that happens to obstruct 
 their passage. 
 
 They seem to be most inclined to breed in beech : hence 
 beech will not make lasting utensils, or furniture. If their eggs 
 are deposited on the surface, frequent rubbing will preserve 
 wooden furniture. WHITE. 
 
 BLATTA ORIENTALIS. COCKROACH. 
 
 A neighbour complained that her house was overrun with a 
 kind of black beetle, or, as she expressed herself, with a kind of 
 black-bob, which swarmed in her kitchen when they got up in a 
 morning before daybreak. 
 
 Soon after this account, I observed an unusual insect in one of 
 my dark chimney closets, and find since, that in the night, they 
 swarm also in my kitchen. On examination I soon ascertained 
 the species to be the blatta orientalis of Linnaeus, and the blatta 
 molendinaria of Mouffet. The male is winged ; the female is not, 
 but shows somewhat like the rudiments of wings, as if in the 
 pupa state. 
 
 These insects belonged originally to the warmer parts of 
 America, and were conveyed from thence by shipping to the East 
 Indies ; and by means of commerce begin to prevail in the more 
 northern parts of Europe, as Russia, Sweden, etc. How long 
 they have abounded in England I cannot say; but have never 
 observed them in my house till lately. 
 
 They love warmth, and haunt chimney closets and the backs 
 of ovens. Poda says that these and house crickets will not asso- 
 ciate together ; but he is mistaken in that assertion, as Linnaeus 
 suspected he was. They are altogether night insects, luajuga, 
 never coming forth till the rooms are dark and still, and escaping 
 away nimbly at the approach of a candle. Their antennae are 
 remarkably long, slender, and flexile. 
 
 October 1790. After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 413 
 
 hearth swarms with young crickets, and young blatt<z molendinaria 
 of all sizes, from the most minute growth to their full proportions. 
 They seem to live in a friendly manner together, and not to prey 
 the one on the other. 
 
 August 1792. After the destruction of many thousands of 
 blattce. molendinaria, we find that at intervals a fresh detachment 
 of old ones arrives, and particularly during this hot season ; for 
 the windows being left open in the evenings, the males come 
 flying in at the casements from the neighbouring houses, which 
 swarm with them. How the females, that seem to have no perfect 
 wings that they can use, can contrive to get from house to house, 
 does not so readily appear. These, like many insects, when 
 they find their present abodes overstocked, have powers of 
 migrating to fresh quarters. Since the blatice have been so 
 much kept under, the crickets have greatly increased in number. 
 WHITE. 
 
 GRYLLUS DOMESTICUS. HOUSE CRICKET. 
 
 November. After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen 
 hearth swarms with minute crickets not so large as fleas, which 
 must have been lately hatched. So that these domestic insects, 
 cherished by the influence of a constant large fire, regard not the 
 season of the year, but produce their young at a time when their 
 congeners are either dead, or laid up for the winter, to pass away 
 the uncomfortable months in the profoundest slumbers, and a 
 state of torpidity. 
 
 When house -crickets are out, and running about in a room 
 in the night, if surprised by a candle, they give two or three 
 shrill notes, as it were for a signal to their fellows, that they 
 may escape to their crannies and lurking holes, to avoid danger. 
 WHITE. 
 
 CIMEX LINEARIS. 
 
 August 1 2th, 1775. Cimices lineares are now in high copulation 
 on ponds and pools. The females, who vastly exceed the males 
 
414 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 in bulk, dart and shoot along on the surface of the water with the 
 males on their backs. When a female chooses to be disengaged, 
 she rears, and jumps, and plunges, like an unruly colt ; the lover 
 thus dismounted, soon finds a new mate. The females, as fast as 
 their curiosities are satisfied, retire to another part of the lake, 
 perhaps to deposit their foetus in quiet ; hence the sexes are found 
 separate, except where generation is going on. From the multi- 
 tude of minute young of all gradations of sizes, these insects seem 
 without doubt to be viviparous. WHITE. 
 
 PHAL^ENA QUERCUS. 
 
 Most of our oaks are naked of leaves, and even the Holt in 
 general, having been ravaged by the caterpillars of a small 
 phalana which is of a pale yellow colour. These insects, though 
 a feeble race, yet, from their infinite numbers, are of wonderful 
 effect, being able to destroy the foliage of whole forests and 
 districts. At this season they leave their aurelia, and issue 
 forth in their fly-state, swarming and covering the trees and 
 hedges. 
 
 In a field at Greatham, I saw a flight of swifts busied in catching 
 their prey near the ground \ and found they were hawking after 
 these phalcencz. The aureltce of this moth is shining and as black 
 as jet ; and lies wrapped up in a leaf of the tree, which is rolled 
 round it, and secured at the ends by a web, to prevent the maggot 
 from falling out. WHITE. 
 
 I suspect that the insect here meant is not the phafana quercus, 
 but the phalcena viridata, concerning which, I find the following 
 note in my " Naturalist's Calendar " for the year 1785. 
 
 About this time, and for a few days last past, I observed the 
 leaves of almost all the oak-trees in Denn copse to be eaten and 
 destroyed, and, on examining more narrowly, saw an infinite num- 
 ber of small beautiful pale green moths flying about the trees ; the 
 leaves of which that were not quite destroyed were curled up, and 
 withinside were the exuvitz or remains of the chrysalis, from whence 
 

 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 415 
 
 I suppose the moths had issued, and whose caterpillar had eaten 
 the leaves. MARKWICK. 
 
 EPHEMERA CAUDA BISET A. MAY-FLY. 
 
 June loth, 1771. Myriads of May-flies appear for the first time 
 on the Alresford stream. The air was crowded with them, and 
 
 MAY-FLIES IN SUNSET DANCE. 
 
 the surface of the water covered. Large trouts sucked them in 
 as they lay struggling on the surface of the stream, unable to rise 
 till their wings were dried. 
 
 This appearance reconciled me in some measure to the wonder- 
 ful account that Scopoli gives of the quantities emerging from the 
 rivers of Carniola. Their motions are very peculiar, up and down 
 for many yards almost in a perpendicular line. WHITE. 
 
416 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 I cnce saw a swarm of these insects playing up and down over 
 the surface of a pond in Denn Park, exactly in the manner de- 
 scribed by this accurate naturalist. It was late in the evening of 
 a warm summer's day when I observed them. MARKWICK. 
 
 SPHYNX OCELLATA. 
 
 A vast insect appears after it is dusk, flying with a humming 
 noise, and inserting its tongue into the bloom of the honey-suckle ; 
 it scarcely settles upon the plants, but feeds on the wing in the 
 manner of humming birds. WHITE. 
 
 I have frequently seen the large bee moth, sphinx stellataruntj 
 inserting its long tongue or proboscis into the centre of flowers, 
 and feeding on their nectar, without settling on them, but keeping 
 constantly on the wing. MARKWICK. 
 
 CONVOLVULUS HAWK-MOTH. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 417 
 
 WILD BEE. 
 
 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, and 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 its chin and its 
 fore legs. 
 
 There is a remarkable hill on the downs near Lewes in Sussex, 
 known by the name of Mount Carburn, which overlooks that 
 town, and affords a most engaging prospect of all the country round, 
 besides several views of the sea. On the very summit of this 
 exalted promontory, and amidst the trenches of its Danish camp, 
 there haunts a species of wild bee, making its nest in the chalky 
 soil. When people approach the place, these insects begin to be 
 alarmed, and, with a sharp and hostile sound, dash and strike 
 round the heads and faces of intruders. I have often been inter- 
 rupted myself while contemplating the grandeur of the scenery 
 around me, and have thought myself in danger of being stung. 
 WHITE. 
 
 WASPS. 
 
 Wasps abound in woody wild districts far from neighbourhoods ; 
 they feed on flowers, and catch flies and caterpillars to carry to 
 their young. Wasps make their nests with the raspings of sound 
 timber ; hornets, with what they gnaw from decayed : these parti- 
 cles of wood are kneaded up with a mixture of saliva from their 
 bodies and moulded into combs. 
 
 When there is no fruit in the gardens, wasps eat flies, and suck 
 the honey from flowers, from ivy blossoms and umbellated plants ; 
 they carry off also flesh from butchers' shambles. WHITE. 
 
 In the year 1775, wasps abounded so prodigiously in this neigh- 
 bourhood, that, in the month of August, no less than seven or 
 
4i 8 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 eight of their nests were ploughed up in one field : of which there 
 were several instances, as I was informed. 
 
 In the spring, about the beginning of April, a single wasp is 
 sometimes seen, which is of a larger size than usual ; this I 
 imagine is the queen or female wasp, the mother of the future 
 swarm. MARKWICK. 
 
 OESTRUS CURVICAUDA. 
 
 This insect lays its nits or eggs on horses' legs, flanks, etc., each 
 on a single hair. The maggots, when hatched, do not enter the 
 horses' skins, but fall to the ground. It seems to abound most 
 in moist, moorish places, though sometimes seen in the uplands. 
 WHITE. 
 
 NOSE-FLY. 
 
 About the beginning of July, a species of fly (mused] obtains, 
 which proves very tormenting to horses, trying still to enter their 
 nostrils and ears, and actually laying their eggs in the latter of 
 those organs, or perhaps in both. When these abound, horses in 
 woodland districts become very impatient at their work, continu- 
 ally tossing their heads, and rubbing their noses on each other, 
 regardless of the driver, so that accidents often ensue. In the 
 heat of the day, men are often obliged to desist from ploughing. 
 Saddle-horses are also very troublesome at such seasons. Country 
 people call this insect the nose-fly. WHITE. 
 
 Is not this insect the Oestrus nasalis of Linnaeus, so well 
 described by Mr. Clark in the third volume of the " Linnaean 
 Transactions," under the name of Oestrus veterinus ? MARKWICK. 
 
 ICHNEUMON FLY. 
 
 I saw lately a small ichneumon fly attack a spider much larger 
 than itself on a grass walk. When the spider made any resistance, 
 the ichneumon applied her tail to him, and stung him with great 
 vehemence, so that he soon became dead and motionless. The 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 419 
 
 ichneumon then running backward drew her prey very nimbly 
 over the walk into the standing grass. This spider would be 
 deposited in some hole where the ichneumon would lay some 
 eggs ; and as soon as the eggs were hatched, the carcase would 
 afford ready food for the maggots. 
 
 Perhaps some eggs might be injected into the body of the 
 spider, in the act of stinging. Some ichneumons deposit their 
 eggs in the aurelia of moths and butterflies. WHITE. 
 
 In my "Naturalist's Calendar" for 1795, July 2ist, I find the 
 following note : 
 
 It is not uncommon for some of the species of ichneumon flies 
 to deposit their eggs in the chrysalis of a butterfly; some time 
 ago I put two of the chrysales of a butterfly into a box, and 
 covered it with gauze, to discover what species of butterfly they 
 would produce ; but instead of a butterfly, one of them produced 
 a number of small ichneumon flies. 
 
 There are many instances of the great service these little insects 
 are to mankind in reducing the number of noxious insects, by 
 depositing their eggs in the soft bodies of their larva ; but none 
 more remarkable than that of the ichneumon tipulcz, which pierces 
 the tender bodies and deposits its eggs in the larva of the Tipula 
 tritici, an insect which, when it abounds greatly, is very prejudicial 
 to the grains of wheat. This operation I have frequently seen it 
 perform with wonder and delight. MARKWICK. 
 
 BOMBYLIUS MEDIUS. 
 
 The Bombylius medius is much about in March and the begin- 
 ning of April, and soon seems to retire. It is a hairy insect, 
 like a humble-bee, but with only two wings, and a long straight 
 beak, with which it sucks the early flowers. The female seems 
 to lay its eggs as it poises on its wings, by striking its tail on 
 the ground, and against the grass that stands in its way, in a 
 quick manner, for several times together. WHITE. 
 
 I have often seen this insect fly with great velocity, stoo on 
 
 27 
 
420 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMhS. 
 
 a sudden, hang in the air in a stationary position for some time, 
 and then fly off again ; but do not recollect having ever seen 
 it strike its tail against the ground, or any other substance.- - 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 MUSCLE. FLIES. 
 
 In the decline of the year, when the mornings and evenings 
 become chilly, many species of flies (Muscce) retire into houses, 
 and swarm in the windows. 
 
 At first they are very brisk and alert ; but as they grow more 
 torpid, one cannot help observing that they move with difficulty, 
 and are scarce able to lift their legs, which seem as if glued to 
 the glass ; and by degrees many do actually stick on till they die 
 in the place. 
 
 It has been observed that divers flies, besides their sharp 
 hooked nails, have also skinny palms, or flaps to their feet, 
 whereby they are enabled to stick on the glass and other smooth 
 bodies, and to walk on ceilings with their backs downward, by 
 means of the pressure of the atmosphere on those flaps ; the 
 weight of which they easily overcome in warm weather, when they 
 are brisk and alert. But in the decline of the year, this resistance 
 becomes too mighty for their diminished strength; and we see 
 flies labouring along, and lugging their feet in windows as if they 
 stuck to the glass, and it is with the utmost difficulty they can 
 draw one foot after another, and disengage their hollow caps from 
 the slippery surface. 
 
 Upon the same principle that flies stick and support themselves, 
 do boys, by way of play, carry heavy weights by only a piece of 
 wet leather at the end of a string clapped close on the surface of 
 a stone. WHITE. 
 
 TIPUL.E, OR EMPEDES. 
 
 May. Millions of empedes, or tipula, come forth at the close of 
 dav, and swarm to such a degree as to fill the air. At this 
 juncture they sport and copulate; as it grows more dark they 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 421 
 
 retire. All day they hide in the hedges. As they rise in a 
 cloud they appear like smoke. 
 
 I do not remember to have seen such swarms, except in the 
 fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass grounds. 
 WHITE. 
 
 APHIDES. 
 
 On the ist August, about half an hour after three in the after- 
 noon, the people of Selborne were surprised by a shower of 
 aphides which fell in these parts. They who were walking in the 
 streets at that time found themselves covered with these insects, 
 
 LIME-TREE APHIS. 
 (Tke lines under the figure show tlu actualize.) 
 
 which settled also on the trees and gardens, and blackened all the 
 vegetables where they alighted. These armies, no doubt, were 
 then in a state of emigration, and shifting their quarters ; and 
 might perhaps come from the great hop-plantations of Kent or 
 Sussex, the wind being that day at north. They were observed 
 at the same time at Farnham, and all along the vale to Alton. 
 WHITE. 
 
 ANTS. 
 August 23rd. Ever)' ant-hill about this time is a strange hurry 
 
422 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 and confusion ; and all the winged ants, agitated by some violent 
 impulse, are leaving their homes, and, bent on emigration, swarm 
 by myriads in the air, to the great emolument of the hirundines, 
 which fare luxuriously. Those that escape the swallows return 
 no more to their nests, but looking out for fresh settlements, lay 
 a foundation for future colonies. All the females at this time 
 are pregnant; the males that escape being eaten, wander away 
 and die. 
 
 October 2nd. Flying-ants, male and female, usually swarm and 
 migrate on hot sunny days in August and September : but this 
 day a vast emigration took place in my garden, and myriads came 
 forth, in appearance from the drain which goes under the fruit- 
 wall, filling the air and the adjoining trees and shrubs with their 
 numbers. The females were full of eggs. This late swarming is 
 probably owing to the backward wet season. The day following, 
 not one flying ant was to be seen. 
 
 Horse-ants travel home to their nests laden with flies which they 
 have caught, and the aureliae of smaller ants, which they seize by 
 violence. WHITE. 
 
 In my "Naturalist's Calendar" for the year 1777, on Septem- 
 ber 6th, I find the following note to the article Flying Ants. 
 
 I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants flying about the top 
 of some tall elm-trees (close by my house) ; some were continu- 
 ally dropping to the ground, as if from the trees, and others 
 rising up from the ground ; many of them were joined together 
 in copulation ; and I imagine their life is but short, for as soon 
 as produced from the egg by the heat of the sun, they propa- 
 gate their species, and soon after perish. They were black, 
 somewhat like the small black ant, and had four wings. I saw 
 also, at another place, a large sort, which were yellowish. On the 
 8th September, 1785, I again observed the same circumstance of 
 a vast number of these insects flying near the tops of the elms 
 and dropping to the ground. 
 
 On the 2nd March, 1777, I saw great numbers of ants come 
 out of the ground. MARKWICK. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 423 
 
 GLOW-WORMS. 
 
 By observing two glow-worms which were brought from the field 
 to the bank in the garden, it appeared to us that these little 
 creatures put out their lamps between eleven and twelve, and shine 
 no more for the rest of the night. 
 
 Little glow-worms, attracted by the light of the candles, come 
 into the parlour. WHITE. 
 
 EARTH-WORMS. 
 
 Earth-worms make their casts most in mild weather, about 
 March and April ; they do not lie torpid in winter, but come 
 forth when there is no frost ; they travel about in rainy nights, 
 as appears from their sinuous tracks on the soft muddy soil, 
 perhaps in search of food. 
 
 When earth-worms lie out a-nights on the turf, though they 
 extend their bodies a great way, they do not leave their holes, but 
 keep the ends of their tails fixed therein, so that on the least 
 alarm they can retire with precipitation under the earth. What- 
 ever food falls within their reach when thus extended, they seem 
 to be content with, such as blades of grass, straws, fallen leaves, 
 the ends of which they often draw into their holes ; even in copu- 
 lation their hinder parts never quit their holes ; so that no two, 
 except they lie within reach of each other's bodies, can have any 
 commerce of that kind ; but as every individual is an hermaphro- 
 dite, there is no difficulty in meeting with a mate, as would be the 
 case were they of different sexes. WHITE. 
 
 SNAILS AND SLUGS. 
 
 The shell-less snails called slugs are in motion all the winter in 
 mild weather, and commit great depredations on garden plants, 
 and much injure the green wheat, the loss of which is imputed to 
 earth-worms ; while the shelled snail, the <e/oeoi/cos, does not come 
 forth at all till about April loth, and not only lays itself up pretty 
 early in autumn, in places secure from frost, but also throws out 
 
424 OBSERVATIONS ON sNSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 round the mouth of its shell a thick operculum formed from its 
 own saliva ; so that it is perfectly secured and corked up, as it 
 were, from all inclemencies. The cause why the slugs are able to 
 endure the cold so much better than shell-snails is, that their 
 bodies are covered with slime, as whales are with blubber. 
 
