PREFACE 



THE NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



THE mode in which the following rural Calendar of the 

 year has been composed, was to copy out from the 

 journals all the circumstances thought worthy of noting, 

 with the several dates of their recurrence, and to pre- 

 serve the earliest and latest of those dates ; so that the 

 Calendar exhibits the extreme range of variation in the 

 first occurrence of all the phenomena mentioned. To 

 many of them only one date is annexed, only one obser- 

 vation having been entered. This is particularly the 

 case with respect to the flowering of plants, with which 

 the book of 1768 alone was copiously filled ; and it is 

 to be noted that this was rather a backward year, 

 [J. A.] 



[In the preface to the edition of the Natural History, 

 published in 1802 it is stated that 



A very valuable addition to the Calendar and Obser- 

 vations has been obtained from the kindness of William 

 Markwick, 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 1 .] 



1 William Markwick, afterwards Eversfield, derived from his residence 

 in the country opportunities of observing nature, which he embraced with 

 a readiness worthy of a pupil of Gilbert White. His Naturalist's Calen- 

 dar affords ample evidence of his perseverance in attending to and noting 

 occurrences in both the organized kingdoms of the creation; and the 



