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 'TTLY 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 Guildfordxand
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 fe1! . . 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) vTaiP<; .
'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

J4

24

6

1763

8

IO

18

3

4

7

5

1764

ii

9

20

IO

8

18

6

T"r6r

'.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

J774

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, and 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 bird2 (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 grossbeaks2 (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 thumb4 (gobius
fiuviatilis capitatus\ the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the eel5 (anguilla),
the lampern6 (lampcetra parva et fluviatilis\ and the stickle-back7
(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. roii 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 wtell
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 mustelinumy 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, c£w 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
oftsizes, 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 drowsy1 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 :

9o 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, Marcht 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.
WTe 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. J2i

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

I24

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.

I34 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, \Molaciiia.

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. j4I

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.

I42 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. i4«J

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 Wildman1 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.

2o8 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. :<27

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 week1 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 Revd. 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 8th, 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.

3i2 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.

3i6 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. 72> J75»
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.

336 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 ima., 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
Stf. 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 ima., 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. ima., 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 S1* 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. im.° 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 2dum. £"*.
4um . 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. an0. 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 vi11. 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. 27th. Hen. 8th. [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 IIItu.]
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. xxiii0. [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, and 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 qd 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 Xmo. 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 vi11. —
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

388 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

OBSERVATIOA7S 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, whera.
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 4ny
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'i7

o'6o

i '39

3 '80

3'2I

5 '94

5'2I

2-27

4' 2

3i '55

1786.

6'9i

1-42

1-62

i'8i

2-40

i '20

i '99

4 '34

4 '79

5' 4

4'38

1787.

o'88

3'67

4-28

0-74

2-60

I-50

6-53

0-83

i-56

5' 4

4" 9

5' 6

36-24

1788.

i '60

3'37

I'3I

o'6i

0*76

1*27

3'58

3 22

S'71

0' 0

o'86

0-23

22*50

1789-

4-48

4-11

2 '47

i'8i

4' 5

4-24

3'69

0-99

2-82

5' 4

3'67

4-62

42-—

1790.

1-99

0-49

o'45

3-64

4'38

0-13

3'24

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-

3'7J

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 (s£necio vulgaris) fl.

an. 3 — 21
; an. 3—15 .

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. 5—i2 .

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. 8—12

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. 21—26 .

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. 18—30 . |

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. 3—24 .

Mar. 3, May 17.

Ground-ivy (glecoma hederacea) fl. .

Apr. 3—15 .

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. 5—19 .
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. 8—28 . |

Apr. 5, sings Apr. 25,
last seen Sept 30

Crown imperial (fritillaria imperialis)'fl.

Apr. 8—24 .

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

MaY *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. 14—19—23.
Apr. 15—19 .
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. 19—25 .

Mar. 27, May 8.

Turtle (columba turtur) cooes .
Hawthorn (crataegus seu mespilus oxy- )
cantha of Smith) fl. • . . }

Apr. 20—27 .
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. 23—29 .

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 2—24.

May 2—26 .

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 3—30 .
May 4 — 12.
May 4, June 17
May 4 . .

Apr. 24, June 21.
June 2—30.

29

452

NATURALISTS CALENDAR.

WHITE.

MARKWICK.

Mealy tree (viburnum lantana) fl.

May 5—17 .

Apr. 25, May 22.

Fly-catcher (stoparolas. muscicapa ^
grisola) ap. ..... j

May 10—30 .

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 13—15
May 13.
May 14 .
May 15—26

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
MaY 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 2—23 .
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 3—14 .
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 8—25 .

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 21—27 •
_ 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 5—21.

Thistla upon thistle (cardaus crispus) fl. .

June 23—29 .

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 4—31.

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 .• . • ' Vri

Apr. 30, July 15.
June 7—23.

Agrimony (agrimonia eupatoria) fl.

une 24—29 .

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 5—14-

Deadly nightshade (atropa belladonna) fl.

une 27 .

May 22, Aug. 14.

Truffles begin to be found ....

une 28, July 29 .

Youn0' partridges fly ....

une 28, July 31

Uly $ 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 •
. uly3 .-
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 4—24 .

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 9—27 .
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 Sz.

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 14—29 .

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 15—25 •

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 22—31 .

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

Aug. 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. 1—15.
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. 4—30.
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. 4—30.

Sept 6—29.
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 15—27.

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. . . . ••'>iAl
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. 4—21
Dec. 7—16 . ••"°'V
Dec. ii- 27.
Dec. 12—23.
Dec. 14 — 30.
Dec. 15 .

Dec. 15 . . -uij.-

Dec. 15.
Dec. 29.

Dec. 16-31.
Dec. 31.
Dec. 12, Feb. 21.