 Snails copulate about Midsummer ; and soon after deposit their 
 eggs in the mould by running their heads and bodies under 
 ground. Hence the way to be rid of them is to kill as many as 
 possible before they begin to breed. 
 
 Large, grey, shell-less cellar-snails lay themselves up about the 
 
 SNAILS AND SLUGS. 
 
 same time with those that live abroad ; hence it is plain that a 
 defect of warmth is not the only cause that influences their retreat. 
 WHITE. 
 
 SNAKE'S SLOUGH. 
 
 " There the snake throws her enamell'd skin." 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S MIDS. NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 
 About the middle of this month (September) we found in a 
 field near a hedge the slough of a large snake, which seemed to 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 42$ 
 
 have been newly cast. From circumstances it appeared as if 
 turned wrong side outward, and as drawn off backward, like a 
 stocking or woman's glove. Not only the whole skin, but scales 
 from the very eyes are peeled off, and appear in the head of the 
 slough like a pair of spectacles. The reptile, at the time of 
 changing his coat, had entangled himself intricately in the grass 
 and weeds, so that the friction of the stalks and blades might 
 promote this curious shifting of his exuviae. 
 
 " Lubrica serpens 
 
 Exuit in spinis vestem." LUCRET. 
 
 It would be a most entertaining sight could a person be an eye- 
 witness to such a feat, and see the snake in the act of changing his 
 garment. As the convexity of the scales of the eyes in the slough 
 is now inward, that circumstance alone is a proof that the skin has 
 been turned j not to mention that now the present inside is much 
 darker than the outer. If you look through the scales of the 
 snake's eyes from the concave side, viz., as the reptile used them, 
 they lessen objects much. Thus it appears from what has been 
 said, that snakes crawl out of the mouth of their own sloughs, and 
 quit the tail part last, just as eels are skinned by a cook maid. 
 While the scales of the eyes are growing loose, and a new skin is 
 forming, the creature in appearance must be blind, and feel itself 
 in an awkward uneasy situation. WHITE. 
 
 I have seen many sloughs or skins of snakes entire, after they 
 have cast them off; and once in particular I remember to have 
 found one of these sloughs so intricately interwoven amongst some 
 brakes that it was with difficulty removed without being broken ; 
 this undoubtedly was done by the creature to assist in getting rid 
 of its encumbrance. 
 
 I have great reason to suppose that the eft or common lizard 
 also casts its skin or slough, but not entire like the snake ; for on 
 the 3oth March, 1777, I saw one with something ragged hanging 
 to it, which appeared to be part of its old skin. MARKWICK. 
 
426 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 
 
 TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR LEAVES. 
 
 ONE of the first trees that becomes naked is the walnut ; the 
 mulberry, the ash, especially if it bears many keys, and the horse- 
 chestnut come next. All lopped trees, while their heads are young, 
 carry their leaves a long while. Apple-trees and peaches remain 
 green very late, often till the end of November : young beeches 
 never cast their leaves till spring, till the new leaves sprout and 
 push them off; in the autumn the beechen-leaves turn of a deep 
 chestnut colour. Tall beeches cast their leaves about the end of 
 October. WHITE. 
 
 SIZE AND GROWTH. 
 
 Mr. Marsham of Stratton, near Norwich, informs me by letter 
 thus : " I became a planter early ; so that an oak which I planted 
 in 1720 is become now, at one foot from the earth, twelve feet six 
 inches in circumference, and at fourteen feet (the half of the timber 
 length) is eight feet two inches. So if the bark was to be measured 
 as timber, the tree gives i i6j feet, buyer's measure. Perhaps you 
 never heard of a larger oak while the planter was living. I flatter 
 myself that I increased the growth by washing the stem, and 
 digging a circle as far as I supposed the roots to extend, and by 
 spreading sawdust, etc., as related in the Phil. Trans, i wish 
 I had begun with beeches (my favourite trees as well as yours), I 
 might then have seen very large trees of my own raising. But I 
 did not begin with beech till 1741, and then by seed ; so tnai 4 ny 
 largest is now at five feet from the ground, six feet three inches in 
 girth, and with its head spreads a circle of twenty yards diameter. 
 This tree was also dug round, washed, etc." Stratton, 
 1790- 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 427 
 
 The circumference of trees planted by myself at one foot from 
 the ground (1790). 
 
 Oak in 1730 .... 4ft. 5 in. 
 
 Ash 1730 . . . . . 4 6| 
 
 Great fir 1751 . . . .50 
 
 Greatest beech 1751 40 
 
 Elm 1750 . . . -53 
 
 Lime 1756 . . . 5 5 
 
 The great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. Marsham 
 to be the biggest in this island, at seven feet from the ground, 
 measures in circumference thirty-four feet. It has in old times 
 lost several of its boughs, and is tending to decay. Mr. Marsham 
 computes, that at fourteen feet length this oak contains 1000 feet 
 of timber. 
 
 It has been the received opinion that trees grow in height only 
 by their annual upper shoot. But my neighbour over the way, 
 whose occupation confines him to one spot, assures me, that trees 
 are expanded and raised in the lower parts also. The reason that 
 he gives is this : the point of one of my firs began for the first 
 time to peep over an opposite roof at the beginning of summer ; 
 but before the growing season was over, the whole shoot of the 
 year, and three or four joints of the body beside, became visible 
 to him as he sits on his form in his shop. According to this 
 supposition, a tree may advance in height considerably, though 
 the summer shoot should be destroyed every year. WHITE. 
 
 FLOWING OF SAP. 
 
 If the bough of a vine is cut late in the spring, just before the 
 shoots push out, it will bleed considerably ; but after the leaf is 
 cut, any part may be taken off without the least inconvenience. 
 So oaks may be barked while the leaf is budding : but as soon 
 as they are expanded, the bark will no longer part from the wood, 
 because the sap that lubricates the bark and makes it part, is 
 evaporated off through the leaves. WHITE. 
 
428 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 
 
 RENOVATION OF LEAVES. 
 
 When oaks are quite stripped of their leaves by chaffers, they 
 are clothed again soon after Midsummer with a beautiful foliage : 
 but beeches, horse-chestnuts and maples, once defaced by those 
 insects, never recover their beauty again for the whole season. 
 WHITE. 
 
 ASH TREES. 
 
 Many ash trees bear loads of keys every year, others never 
 seem to bear any at all. The prolific ones are naked of leaves 
 and unsightly ; those that are sterile abound in foliage, and carry 
 their verdure a long while, and are pleasing objects. WHITE. 
 
 BEECH. 
 
 Beeches love to grow in crowded situations, and will insinuate 
 themselves through the thickest covert, so as to surmount it all : 
 are therefore proper to mend thin places in tall hedges. WHITE. 
 
 SYCAMORE. 
 
 May 1 2th. The sycamore or great maple is in bloom, and at this 
 season makes a beautiful appearance, and affords much pabulum 
 for bees, smelling strongly like honey. The foliage of this tree is 
 very fine, and very ornamental to outlets. All the maples have 
 saccharine juices. WHITE. 
 
 GALLS OF LOMBARDY POPLAR. 
 
 The stalks and ribs of the leaves of the Lombardy poplar are 
 embossed with large tumours of an oblong shape, which by in- 
 curious observers have been taken for the fruit of the tree. These 
 galls are full of small insects, some of which are winged, and some 
 not. The parent insect is of the genus of cynips. Some poplars 
 in the garden are quite loaded with these excrescences. WHITE. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 429 
 
 CHESTNUT TIMBER. 
 
 John Carpenter brings home some old chestnut trees which are 
 very long ; in several places the wood-peckers had begun to bore 
 them. The timber and bark of these trees are so very like oak, 
 as might easily deceive an indifferent observer, but the wood is 
 very shakey, and towards the heart cup-shakey (that is to say, apt 
 to separate in round pieces like cups), so that the inward parts are 
 of no use. They are bought for the purpose of cooperage, but 
 must make but ordinary barrels, buckets, etc. Chestnut sells for 
 half the price of oak ; but has sometimes been sent into the king's 
 docks, and passed off instead of oak. WHITE. 
 
 LIME BLOSSOMS. 
 
 Dr. Chandler tells that in the south of France, an infusion of 
 the blossoms of the lime tree, TJ/ia, is in much esteem as a remedy 
 for coughs, hoarsenesses, fevers, etc., and that at Nismes, he saw 
 an avenue of limes that was quite ravaged and torn to pieces by 
 people greedily gathering the bloom, which they dried and kept 
 for these purposes. 
 
 Upon the strength of this information we made some tea of 
 lime blossoms, and found it a very soft, well-flavoured, pleasant, 
 saccharine julep, in taste much resembling the juice of liquorice. 
 WHITE. 
 
 BLACKTHORN. 
 
 This tree usually blossoms while cold north-east winds blow ; so 
 that the harsh rugged weather obtaining at this season, is called 
 by the country people, blackthorn winter. WHITE. 
 
 IVY BERRIES. 
 
 Ivy berries form a noble and providential supply for birds in 
 winter and spring ; for the first severe frost freezes and spoils all 
 the haws, sometimes by the middle of November ; ivy berries do 
 not seem to freeze. WHITE. 
 
430 . OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 
 
 HOPS. 
 
 The culture of Virgil's vines corresponds very exactly with the 
 modern management of hops. I might instance in the perpetual 
 diggings and hoeings, in the tying to the stakes and poles, in 
 pruning the superfluous shoots, etc., but lately I have observed 
 a new circumstance, which was a neighbouring farmer's harrowing 
 between the rows of hops with a small triangular harrow, drawn 
 by one horse, and guided by two handles. This occurrence 
 brought to my mind the following passage : 
 
 ipsa 
 
 Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos." GEORG. 
 
 Hops are dioecious plants ; hence perhaps it might be proper, 
 though 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 other growth, cultivated by man, has 
 such frequent and general failures as hops. 
 
 Two hop gardens much injured by a hailstorm, June 5th, show 
 now (September 2nd) a prodigious crop, and larger and fairer hops 
 than any in the parish. The owners seem now to be convinced 
 that the hail, by beating off the tops of the binds, has increased 
 the side-shoots, and improved the crop. Query. Therefore 
 should not the tops of hops be pinched off when the binds are 
 very gross, and strong ? WHITE. 
 
 SEED LYING DORMANT. 
 
 The naked part of the Hanger is now covered with thistles of 
 various kinds. The seeds of these thistles may have lain probably 
 under the thick shade of the beeches for many years, but could 
 not vegetate till the sun and air were admitted. When old beech 
 trees are cleared away, the naked ground in a year or two becomes 
 covered with strawberry plants, the seeds of which must have lain 
 in the ground for an age at least. One of the slidders or trenches 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 431 
 
 down the middle of the Hanger, close covered over with lofty 
 beeches near a century old, is still called " strawberry slidder/' 
 though no strawberries have grown there in the memory of man. 
 That sort of fruit did once, no doubt, abound there, and will 
 again when the obstruction is removed. WHITE. 
 
 BEANS SOWN BY BIRDS. 
 
 Many horse-beans sprang up in my field-walks in the autumn, 
 and are now grown to a considerable height. As the Ewel was in 
 beans last summer, it is most likely that these seeds came from 
 thence; but then the distance is too considerable for them to 
 have been conveyed by mice. It is most probable therefore that 
 they were brought by birds, and in particular by jays and pies, 
 who seem to have hid them among the grass and moss, and then 
 to have forgotten where they had stowed them. Some pease are 
 growing also in the same situation, and probably under the same 
 circumstances . WHITE. 
 
 CUCUMBERS SET BY BEES. 
 
 If bees, who are much the best setters of cucumbers, do not 
 happen to take kindly to the frames, the best way is to tempt 
 them by a little honey put on the male and female bloom. When 
 they are once induced to haunt the frames, they set all the fruit, 
 and will hover with impatience round the lights in a morning, till 
 the glasses are opened. Probatum est. WHITE. 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 A notion has always obtained that in England hot summers are 
 productive of fine crops of wheat; yet in the years 1780 and 1781, 
 though the heat was intense, the wheat was much mildewed, and 
 the crop light. Does not severe heat, while the straw is milky, 
 occasion its juices to exude, which being extravasated, occasion 
 spots, discolour the stems and blades, and injure the health of the 
 plants ? WHITE. 
 
433 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 
 
 TRUFFLES. 
 
 August. A truffle-hunter called on us, having in his pocket 
 several large truffles found in this neighbourhood. He says these 
 roots are not to be found in deep woods, but in narrow hedge- 
 rows and the skirts of coppices. Some truffles, he informed us, 
 lie two feet within the earth, and some, quite on the surface ; the 
 latter, he added, have little or no smell, and are not so easily 
 discovered by the dogs as those that lie deeper. Half-a-crown a 
 pound was the price which he asked for this commodity. Truffles 
 never abound in wet winters and springs. They are in season, in 
 different situations, at least nine months in the year. WHITE. 
 
 TREMELLA NOSTOC. 
 
 Though the weather may have been ever so dry and burning, 
 yet after two or three wet days, this jelly-like substance abounds 
 on the walks. WHITE. 
 
 FAIRY RINGS. 
 
 The cause, occasion, call it what you will, of fairy rings, subsists 
 in the turf, and is conveyable with it : l for the turf of my garden- 
 walks, brought from the down above, abounds with those appear- 
 ances, which vary their shape, and shift situation continually, 
 discovering themselves now in circles, now in segments, and some- 
 times in irregular patches and spots. Wherever they obtain, puff- 
 balls abound ; the seeds of which were doubtless brought in the 
 turf. WHITE. 
 
 1 Fairy rings are caused by certain fungi which throw their seeds outwards, 
 so that a gradually increasing circle is formed of greener and brighter vege- 
 tation. 
 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 433 
 
 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 BAROMETER. 
 
 NOVEMBER 22nd, 1768. A remarkable fall of the barometer all over 
 the kingdom. At Selborne we had no wind, and not much rain ; 
 only vast, swagging, rock-like clouds appeared at a distance. 
 WHITE. 
 
 PARTIAL FROST. 
 
 The country people, who are abroad in winter mornings long 
 before sunrise, talk much of hard frosts in some spots, and none 
 in others. The reason of these partial frosts is obvious, for there 
 are at such times partial fogs about ; where the fog obtains, little 
 or no frost appears; but where the air is clear, there it freezes hard. 
 So the frost takes place either on hill or in dale, wherever the air 
 happens to be clearest and freest from vapour. WHITE. 
 
 THAW. 
 
 Thaws are sometimes surprisingly quick, considering the small 
 quantity of rain. Does not the warmth at such times come from 
 below? The cold in still, severe seasons seems to come down 
 from above ; for the coming over of a cloud in severe nights raises 
 the thermometer abroad at once full ten degrees. The first notices 
 of thaws often seem to appear in vaults, cellars, etc. 
 
 If a frost happens, even when the ground is considerablyMry, as 
 soon as a thaw takes place, the paths and fields are all in a batter. 
 Country people say that the frost draws moisture. But the true 
 philosophy is, that the steam and vapours continually ascending 
 from the earth, are bound in by the frost, and not suffered to 
 escape till released by the thaw. No wonder then that the surface 
 is all in a float ; since the quantity of moisture by evaporation that 
 arises daily from every acre of ground is astonishing. WHITE. 
 
434 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 FROZEN SLEET. 
 
 January 2oth. Mr. H.'s man says that he caught this d?yin a 
 lane near Hackwood park, many rooks, which, attempting to fly, 
 fell from the trees with their wings frozen together by the sleet, 
 that froze as it fell. There were, he affirms, many dozen so dis- 
 abled. WHITE. 
 
 MIST, CALLED LONDON SMOKE. 
 
 This is a blue mist which has somewhat the smell of coal smoke, 
 and as it always comes to us with a N.E. wind, is supposed to 
 come from London. It has a strong smell, and is supposed to 
 occasion blights. When such mists appear they are usually fol- 
 lowed by dry weather. WHITE. 
 
 REFLECTION OF FOG. 
 
 When people walk in a deep white fog by night with a lanthorn, 
 if they will turn their backs to the light, they will see their shades 
 impressed on the fog in rude gigantic proportions. This pheno- 
 menon seems not to have been attended to, but implies the great 
 density of the meteor at that juncture. WHITE. 
 
 HONEY DEW. 
 
 June 4th, 1783. Fast honey dews this week. The reason of these 
 seem to be, that in hot days the effluvia of flowers are drawn up 
 by a brisk evaporation, and then in the night fall down with the 
 dews with which they are entangled. 
 
 This clammy substance is very grateful to bees, who gather it 
 with great assiduity, but it is injurious to the trees on which it 
 happens to fall, by stopping the pores of the leaves. The greatest 
 quantity falls in still close weather; because winds disperse it, and 
 copious dews dilute it, and prevent its ill effects. It falls mostly 
 in hazy warm weather. WHITE. 
 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 435 
 
 MORNING CLOUDS. 
 
 After a bright night and vast dew, the sky usually becomes 
 cloudy by eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and clear 
 again towards the decline of the day. The reason seems to be, 
 that the dew, drawn up by evaporation, occasions the clouds ; 
 which, towards evening, being no longer rendered buoyant by the 
 warmth of the sun, melt away, and fall down again in dews. If 
 clouds are watched in a still warm evejaing, they will be seen to 
 melt away and disappear. WHITE. 
 
 DRIPPING WEATHER AFTER DROUGHT. 
 
 No one that has not attended to such matters, and taken down 
 remarks, can be aware how much ten days' dripping weather will 
 influence the growth of grass or corn after a severe dry season. 
 This present summer, 1776, yielded a remarkable instance : for till 
 the 3oth May the fields were burnt up and naked, and the barley 
 not half out of the ground; but now, June loth, there is an agreeable 
 prospect of plenty. WHITE. 
 
 AURORA BOREALIS. 
 
 November ist, 1787. The N. aurora made a particular appear- 
 ance, forming itself into a broad, red, fiery belt, which extended 
 from E. to W. across the welkin : but the moon rising at about 
 ten o'clock, in unclouded majesty, in the E., put an end to this 
 grand, but awful meteorous phenomenon. WHITE. 
 
 BLACK SPRING, 1771. 
 
