224 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



ii. Sowed one pot of M r - Hunter's White-seeded 

 Cantaleupes 1752. 



Forked the Asparagus-beds ; & raked y m for y e first time. 



Made a rod-hedge round the Quincunx of firs. Very 

 dry March-like weather : no rain since the great snow 

 Feb. 1 8. 



13. Hot, sunny days, & fierce frosts at night. Thick Ice. 



15. Brought a four-wheel'd post-chaise to y e Door at 

 that early time of Year. 1 



1 6. Cast 15 good Dung-carts of hot dung for the 

 melon bed : 9 of our own dung, and 6 of Farmer Parsons's. 

 The Ground as dry as at Midsum r - 



March 17. Sowed an ounce of onion seed in y 6 New- 

 Garden. Transplanted the Cucumber-plants from the pot, 

 to the full Ground in the frame. Planted some very large 

 potatoes from Swarraton in Turner's Garden. The Ground 

 was double-trench'd in the winter ; & some rotten dung, 

 & old thatch were dug-in at planting. 



1 8. Sowed two pots of Arbutus-seed, & one pot of 

 Magnolia-seed, & plunged them in the Hot-bed. 



19. Snowed hard almost all day. Several of y e Melon- 

 plants go-off with a mouldiness that spreads on the leaves. 



20. Received a large Cargo of Shrubs, & flower-roots 

 from Broth r - Thomas in London. 



22. Planted in the Basons in the field, a Moss-provence, 

 & some damask, Monday, & red roses ; Spirce frutex ; blue, 

 & white lilacs ; Syringa ; early golden-rod ; sumach ; Althaea 

 frutex ; guelder-rose ; coccigrya ; female dogwood ; double 

 flowering-thorn, & Persian Jasmine. 



In the New-Garden forward-honey-suckle ; Lavender- 

 cotton ; golden-sage ; double & single Lychnis ; blue, & 

 white Campanulas ; catchflies ; blue, & peach-bloom Mich : 

 daises ; striped bulbous Iris ; ribbon-grass ; double, & 

 variegated perriwinkle : & fruit-bearing Passion-flower near 

 the brew-house-door. 



1 Gilbert's surprise is natural, when it is remembered that the roads were 

 often impassable in winter round Selborne. He, it will be noted, almost 

 invariably rode on horseback in the winter. [H. M.j 