Dec. 26—31.
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

W7heatear, 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

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tions. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ..... 036
Edgar (J. G,). Cavaliers and Roundheads. With Original Illus-

trations. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards . . . i.:."IVO 3 6
Edgeworth (Maria). Early Lessons, Frank, Rosamond, &c.,

and The Parent's Assistant. With Original Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ..... . . .036

Eiloart (Mrs.). Cris Fairlie's Boyhood. With Original Illustra-

tions. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards • . .' . . .036

- The Young Squire. With Original Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt, bevelled boards •«•.'. ..... 036

Ethel Fortescue ; or, Left in Charge. By Mrs. C. SELBY LOWNDES,
Author of " Lena Graham," " New Honours," &c. With Illustra-
tions by EDITH SCANNELL. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards .036

Foote (M. H.). The Led Horse Claim. With Original Illustra-

tions. Crpwn 8vo, gilt . . . ...,. . . .036

Godfrey Maiden ; or, The Squire's Grandsons. By Mrs. J. F. B.

FIRTH. With 35 Original Illustrations. Large crown 8vo, gilt .050

Greene (Honourable Mrs. R.J.). Gilbert's Shadows. With Ori-

ginal Illustrations. Crown 8vo, giit, bevelled boards . . .036
--- The Star in the Dust Heap. With Original Illustrations.

Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards . ..... 036

- God's Silver ; or, Youthful Days. With Original Illustra-

tions. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ..... 036

Grimm's Fairy Tales and Stories. Translated by Mrs. PAULL.
New Edition, New Type, &c. With 16 finely-printed Coloured
Plates* and very numerous Illustrations, including, full-page pic-
tures. Square crown 8vo, handsome binding, gilt, bevelled boards 076

- Fairy Tales and .Stories. Translated by Mrs. PAULL.

With 16 Original Illustrations. Square crown 8vo, gilt . .050
Fairy Tales and Stories. With numerous Illustrations.

.
Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards . jr1 *-.l ,; v *rt I. . I-V ' 'V 036

Hall (M.). A Perilous Venture. With Original Illustrations.

Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ....... 036

Holme Lee's Fairy Tales. With Original Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt, bevelled boards . ; ....... 036

Selections from Frederick Warne &• Co.'s Publications.

antr $r**nitatum 2300ft*.

Hocking's (Silas K.) Works. With Original Illustrations. Small

crown 8vo, gilt edges.
CROOKLEIGH : A Village Story ..... ,.026

REAL GRIT ........... 026

CALEB CARTHEW : A Life Story. With Steel Portrait of the Author 026
CRICKET: A Tale of Humble Life , ...... 026

DICK'S FAIRY : A Tale of the Streets ...... 026

SEA- WAIF : A Tale of the Sea ....... 026

IVY : A Story of Cottage Life ........ 026

HER BENNY : A Story of Street Life ...... 026

His FATHER; or, A Mother's Legacy . . . . . .026

ALEC GREEN ........... 026

POOR MIKE : A Story of a Waif v /• . 0 1 0

CHIPS : A Story of Manchester Life L in royal i6mo, gilt \ .010
OUR JOE j (.010

Ho witt (Mary). Tales of English Life. With 12 Illustrations.

Square crown 8vo, gilt ......... 050

- Tales for all Seasons. With 12 Illustrations. Square

crown 8vo, gilt .......... 050

Ingraham (Rev J. H.). The Prince of the House of David.
With Original Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards,
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The Throne of David. With Original Illustrations.

Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards, gilt edges 036

The Pillar ot Fire. With Original Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt, bevelled boards, gilt edges . . . . . .036

Irving (Washington). Christmas Stories from the Sketch
Book.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Spectre Bride-
groom.

Rip Van Winkle.

. English Sketches.

The Pride of the Village, &c. &c.

Choice Editions, with numerous Illustrations. Small 4to,
bevelled boards, gilt edges . . . . . . each 036

Keary (Annie). Sidney Grey. With Original Illustrations.

Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards 036

Kennedy (Grace). Dunallan. With Original Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt ... . ..036

Keyworth (Thomas). Granny's Boy ; or, Not Kin but Kind.
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. A Long Delay. With Original Illustrations. Crown 8vo,

gilt and gilt edges, bevelled boards 026

Kingston (W. H. G.). Adrift in a Boat and Washed Ashore.

With 16 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards . .036

Knight (Arthur Lee). Ronald Hallifax ; or, He would be a
Sailor. With Original Illustrations by W. S. STAGEY. In square
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Language and Sentiment of Flowers (The) ; or. Flora Sym-
bolica. With Original Coloured Illustrations. Square crown

8vo, gilt 050

Ditto (Popular Edition). Small crown 8vo, gilt, and
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Lewis (AngeloJ.) (Professor Hoffmann). Conjuror Dick. With

;wis (AngeloJ.) (Professor Hoffmann). Conjuror Dick.
Original Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards

0 3

Selections from Frederick Warne 6- Co.'s Publications.

