Description | Daily observations on weather and natural history, kept at Mongewell, Oxfordshire. Entries are made on printed sheets for date, thermometer readings, barometer readings, wind direction and strength, rainfall, general weather remarks, with natural history and agricultural 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 is generally amended to 10.00pm in manuscript. However for some of the volume, observations are limited to three per day for much of the year, with variable times. There are some contributions to the 'Miscellaneous' column on nature, agriculture, and estate matters, and these are not always completed; there are weather observations and water levels of the Thames.
1816 is sometimes referred to as 'The year without a Summer'. The miscellaeous observations in this volume note copious amounts of rain.
Entries made within 'The Naturalist's Journal, By the Honble. Daines Barrington' (London, printed for Benjamin White & Son, n.d.). The printed columns are headed: Year; Place; Soil; Therm[omete]r; Barom[ete]r; Wind; 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. There is an index to the journal, which has not been completed in this volume.
Paper label on the front cover inscribed in ink: 'The Naturalists, Journal 1816'. |