 Dr. Johnson says, that "in 1771 the season was so severe in 
 the island of Sky, that it is remembered by the name of the ' black 
 spring.' The snow, which seldom lies at all, covered the ground 
 for eight weeks, many cattle died, and those that survived were so 
 emaciated that they did not require the male at the usual season." 
 
 28 
 
436 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The case was just the same with us here in the south ; never were 
 so many barren cows known as in the spring following that dread- 
 ful period. Whole dairies missed being in calf together. 
 
 At the end of March the fa*ce of the earth was naked to a sur- 
 prising degree. Wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of any 
 grass ; turnips all gone, and sheep in a starving way. All provi- 
 sions rising in price. Farmers cannot sow for want of rain. 
 WHITE. 
 
 ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER, 
 
 OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. 
 
 TH' imprison'd winds slumber within their caves 
 Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, 
 Wavers no more, long-settling to a point. 
 
 All nature nodding seems composed : thick steams 
 From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day, 
 " Like a dark ceiling stand : " slow thro' the air 
 Gossamer floats, or stretch'd from blade to blade 
 The wavy net-work whitens all the field. 
 
 Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 
 The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale 
 Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube.* 
 
 While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings 
 Unseen, the soft, enamour'd wood-lark runs 
 Thro' all his maze of melody ; the brake 
 Loud with the black-bird's bolder note resounds. 
 
 Sooth'd by the genial warmth, the cawing rook 
 Anticipates the spring, selects her mate, 
 Haunts her tall nest- trees, and with sedulous care 
 Repairs her wicker eyrie, tempest torn. 
 
 The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn 
 His mellow glebe, best pledge of future cron 
 With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beas % 
 E'en pining sickness feels a short relief. 
 
 The Barometer. 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 The happy schoolboy brings transported forth 
 His long-forgotten scourge, and giddy gig : 
 O'er the white paths he whirls the rolling hoop, 
 Or triumphs in the dusty fields of taw. 
 
 Not so the museful sage : abroad he walks 
 Contemplative, if haply he may find 
 What cause controls the tempest's rage, or whence 
 Amidst the savage season winter smiles. 
 
 For days, for weeks, prevails the placid calm. 
 At length some drops prelude a change : the sun 
 With ray refracted bursts the parting gloom 
 When all the chequer'd sky is one bright glare. 
 
 Mutters the wind at eve : th' horizon round 
 With angry aspect scowls : down rush the showers, 
 And float the delug'd paths, and miry fields. 
 
 437 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 MEASURE OF RAIN IN INCHES AND HUNDREDS. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Jan. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Mar. 
 
 April. 
 
 May. 
 
 June. 
 
 July. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Sept. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Dec. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1782. 
 
 4-64 
 
 1-98 
 
 6'54 
 
 4'57 
 
 6'34 
 
 i '75 1 7'9 
 
 8-28 
 
 3'72 
 
 i '93 
 
 2'5I 
 
 0*91 
 
 50*26 
 
 1783- 
 
 4 '43 
 
 5 '54 
 
 2'l6 
 
 0-88 
 
 2-84 
 
 2-82 1-45 
 
 2'2i 
 
 5'52 
 
 1-71 
 
 3-01 
 
 I'lO 
 
 33'7* 
 
 1784. 
 
 
 0-77 
 
 3-82 
 
 3'92 
 
 *'52 
 
 3'65 
 
 2 '40 
 
 3'88 
 
 2'5I 
 
 o'39 
 
 4-70 
 
 3'o6 
 
 33-8o 
 
 1785- 
 
 2-84 
 
 i -80 
 
 0-30 
 
 o'i 7 
 
 o'6o 
 
 i '39 
 
 3 '80 
 
 3'2I 
 
 5 '94 
 
 5'2I 
 
 2-27 
 
 4' 2 
 
 3i '55 
 
 1786. 
 
 6' 9 i 
 
 1-42 
 
 1-62 
 
 i'8i 
 
 2-40 
 
 i '20 
 
 i '99 
 
 4 '34 
 
 4 '79 
 
 5' 4 
 
 4'38 
 
 
 
 
 
 1787. 
 
 o'88 
 
 3'6 7 
 
 4-28 
 
 0-74 
 
 2-60 
 
 I- 5 
 
 6-53 
 
 0-83 
 
 i-56 
 
 5' 4 
 
 4" 9 
 
 5' 6 
 
 36-24 
 
 1788. 
 
 i '60 
 
 3'37 
 
 I '3 I 
 
 o'6i 
 
 0*76 
 
 1*27 
 
 3'58 
 
 3 22 
 
 S'7 1 
 
 0' 
 
 o'86 
 
 0-23 
 
 22*50 
 
 1789- 
 
 4-48 
 
 4-11 
 
 2 '47 
 
 i'8i 
 
 4' 5 
 
 4-24 
 
 3'6 9 
 
 0-99 
 
 2-82 
 
 5' 4 
 
 3'6 7 
 
 4-62 
 
 42- 
 
 1790. 
 
 1-99 
 
 0-49 
 
 o'45 
 
 3-64 
 
 4'38 
 
 0-13 
 
 3' 2 4 
 
 2-30 
 
 0-66 
 
 2'IO 
 
 6'95 
 
 5'94 
 
 32-27 
 
 1791. 
 
 6'73 
 
 4-64 
 
 4'59 
 
 i'i3 
 
 i '33 
 
 0-91 
 
 5-56 
 
 i '73 
 
 i'73 
 
 6'49 
 
 8'i6 
 
 4 '93 
 
 44'93 
 
 1792. 
 
 6- 7 
 
 1-68 
 
 6*70 
 
 4'o8 
 
 3 'oo 
 
 278 
 
 5'i6 
 
 4*25 
 
 5 '53 
 
 5'55 
 
 i'65 
 
 2'ri 
 
 48-56 
 
 1793- 
 
 3'7 J 
 
 2-32 
 
 2*33 
 
 3'i9 
 
 I '21 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1768 begins with a fortnight's frost and snow; rainy during 
 February. Cold and wet spring ; wet season from the beginning 
 of June to the end of harvest. Latter end of September foggy 
 without rain. All October and the first part of November rainy, 
 and thence to the end of the year alternate rains and frosts. 
 
 1769. January and February, frosty and rainy, with gleams of 
 
43 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 fine weather in the intervals. To the middle of March, wind and 
 rain. To the end of March, dry and windy. To the middle of 
 April, stormy, with rain. To the end of June, fine weather with 
 rain. To the beginning of August, warm, dry weather. To the 
 end of September, rainy with short intervals of fine weather. To 
 the latter end of October, frosty mornings, with fine days. The 
 next fortnight rainy ; thence to the end of November dry and 
 frosty. December, windy, with rain and intervals of frost, and 
 the first fortnight very foggy. 
 
 1770. Frost for the first fortnight: during the i4th and i5th 
 all the snow melted. To the end of February, mild hazy weather. 
 The whole of March, frosty, with bright weather. April, cloudy, 
 with rain and snow. May began with summer showers, and ended 
 with dark, cold rains. June, rainy, chequered with gleams of 
 sunshine. The first fortnight in July, dark and sultry ; the latter 
 part of the month, heavy rain. August, September, and the first 
 fortnight in October, in general fine weather, though with frequent 
 interruptions of rain ; from the middle of October to the end of 
 the year almost incessant rains. 
 
 1771. Severe frosts till the last week in January. To the first 
 week in February, rain and snow : to the end of February, spring 
 weather. To the end of the third week in April, frosty weather. 
 To the end of the first fortnight in May, spring weather, with 
 copious showers. To the end of June, dry, warm weatl.er. The 
 first fortnight in July, warm, rainy weather. To the end of Sep- 
 tember, warm weather, but in general cloudy, with showers. October 
 rainy. November frost, with intervals of fog and rain. December, 
 in general, bright, mild weather, with hoar frosts. 
 
 1772. To the end of the first week in February, frost and snow. 
 To the end of the first fortnight in March, frost, sleet, rain, and 
 snow. To the middle of April, cold rains. To the middle of 
 May, dry weather, with cold piercing winds. To the end of the 
 first week in June, cool showers. To the middle of August, hot, 
 dry, summer weather. To the end of September, rain with storms 
 and thunder. To December 2 2nd, rain with mild weather. December 
 23rd, the first ice. To the end of the month cold, foggy weather. 
 
 1773. The first week in January, frost; thence to the end of 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 439 
 
 the month, dark rainy weather. The first fortnight in February, 
 hard frost. To the end of the first week in March, misty, showery 
 weather. Bright spring days to the close of the month. Frequent 
 showers to the latter end of April. To the end of June, warm 
 showers, with intervals of sunshine. To the end of August, dry 
 weather with a few days of rain. To the end of the first fortnight 
 in November, rainy. The next four weeks, frost : and thence to 
 the end of the year, rainy. 
 
 1 774. Frost and rain to the end of the first fortnight in March ; 
 thence to the end of the month, dry weather. To the i5th 
 April, showers; thence to the end of April, fine spring days. 
 During May, showers and sunshine in about an equal proportion. 
 Dark rainy weather to the end of the third week in July ; thence 
 to the 24th August, sultry, with thunder and occasional showers. 
 To the end of the third week in November, rain, with frequent 
 intervals of sunny weather. To the end of December, dark, 
 dripping fogs. 
 
 1775. To the end of the first fortnight in March, rain almost 
 every day. To the first week in April, cold winds, with showers 
 of rain and snow. To the end of June, warm, bright weather, 
 with frequent showers. The first fortnight in July, almost inces- 
 sant rains. To the 26th August, sultry weather with frequent 
 showers. To the end of the third week in September, rain with a 
 few intervals of fine weather. To the end of the year, rain with 
 intervals of hoar-frost and sunshine. 
 
 1776. To January 24th, dark frosty weather, with much snow. 
 March 24th, to the end of the month, foggy with hoar-frost. To 
 the 3oth May, dark, dry, harsh weather, with cold winds. To 
 the end of the first fortnight in July, warm, with much rain. To 
 the end of the first week in August, hot and dry, with intervals of 
 thunder showers. To the end of October, in general, fine season- 
 able weather, with a considerable proportion of rain. To the end 
 of the year, dry, frosty weather, with some days of hard rain. 
 
 1777. To the zoth January, hard frost. To the 2oth January, 
 foggy, with frequent showers. To the i8th February, hard dry 
 frost with snow. To the end of May, heavy showers, with 
 intervals of warm dry spring days. To the 8th July, dark, with 
 
440 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 heavy rain. To the iSth July, dry, warm weather. To the 
 end of July, very heavy rains. To the i2th October, remarkably 
 fine warm weather. To the end of the year, grey mild weather, 
 with but little rain, and still less frost. 
 
 1778. To the 1 3th January, frost, with a little snow : to the 
 24th January, rain: to the 3oth, hard frost. To the 23rd 
 February, dark, harsh, foggy weather, with rain. To the end of 
 the month, hard frost, with snow. To the end of the first fortnight 
 in March, dark, harsh weather. From the first, to the end of the 
 first fortnight in April, spring weather. To the end of the month 
 snow and ice. To the nth June, cool, with heavy showers. 
 To the 1 9th July, hot, sultry, parching weather. To the end of 
 the month, heavy showers. To the end of September, dry warm 
 weather. To the end of the year wet, with considerable intervals 
 of sunshine. 
 
 1779. Frost and showers to the end of January. To 2ist April, 
 warm dry weather. To 8th May, rainy. To the yth June, dry 
 and warm. To the 6th July, hot weather, with frequent rain. To 
 the 1 8th July, dry hot weather. To August 8th, hot weather, with 
 frequent rains. To the end of August, fine dry harvest weather. 
 To the end of November, fine autumnal weather, with intervals of 
 rain. To the end of the year, rain with frost and snow. 
 
 1780. To the end of January, frost. To the end of February, 
 dark, harsh weather, with frequent intervals of frost. To the end 
 of March, warm showery spring weather. To the end of April, 
 dark harsh weather, with rain and frost. To the end of the first 
 fortnight in May, mild, with rain. To the end of August, rain 
 and fair weather in pretty equal proportions. To the end of 
 October, fine autumnal weather, with intervals of rain. To the 
 24th November, frost. To December i6th, mild dry foggy 
 weather. To the end of the year frost and snow. 
 
 1781. To January 25th, frost and snow. To the end of 
 February, harsh and windy, with rain and snow. To April 5th, 
 cold, drying winds. To the end of May, mild spring weather, 
 with a few light showers. June began with heavy rain, but thence 
 to the end of October, dry weather, with a few flying showers. 
 To the end of the year, open weather with frequent rains. 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 441 
 
 1782. To February 4th, open mild weather. To February 
 22nd, hard frost. To the end of March, cold blowing weather, 
 with frost and snow and rain. To May 7th, cold dark rains. To 
 the end of May, mild, with incessant rains. To the end of June, 
 warm and dry. To the end of August warm, with almost per- 
 petual rains. The first fortnight in September mild and dry; 
 thence to the end of the month, rain. To the end of October^ 
 mild with frequent showers. November began with hard frost, and 
 continued throughout with alternate frost and thaw. The first 
 part of December frosty : the latter part mild. 
 
 1783. To January i6th, rainy with heavy winds. To the 24th, 
 hard frost. To the end of the first fortnight in February, blowing, 
 with much rain. To the end of February, stormy dripping 
 weather. To the 9th May, cold harsh winds (thick ice on 5th 
 May). To the end of August, hot weather, with frequent showers. 
 To the 23rd September, mild, with heavy driving rains. To 
 November i2th, dry mild weather. To the i8th December, grey 
 soft weather, with a few showers. To the end of the year, hard 
 frost. 
 
 1784. To February ipth, hard frost, with two thaws : one the 
 1 4th January, the other 5th February. To February 28th, mild 
 wet fogs. To the 3rd March, frost with ice. To March joth, 
 sleet and snow. To April 2nd, snow and hard frost. To April 
 27th, mild weather, with much rain. To May i2th, cold drying 
 winds. To May 2oth, hot cloudless weather. To June 27th, warm 
 with frequent showers. To July i8th, hot and dry. To the end 
 of August, warm with heavy rains. To November 6th, clear mild 
 autumnal weather, except a few days of rain at the latter end of 
 September. To the end of the year, fog, rain, and hard frost (on 
 December loth, the thermometer i below o). 
 
 1785. A thaw began on the 2nd January, and rainy weather 
 with wind continued to January 28th. To i5th March, very hard 
 frost. To 2ist March, mild, with sprinkling showers. To April 7th, 
 hard frost. To May i7th, mild windy weather, without a drop of 
 rain. To the end of May, cold, with a few showers. To June Qth, 
 mild weather, with frequent soft showers. To July i3th, hot dry 
 weather, with a few showery intervals. To July 22nd, heavy rain. 
 
442 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 To the end of September, warm with frequent showers. To the 
 end of October, frequent rain. To i8th November, dry, mik* 
 weather. (Hay-making finished November 9th, and the wheat 
 harvest November i4th.) To December 23rd, rain. To the end 
 of the year, hard frost. 
 
 1786. To the yth January, frost and snow. To January i3th, 
 mild with much rain. To 2ist January, deep snow. To February 
 nth, mild with frequent rains. To 2ist February, dry, with high 
 winds. To roth March, hard frost. To i3th April, wet, with 
 intervals of frost. To the end of April, dry mild weather. On 
 the ist and 2nd May, thick ice. To loth May, heavy rain. To 
 June i4th, fine warm dry weather. From the 8th to the nth July, 
 heavy showers. To October I3th, v;arm, with frequent showers. 
 To October igth, ice. To October 24th, mild pleasant weather. 
 To November 3rd, frost. To December i6th, rain, with a few 
 detached days of frost. To the end of the year frost and 
 snow. 
 
 1787. To January 24th, dark, moist, mild weather. To Janu- 
 ary 28th, frost and snow. To February ioth, mild showery weather. 
 To February s8th, dry, cool weather. To March ioth, stormy 
 with driving rain. To March 24th, bright frosty weather. To the 
 end of April mild, with frequent rain , To May 22nd, fine bright 
 weather. To the end of June, mostly warm, with frequent showers 
 (on June 7th, ice as thick as a crown piece). To the end of July, 
 hot and sultry, with copious rain. To the end of September, hot 
 dry weather, with occasional showers. To November 23rd, mil j, 
 with light frosts and rain. To the end of November, hard frost. 
 To December 2ist, still and mild, with rain. To the end of the 
 year, frost. 
 
 1788. To January i3th, mild and wet. To January i8th, frost. 
 To the end of the month, dry windy weather. To the end of 
 February, frosty, with frequent showers. To March i4th, hard 
 frost. To the end of March, dark, harsh weather, with frequent 
 showers. To April 4th, windy, with showers. To the end of 
 May, bright, dry, warm weather, with a few occasional showers. 
 From June 28th to July i7th, heavy rains. To August T2th, hot 
 dry weather. To the end of September, alternate showers and 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 443 
 
 sunshine. To November 22nd, dry, cool weather. To the end 
 of the year, hard frost. 
 
 1789. To January i3th, hard frost. To the end of the month, 
 mild, with showers. To the end of February, frequent rain, with 
 snow-showers and heavy gales of wind. To i3th March, hard 
 frost, with snow. To April i8th, heavy rain, with frost and snow 
 and sleet. To the end of April, dark, cold weather, with trequent 
 rains. To June 9th, warm spring weather, with brisk winds and 
 frequent showers. From June 4th to the end of July, warm, with 
 much rain. To August 29th, hot, dry, sultry weather. To Sep- 
 tember nth, mild, with frequent showers. To the end of September 
 fine autumnal weather, with occasional showers. To November 
 1 7th, heavy rain, with violent gales of wind. To December i8th, 
 mild dry weather, with a few showers. To the end of the year, 
 rain and wind. 
 
 1790. To January i6th, mild foggy weather, with occasional 
 rains. To January 2ist, frost. To January 28th, dark, with 
 driving rains. To February i4th, mild, dry weather. To Feb- 
 ruary 22nd, hard frost. To April 5th, bright cold weather, with a 
 few showers. To April i5th, dark and harsh, with a deep snow. 
 To April 2ist, cold cloudy weather, with ice. To June 6th, mild 
 spring weather, with much rain. From July 3rd, to July i4th, 
 cool, with heavy rain. To the end of July, warm, dry weather. 
 To August 6th, cold, with wind and rain. To August 24th, fine 
 harvest weather. To September 5th, strong gales, with driving 
 showers. To November 26th, mild autumnal weather, with fre- 
 quent showers. To December ist, hard frost and snow. To the 
 end of the year, rain and snow, and a few days of frost. 
 