<Stft atrtr

Marryat (Captain, R. N.). Masterman Ready; or, The Wreck
of the " Pacific." Elegantly printed, and containing upwards of
75 New Illustrations. Square crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards .060

- The Settlers in Canada. With numerous New and Ori-
ginal Illustrations, finely printed. Square crown Cvo, gilt,
bevelled boards ....... , . .050

- Poor Jack. With 46 Illustrations after designs by CLARK-

SON STANFIELD, R.A. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards . .050

Marryat (Augusta). The Young Lamberts. With Original

Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards . , . .036

Marryat (Emilia). Jack Stanley. With Original Illustrations.

Crown ttvo, gilt, bevelled boards ....... 036

May and Her Friends. By E. M. B. With Original Illustrations.

Crown 8vo, gilt . . . • , t ..... 036
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Original Illustrations. Square crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards. 036
McKnight (C.). Captain Jack ; or, Old Fort Duquesne. With

Original Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards . .036

National Books. Coloured Plates. Imperial i6mo, gilt . .010
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1. BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

2. FOXE'S BOOK OF MARTYRS.

3. ROBINSON CRUSOE.

4. BUFFON'S NATURAL HISTORY.

5. BUNYAN'S HOLY WAR.

6. BASKET OF FLOWERS.

7. Swiss FAMILY ROBINSON.

8. MILITARY ENTERPRISE.

9. NAVAL ENTERPRISE.

10. UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

11. THE ROBIN REDBREASTS.

12. RICHMOND'S (LEGH) AN-

NALS OF THE POOR.

13. SANDFORD AND MERTON.

14. EVENINGS AT HOME.

Nursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles of Great Britain. (Camden

Edition.) With 400 Illustrations. Large crown 8vo, gilt . .050

Old Friends and New Friends. With numerous Illustrations.

Crown 8vo, gilt . . ..." 036

On the Edge of the Storm. By the Author of " Mdlle. Mori." With

Original Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt 036

Peard (F. M.). One Year. With Original Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt 036

Pepper's Cyclopaedic Science Simplified. By J. H. PEPPER. A

new Edition, with many Illustrations. Square crown 8vo, gilt 076

Pioneer Life and Frontier Adventures. By DEWITT C. PETERS.
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Robinson Crusoe. Unabridged Edition. With Life, Notes and
fully Illustrated with Woodcuts and large Plates by GRISET.
Crown 8vo, gilt 050

Robinson Crusoe. Unabridged Edition. With Illustrations.

Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards 036

Somerton (Alice). The Torn Bible. New Edition. With Original

Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt and gilt edges . . . .026

Layton Croft ; or, The Story of a Prodigal. With Original

Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt and gilt edges . . . .026

Stowe (H. Beecher). Uncle Tom's Cabin. With Original Illus-
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Selections from Frederick Warne &• Co. '5 Publications.

<§tft antr $rntentatton

Swiss Family Robinson. Translated from the Original German,

by Mrs. PAULL. With numerous Choice Illustrations. 640 pages.

In square crown 8vo, gilt ........ 050

Swiss Family Robinson. With numerous Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ........ 036

Sylvia's Daughters. By FLORENCE SCANNELL. With Original

Illustrations by EDITH SCANNELL. Printed in Monochrome by

EDMUND EVANS. In small 4to, picture boards, coloured edges .026
Ditto ditto. Gilt, gilt edges, and bevelled boards 036

Treasures of the Earth ; or, Mines, Minerals and Metals. By

WILLIAM JONES. With Illustrations. Square crown 8vo, gilt .050
Trowbridge (J. T.). Who Won at Last ? With Original Illus-

trations. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ..... 036
Valentine (L.). The Queen : Her Early Life and Reign. With

nearly 100 Illustrations. In crown 8vo, picture cover, boards .010
Ditto (Presentation Edition), cloth gilt, bevelled boards . .026
-- We Three Boys ; or, A Year of Adventure. Fully Illus-

trated. Large crown 8v©, gilt ....... 050

-- Heroism and Adventure. With Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ........ 036

- On Honour's Roll : Tales of Heroism in the igth Century.

With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt, bevelled boards. . .036
-- Sea Fights and Land Battles from Sluys to Alexandria

and Hastings to Inkerman. With Original Illustrations. Crown

8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ........ 036

Valentine (Mrs.). Home Book for Young Ladies. Entirely

re-edited. 250 Illustrations. Square crown 8vo, gilt . . .086
Ditto ditto Gilt edges . . .090

Wood (Rev. J.G.). The Boy's Modern Playmate. A Book of

Games, Sports and Diversions. With 600 Illustrations, engraved

by DALZIELS, HODGKIN, &c. In square crown 8vo, gilt . .086
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Ware (Rev. W.). Zenobia ; or, The Fall of Palmyra. With

Original Illusts. Crown 8vo, gilt, gilt edges, bevelled boards .036

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-- Julian; or, Scenes in Judea. With Original Illustrations.

