4is Mr . Barker's Register of 
the forwardness of the beginning of spring we were never 
without grass, though it was burnt. There were good crops 
of hay on some of the low moist meadows, but the uplands 
and late laid were light. The heat of June and July, and 
middle of August, brought things very forward. Harvest be- 
gan about July 20, and was nearly finished in August: the 
crops did not look much amiss upon the ground, but disap- 
pointed people, for they yielded badly, especially beans and 
pease, of which there were very few ; barley and oats were the 
best ; but the scarcity of other things made them also dear. 
Myrtles flowered very fine this summer, because they began 
in July, which is sooner than usual; they are apt not to begin 
till the warm weather is almost over. The harvest was in ge- 
neral well got, but not so well at the end as at the beginning, 
for there were 18 inches of rain in five months, from July to 
November; great single rains in July, fits of wet in August 
and September, and almost daily in October and November, 
with floods and storms; this made great plenty of grass; but 
the ground became wet and soft, and much trodden, and the 
turnips were not so good as might have been expected. The 
crop of fruit was very uncertain ; in some places it was very 
scarce, in other places there was a good deal ; but in most the 
apples rotted extremely. The hedge fruits were in great 
abundance, excepting ash-keys, of which most people said 
there were none at all. 
The autumn though wet, was mild ; swallows and martins 
did not go away till about October 18 ; the autumnal flowers 
continued till December, anemonies were then in flower; 
winter and spring flowers were forward, and the leaves of the 
spring crocus appeared. But the latter half of December the 