 1791. To the end of January, mild, with heavy rains. To the 
 end of February windy, with much rain and snow. From March 
 to the end of June, mostly dry, especially June. March and April 
 rather cold and frosty. May and June, hot. July, rainy. Fine 
 harvest weather, and pretty dry, to the end of September. Wet 
 October, and cold towards the end. Very wet and stormy in 
 November. Much frost in December. 
 
 1792. Some hard frost in January, but mostly wet and mild. 
 February, some hard frost and a little snow. March, wet and cold. 
 
444 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 April, great storms on the 1 3th, then some very warm weather. 
 May and June, cold and dry. July, wet and cool; indifferent 
 harvest, rather late and wet. September, windy and wet. October, 
 showery and mild. November, dry and fine. December, mild. 
 
A 
 COMPARATIVE VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NATURALISTS CALENDAR, 
 
 AS KEPT AT 
 
 SELBORNE, IN HAMPSHIRE, 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 REV. GILBERT WHITE, M.A. ; 
 
 AND AT 
 
 CATSFIELD, NEAR BATTLE, 
 
 IN SUSSEX, 
 
 BY WILLIAM MARKWICK, ESQ., F.L.S., 
 
 From the year 1768 to the year 1793. 
 
K.B. -The dates in the following Calendars, when more than 
 one, express the earliest and latest times in which the cu"- 
 cumstance noted was observed. 
 
A COMPARATIVE VIEW 
 
 OF 
 
 WHITE'S AND MARKWICK'S CALENDARS. 
 
 Of the abbreviations used, fl. signifies flowering ; 1. leafing ; and ap. the first appearance. 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Redbreast (sylvia rubecula) sings . 
 
 Jan. i 12 . -j 
 
 Jan. 3 31, andagain 
 Oct. 6. 
 
 Larks (alauda arvensis) congregate 
 Nuthatch (sitta europsea) heard . 
 
 Jan. i 18 
 Jan. i 14 
 
 Oct. 16, Feb. 9. 
 Mar. -3, Apr. 10. 
 
 Winter aconite (helleborus hiemalis) fl. 
 Shell- less snail or slug (limax) ap. 
 
 Jan. i, Feb. 18 
 Jan. 2 . 
 
 Feb. 28, Apr. 17. 
 Jan. 16, May 31. 
 
 Grev and ) f ( motac ^ a boarula) "| 
 
 f 
 
 Tan. 24, Mar. 26. 
 
 \i/u r wagtail 4 ap. . . V 
 
 Jan. 2 ii . < 
 
 
 ( (motacilla alba) ap. ) 
 
 I 
 
 Dec. 12, r eb. 23. 
 
 Missel thrush (turdus viscivorus) sings . 
 Bearsfoot (helleborus fcetidus) fl. 
 
 Jan. 2 14 
 Jan. 2, Feb. 14 
 
 Feb. 19, Apr. 14. 
 Mar. i, May 5. 
 
 Polyanthus (primula polyantha) fl. 
 Double daisy (bellis perennis plena) fl. . 
 
 an. 2, Apr. 12 
 an. 2, Feb. i 
 
 Jan. i, Apr. 9. 
 Mar. 17, Apr. 29. 
 
 Mezereon (daphne mezereum) fl. . 
 Pansy (viola tricolor) fl. .... 
 
 1 an. 3, Feb. 16 
 1 an. 3 . 
 
 Jan. 2, Apr. 4. 
 Jan. i, May 10. 
 
 Red dead-nettle (lamium purpureum) fl. 
 Groundsel (snecio vulgaris) fl. 
 
 an. 3 21 
 ; an. 315 . 
 
 Jan. i, Apr. 5. 
 Jan. i, Apr. 9 
 
 Hazel (corylus avellana) fl 
 
 an. 3, Feb. 28 
 
 Jan. 21, March n. 
 
 Hepatica (anemone hepatica) fl. . 
 Hedge-sparrow (sylvia modularis) sings 
 Common flies (musca domestica) seen in ) 
 numbers ......) 
 
 an. 4, Feb. 18 
 Jan. 5i2 . 
 
 Jan. 5, Feb. 3 
 
 Jan. 17, Apr. 9. 
 Jan. 16, Mar. 13. 
 
 May 15. 
 
 Greater titmouse (parus major) sings . 
 
 . an. 6, Feb. 6 
 
 Feb. 17, Mar. 17. 
 
 Thrush (turdus musicus) sings 
 
 an. 6 22 . 
 
 Jan. 15, Apr. 4. 
 
 Insects swarm under sunny hedges 
 
 . an. 6 . 
 
 
 Primrose (primula vulgaris) fl. 
 Bees (apis mellifica) ap. .... 
 
 _ an. 6, Apr. 7 
 an. 6, Mar. 19 
 
 Jan. 3, Mar. 22. 
 Jan. 31, Aor. ii ; last 
 
 Gnats play about ...... 
 
 ] an. 6, Feb. 3 
 
 [seen Dec. 30. 
 
 Chaffinches, male and female (fringilla ) 
 ccelebs) seen in equal numbers . . ) 
 
 Jan. 6 ii 
 
 Dec. 2, Feb. 3. 
 
 Furze or gorse (ulex europseus) fl. 
 Wall-flower (cheiranthus cheiri ; seu fruti- ) 
 culosus of Smith) fl j 
 
 Jan. 8 Feb. i 
 Jan. 8, Apr. i 
 
 Jan. i, Mar. 27. 
 Feb. 21, May 9. 
 
 Stock (cheiranthus incanus) fl. 
 
 Jan. 812 
 
 Feb. i, June 3. 
 
 Emberiza alba (bunting) in great flocks 
 
 Jan. 9 ... 
 
 
 Linnets (fringilla linota) congregate 
 Lambs begin to fall ..... 
 
 Jan. 9 
 Jan. 9 ii 
 
 Jan. ii. 
 Jan. 6, Feb. 21. 
 
448 
 
 NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Rooks (corvus frugilegus) resort to their 1 
 
 Jan. io, Feb. 11 
 
 Jan. 23. 
 
 Black hellebore (helleborus niger) fl. 
 Snowdrop (galanthus nivalis) fl. 
 
 Jan. io . 
 Jan. io, Feb. 5 
 
 Apr. 27. 
 Jan. 18. Mar. i. 
 
 White dead-nettle (lamium album) fl. 
 
 Jan. 13 . 
 
 Mar. 23, May io. 
 
 Trumpet honeysuckle, fl 
 
 Jan, 13 . 
 
 
 Common creeping crowfoot (ranunculus ) 
 repens) fl. ) 
 
 Jan. 13 . 
 
 Apr. TO, May 12. 
 
 House-sparrow (fringilla domestica) chirps 
 Dandelion (leontodon taraxacum) fl. 
 
 Jan. 14 . 
 Jan. 1 6, Mar. n . 
 
 Feb. 17, May 9. 
 Feb. i, Apr. 17. 
 
 Bat (vespertilio) ap 
 
 T ft M f 
 
 Feb. 6, June i; last seen 
 
 
 jan. io, iviar. 24 *S 
 
 Nov. 20. 
 
 Spiders shoot their webs . . . .._ 
 
 Jan. 16 . 
 
 
 Butterfly ap . *' - 
 
 Jan. 16 . \ 
 
 Feb. 21, May 8 ; last 
 
 
 
 seen Dec. 22. 
 
 Brambling (fringilla montifringilla) ap. 
 
 Ian. 16 . 
 
 Jan. io 31. 
 Feb. 15, May 13. 
 
 Wren (sylvia troglodytes) sings . 
 Earthworms lie out 
 
 an. 17 . 
 an. 18 Feb. 8 
 
 Feb. 7, June 12. 
 
 Crocus (crocus vernus) fl. . . ' . 
 
 an. 13, Mar. 18 . 
 
 Jan. 20, Mar. 19. 
 
 Skylark (alauda arvensis) sings . 
 
 an. 21 . 
 
 Jan. 12, Feb. 27 ; sings 
 
 Ivy casts its leaves ..... 
 
 Jan. 22 . 
 
 [till Nov. 13. 
 
 Helleborus hiemalis fl . 
 
 
 Feb. 28, Apr. 17. 
 
 Common dor or clock (scarabaeus ster- ) 
 
 Jf 
 
 Feb. i2, Apr. 12 ; last 
 
 corarius) . f 
 
 an. 23 . . 1 
 
 seen Nov. 24. 
 
 
 
 
 Helleborus virid, fl 
 
 an. 23, Mar. 5 
 
 
 Hazel (corylus avellana) fl. 
 
 an. 23, Feb. i 
 
 Jan. 27, Mar. n. 
 
 Woodlark (alauda arborea) sings 
 
 an. 24, Feb. 21 . 
 
 Jan. 28, June 5, 
 
 Chaffinch (fringilla ccelebs) sings 
 Jack-daws begin to come to churches 
 
 an. 24, Feb. 15 
 an. 25, Mar. 4 
 
 Jan. 21, Feb. 26. 
 
 Yellow wagtail (motacilla flava) ap. . . 
 
 Jan. 25, Apr. 14 . 
 
 Apr. 13, July 3; last 
 seen Sept. 8. 
 
 Honeysuckle (lonicera periclymenum) 1. . 
 
 Jan. 25 . 
 
 Jan. i, Apr. 9. 
 
 Field or procumbent speedwell (veronica ) 
 agrestis) fl f 
 
 Jan. 27, Mar. 15 . 
 
 Feb. 12, Mar. 29. 
 
 Nettle butterfly (papilio urticse) ap. . 
 
 Jan. 27, Apr. 2 -| 
 
 Mar. 5, Apr. 24 ; last 
 seen June 6. 
 
 White wagtail (motacilla alba) chirps 
 Shell-snail (helix nemoralis) ap. . 
 
 Jan. 28 . 
 Jan. 28, Feb. 24 . 
 
 Mar. 1 6. 
 Apr. 2, June n. 
 
 Earthworms engender .... 
 
 Jan. 30 . 
 
 
 Barren strawberry (fragaria sterilis) fl. 
 
 Feb. i, Mar. 26 . 
 
 Jan. 13, Mar. 26. 
 
 Blue titmouse (parus cseruleus) chirps 
 
 Feb. i ... 
 
 Apr. 27. * 
 
 Brown wood-owls hoot .... 
 
 Feb. 2 ... 
 
 
 Hen (phasianus gallus) sits 
 Marsh titmouse begins his two harsh sharp 
 notes 
 
 Feb. 3 . . . 
 Feb. 3 . . . ; 
 
 March 8, hatches. 
 
 Gossamer floats 
 
 Feb. 4, Apr. i 
 
 
 Musca tenax, ap 
 
 Feb. 4, Apr. 8 
 
 
 Laiirustine (viburnum tinus) fl. 
 
 Feb. 5 ... 
 
 Jan. i, Apr. 5. 
 
 Butcher's broom (ruscus aculeatus) fl. 
 
 Feb. 5 ... 
 
 Jan. i, May io. 
 
 Fox (canis vulpes) smells rank . 
 
 Feb. 7 ... 
 
 May 19, young brought 
 
 Turkey-cocks strut and gobble 
 Yellow-hammer (emberiza citrinella) sings. 
 
 Feb. io . 
 Feb. 12 . 
 
 [forth. 
 Feb. 18, Apr. 28. 
 
 Brimstone butterfly (papilio rhamni) ap. . 
 
 Feb. 13, Apr. 2 j 
 
 Feb. 13, Mar. 8 ; last 
 seen Dec. 24. 
 
 Green-woodpecker (picus viridis) makes \ 
 a loud cry j" 
 
 Feb. 13, Mar. 23 . 
 
 Jan. i, Apr. 17. 
 
 Raven (corvus corax) builds 
 
 Feb. 14-17 { 
 
 Apr. i, has young ones 
 June i. 
 
 Yew-trea (taxus baccata) fl. 
 
 Feb. 14, Mar. 27 . 
 
 Feb. 2, Apr. 11. 
 
 Coltsfoot (tussilago farfara) fl. . 
 Rooks (corvus frugilegus) build . 
 
 Feb. 15, Mar. 23 . 
 Feb. 16, Mar. 6 
 
 Feb. 18, Apr. 13. 
 Feb. 28, Mar. 5. 
 
NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 449 
 
 r 
 
 WHITF. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Partridges (perdix cinerea) pair . 
 Peas (pisum sativum) sown 
 
 Feb. 17 . 
 Feb. 17, Mar. 8 . 
 
 Feb. 1 6, Mar. 20. 
 Feb. 8, Mar. 31. 
 
 House-pigeon (columba domestica) has > 
 
 Feb. 18 . 
 
 Feb. 8. 
 
 young ones .... | 
 
 
 
 Field-crickets open their holes . 
 
 Feb. 20, Mar. 30 . 
 
 
 Common flea (pulex irritans) ap. 
 
 Feb. 2126 . 
 
 
 Pilewort (ficaria verna) fl. ... 
 Goldfinch (fringilla carduelis) sings . 
 
 Feb. 21, Apr. 13 . 
 Feb. 21, Apr, 5 
 
 Jan. 25, Mar. 26. 
 Feb. 28, May 5. 
 
 Viper (coluber berus) ap 
 
 Feb. 22, Mar. 26 1 
 
 Feb. 23, May 6, last 
 seen Oct. 28. 
 
 Wood-louse (oniscus asellus) ap. 
 
 Feb. 23, Apr. i 
 
 Apr. 27, June 17. 
 
 
 Feb. 24 . 
 
 . 
 
 Daffodil (narcissus pseudonarcissus) fl. 
 
 Feb. 24, Apr. 7 
 
 Feb. 26, Apr. 18. 
 
 Willow (salix alba) fl. . 
 
 Feb. 24, Apr. 2 
 
 Feb. 27, Apr. u. 
 
 Frogs (rana temporaria) croak . 
 
 Feb. 25 . . . 
 
 Mar. 9, Apr. 20. 
 
 Sweet violet (viola odorata) fl. . 
 
 Feb. 26, Mar. 31 . 
 
 Feb. 7, Apr. 5. 
 
 Phalsena tinea vestianella, ap. . . . 
 
 Feb. 26 . 
 
 
 Stone-curlew (otis cedicnemus) clamours . 
 Filbert (corylus sativus) fl. . . 
 Ring-dove cooes . 
 
 Feb. 27, Apr. >,: . 
 Feb. 27 . . ' . 
 Feb. 27 Apr. 5 
 
 June 17. 
 Jan. 25, Mar. 26. 
 
 Apricot tree (prunus armeniaca) fl. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Feb. 28, Apr. 5. 
 
 Toad (rana bufo) ap 
 
 Feb. 28, Mar. 24 . 
 
 Mar. 15, July i. 
 
 Frogs (rana temporaria) spawn . 
 
 Feb. 28, Mar. 22 | 
 
 Feb. 9, Apr. io, tad- 
 poles Mar. 19. 
 
 Ivy-leaved speedwell (veronica hede- ) 
 rifo!ia)fl. . ... . . j 
 
 Mar. i, Apr. 2 
 
 Feb. 16, Apr. io. 
 
 Peach (amygdalus persica) fl. 
 Frog (rana temporaria) ap. ... 
 Shepherd's purse (thlaspi bursa pastoris) fl. 
 Pheasant (phasianus colchicus) crows 
 Land-tortoise comes forth .... 
 
 Mar. 2, Apr. 17 
 Mar. 2, Apr. 6 
 Mar. 3 ... 
 March 3 29 . 
 Mar. 4, May 8 
 
 Mar. 4, Apr. 29. 
 Mar. 9. 
 Jan. 2, Apr. 16. 
 Mar. i, May 22. 
 
 Lungwort (pulmonaria omcinalis) fl. 
 
 Mar. 4, Apr. 16 
 
 Mar. 2, May 19. 
 
 Podura, fimetaria ap. .... 
 
 Mar. 4 . . 
 
 
 Aranea scenica saliens, ap. ... 
 
 Mar. 4 ... 
 
 
 Scolopendra forficata, ap 
 
 Mar. 5 16 . 
 
 
 Wryneck (jynx torquilla) ap. . 
 
 Mar. 5, Apr. 25 < 
 
 Mar.- 26, Apr. 23, last 
 seen Sept. 14. 
 
 Goose (anas anser) sits on its eggs 
 Duck (anas boschas) lays .... 
 
 Mar. 5 . 
 Mar. 5 , 
 
 Mar. 21. 
 
 Mar. 28. 
 
 Dogs' violet (viola canina) fl. 
 
 Mar. 6, Apr. 18 . 
 
 Feb. 28, Apr. 22. 
 
 Peacock butterfly (papilio io) ap. 
 
 Mar. 6 . . | 
 
 Feb. 13, Apr. 20, last 
 seen Dec. 25. 
 
 Trouts begin to rise 
 
 Mar. 7 14 . 
 
 
 Field beans (vicia faba) planted . . 
 
 Mar. 8 . 
 
 Apr. 29, emerge. 
 
 Blood-worms appear in the water 
 Crow (corvus corone) builds 
 Oats (avena sativa) sown .... 
 
 Mar. 8 . 
 Mar. io . 
 Mar. io 18 . 
 
 July i, has young ones. 
 Mar. 16, Apr. 13. 
 
 Golden-crowned wren (sylvia regulus) ) 
 sings j" 
 
 Mar. 12, Apr. 30 ! 
 
 Apr. 15, May 22, seen 
 Dec. 23, Jan. 26. 
 
 Asp (populus tremula) fl 
 Common elder (sambucus nigra) I. 
 
 Mar. 12. 
 Mar. 13 20 . 
 
 Feb. 36, Mar. 28. 
 Jan. 24, Apr. 22. 
 
 Laurel (prunus laurocerasus) fl. 
 
 Mar. 15, May 21 . 
 
 Apr. 2, May 27. 
 
 Chrysomela Getting, ap 
 Black ants (formica nigra) ap. 
 
 Mar. 15 . 
 Mar. 15, Apr. 22 . 
 