Crown 8vo, gilt, gilt edges, bevelled boards ..... 036
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8vo, gilt, bevelled boards ........ 036

- Ellen Montgomery. Ditto ditto ditto .036
Wilfrid (Florence) Vivia. With Original Illustrations. Crown

8vo,gilt ........... 036

Golden Play Book (The). With 18 full-page Pictures printed in
Gold and Colours with Descriptive Letterpress. Crown 4to,

gilt, bevelled boards, gilt edges 036

Ditto ditto Mounted on linen . .050

Holiday Playmate (The). With 12 most Attractive page Coloured
Plates and 100 Illustrations, 96 pages of large type Letterpress.
Extra large 4to, gilt, bevelled boards 050

Little People's Favourite Album (The). With 12 most Attrac-
tive page Coloured Plates, 96 pages of Letterpress, and 100
Illustrations. In extra large 4to, gilt, bevelled boards . .050

Selections from Frederick Warne 6- Co. '5 Publications.

picture Boofc*.

Afternoon Tea Painting Book. With zoo Illustrations suitable

for Colouring. Super-royal 8vo, picture cover . . . .010

Army and Navy Drolleries. With 24 Original Designs by Lieut. -
Col. SECCOMBE, and Descriptive Alphabetical Letterpress.
Demy 410, gilt edges .. . .- ..... 07.6

Seccombe (Lieut.-Col.). Cinderella, Retold in Rhyme. With
70 Original Illustrations by the Author ; the 12 page Plates
elegantly printed in Colours. 72 pp., small 410, gilt edges . .060

Shaksperian Tales in Verse. Illustrated with 24 page Plates in
Colours and numerous Illustrations in Tints in the "Itxt. Royal
4to, gilt ..... " . . . ' ..,.' .' '_'' f .050

Young England's Nursery Rhymes. With 96 pages of beauti-
fully-printed Coloured Pictures from Designs by Miss HASLE-
\VOOD. In small crown 8vo, picture boards . . . .016

Ditto handsomely Dound in cloth, gilt, bevelled boards 026

Ditto ditto in full roan, gilt edges . .036

Our Favourite Nursery Rhymes. With 100 Original Illustra-

tions. Imperial iGrno, igz pp., picture wrapper . . . .010
Ditto ditto Gilt . . . .020

Our Favourite Nursery Songs. With Illustrations on every

alternate page, picture wrapper. Imperial i6mo ' . ' . .010
Ditto ditto Gilt . V. .020

Our Favourite Nursery Tales. With Illustrations on every

alternate page, picture wrapper. Imperial i6mo . . .010
Ditto ditto Gilt ". . . .020

Little Pinafore's Picture Book. With numerous page Coloured

Illustrations and Descriptive Letterpress. Small crown 8vo, gilt 010

Tiny Tot's Picture Book. With numerous page Coloured Illus-

traiions and Descriptive Letterpress. Sm ill crown 8vo, gilt .010

Our Dog Laddie. With 20 full-page Pictures printed in Colours,
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Three Kittens (The). With 20 full-page Pictures printed in
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royal 8vo, picture boards, with cover printed in gold and colours 010

Birthday Present (The). With numerous page Coloured Him-
trations and Descriptive Letterpress. Demy 8vo, gilt, bevelled
boards ......... . . .020

Globe Picture Book (The). With numerous page Coloured
Illustrations and Descriptive Letterpress. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt,
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Little Folks' Gift Book (The). With numerous page Coloured

Illustrations. Small 4to, gilt, bevelled boards . . . .026

Nursery Wonder Book (The). With 12 'Coloured Plates, 100
Plain Illustrations, and 96 pages of large type Letterpress. Large
crown 4to, gilt, bevelled boards ....... 036

Our Little Ones' Own Picture Book. With 12 Coloured Plates,
100 Plain Illustrations, and 96 pages of large type Letterpress.
Large crown 4to, gilt, bevelled boards . . . • . .036

Robinson Crusoe. Nursery Edition. With 12 Attractive Coloured
Plates and numerous Illustrations, large type Letterpress. In
extra 4to, Coloured picture cover, boards, cloth back . . . 0 3 G

Gulliver's Travels. By Dean SWIFT. Re-told by Mrs. VALENTINE
for Young Children. With 12 attractive Coloured Pictures
and numerous Illustrations, large type Letterpress. In extra
4to, Coloured cover, boards, cloth back . . . ..036