| Description | Daily observations on weather and natural history, kept at Mongewell, Oxfordshire. Entries are made on printed sheets for date, barometer readings, thermometer readings, rainfall, wind direction and strength, general weather remarks and natural history observations. The printed form specifies readings at 8.00am, 12.00, 4.00pm and 8.00pm, but with handwritten amendments and variations; the 8.00pm time generally amended to 10.00pm in manuscript.
Entries made within 'The Naturalist's Journal' (London, printed for W. Sandby, 1767). The printed columns are headed: Year; Place; Soil; Barom[ete]r; Therm[omete]r; Inches of Rain or Sn[ow] Size of Hail-st[one]; Weather; Trees first in leaf - Fungi first appear; Plants first in flower: Mosses vegetate; Birds and Insects first appear or disappear; Observations with regard to fish, and other animals; Miscellaneous Observations and Memorandums. This volume contains more natural history observations than MA/262/1, including for 17 April 1773 [p.9]: 'My Gamekeeper shot a swallow; it weighed 3/4 of an ounce, was plump & fleshy; on dissection it had three Black flies in it's stomach'.
Front cover inscribed; 'April 1773'. |