 Mar. 2, May 18. 
 
 Ephemeras bisetae, ap 
 
 Mar. 16 . 
 
 
 Gooseberry (ribes grossularia) 1. 
 
 Mar. 17, Apr. n . 
 
 Feb. 26, Apr. 9. 
 
 Common stitchwort (stellaria holostea) fl. . 
 
 Mar. 17, May 19 . 
 
 Mar. 8, May 7. 
 
 Wood anemone (anemone nemorosa) fl. 
 
 Mar. 17, Apr. 22 . 
 
 Feb. 27, Apr. io. 
 
 Blackbird (turdus merula) lays . 
 
 Mar. 17 . 1 
 
 Apr. 14, young ones 
 May 19. 
 
 Raven (corvus corax) sits .... 
 
 Mar. 17 . 
 
 Apr. i, builds. 
 
 ' Wheatear (sylvia cenanthe) ap. . 
 
 Mar. 1830 . | 
 
 Mar. 13, May 23, last 
 seen Oct. 26. 
 
450 
 
 NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARK WICK. 
 
 Musk-wood crowfoot (adoxa moscha- ) 
 tellina)fl. . . . ;-i T >^ 
 
 Mar. 18, Apr. 13 
 
 Feb. 23, Apr. 28. 
 
 
 f 
 
 Mar. 30, May 16, sits 
 
 Willow-wren (sylvia trochilus) ap. 
 
 Mar. 19, Apr. 13 < 
 
 May 27, last seen 
 
 
 ( 
 
 Oct. 23. 
 
 
 
 
 Elm (ulmus campestrb) fl. ... 
 
 Mar. 19, Apr. 4 
 
 Feb. 17, Apr. 25. 
 
 
 ( 
 
 Mar. 1 8 25, sits Apr. 
 
 Turkey (meleagris gallopavo) lays , 
 
 Mar. 19, Apr. 7 3 
 
 4, young ones Apr. 
 
 
 ( 
 
 30. 
 
 House-pigeons (columba domestica) sit 
 Marsh mangold (caltha palustris) fl. 
 Buzz fly (bombylius medius) ap. .,,- . 
 
 Mar. 20. 
 Mar. 20, Apr. 14 . 
 Mar. 21, Apr. 28 . 
 
 Mar. 20, young hatched. 
 Mar. 22, May 8. 
 Mar. 15, Apr. 30. 
 
 Sand-martin (hirundo riparia) ap. 
 
 Mar. 21, Apr. 12 -1 
 
 Apr. 8, May 16, last 
 seen Sept. 8. 
 
 Snake (coluber natrix) ap. 
 
 Mar. 22 30 . j 
 
 Mar. 3, Apr. 29, last 
 seen Oct. 2. 
 
 Horse ant (formica herculeana) ap. . . 
 
 Mar. 22, Apr. 18 1 
 
 Feb. 4, Mar. 26, last 
 seen Nov. 12. 
 
 Greenfinch (loxia chloris) sings . 
 
 Mar. 22, Apr. 22 . 
 
 Mar. 6, Apr. 26. 
 
 Ivy (hedera helix) berries ripe . 
 
 Mar. 23, Apr. 14 . 
 
 Feb. 16, May 19. " 
 
 Periwinkle (vinca minor) fl. 
 
 Mar. 25 . 
 
 Feb. 6, May 7. 
 
 Spurge laurei (daphne laureola) fl. 
 
 Mar. 25, Apr. i 
 
 Apr. 12 22. 
 
 Swallow (hirundo rustica) ap. . 
 
 Mar. 26, Apr. 20 ! 
 
 Apr. 7 27, last seen 
 Nov. 1 6. 
 
 
 ( 
 
 Apr. 14, May 18, seen 
 
 Black-cap (sylvia atricapilla) heard . 
 
 Mar. 26, May 4 \ 
 
 Apr. 14, May 20, las>t 
 
 
 ( 
 
 seen Sept. 19. 
 
 Young ducks hatched .... 
 Golden saxifrage (chrysosplenium opposi- \ 
 tifolium) fl. j 
 
 Mar. 27 . 
 Mar. 27, Apr. 9 
 
 Apr. 6, May 16. 
 Feb. 7, Mar. 27. 
 
 Martin (hirundo urbica) ap. 
 
 Mar. 28, May i | 
 
 Apr. 14, May 8, last 
 seen Dec. 8. 
 
 Double hyacinth (hyacinthus arientalis) fl. 
 Young geese (anas anser) .... 
 
 Mar. 29, Apr. 22 . 
 Mar. 29 . 
 
 Mar. 13, Apr. 24. 
 Mar. 29, Apr. 19. 
 
 Wood sorrel (oxalis acetosella) fl. 
 
 Mar. 30, Apr. 22 . 
 
 Feb. 26, Apr. 26. 
 
 Ring-ousel (turdus torquatus) seen . 
 
 Mar. 30, Apr. 17 . 
 
 Oct. ii. 
 
 Barley (hordeum sativum) sown. 
 
 Mar. 31, Apr. 30 . 
 
 Apr. 12, May 20. 
 
 Nightingale (sylvia luscinia) sings 5 : 
 
 Apr. i, May i -j 
 
 Apr. 5, July 4, last seen 
 Aug. 29. 
 
 Ash (fraxinus excelsior) fl. . ... 
 
 Apr. i, May 4 
 
 Mar. 16, May 8. 
 
 Spiders' webs on the surface of the ground 
 Chequered daffodil (fritillaria meleagris) fl. 
 
 Apr. i 
 Apr. 2 24 
 
 Apr. 15, May i. 
 
 Julus terrestris, ap. ..... 
 
 Apr. 2 . 
 
 
 Cowslip (primula veris) fl 
 
 Apr. 324 . 
 
 Mar. 3, May 17. 
 
 Ground-ivy (glecoma hederacea) fl. . 
 
 Apr. 315 . 
 
 Mar. 2, Apr. 16. 
 
 Snipe pipes 
 
 Apr. 3 . 
 
 
 Box-tree (buxns sempervirens) fl. 
 
 Apr. 3 . 
 
 Mar. 27, May 8. 
 
 Elm (ulmus campestris) 1 
 Gooseberry (ribes grossularia) fl. 
 Currant (ribes hortense) fl. ... 
 Pear-tree (pyrus communis) fl. . . , 
 
 Apr. 3 ... 
 Apr. 3 14 
 Apr.. 3 5 
 Apr. 3, May 29 . 
 
 Apr. 2, May 19. 
 Mar. 21, May i. 
 Mar. 24, Apr. 28. 
 Mar. 30, Apr. 30. 
 
 Lacerta vulgar is (newt or eft) ap. 
 
 Apr. 4 { 
 
 Feb. 17, Apr. 15, last 
 seen Oct. 9. 
 
 Dogs' mercury (mercurialis perennis) fl. . 
 Wych elm (ulmus glabra seu montana of) 
 Smith) fl } 
 
 Apr. 519 . 
 Apr. 5 . - , 
 
 Jan. 20, Apr. 16. 
 Apr. 19, May 10. 
 
 Ladysmock (cardamine pratensis) fl. 
 
 Apr. 6 20 
 
 Feb. 21, Apr. 26. 
 
 Cuckoo (cuculus canorus) heard 
 
 Apr. 7-26 . { 
 
 Apr. 15, May 3, last 
 heard June 28. 
 
 Black-thorn (prunns spinosa) fl . 
 Death-watch (termes pulsatorius) beats 
 
 Apr. May 10 
 
 Apr. 7 ... 
 
 Mar. 16, May 8. 
 Mar. 28, May 28. 
 
 Gudgeon spawns . . . 
 
 Apr. 7 . . 
 
 
NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 45* 
 
 r~ 
 
 
 ~_- .. . 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Red-start (sylvia phsenicurus) ap. 
 
 Apr. 828 . | 
 
 Apr. 5, sings Apr. 25, 
 last seen Sept 30 
 
 Crown imperial (fritillaria imperialis)'fl. 
 
 Apr. 824 . 
 
 A'pr. i, May 13. 
 
 Tit-lark (alauda pratensis) sings 
 
 Apr. 9 19 . 1 
 
 Apr. 14 29, sits June 
 16 17. 
 
 Beech (fagus sylvatica) 1. . 
 Shell-snail (helix nemoralis comes out in ) 
 
 Apr. 10, May 8 
 
 Apr. 24, May 25. 
 
 troops j 
 
 Apr. 1 1 , May 9 
 
 Ma Y *7> June ii ap. 
 
 Middle yellow wren. ap. .... 
 
 Apr. u. 
 
 
 Swift (hirundo apus) ap 
 Stinging-fly (conops calcitrans) ap. . 
 Whitlow-grass (draba verna) fl. . 
 Larch-tree (pinus-larix rubra) 1. 
 
 Apr. 13. May 7 
 Apr. 14, May 17. 
 Apr. 14 
 Apr. 14 . 
 
 Apr. 28, May 19. 
 
 Jan. 15, Mar 24. 
 Apr. i, May 9. 
 
 Whitethroat (sylvia cinerea) ap. 
 
 Apr. 14, May 14 -| 
 
 Apr. 14, May 5, sings 
 May 3 10, last seen 
 
 Red ant (formica rubra) ap.- 
 
 
 Sept. 23. 
 Apr. 9, June 26. 
 
 Apr. 10, June 4. 
 
 Mole cricket (gryllus gryllotalpa) churs 
 Second willow or laughing wren, ap. 
 Red rattle (pedicularis sylvatica) fl. . 
 Common flesh-fly (musca carnaria) ap. 
 Lady-cow (coccinella bipunctata) ap. 
 
 Apr. 14. 
 Apr. 141923. 
 Apr. 1519 . 
 Apr. 15. 
 Apr. 1 6. 
 
 Grasshopper lark (alauda locustae voce) }_ 
 ap. ....... j 
 
 Apr. 1 6 30. 
 
 
 Willow wren, its shivering note heard 
 Middle willow wren (regulus non cristatus 
 
 Apr. 17, May 7. 
 
 Apr. 28, May 14. 
 
 medius) ap. ..... 
 
 Apr. 17 27. 
 
 
 Wild cherry (prunus cerasus) fl. . . 
 Garden cherry (prunus cerasus) fl. 
 Plum (prunus domestica) fl. 
 Harebell (hyacinthus non-scriptus seu ) 
 
 Apr. 18, May 12 . 
 Apr. 18, May n . 
 Apr. 1 8, May 5 
 
 Mar. 30, May TO. 
 Mar. 25, May 6. 
 Mar. 24, May 6. 
 
 scilla nutans of Smith) fl. J 
 
 Apr. 1925 . 
 
 Mar. 27, May 8. 
 
 Turtle (columba turtur) cooes . 
 Hawthorn (crataegus seu mespilus oxy- ) 
 cantha of Smith) fl. . . } 
 
 Apr. 2027 . 
 Apr. 20, June 11 . 
 
 May 14, Aug. 10, seea 
 Apr. 19, May 26. 
 
 Male fool's orchis (orchis mascula) fl. 
 
 Apr. 21. 
 
 Mar. 29, May 13. 
 
 Blue-flesh fly (musca vomitoria) ap. . 
 Black snail or slug (Umax ater) abounds . 
 
 Apr. 21, May 23 . 
 Apr. 22 . 
 
 Feb. i, Oct. 24 ap. 
 
 Apple-tree (pyrus malus sativus) fl. . 
 
 Apr. 22, May 25 . 
 
 Apr. ii, May 26. 
 
 Large bat, ap 
 
 Apr. 22, June n . 
 
 
 Strawberry, wild wood (fragaria vesca ) 
 sylv.)fl. . .-.-. \ 
 
 Apr. 2329 . 
 
 Apr. 8-9. 
 
 Sauce alone (erysimum alliaria) fl. 
 
 Apr. 23 . . 
 
 Mar. 31, May 8. 
 
 Wild or bird cherry (prunus avium) fl. 
 
 Apr. 24 . 
 
 Mar. 30, May 10. 
 
 Apis hypnorum, ap. ..... 
 
 Apr. 24. 
 
 
 Musca meridiana, ap. .... 
 
 Apr. 24 ^lay 28 
 
 
 Wolf-fly (asilus) ap. 
 
 Apr. 25. 
 
 
 Cabbage butterfly (papilio brassicae) ap. . 
 
 Apr. 28, May 20. 
 
 Apr. 29, June 10. 
 
 Dragon-fly (libellula) ap 
 
 Apr. 30, May 21 -j 
 
 Apr. 18, May 13, last 
 seen Nov. 10. 
 
 Sycamore (acer pseudoplatanus) fl. 
 
 April 30, June 6 . 
 
 Apr. 20, June 4. 
 
 Bombylius minor, ap. . . . 
 
 May i 
 
 
 Glow-worm (lampyns noctiluca) shines 
 
 May i, June 1 1 
 
 June 19, Sept. 28. 
 
 Fern-owl or goatsucker (caprimulgus ) 
 europaeus) ap j 
 
 May i 26 
 
 May 1 6, Sept. 14. 
 
 Common bugle (ajuga reptans) fl. 
 Field crickets (gryllus campestris) crink . 
 Chaffer or May-bug (scarabaeus melo- ^ 
 lontha) ap j 
 
 May i. 
 May 224. 
 
 May 226 . 
 
 Mar. 27, May 10. 
 May 2, July 7. 
 
 Honeysuckle (lonicera periclymenum) fl. . 
 Toothwort (lathraea squamaria) fl. 
 Shell-snails copulate 
 Sedge warbler (sylvia salicaria) sings . 
 
 May 330 . 
 May 4 12. 
 May 4, June 17 
 May 4 . . 
 
 Apr. 24, June 21. 
 June 230. 
 
 29 
 
452 
 
 NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Mealy tree (viburnum lantana) fl. 
 
 May 517 . 
 
 Apr. 25, May 22. 
 
 Fly-catcher (stoparolas. muscicapa ^ 
 grisola) ap. ..... j 
 
 May 1030 . 
 
 Apr. 29, May 21. 
 
 Apis longicornis ap . 
 
 May 10 Tune o 
 
 
 Sedge warbler (sylvia salicaria) ap. . 
 
 May ii-r-13 
 
 Aug. 2. 
 
 Oak (quercus robur) fl. 
 Admiral butterfly (papilio atalanta) ap. 
 Orange-tip (papilio cardamines) ap. . 
 Beech (fagus sylvatica) fl 
 
 May 1315 
 May 13. 
 May 14 . 
 May 1526 
 
 Apr. 29, June 4. 
 
 Mar. 30, May 19. 
 Apr. 23, May 28. 
 
 Common maple (acer campestre) fl. . 
 Barberry-tree (berberis vulgaris) fl. . 
 
 May 16 . 
 May 17 26 . 
 
 Apr. 24, May 27. 
 Apr. 28, June 4. 
 
 Wood argus butterfly (papilio aegeria) ap. . 
 Orange lily (lilium bulbiferum) n. 
 Burnet moth (sphinx filipendulae) ap. 
 Walnut ( j uglans regia) 1 
 Laburnum (cytisus laburnum) fl. . . 
 
 May 17. 
 May 18, June n . 
 May 18, June 13 . 
 May 18 . 
 May 18, June 5 
 
 June 14, July 22. 
 May 24, June 26. 
 Apr. 10, June i. 
 May i, June 23. 
 
 Forest fly (hippobosca equina) ap. 
 Saintfoin (hedysarum onobrychis) fl. . 
 Peony (paeonia officinalis) fl. 
 
 May 18, June 9 
 Ma Y J9, June 8 . 
 May 20. June 15 . 
 
 May 21, July 28. 
 Apr. 18, May 26. 
 
 Horse chestnut (aesculus hippocastanum) ) 
 fl ) 
 
 May 21, June 9 
 
 Apr. 19, June 7. 
 
 Lilac (syringa vulgaris) fl. . . 
 
 May 21 . 
 
 Apr. 15, May 30. 
 
 Columbine (aquilegia vulgaris) fl. . 
 Medlar (mespilus germanica) fl. . 
 Tormentil (tormentilla erecta seu offici- ) 
 nalis of Smith) fl 1 
 
 May 21 27 . 
 May 21, June 20 . 
 
 May 21 . . . 
 
 May 6, June 13. 
 Apr. 8, June 19. 
 
 Apr. 17, June n. 
 
 Lily of the valley (convallaria majalis) fl. 
 Bees (apis mellifica) swarm 
 Woodroof (asperula odorata) fl. . 
 
 May 22 . . 
 May 22, July 22 . 
 May 22 25 . 
 
 Apr. 27, June 13. 
 May 12, June 23. 
 Apr. 14, June 4. 
 
 Wasp, female (vespa vulgaris) ap. 
 
 May 23 . . { 
 
 Apr. 2, June 4, last 
 seen Nov. 2. 
 
 Mountain ash (sorbus seu pyrus aucu- ) 
 paria of Smith) fl J 
 
 May 23, June 8 
 
 Apr. 20, June 8. 
 
 Birds'-nest orchis (ophrys nidus avis) fl. . 
 White-beam tree (cratasgus seu pyrus ) 
 aria of Smith) 1 ) 
 
 May 24, June n . 
 May 24, June 4 
 
 May 18, June 12. 
 May 3. 
 
 Milk wort (polygala vulgaris) fl. . 
 Dwarf cistus (cistus hehanthemum) fl. 
 Gelder rose (viburnum opulus) fl. 
 Common elder (sambucus nigra) fl. . 
 
 May 24, June 7 . 
 May 25 . 
 May 26 . 
 May 26, June 25 . 
 
 Apr. 13, June 2. 
 May 4, Aug 8. 
 May 10, June 8. 
 May 6, June 17. 
 
 Cantharis noctiluca, ap. . . . >: "V 
 Apis longicornis bores holes in walks :.. 
 
 May 26. 
 May 27, June 9. 
 
 
 Mulberry tree (morus nigra) 1. . 
 
 May 27, June 13 . 
 
 May 20, June n. 
 
 Wild service-tree (cratasgus seu pyrus ) 
 torminalis of Smith) fl. . j" 
 
 May 27 . '- V 
 
 May 13, June 19. 
 
 Sanicle (sanicula europaea) fl. 
 Avens (geum urbanum) fl 
 
 May 27, June 13 . 
 May 28. 
 
