The Natural History of SelborneLane, 1902 - 552 pages |
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Page xxviii
... spring of 1784 , allows us to see that these introductory epistles , which pretend to usher in the series , were really an afterthought , designed to put the reader in a position for understanding the matter that follows . One or two ...
... spring of 1784 , allows us to see that these introductory epistles , which pretend to usher in the series , were really an afterthought , designed to put the reader in a position for understanding the matter that follows . One or two ...
Page 5
... spring produced , September 10 , 1781 , 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 ...
... spring produced , September 10 , 1781 , 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 ...
Page 23
... spring and summer the women weed the corn ; and enjoy 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 ...
... spring and summer the women weed the corn ; and enjoy 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 ...
Page 32
... spring with all her feet close together , pitched upon the neck of the dog , and broke it short in two . Another temptation to idleness and sporting was a number of rabbits , which possessed all the hillocks and dry places : but these ...
... spring with all her feet close together , pitched upon the neck of the dog , and broke it short in two . Another temptation to idleness and sporting was a number of rabbits , which possessed all the hillocks and dry places : but these ...
Page 42
... 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 Frinsham [ Frensham ] , Bentley and ...
... 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 Frinsham [ Frensham ] , Bentley and ...
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Common terms and phrases
abound animals appear April autumn birds of prey breed brood called chaffinches Church cuckoo curious Daines Barrington district eggs feet female fern-owl fieldfares fields flies forest Frank Buckland frequent garden Gilbert White Gilbert White's Greatham ground Hanger hard frost haunt hedges hirundines hirundo house-martins inches insects July July 13 July 22 June June 11 June 22 June 9 last seen late legs LETTER Linnæus London male manner MARKWICK migration mild Motacilla natural history Naturalist's Calendar included nest never Newton Valence night perhaps ponds quadrupeds rain remarkable ring-dove ring-ousels sand-martin season seems Selborne Sept showers sings snow species spring stone-curlew summer suppose Sussex swallow swarm swift tail titmouse trees vast village volume warm weather White wild wings winter Wolmer wonder woods wren young
Popular passages
Page 178 - Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? Or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, And warmeth them in the dust, And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, Or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, As though they were not hers...
Page 37 - Now scarcely moving through a reedy pool, Now starting to a sudden stream, and now Gently diffus'd into a limpid plain ; A various group the herds and flocks compose, Rural confusion ! on the grassy bank Some ruminating lie ; while others stand Half in the flood, and often bending, sip The circling surface.
Page 402 - 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 fear of change Perplexes monarchs.
Page 103 - 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 woodlarkf 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 combine ; The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; The new-mown hay that scents...
Page 227 - 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 chalkhills in preference to those of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt and shapeless.
Page 275 - Now a shrew-ash is an ash whose twigs or branches, when gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately relieve the pains which a beast suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over the part affected...
Page 103 - Till blended objects fail the swimming sight, And all the fading landscape sinks in night ; To hear the drowsy 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...
Page 402 - ... any alteration 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 bloodcoloured at rising and setting. All the time the heat was so intense that butchers...
Page 216 - I have paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds during their season of breeding, which lasts the summer through, the following 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...
Page 161 - 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 : So Mnestheus in the Dolphin cuts the sea ; And, flying with a force, that force assists his way.