1776: The ring-ouzel appears on it's autumnal visit.

1776: Grapes very backward. Much barley housed. Large earth-worms now abound on my grass-plot, where the ground was sunk more than a foot. At first when the earth was removed, none seemed to remain: but whether they were bred from eggs that were concealed in the turf, is hard to say. Worms do...

1776: Ivy beings to blow. Swallows & Martins still abound. Peaches, & nect: rot. Wasps are busy still.

1776: Much barley out round Basingstoke: some standing: & many fields of oats. Green wheat up.

1776: The ground full of water. Wagtails join with hirundines, & pursue an hawk high in the air: the former shew great command of wing on the occasion.

1776: Great quantities of after-grass. Hops damaged by wind & wet. Much barley still out.

1776: Stoparolae still. Distant lightening.

1776: Swallows catch at walls as they flie about. Much distant thunder & lightening.

1776: Swallows cluster, & hang about in a particular manner at this season of the year. Much corn housed. Honey-bees swarm by thousands, & devour the peaches, & nectarines. Stoparolae still appear.

1776: My muscle-plums are in much more perfection this year than any other fruit. Corn housed.

1776: The wasps, tho' by no means numberous, plunder the hives, & kill the bees, which are weak & feeble, this wet autumn: . . . "asper craebro imparibus se emiscuit armis."

1776: Stoparolae still remain. Young swallows continue to come forth. Much corn housed.

1776: China-asters blow but slowly. Corn housed all day.

1776: Hirundines flock & cluster on roofs. Corn housed. Peaches, some few well-flavoured. Grapes turn color very fast.

1776: A sharp, single, crack of thunder at Faringdon: the air was cold, & chilly.

1776: Dark, rain, sun & clouds, showers.

1776: Wheat housed. House-martins do not deal in second broods so much as usual: & yet it should seem that they are not influenced by the cold wet summer, since the swallows seem to be as prolific as ever. Bees injure the wall-fruit in bad autumns; because they are hindered from gathering honey....

1776: Some wasps on the wall-fruit. Where wasps gnaw an hole, the honey-bees come & suck the pulp. All fruits are backward, watry, & bad. Hop-picking begins. Hope are small, & distempered.

1776: Grapes but just begin to colour, here & there a bunch: are very backward & small.

1776: Some few wasps. Fruit rots on the trees. The tops of the beeches begin to be tinged with a yellow hue. The season for shooting is come; but scarce any partidges are to be found: the failure of breed is remarkable.

1776: Vast shower with hail. Plums, & wall-fruit much injured by continual rains. Turned the horses into the great mead. Much grass. On this day last year I began to gather grapes: but now they show but little tendency towards turning their colour. A part of the orchard, where I laid the earth...

1776: The barley coming-up unequally is not yet ripe. Hops promise to be very small.

1776: Fine harvest day. Some corn housed. N.B. From Lewes to Brighthelmstone, & thence to Beeding-hill, where the wheat-ear traps are frequent no wheat-ears are to be seen: But on the downs west of Beeding, we saw many. A plain proof this, that those traps make a considerable havock among that...

1776: Mr Woods of Chilgrove thinks he improves his flock by turning the east-country poll-rams among his horned ewes. The east-country poll sheep have shorter legs, & finer wool; & black faces, & spotted fore-legs; & a tuft of wool in their foreheads. Much corn of all sorts still abroad. Was...

1776: Full moon. The rams begin to play court to the ewes.

1776: The tortoise eats voraciously: is particularly fond of kidney-beans. Vast halo round the moon.

1776: Grey, sun, sweet day.

1776: While the cows are feeding in moist low pastures, broods of wagtails, white & grey, run picking round them close up to their noses, & under their very bellies, availing themselves of the insect flies that settle on their legs, & probably finding worms & larvae that are roused by the...

1776: Sun, dark & still.

1776: Stoparola, & yellow-wrens abound.

1776: Sun, clouds, showers about.

1776: Swallows abound, & congregate. Young swallows continue to come forth.

1776: Fog, sun, showers about, sweet day. Much wheat housed.

1776: Wheat houses. Timothy the tortoise weighs just six pounds three quarters & two ounces & an half: so is encreased in weight, since Aug: 1775, just one ounce & an half.

1776: Many swifts seen for the last time at Blackburn in Lancashire. They staid much longer than in Hants.

1776: Wind wavering.

1776: Wheat housed in a wet condition.

1776: Sun, & clouds, sultry, showers about.

1776: Wheat-harvest pretty general. One straggling swift.

1776: No swifts: our swifts departed between the 6 and the 10 of this month. Flowers & fruit trees injured by the wind. Corn bent down.

1776: Grapes swell.

1776: No swifts. Apricots good.

1776: Hay not housed at Meonstoke & Warnford. Swifts seem to be gone.

1776: Rain, rain, rain.

1776: One swift appears.

1776: Sun, sultry, showers about.

1776: Wheat-harvest begun at E: Tisted & West meon.

1776: Mr. Grimm the artist left me. Began to gather apricots. Put out two rows of celeri: the ground dry & harsh.

1776: Corn turns very fast.

1776: Much cow-grass well-housed. Hay all finished-off in most delicate condition.