 Apr. 23, June 4. 
 May 9, June n. 
 
 Female fool's orchis (orchis morio) fl. 
 
 May 28 . 
 
 Apr. 17, May 20. 
 
 Ragged Robin (lychnis flos cuculi) fl. 
 Burnet (poterium sanguisorba) fl. 
 Foxglove (digitalis purpurea) fl. . 
 Corn-flag (gladiolus communis) fl. 
 
 May 29, June i 
 May 29 . . 
 May 30, June 22 . 
 May 30, June 20 . 
 
 May 12, June 8. 
 Apr. 30, Aug. 7. 
 May 23, June 15. 
 June 9, July 8. 
 
 Serapias longifol. fl 
 
 May 30, June 13. 
 
 
 Raspberry (rubus idaeus) fl. 
 Herb Robert (geranium Robertianum) fl. . 
 Figwort (scrophularia nodosa) fl. 
 Cromwell (lithospermum officinale) fl. 
 
 May 30, June 31. 
 May 30 
 
 May 31 &(, 
 
 May 31 . 
 
 May 10, June 16. 
 Mar. 7, May 16. 
 May 12, June 20. 
 May 10 24. 
 
 Wood spurge (euphorbia amygdaloides) fl. 
 Ramsons (allium ursinum) fl. 
 
 June i 
 June i . 
 
 Mar. 23, May 13. 
 Apr. 21, June 4. 
 
 Mouse-ear scorpion grass (myosotis scor- ) 
 pioides) fl f 
 
 June i 
 
 Apr. n, June i. 
 
 Grasshopper (gryllus grossus) ap. . '. 
 
 June i 14 . \ 
 
 Mar. 25, July 6, last 
 seen Nov. 3. 
 
NATURALISTS CALENDAR, 
 
 453 
 
 I 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARK.WICK. 
 
 Rose (rosa hortensis) fl. 
 
 June i 21 . 
 
 June 7, July i. 
 
 Mouse-ear hawkweed (hieracium pilo- ) 
 sella) fl . ) 
 
 June i, July 16 
 
 Apr. 19, June 12. 
 
 Buckbean (menyanthes trifoliata) fl. 
 
 June i . 
 
 Apr. 20, June 8. 
 
 Rose-chaffer (scarabaeus auratus) ap. 
 
 June 2 8 
 
 Apr. 18, Aug. 4. 
 
 Sheep (ovis aries) shorn .... 
 Water- flag (iris pseudo-acorus) fl. . 
 
 June 223 . 
 June 2 . 
 
 May 23, June 17. 
 May 8, June 9. 
 
 Cultivated rye (secale cereale) fl. . 
 
 June 2 . 
 
 * 
 May 27. 
 
 Hounds' tongue (cynoglossum offici- ) 
 nale) fl ) 
 
 June 2 . 
 
 May n, June 7. 
 
 Helleborine (serapias latifolia) fl. 
 Green-gold fly (musca caesar) ap. 
 
 June 2, Aug. 6 
 June 2 . 
 
 July 22, Sept. 6. 
 
 Argus butterfly (papilio moera) ap. 
 Spearwort (ranunculus flammula) fl. . 
 Birdsfoot trefoil (lotus corniculatus) fl. 
 
 June 2 . 
 June 3 . 
 June 3 . 
 
 Apr. 25, June 13. 
 Apr. 10, June 3. 
 
 Fraxinella, or white dittany (dictamnus ) 
 albus) fl ) 
 
 June 3 ii . 
 
 June 9, July 24. 
 
 
 
 
 Angler's May-fly (ephemera vulg.) ap. 
 Ladies' finger (anthyllis vulneraria) fl. 
 Bee-orchis (ophrys apifera) fl. . 
 
 June 314 . 
 June 4 . 
 June 4, July 4 
 
 June i, Aug. 16. 
 
 Pink (dianthus deltoides) fl. 
 Mock orange (philadelphus coronarius) fl. 
 Libellula virgo, ap 
 Vine (vitis vinifera) fl. , 
 Portugal laurel (prunus lusitanicus) fl. 
 
 June 5 19 . 
 Junes 
 June 5 20 . 
 June 7, July 30 . 
 June 8, July i 
 
 May 26, July 6. 
 May 16, June 23. 
 
 June 18, July 29. 
 June 3, July 16. 
 
 Purple-spotted martagon (lilium mar- ) 
 tagon) fl. . . . . . 
 
 June 825 . 
 
 June 18, July 19. 
 
 Meadow cranes-bill (geranium pra- ) 
 tense) fl ) 
 
 June 8, Aug. i 
 
 
 Black bryony (tamus communis) fl. . 
 Field pea (pisum sativum arvense) fl. 
 Bladder campion (cucubalus behen seu \ 
 silene inflata of Smith) fl. . . 
 
 June 8 . 
 June 9 . 
 
 June 9 . 
 
 May 15, June 21. 
 May 15, June 21. 
 
 May 4, July 13. 
 
 Bryony (brionia alba) fl 
 Hedge-nettle (stachys sylvatica) fl. . 
 
 June 9 . 
 June 10 . 
 
 May 13, Aug. 17. 
 May 28, June 24. 
 
 Walnut (juglans regia) fl. . . . 
 
 June 12 . 
 
 Apr. 18, June i. 
 
 Phallus impudicus, ap. . . . 
 Rosebay willow-herb (epilobium angusti- ) 
 folium) fl. ..... | 
 
 June 12, July 23 
 June 12 . 
 
 June 4, July 28. 
 
 Wheat (triticum hybernum) fl. . 
 Comfrey (symphytum officinale) fl. . 
 
 June 13, July 22 . 
 June 13 . 
 
 June 4 30. 
 May 4, June 23. 
 
 Yellow pimpernel (lysimachia nemo- ) 
 
 June 13 30 . 
 
 Apr. 10, June 12. 
 
 
 une 15, Aug. 24 . 
 
 
 Buckthorn (rhamnus catharticus) 1. . 
 
 ' une 16 . 
 
 May 25. 
 
 Cuckow-spit insect (cicadia spumaria) ap. 
 
 une 16 . 
 
 June 2 21. 
 
 Dog-rose (rosa canina) fl. . 
 
 une 17, 18 . 
 
 May 24, June 21. 
 
 Puff-ball (lycoperdon bovista) ap. 
 
 une 17, Sept. 3 . 
 
 May 6, Aug. 19. 
 
 Mullein (verbascum thapsus) fl. 
 
 _ une 18 . 
 
 June 10, July 22. 
 
 Vipers' bugloss (echium anglicum seu ) 
 vulgare of Smith) fl. . . . j 
 
 June 19 . 
 
 May 27, July 3. 
 
 Meadow hay cut " 
 
 Tune 10 July 20 
 
 June 13, July 7. 
 
 Stag-beetle (lucanus cervus) ap. 
 Borage (borago ofncinalis) fl. 
 Spindle-tree (euonymus europssus) fl. 
 Musk thistle (carduus nutans) fl. 
 
 June 19 ., , 
 June 20 . s 
 . une 20 . ... 
 . une 20, July 4 
 
 June 14 21. 
 Apr. 22, July 26. 
 May 11, June 25. 
 June 4, July 25. 
 
 Dogwood (cornus sanguinea) fl. 
 Field scabious (scabiosa arvensis) fl. 
 
 . une 21 . 
 _ une 21 . 
 
 May 28, June 27. 
 June 16, Aug. 14. 
 
 Marsh thistle (carduus palustris) fl. . 
 Dropwort (spiraea filipehdula) fl. 
 Great wild valerian (valeriana officinalis) fl. 
 
 . une 2127 
 _ une 22, July 9 
 une 22, July 7 
 
 May 15, June 19. 
 May 8, Sept. 3. 
 May 22, July 21. 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Quail (perdix coturnix) calls 
 Mountain willow-herb (epilobium mon- ) 
 tanum) fl. ...../ 
 
 June 22, July 4 
 June 22 . . V 
 
 July 23, seen Sept. i 18. 
 June 521. 
 
 Thistla upon thistle (cardaus crispus) fl. . 
 
 June 2329 . 
 
 May 22, July 22. 
 
 Cow-parsnip (heracle iin sphonaylium) fl. 
 
 June 23. .- -*-' 
 
 May 27, July 12. 
 
 Earth-nut (bunium bulbocastanum seu \ 
 flexuosum of Smith) fl. j 
 
 June 23. ,,,TO 
 
 May 431. 
 
 Young frogs migrate .... 
 
 une 23, Aug. 2 . 
 
 
 CEstrus curvicauda, ap. . . 
 
 une 24 . 
 
 
 Vervain (verbena officinalis) fl . 
 
 une 24 . 
 
 June 10, July 17. 
 
 Corn poppy (papaver rhoeas) fl. 
 Self-heal (prunella vulgaris) fl. . 
 
 une 24 . 
 
 une 24 . . ' V ri 
 
 Apr. 30, July 15. 
 June 723. 
 
 Agrimony (agrimonia eupatoria) fl. 
 
 une 2429 . 
 
 June 7, July 9. 
 
 Great horse-fly (tabanus bovinus) ap. 
 
 une 24, Aug. 2 
 
 
 Greater knapweed (centaurea scabiosa) fl. 
 Mushroom (agaricus campestris) ap. 
 
 une 25 . .V 
 une 26, Aug. 30 . 
 
 June 7, Aug. 14. 
 Apr. 16, Aug. 16. 
 
 Common mallow (malva sylvestris) fl. 
 Dwarf mallow (malva rotundifolia) fl. 
 St. John's wort (hypericum perforatum) fl. 
 Broom-rape (orobanche major) fl. 
 
 une 26 . 
 une 26 . . . 
 
 une 26 . . ' * ',"" 
 une 27, July 4 
 
 May 27, July 13. 
 May 12, July 20. 
 June 15, July 12. 
 May 9, July 25. 
 
 Henbane (hyoscyamus niger) fl. 
 Goats-beard (tragopogon pratense) fl. 
 
 une 27 . 
 une 27 . 
 
 May 13, June 19. 
 June 514- 
 
 Deadly nightshade (atropa belladonna) fl. 
 
 une 27 . 
 
 May 22, Aug. 14. 
 
 Truffles begin to be found .... 
 
 une 28, July 29 . 
 
 
 Youn ' partridges fly .... 
 
 une 28, July 31 
 
 U ly $ 28. 
 
 Lime-tree (tilia europsea) fl. . 
 Spearthistle (carduus lanceolatus) fl. ' 
 
 une 28, July 31 . 
 une 28, July 12 . 
 
 ' une 12, July 30. 
 . une 27, July 18. 
 
 Meadow-sweet (spiraea ulmaria) fl. . 
 
 une 28 . 
 
 une 16, July 24. 
 
 Greenweed (genista tinctoria) fl. 
 
 une 28 . 
 
 . une 4, July 24. 
 
 Wild thyme (thymus serpyllum) fl. . 
 
 une 28 . 
 
 [ une 6, July 19. 
 
 Stachys germanic. fl. .... 
 Day-lily (hemerocallis flava) fl. . 
 
 une 29, July 20 . 
 une 29, July 4 . 
 
 May 29, June 9. 
 
 Jasmine (jasminum officinale) fl. 
 
 une 29, July 30 . 
 
 June 27, July 21. 
 
 Holly-oak (alcea rosea) fl 
 
 une 29, Aug. 4 . 
 
 July 4, Sept. 7. 
 
 Monotropa hypopithys, fl. ... 
 Ladies' bedstraw (galium verum) fl. . 
 
 une 29, July 23 . 
 une 29 . . v ' 
 
 June 22, Aug. 3. 
 
 Galium palustre, fl 
 
 une 29 . 
 
 
 Nipplewort (lapsana communis) fl. . 
 Welted thistle (carduus acanthoides) fl. 
 
 une 29 . 
 une 29 . 
 
 May 30, July 24. 
 
 Sneezewort (achillea ptarmica) fl. 
 Musk mallow (malva moschata) fl. . 
 
 une 30 . . ' : . ' 
 une 30 . 
 
 June 22, Aug. 3. 
 June 9, July 14. 
 
 Pimpernel (anagallis arvensis) fl. . 
 
 une 30 . 
 
 May 4, June 22. 
 
 Hoary beetle (scarabseus solstit.) ap. 
 
 une 30, July 17 . 
 
 
 Corn saw-wort (serratula arvensis seu ) 
 carduus arvensis of Smith) fl. . ) 
 
 July i . . ^ 
 
 June 15, July 15. 
 
 Pheasant's eye (adonis annuaseu autumn- ) 
 alis of Smith) fl. . ^ . . 
 
 July i . ^ >. 
 
 April n, July 15. 
 
 Red eyebright (euphrasia seu bartsia \ 
 odontites of Smith) fl. . . ) 
 
 July 2 . 
 
 June 20, Aug. 10. 
 
 Thorough wax (bupleurum rotundifol.) fl. 
 Cockle (agrostemma githago) fl. 
 Ivy-leaved wild lettuce (prenanthes mu- ) 
 ralis) fl . f 
 
 July 2 . 
 July 2 i . . . 
 
 July 2 . . . 
 
 May 14, July 25. 
 June 2, July 25. 
 
 Feverfew (matricaria seu pyrethrum par- ) 
 thenium of Smith) fl. . . / 
 
 July 2 : '. '. 
 
 June 19, July 24. 
 
 Wall pepper (sedum acre) fl. 
 Privet (ligustrum vulgare) fl. 
 Common toadflax (antirrhinum linaria) fl. 
 
 July 3 
 . uly 3 .- 
 uly 3 i 
 
 June 8, July 12. 
 June 3, July 13. 
 June 21, Aug. 3. 
 
 Perennial wild flax (linum perenne) fl. 
 Whortleberries ripe (vaccinium ulig.) %" 
 
 ' uly 4 
 uly 424 . 
 
 Apr. 21, July 6. 
 
 Yellow base rocket (reseda lutea) fl. . 
 
 . uly 5 . 
 
 July 19. 
 
 Blue- bottle (centaurea cyanus) fl. . . 
 
 . iy 5 ' 
 
 May 15, Oct. 14. 
 
 Dwarf carline thistle (carduus acaulis) fl. . 
 
 _ uly 5 13 
 
 June 30, Aug. 4. 
 
NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 455 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Bull-rush, or cats-tail (typha latifolia) fl. . 
 Spiked willow-herb (lythrum salicaris >f . 
 Black mullein (verbascum niger) fl. . 
 Chrysanthemum coronarium, fl. 
 Marigolds (calendula officinalis) fl. . 
 Little field madder (sherardia arvensis) fl. 
 
 July 6 . 
 >.'; 6 ... 
 Juiy6 . 
 July 6 . 
 July 6-9 
 Ju.y 7 . 
 
 June 29, July 21. 
 June 24, Aug. 17. 
 
 May 28, July 28. 
 Apr. 20, July 16. 
 Jan. ii, June 6. 
 
 Calamint (melissa seu thymus calamintha ) 
 of Smith) fl f 
 
 July 7 ... 
 
 July 21. 
 
 Black horehound (ballota nigra) fl. . 
 Wood betony (betonica officinalis) fl. 
 Round-leaved bell-flower (campanula ) 
 rotundifolia) fl. f 
 
 July 7 . . 
 July 8 19 
 
 JulyS . . . 
 
 June 16, Sept. 12. 
 June 10, July 15. 
 
 June 12, July 29. 
 
 All-good (chenopodium bonus henricus) fl. 
 Wild-carrot (daucus carota) fl. . 
 
 July 8 . 
 JulyS . 
 
 Apr. 21, June 15. 
 June 7, July 14. 
 
 Indian cress (epopa^olum majus) fl. 
 
 July 8 20 
 
 June ii, July 25. 
 
 Cat-mint (nepata cataria) fl. 
 Cow-wheat (melampyrum sylvaticum seu ) 
 pratense of Smith) fl. . . f 
 
 July 9 . 
 July 9 . 
 
 May 2, June 22. 
 
 Crosswort (valantia cruciata seu galium \ 
 cruciatum of Smith) fl. . . ) 
 
 July 9 . 
 
 Apr. 10, May 28. 
 
 Cranberries ripe ...... 
 Tufted vetch (vicia cracca) fl. . 
 Wood vetch (vicia sylvat.) fl. 
 
 July 927 . 
 July 10 . 
 July 10 . 
 
 May 31, July 8. 
 
 Little throat-wort (campanula glomerata) fl. 
 Sheep's scabious (jasione montana) fl. 
 
 uly ii . 
 . uly ii . 
 
 July 28, Aug. 18. 
 June 10, July 25. 
 
 Pastinaca sylv. fl 
 
 uly 12 . 
 
 
 White lily, (lilium candidum) fl. 
 Hemlock (conium maculatum) fl. 
 
 . uly 12 . 
 . uly 13 . 
 
 June 21, July 22. 
 June 4 , July S z. 
 
 Caucalis anthriscus fl. .... 
 
 uly 13 . 
 
 
 Flying ants, ap. 
 
 " uly 13 Aug. ii . 
 
 Aug. 29, Sept. 19. 
 
 Moneywort (lysimachia nummularia) fl. 
 Scarlet martagon (lilium chalcedonicum) fl. 
 
 . uly 13 
 
 . uly 14 Aug. 4 . 
 
 {une 14, Aug. 16. 
 une 21, Aug. 6. 
 
 Lesser stitchwort (stellaria graminea) fl. 
 
 . uly 14 . 
 
 May 8, June 23. 
 
 Fool's parsley (aethusa cynapium) fl. . 
 
 . uly 14 . 
 
 June 9, Aug. 9. 
 
 Dwarf elder (sambucus ebulus) fl. 
 
 uly 1429 . 
 
 
 Swallows and martins congregate 
 
 ] uly 14, Aug. 29 . 
 
 Aug. 12, Sept. 8. 
 
 Potato (solanum tuberosum) fl. . 
 
 . uly 14 . 
 
 June 3, July 12. 
 
 
 
 
 Digitalis ferrugin. fl 
 
 uly 1525 
 
 
 Ragwort (senecio jacobsea) fl. 
 Golden rod (solidago virgaurea) fl. 
 
 . uly 15 . 
 uly 15 . 
 
 June 22, July 13. 
 July 7, Aug. 29. 
 
 Star thistle (centaurea calcitrapa) fl. . 
 
 uly 16 . 
 
