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Gilbert White

@gilbertwhite.bsky.social

1.5K followers 2 following 670 posts

Journal entries from 1768-1793 of the pioneering C18th English naturalist, posted on the day of the year they were written. Currently posting 1776. Built by @adriantoll.bsky.social See gilbertwhite.org for more info. Also see @johnclare.bsky.social

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 17m

1776: Nuts fall very fast from the hedges.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 1d

1776: One swallow.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 2d

1776: Gathered some keeping-apples. The intercourse between tups and ewes seems pretty well over. Ewes go, I think, 22 weeks.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 3d

1776: Numbers of swallows & martins playing about at Faringdon, & settling on the trees. If hirundines hide in rocks & caverns, how do they, while torpid, avoid being eaten by weasels & other vermin?

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 3d

at the little end, as a man does with his knife. The nut-hatch sometimes splits the shell, & somtimes picks an irregular hole in it's side.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 3d

1776: Black snails are more sluggish than in the summer; but in sight all day at this season of the year. Rooks steal wallnuts off the trees. Some wallnut trees naked of leaves. Saw one hornet. When mice eat nuts, they perforate a round hole in the shell: but squirrels split their nuts in halves...

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 5d

1776: Beans are housed. One swallow. Apples are gathered. Ivy continues to blow. Bat is out.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 6d

1776: Beautiful wheat season for the wet fallows. The buzzard is a dastardly bird, & beaten not only by the raven, but even by the carrion-crow. Gathered baking-pears.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 7d

1776: Wasps seem to be quite suppressed; yet butterflies, & muscae remain. Some swallows above the hanger.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 8d

1776: Swallows & martins, before they withdraw, not only forsake houses, but do not frequent the villages at all: so that their intercourse with houses is only for the sake of breeding.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 9d

1776: Martins, but no swallows. Bat appears.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 10d

1776: Nothing left abroad but seed-clover, & a few beans.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 11d

1776: Some swallows. Martins abound. The quantities of haws, & sloes this year are prodigious. Those hives of bees that have been taken have proved deficient in wax, & honey. In shady wet summers bees can scarce procure a store sufficient to carry them thro' the winter: if not fed they perish.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 12d

1776: Martins abound: few swallows to be seen. Planted a row of lettuces under the fruit-wall to stand the winter.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 13d

1776: Some swallows remain.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 14d

1776: Fine young clover & fine turneps about the country.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 15d

1776: Sun, soft sweet day, rock-like clouds on the horizon. Much barley housed at Newton. Gathered the first grapes: they are small but good.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 16d

1776: Wasps still go into the hives. Gathered-in some of the early pippins: fine baking apples.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 17d

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

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 18d

not seem to inhabit beneath the vegetable mould.

Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 18d

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...

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 19d

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

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 20d

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

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 21d

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.

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Gilbert White @gilbertwhite.bsky.social · 22d

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

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