 July 16, Aug. 16. 
 
 Tree primrose (oenothera biennis) fl. . 
 Peas (pisum sativum) cut .... 
 
 " uly 16 . 
 _ uly 17, Aug. 14 . 
 
 June 12, July 18. 
 July 13, Aug. 15. 
 
 Galega officin. fl. . . 
 
 . uly 17 . 
 
 
 Apricots (prunus armeniaca) ripe . 
 Crown's allheal (stachys palustris) fl. 
 Branching willow- herb(epilobium ramos.)fl. 
 
 uly 17, Aug. 21 . 
 ; uly 17 . 
 . uly 17. 
 
 July 5, Aug. 16. 
 June 12, July 14 
 
 Rye-harvest begins 
 
 _ uly 17, Aug. 7. 
 
 
 Yellow centaury (chlora perfoliata) fl. 
 
 ' uly 18, Aug. 15 . 
 
 June 15, Aug. 13. 
 
 Yellow vetchling (lathyrus aphaca) fl. 
 Enchanter's nightshade (circaealutetiana) fl. 
 
 ' uly 18 . 
 ] uly 18 . 
 
 June 20, July 27. 
 
 Water hemp agrimony (eupatorium can- ) 
 nabinum) fl . . ) 
 
 July 18 . 
 
 July 4, Aug. 6. 
 
 Giant throatwort (campanula trache- ) 
 Hum) fl f 
 
 July 19 . 
 
 July 13, Aug. 14. 
 
 Eyebright (euphrasia officinalis) fl. 
 Hops (humulus lupulus) fl. 
 
 July 19 . ' . 
 July 19, Aug. 10 . 
 
 May 28, July 19. 
 July 20, Aug. 17. 
 
 Poultry moult ...... 
 
 July 19. 
 
 
 Dodder (cuscuta europaea seu epithy mum \ 
 of Smith) fl 1 
 
 July 20 . 
 
 July 9, Aug. 7. 
 
 I esser centaury (gentiara seu chironia ) 
 centauriurn of Smith) fl. . . ) 
 
 July 20 . 
 
 June 3, July 19. 
 
456 
 
 NATURALiSTS CALENDAR. 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Creeping water parsnep (siurn nodi- ? 
 florum) fl | 
 
 July 20 . 
 
 July 10, Sept. ii. 
 
 Common spurrey (spergula arvensis) fl. . 
 Wild clover (trifolium pratense) fl. 
 Buckwheat (polygonum fagopyrum) fl. . 
 Wheat harvest begins .... 
 Great burr-reed (sparganium erectum) fl . 
 Marsh St. John's-wort (hypericum ) 
 elodes)fl. . ... . | 
 
 July 21 . . 
 July 21 . . 
 July 21 . 
 July 21, Aug. 23 . 
 July 22 . 
 
 July 2231 . 
 
 Apr. 10, July 16. 
 May 2, June 7. 
 June 27, July 10. 
 July ii, Aug. 26. 
 June 10, July 23. 
 
 June 16, Aug. 10. 
 
 Sun-dew (drosera rotundifolia) fl. 
 March cinquefoil (comarum palustre) fl. . 
 
 iuly 22 . 
 uly 22 . 
 
 Aug. i. 
 May 27, July 12. 
 
 \Vild cherries ripe 
 
 ulv 22 
 
 
 Lancashire asphodel (anthericum ossi- ) 
 fragum) fl . . ) 
 
 ul / *^ - 
 
 July 22 . . 
 
 June 31, July 29. 
 
 Hooded willow-herb (scutellaria galeri- } 
 culata) fl ) 
 
 July 23 . 
 
 June 2, July 31. 
 
 Water dropwort (cenanthe fistulos.) fl. 
 
 . uly 23. 
 
 
 Horehound (marrubium vulg ) fl. 
 
 , uly 23. 
 
 
 Seseli caruifol. fl. ..... 
 
 July 24. 
 
 
 Water plantain (alisma plantago) fl. . 
 
 July 24 . 
 
 May i, July 31. 
 
 Alopecurus myosuroides, fl. 
 
 July 25. 
 
 
 Virgin's bower (clematis vitalba) fl. . 
 Bees Icill the drones 
 
 July 25, Aug. 9 . 
 July 25. 
 
 July 13, Aug. 14. 
 
 Teasel (dipsacus sylvestris) fl. . 
 Wild marjoram (origanum vulgare) fl. 
 
 July 26 . 
 uly 26 . . 
 
 July 16, Aug. 3. 
 July 17, Aug. 29. 
 
 Swifts (hirundo apus) begin to depart 
 Small wild teasel (dipsacus pilosus) fl. 
 
 . uly 27 29 . 
 
 uly 28, 29 
 
 Aug. 5. 
 
 Wood sage (teucrium scorodonia) fl. 
 Everlasting pea (lathyrus latifol.us) fl. 
 
 July 28 . 
 July 28 . 
 
 June 17, July 24. 
 June 20, July 30. I 
 
 Trailing St. John's-wort (hypericum ) 
 humifusum) fl. . . . . / 
 
 July 29 . 
 
 May 20, June 22. 
 
 White hellebore (veratrum album) fl. 
 Camomile (anthemis nobilis) fl. . 
 
 July 30 . 
 July 30 . 
 
 July 18 22. 
 June 21, Aug. 20. 
 
 Lesser field scabious (scabiosa colum- ) 
 baria)fl f 
 
 July 30 . 
 
 July 13, Aug. 9. 
 
 Sun-flower (helianthus multiflorus) fl. 
 Yellow loosestrife (lysimachia vulgaris) fl. 
 Swift (hirundo apus) last seen . 
 
 July 31, Aug. 6 
 July 31 . 
 July 31, Aug. 27 . 
 
 July 4, Aug. 22. 
 July 2, Aug. 7. 
 Aug. ii. 
 
 Oats (avena sativa) cut .... 
 Barley (hordeum sativum) cut . 
 Lesser hooded willow-herb (scutellaria \ 
 minor) fl .... i 
 
 Aug. i 16 . 
 Aug. i 26 . 
 
 Aug. i . . . 
 
 July 26, Aug. 19. 
 July 27, Sept. 4. 
 
 Aug. 8, Sept. 7. 
 
 Middle fleabane (inula disinterica) fl. 
 
 Aug. 2 . ' 
 
 July 7, Aug. 3. 
 
 Apis manicata, ap. ..... 
 
 Aug. 2. 
 
 
 Swallow-tailed butterfly (papilio ma- ) 
 chaon) ap ) 
 
 Aug. 2 . . | 
 
 Apr. 20, June 7, last 
 seen Aug. 28. 
 
 Whame or burrel-fly (oestrus bovis) lays ) 
 
 . 
 
 
 eggs on horses f 
 
 Au g. 3 19. 
 
 
 Sow thistle (sonchus arvens's) fl. 
 Plantain fritillary (papilio cinxia) ap. 
 Yellow succory (picris hieracioides) fl. 
 
 Aug. 3 . . 
 Aug. 3 . 
 Aug. 4 . 
 
 June 17, July 21. 
 June 6 --25. 
 
 Musca mystacea, ap. 
 
 
 
 Canterbury bells (campanula medium) fl. 
 
 Aug. 5 . 
 
 June 5, Aug. ii. 
 
 Mentha longifol. fl 
 
 Aug. 5. 
 
 
 Carline thistle (carlina vulgaris) fl. . 
 Venetian sumach (rhus cotinus) fl. 
 Ptinus pectinicornis, ap. . . . 
 
 Aug. 7 ... 
 Aug. 7 . . 
 Aug. 7. 
 
 July 21, Aug 18. 
 June 5, July 20. 
 
 Burdock (arctium lappa) fl. 
 
 Aug. 8 ... 
 
 June 17, Aug. 4. 
 
 Fell-wort (gentiana amarella) fl. 
 
 Aug. 8, Sept. 3. 
 
 
 Wormwood (artemisia absinthium) fl. 
 
 Aug. 8 . 
 
 July 22, Aug. 21. 
 
 Mugwort (artemisia vulgaris) fl. 
 St. Barnaby's thistle (centauria solstit.) fl 
 
 Aug. 8 . 
 Aug. 10. 
 
 July 9, Aug. 10. 
 
 Meadow saffron (colchicum autumnale) fl. 
 
 Aug. 10, Sept. 13 . 
 
 Aug. 15, Sept. 29. 
 
NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 457 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARK WICK. 
 
 Michaelmas daisy (aster tradescantia) fl. . 
 Meadow rue (thalictrum flavum) fl. . 
 
 Aug. 12, Sept. 27 . 
 Aug. 14 . 
 
 Aug. ii, Oct. 8. 
 
 Aug. 6, Oct. 2. 
 May 10. 
 
 May 14. 
 
 June 15, 
 Sept. 25, Feb. 4, 
 
 June 22, Aug. 23. 
 
 July 25. 
 Aug. 22, Nov. 8. 
 
 May 22, July 26. 
 Apr. 21, July 18. 
 Sept. 115. 
 Sept. 5-29. 
 July 19, Aug. 23. 
 Aug. 18, Sept. 18. 
 
 Apr. ii, Aug. 20. 
 July 20, Sept. 28. 
 
 June 17. 
 Aug. 31, Nov. 4. 
 Aug. 5, Sept 26. 
 
 Sept. 430. 
 Aug. 9, Oct. 14. 
 Sept. 18, Oct. 28. 
 June 4, Mar. 21. 
 
 Oct. i, Nov. i, young 
 ones April 28, last 
 seen April. 
 May 21, Dec. 10. 
 Sept. 23, Oct 19. 
 
 Nov. 16. 
 
 Oct. i, Dec. 18, sings 
 Feb. 10, March 21, 
 last seen April 13. 
 Oct. 13, Nov. 18, last 
 [seen May i. 
 
 China aster (aster chinensis) fl. . 
 Boletus albus, ap 
 Less Venus looking-glass (campanula) 
 hybrida)fl ) 
 
 Aug. 14, Sept 28 . 
 Aug. 14 . 
 
 Aug. 15 . 
 Aug. 15 . 
 Aug. 15 . 
 Aug. 15, Sept. 12 . 
 Aug. 15. 
 
 Aug. 16. 
 Aug. 17 . 
 Aug. 17, Sept. 10 . 
 
 Aug. 18. 
 
 Aug. 18 . 
 
 Aug. 18. 
 Aug. 18, Nov. i. . 
 Aug. 20. 
 
 Aug. 22. 
 
 Aug. 23 . 
 Aug. 24 . 
 Aug. 24, Sept. 17 . 
 Aug. 24, Sept. 22 . 
 Aug. 25 . 
 Aug. 27, Sept 12 . 
 
 Aug. 29. 
 
 Aug. 29 . 
 Aug. 30, Sept. 2 . 
 Aug. 30 . 
 
 Aug. 31 . 
 
 Sept. i, Nov. 7 
 Sept. i . 
 Sept. 4, Oct. 24 . 
 Sept. 4, Nov. 9 
 Sept. 4 . 
 
 Sept. 430. 
 
 Sept 629. 
 Sept. ii. 
 Sept. 12, Oct. 2 . 
 Sept. 12, Nov. i . 
 Sept. 24 
 Sept 28, Oct. 24 . 
 
 Sept. 29, Nov. ii j 
 
 Oct. i . 
 Oct. 3, Nov. 9 
 
 Oct. 4, Nov. $ 
 
 Oct. 10, Nov. 10 < 
 
 Oct. 12, Nov. 23 . 
 Oct 1527. 
 
 Carthamus tinctor. fl 
 Goldfinch (fringilla carduelis) young ^ 
 
 Lapwings (tringa vanellus) congregate 
 Black-eyed marble butterfly (papilio ) 
 
 Birds reassume their spring notes 
 Devil's bit (scabiosa succisa) fl. , 
 Thistle-down floats 
 Ploughman's spikenard (conyza squar- ) 
 rosa)fl , . f 
 Autumnal dandelion (Icon to don autumn- ) 
 ale)fl. | 
 Flies about in windows .... 
 Linnets (fringilla linota) congregate . 
 Bulls make their shrill autumnal noise 
 Aster amellus. fl. 
 Balsam (impatiens balsamina) fl. 
 Milk thistle (carduus mar in us) fl. 
 
 Beech (fagus sylvatica) turns yellow . 
 Soapwort (saponaria officinalis) fl. 
 Ladies' traces (ophrys spiralis) fl. 
 Small golden black-spotted butterfly) 
 (papilio phlaeas) ap. . . f 
 Swallow (hirundo rustica) sings. 
 Althaea frutex (hibiscus syriacus) fl, . 
 Great fritillary (papilio paphia) ap, . 
 Willow red under-wing moth (phalaena) 
 
 Stone curlew (otis cedicnemus) clamours . 
 
 
 Wood-owls hoot 
 
 Saffron butterfly (papilio hyale) ap. . 
 Ring-ousel appears on its autumnal ) 
 visit j" 
 Flycatcher (muscicapa grisola) last seen . 
 Beans (vicia faba) cut 
 Ivy (hedera helix) fl 
 
 
 Wild honeysuckles fl. a second time . 
 Woodlark sings 
 
 Woodcock (scolopax rustkola) returns 
 Strawberry-tree (arbutus unedo) fl, . 
 
 Swallows last seen. (N.B*. The house) 
 martin the latest) ) 
 
 Redwing (turdus iliacus) comes . 
 
 Fieldfare (turdus pilaris) returns 
 Gossamer fills the air 
 
 L 
 
458 
 
 NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 Chinese holly-oak (alcea rosea) fl. . 
 Hen chaffinches congregate 
 
 Oct. 19 . . ; . 
 Oct. 20, Dec 31 . 
 Oct 23 Dec 27 
 
 July 7, Aug. 21. 
 
 Royston crow (corvus cornix) returns - f - 
 
 Snipe (scolopax gallinago) returns . , 
 
 Tortoise begins to bury himself . 
 Rooks (corvus frugilegus) return to their ) 
 nest-trees I 
 
 Oct. 23, Nov. 29 j 
 
 Oct. 25, Nov. 20 K 
 Oct. 27, Nov. 26. 
 Oct. 31, Dec. 25 . 
 
 Nov. i. 
 
 Oct. 13, Nov. 17, last 
 seen April 15. 
 Sept. 29, Nov. ii, last 
 seen April 14. 
 
 June 29, Oct. 20. 
 
 Primrose (primula vulgaris) fl. . . ; 
 Green whistling plover ap. . . .-&>., 
 Helvella mitra, ap 
 Greenfinches flock . 
 
 Nov. 10 . 
 Nov. 13, 14. 
 Nov. 16. 
 Nov. 27. 
 
 Oct. 7, Dec. 30. 
 
 
 Nov. 30, Dec. 29 . 
 
 Feb. 19. 
 
 Furze (ulex europaeus) fl. . . . '>i Al 
 Polyanthus (primula polyanthus) fl. . .> 
 Young lambs dropped 
 Moles work in throwing up hillpcks .. -*. 
 Helleborus foetidus, fl. 
 Daisy (bellis perennis) fl. . . . 
 Wall-flower (cheiranthus cheiri seu fruti- ) 
 culosus of Smith) fl. . ) 
 Mezereon, fl -.' 
 Snowdrop, fl 
 In sese vertitur annus. 
 
 Dec. 421 
 Dec. 716 . "'V 
 Dec. ii- 27. 
 Dec. 1223. 
 Dec. 14 30. 
 Dec. 15 . 
 
 Dec. 15 . . -uij.- 
 
 Dec. 15. 
 Dec. 29. 
 
 Dec. 16-31. 
 Dec. 31. 
 Dec. 12, Feb. 21. 
 
 Dec. 2631. 
 Nov. 5. 
 
POEMS 
 
 SELECTED FROM THE MSS. OF THE 
 
 REV. GILBERT WHITE. 
 
POEMS. 
 
 THE INVITATION TO SELBORNE. 
 
 SEE Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round, 
 The varied valley, and the mountain ground, 
 Wildly majestic ! what is all the pride 
 Of flats, with loads of ornament supplied ? 
 Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense, 
 Compared with Nature's rude magnificence. 
 
 Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste ; 
 The unfmish'd farm awaits your forming taste : 
 Plan the pavilion, airy, light, and true ; 
 Through the high arch call in the lengthening view ; 
 Expand the forest sloping up the hill ; 
 Swell to a lake the scant, penurious rill ; 
 Extend the vista, raise the castle mound 
 In antique taste with turrets ivy-crown'd ; 
 O'er the gay lawn the flowery shrub dispread, 
 Or with the blending garden mix the mead ; 
 Bid China's pale, fantastic fence, delight ; 
 Or with the mimic statue trap the sight. 
 
 Oft on some evening, sunny, soft, and still, 
 The Muse shall lead thee to the beech-grown hill, 
 To spend in tea the cool, refreshing hour, 
 Where nods in air the pensile, nest-like bower ; * 
 
 * A kind of an arbour on the side of a hill, 
 
462 POEMS. 
 
 Or where the Hermit hangs the straw-clad cell,* 
 Emerging gently from the leafy dell ; 
 By Fancy planned j as once the' inventive maid 
 Met the hoar sage amid the secret shade ; 
 Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lie? 
 Whate'er of landscape charms our feasting eye^ ; 
 The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture-plain. 
 The russet fallow, or the golden grain, 
 The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light, 
 Till all the fading 'picture fail the sight. 
 
 Each to his task ; all different ways retire ; 
 Cull the dry stick ; call forth the seeds of fire ; 
 Deep fix the kettle's props, a forky row, 
 Or give with fanning hat the breeze to blow. 
 
 Whence is this taste, the furnish'd hall forgot, 
 To feast in gardens, or the unhandy grot ? 
 Or novelty with some new charms surprise?, 
 Or from our very shifts some joy arises. 
 Hark, while below the village-bells ring round, 
 Echo, sweet nymph, returns the soften'd sound ; 
 But if gusts rise, the rushing forests roar, 
 Like the tide tumbling on the pebbly shore. 
 
 Adown the vale, in lone, sequester'd nook, 
 Where skirting woods embrown the dimpling brook, 
 The ruin'd convent lies ; here wont to dwell 
 The lazy canon midst his cloister'd eel! ; t 
 While papal darkness brooded o'er the land, 
 Ere Reformation made her glorious stand : 
 Still oft at eve belated shepherd-swains 
 See the cowl'd spectre skim the folded plains. 
 
 To the high Te*apl? v;oul^. n:y stranger go,J 
 
 * A grotesque building, contrived by a young gentleman, who used on 
 occasion to appear in the character of a hermit. 
 
 f The ruins of a priory, founded by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 The remains of a preceptory of the Knights Templars ; at least it was a 
 farm dependent upon some preceptory of that order. I find it was a preceptory 
 called the Preceptory of Sudington ; now called Southingtbn. 
 
POEMS. 463 
 
 The mountain-brow commands the woods below : 
 
 In Jewry first this order found a name, 
 
 When madding Croisades set the world in flame ; 
 
 When western climes, urged on by Pope and priest, 
 
 Pour'd forth their millions o'er the deluged East : 
 
 Luxurious knights, ill suked to defy 
 
 To mortal fight Turcestan chivalry. 
 
 Nor be the Parsonage by the muse forgot; 
 The partial bard admires his native spot ; 
 Smit with its beauties, loved, as yet a child, 
 (Unconscious why) its scapes grotesque, and wild. 
 High on a mound th' exalted gardens stand, 
 Beneath, deep valleys scoop'd by Nature's hand. 
 A Cobham here, exulting in his art, 
 Might blend the General's with the Gardener's part \ 
 Might fortify with all the martial trade 
 Of rampart, bastion, fosse, and palisade ; 
 Might plant the mortar with wide threatening bore, 
 Or bid the mimic cannon seem to roar. 
 
 Now climb the steep, drop now your eye below, 
 Where round the blooming village orchards grow ; 
 There, like a picture, lies my lowly seat, 
 A rural, shelter'd, unobserved retreat. 
 
 Me far above the rest Selbornian scenes, 
 The pendent forests, and the mountain greens 
 Strike with delight ; there spreads the distant view, 
 That gradual fades till sunk in misty blue : 
 Here Nature hangs her slopy wood? to sight, 
 Rills purl between, and dart a quivering light. 
 
464 POEMS. 
 
 SELBORNE HANGER. 
 
 A WINTER PIECK. 
 TO THE MIS3 BATTIE3. 
 
 THE Bard, who sang so late in blithest strain 
 Selbornian prospects, and the rural reign, 
 Now suits his plaintive pipe to sadden'd tone, 
 While the blank swains the changeful year bemoan. 
 
 How fallen the glories of these fading scenes ! 
 The dusky beech resigns his vernal greens, 
 The yellow maple mourns in sickly hue, 
 And russet woodlands crowd the dark'ning view. 
 
 Dim, clustering fogs involve the country round, 
 The valley and the blended mountain-ground 
 Sink in confusion ; but with tempest-wing 
 Should Boreas from his northern barrier spring, 
 The rushing woods with deafening clamour roar, 
 Like the sea tumbling on the pebbly shore. 
 When spouting rains descend in torrent tides, 
 See the torn Zigzag weep its channePd sides : 
 Winter exerts its rage ; heavy and slow, 
 From the keen east rolls on the treasured snow; 
 Sunk with its weight the bending boughs are seen, 
 And one bright deluge whelms the works of men. 
 Amidst this savage landscape, bleak and bare, 
 Hangs the chill hermitage in middle air ; 
 Its haunts forsaken, and its feasts forgot, 
 A leaf-strown, lonely, desolated cot ! 
 
 Is this the scene that late with rapture rang, 
 Where Delphy danced, and gentle Anna sang ; 
 With fairy-step where Harriet tripped so late, 
 And on her stump reclined the musing Kitty sa,te ? 
 
 Return, dear Nymphs ; prevent the purple spring, 
 Ere the soft nightingale essays to sing ; 
 
POEMS. 465 
 
 Ere the first swallow sweeps the freshening plain, 
 Ere love-sick turtles breathe their amorous pain. 
 Let festive glee th' enliven'd village raise, 
 Pan's blameless reign, and patriarchal days ; 
 With pastoral dance the smitten swain surprise, 
 And bring all Arcady before our eyes. 
 Return, blithe maidens ; with you bring along 
 Free, native humour, all the charms of song, 
 The feeling heart, and unaffected ease, 
 Each nameless grace, and every power to please. 
 
 Nov. ist, 1763. 
 
 ON THE RAINBOW. 
 
 Look upon the Rainbow, and praise him that made it ; very beautiful is the 
 brightness thereof." Eccles. xliii. n. 
 
 ON morning or on evening cloud impress'd, 
 Bent in vast curve, the watery meteor shines 
 Delightfully, to the levelled sun opposed ; 
 Lovely refraction ! while the vivid brede 
 In listed colours glows, th' unconscious swain 
 With vacant eyes gazes on the divine 
 Phenomenon, gleaming o'er the illumined fields, 
 Or runs to catch the treasures which it sheds. 
 Not so the sage, inspired with pious awe ; 
 He hails the federal arch ; * and looking up, 
 Adores that God, whose fingers form'd this bow- 
 Magnificent, compassing heaven about, 
 With a resplendent verge, "Thou madest the cloud, 
 Maker Omnipotent, and thou the bow ; 
 And by that covenant graciously hast sworn 
 Never to drown the world again :f henceforth, 
 
 * Gen. ix. 12-17. t Gen. viii. 22. 
 
466 POEMS. 
 
 Till time shall be no more, in ceaseless round> 
 
 Season shall follow season : day to night, 
 
 Summer to winter, harvest to seed time, 
 
 Heat shall to cold in regular array 
 
 Succeed." Heaven-taught, so sang the Hebrew bard. * 
 
 A HARVEST SCENE. 
 
 WAKED by the gentle gleamings of the morn, 
 Soon clad, the reaper, provident of want, 
 Hies cheerful-hearted to the ripen'd field ; 
 Nor hastes alone ; attendant by his side 
 His faithful wife, sole partner of his cares, 
 Bears on her breast the sleeping babe ; behind, 
 With steps unequal, trips her infant train : 
 Thrice happy pair, in love and labour join'd ! 
 
 All day they ply their task ; with mutual chat, 
 Beguiling each the sultry, tedious hours. 
 Around them falls in rows the sever'd corn, 
 Or the shocks rise in regular array. 
 
 But when high noon invites to short repast, 
 Beneath the shade of sheltering thorn they sit, 
 Divide the simple meal, and drain the cask : 
 The swinging cradle lulls the whimpering babe, 
 Meantime ; while growling round, if at the tread 
 Of hasty passenger alarm 'd, as of their store 
 Protective, stalks the cur with bristling back, 
 To guard the scanty scrip and russet frock. 
 
 * Moses. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Advertisement to original edition, v. 
 Affection of birds for young, 9, 161, 
 
 227 
 
 Ammonites, 10 
 
 Anne, Queen, at Wolmer Forest, 19 
 Antiquities of Selborne, 291-380 
 Ants, 421 
 Aphides, 259-421 
 Ash, 428 
 Ass, 193 
 Aurora Borealis, 435 
 
 Bacon-fly, loo 
 
 Barometer, 433 
 
 Bat, 39, 88, 103 
 
 Beans sown by birds, 431 
 
 Bee-moth, 416 
 
 Bee, wild, 417 
 
 Beech, 428 
 
 Birds, confidence of, in man, 106 
 
 washing of, 145 
 
 dusting of, 145 
 
 flight of, 233 
 
 mating of, 93 
 
 of passage, 57, 129 
 
 sex of, 144 
 
 singing of, 132, 137, 237 
 Black spring, 435 
 Blackthorn, 429 
 Blackcap, 31, 115 
 Black game, 19 
 Blind-worm, 62 
 Boar, wild, 28 
 Bogwood, 17 
 Bombylius medius, 419 
 Botany of Selborne, 228, 230 
 Brambling, 85 
 
 Brutes, sociality of, 198 
 Bullfinch, 52 
 Bull-head, 37 
 Bunting, 47 
 Burning the gorse, 22 
 Bustard, 135 
 Butcher-birds, 107. 68 
 Buzzard, honey, 122 
 
 Calculus from ox. 103 
 Candles, rush, 201 
 Cane, 51, 113 
 Cannibalism, 228 
 Carp, 114 
 
 Cat and leveret, 214 
 Cat and squirrel, 408 
 Chafers, 411 
 Chaffinch, 46 
 Chestnut, 429 
 Chiff-chaff, 56, 398 
 Chough, 108 . 
 Cliffs, fall of, 242 
 Cockroach, 412 
 Cricket, field, 245 
 
 ,, house, 248, 413 
 
 ,, mole, 250 
 Crossbill, 37, 146 
 Crow, 1 08 
 
 Cuckoo, 138, 142, 146, 210 
 Cuckoo pints, 53 
 Cucumber set by bees, 431 
 Curlew, stone, 54, 99, 270, 396 
 
 Deer killing dog, 22 
 ,, stealing, 21 
 ,, red, 19 
 , , spiracula of, 50 
 
468 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Diver, Great Northern, 395 
 Dog, Chinese, 268 
 
 Echo, 223 
 
 Eel, 37 
 
 Empedes, 420 
 
 Earth-worms, 423 
 
 Fairy rings, 432 
 
 Falco peregrinus, 34, 36, 266 
 
 Fern-owl, 104, 399 
 
 Ferret, 51 
 
 Fern-chafer, 114 
 
 Fieldfare, 86, 90 
 
 Fish, gold, 259 
 
 ,, mode of dying, 259 
 Flies, 420 
 
 Fly-catcher, 31,57, 116 
 Fossils, 9 
 
 Food of birds, 117, 152 
 Freestone, II 
 Fog, 207 
 Frog, 59 
 Frozen sleet, 434 
 Frost, partial, 433 
 
 Game at Selborne, 13 
 Geology of Selborne, 6 
 Gibraltar, birds from, 98 
 Gipsies, 199 
 Glow-worm, 423 
 Goatsucker, 104, 399 
 Gold -crest, 58 
 Gossamer, 195 
 
 Grasshopper warbler, 30, 113 
 Grosbeak, 37 
 
 Hanger, 464 
 Hare, white, 87 
 Harvest-bug, 100 
 Harvest-mouse, 42, 49 
 Hawk, sparrow, 113, 123 
 Heath fires, 22 
 Hedgehog, 88 
 Heliotrope, 241 
 Henharrier, 113, 393 
 Heronry, 74 
 Hog, 213 
 Hollow lanes, 13 
 Honey dew, 434 
 Hoopoe, 37 
 Hops, 430 
 Horse, 408 
 Hounds, 408 
 
 House-martins, 39, 105, 167, 255, 261 
 Humming in the air, 410 
 Humming-bird moth, 416 
 
 Ichneumon fly, 418 
 Idiot boy and bees, 204 
 | Insects, observations on, 409 
 Introduction, ix 
 Invitation to Selborne, 461 
 Instinct, 263 
 Ivy berries, 429 
 
 Jackdaw, 72 
 Kestrel, 113 
 
 Lam pern, 37 
 Landrail, 390 
 Landslip, 242 
 Leprosy, 219 
 Lime-tree, 429 
 Linnet, 47 
 Lizard, 70, 77 
 Loach, 65 
 
 Martin, house, 39, 105, 167, 249, 261 
 
 sand, 181, 402 
 Mayfly, 415 
 
 Meteorological observations, 433 
 Migration, 151, 78 
 Miller's thumb. 37 
 Missel-thrush. 194 
 Mist, 434 
 Moose-deer, 91 
 Morning clouds, 435 
 Musical pitch of bird notes, 154 
 
 Naturalist's walk, 81 
 Newt, 60, 6 1 
 Nightingale, 113 
 Night-jar, 75, 104 
 Nuthatch, 57 
 
 Oak, 8 
 
 (Estrus curvicauda, 418 
 
 Osprey, 107 
 
 Otter, 94 
 
 Ousel, water, 146 
 
 ring, 68, 79, 105 
 Owl, brown, 38, 166 
 
 ,, white, or barn, 163 
 
 Partridge, 18, 388 
 Peacock, 103 
 
INDEX. 
 
 469 
 
 Peregrine falcon, 34, 36, 266 
 Pheasant, hybrid, 389 
 Pigeon, wood, 108, 123 
 Plants, list of, 230 
 Plestor, 8 
 Poems, 461 
 Polecat, 51 
 Ponds, 25, 209 
 Poultry, 386 
 
 Quail, 47 
 
 Queen's bank, 19 
 
 Quadrupeds, observations on, 407 
 
 Rabbit, 408 
 Rain, quantity of, 14 
 Rainbow, on the, 465 
 Rat, water, 32, 35 
 Raven, 9 
 Redbreast, 114 
 Red deer, 19 
 Redwing, 155 
 Redstart, 113, 116 
 Reptiles, 59 
 Rooks, 175, 270, 385 
 
 ,, white, 52 
 Rush candles, 201 
 
 Sandpiper, 69 
 
 Scallop, fossil, 9 
 
 Sedge warbler, 83 
 
 Seed lying dormant, 430 
 
 Selborne, 3 
 
 ,, botany of, 228, 230 
 
 ,, geology of, 6 
 
 ,, superstitions of, 205 
 
 Sheep, 173, 407 
 
 Shells, fossil, 9 
 
 Shrew ash, 206 
 
 Shrike, 68, 107 
 
 Silkworm moth, 76 
 
 Slug, 423 
 
 Snail, 423 
 
 Snakes, 63 
 
 ,, slough of, 424 
 
 Snipe, 31 
 ,, humming of, 35, in 
 
 Snow-flake, 86 
 
 Sparrow-hawk, 113, 123 
 
 Spring, perennial, 5 
 
 Squirrel nourished by a cat, 408 
 
 Stickleback, 65 
 
 Stilt plover, 252 
 
 Stoat, 51 
 
 Stock-dove, 124 
 
 Sussex Downs, 172 
 
 Swallow, 30, 44, 1 12, 158, 175, 193.403 
 
 ,, hibernation of, 30, 34 
 Swan, 113 
 Swift, 1 86, 227, 256 
 Sycamore, 428 
 
 Teal, 163 
 Thrush, 385 
 
 ,, missel, 194 
 Thaw, 433 
 Titlark, 108 
 Titmouse, 119 
 
 ,, blue, 120 
 Toad, 59, 66 
 
 Tortoise, 147, 159, 175, 254 
 Trees, 426, 427, 428 
 Trout. 37 
 Truffles, 432 
 Turnip-fly, 101 
 
 Vegetables, observations on, 426 
 Vine, parasite of, 257 
 Viper, 62, 211 
 
 Wagtails, 47, 405 
 Waltham blacks, 21 
 Wasp, 417 
 Water-rat, 32, 35 
 Water- ouzel, 146 
 Waxwing, Bohemian, 43 
 Weasel, 51, 113 
 Weather, summary of, 437 
 
 ,, observations on, 273 
 Well-head, 5 
 Wheat, 431 
 
 Wheat-ear, 48, 120, 174 
 Whinchat, 120 
 Whitethroat, 115 
 
 White and Markwick's calendars, 447 
 Wild fowl, 17, 25 
 Willow wrens, 55, 67 
 Wolmer Forest, 16, 24, 26 
 Wood fossil, 270 
 Woodcock, 97, 149, 156 
 Worms, 216 
 Worms, blind, 62 
 ,, glow, 423 
 Wryneck, 406 
 Wych-elm, 7 
 
4X0 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE (facing title) 
 
 Beech, 4 
 
 Elm, 7 
 
 Partridge, 18 
 
 Black grouse, 19 
 
 Red deer, 20 
 
 Wild duck, 26 
 
 Wild boar, 28 
 
 Swallow, 29 
 
 Spotted fly-catcher, 31 
 
 Blackcap, 32 
 
 Water-rat, 30 
 
 Snipe, 33 
 
 Common rat, 34 
 
 Hoopoe, 36 
 
 Grosbeak, 37 
 
 Crossbill, 38 
 
 Miller's thumb, 38 
 
 House martin, 39 
 
 Pipistrelle bat, 40 
 
 Harvest-mouse and nest, 42 
 
 Waxwing, 43 
 
 Chaffinch, 46 
 
 Linnet, 47 
 
 Quail, 47 
 
 W 7 heatear, 48 
 
 Weasel, 51 
 
 Polecat, 52 
 
 Bullfinch, 53 
 
 Curlew, 55 
 
 Chiff-chaff, 56 
 
 Nuthatch, 58 
 
 Metamorphosis of Newt, 61 
 
 Viper, 62 
 
 Ringed snake, 62 
 
 Blindworm, 63 
 
 Knot sandpiper, 69 
 
 Puffin, 71 
 
 Heron, 74 
 
 Nightjar, 75 
 
 Silkworm -moth, 76 
 
 Fieldfare, 85 
 
 Brambling, 86 
 
 Hedgehog, 89 
 
 Otter, 94 
 Peacock, 102 
 Osprey, 107 
 Shrike, 108 
 Woodpigeon, 109 
 Whinchat, 109 
 Lapwing, no 
 Nightingale, 1 12 
 Carp, 115 
 Whitethroat, 116 
 Gold-crest, 118 
 Longtailed tit and nest, 119 
 Blue titmouse, 120 
 Sparrow-hawk, 122 
 Stock-dove, 124 
 Great bustard, 136 
 Cuckoo, 139 
 Redwing, 141 
 Woodcock, 149 
 Tortoise, 159 
 Barn-owl, 164 
 Brown-owl, 165 
 Sand-martin, 182 
 Swift, 187 
 Missel-thrush, 194 
 Gipsies, 200 
 Shrew, 206 
 Raven, 234 
 Magpie, 235 
 
 Jay, 235 
 
 Moor-hen, 236 
 
 Coot, 237 
 
 House-cricket, 248 
 
 Mole-cricket, 250 
 
 Squirrel, 264 
 
 Peregrine falcon, 267 
 
 Landrail, 391 
 
 Hen harrier, 393 
 
 Great Northern Diver, 395 
 
 Wryneck, 406 
 
 May-flies, 415 
 
 Convolvulus hawk-moth, 416 
 
 Lime-tree aphis, 421 
 
 Snails and slugs, 424 
 
 Ricliard Chiy &* Sons, Limited, London & Bungay. 
 
 (239128883! 
 
A Complete Catalogue of all the Works published by Messrs. 
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