The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne: With Observations on Various Parts of Nature and the Naturalists Calendar |
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Page iii
... never having been made public before , may gratify the curiosity of the antiquary , as well as establish the credit of the history . If the writer should at all appear to have induced any of his b readers to pay a more ready attention ...
... never having been made public before , may gratify the curiosity of the antiquary , as well as establish the credit of the history . If the writer should at all appear to have induced any of his b readers to pay a more ready attention ...
Page vii
... never tempted him , so far as is known , to sit for any likeness , and no portrait or profile remains to recal the features of one whose writings have been so much and so widely read . * " Gilbert White was the eldest son of John White ...
... never tempted him , so far as is known , to sit for any likeness , and no portrait or profile remains to recal the features of one whose writings have been so much and so widely read . * " Gilbert White was the eldest son of John White ...
Page viii
... never persuade himself to quit the beloved spot , which was indeed a peculiarly happy situation for an observer . He was much esteemed by a select society of intelligent and worthy friends , to whom he paid occasional visits . Thus his ...
... never persuade himself to quit the beloved spot , which was indeed a peculiarly happy situation for an observer . He was much esteemed by a select society of intelligent and worthy friends , to whom he paid occasional visits . Thus his ...
Page ix
... never married , but he had several brothers and sisters ; and the family generally seems to have been possessed of very considerable ability . I am not aware that any opinion has been handed down of his powers as a preacher ; but if we ...
... never married , but he had several brothers and sisters ; and the family generally seems to have been possessed of very considerable ability . I am not aware that any opinion has been handed down of his powers as a preacher ; but if we ...
Page 7
... never could meet with an entire specimen ; nor could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one . In the superb museum at Leicester House permission was given me to examine for this article ; and , though I was disap- pointed ...
... never could meet with an entire specimen ; nor could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one . In the superb museum at Leicester House permission was given me to examine for this article ; and , though I was disap- pointed ...
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Common terms and phrases
abound animals appear April autumn birds birds of prey bishop Bishop of Winchester breed brood called canons chaffinches church colour common cuckoo curious DEAR district edition eggs election feet female fieldfares flocks forest frequent garden Gilbert White ground Gurdon Hanger haunt hirundines hirundo house-martins inches insects July July 13 July 22 June June 11 June 9 Knights Templars late legs LETTER Linnæus Magdalen College male manner March mentioned migration mild natural history nest never night observed parish perhaps plants ponds prior priory Priory of Selborne probably procured quadrupeds rain remarkable ring-ousels season seems Selborne Seleburne Sept showers sings snow soon species spring stone-curlew summer suppose swallow swift titmouse trees vast vicar village warm weather White wild Winchester wings winter Wolmer woods young
Popular passages
Page 145 - ... afflicted with cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this accident, to which they were continually liable, our provident fore-fathers always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medicated, would maintain its virtue for ever. A shrewash was made thus :* — Into the body of the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, and a poor devoted shrew-mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged in, no doubt, with several quaint incantations long since forgotten.
Page 178 - When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a matter of wonder to find that Providence should bestow such a profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that appears to relish it so little as to squander more than two-thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for months together in the profoundest of slumbers.
Page 58 - NATURE'S works, the curious mind employ, Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! Each rural sight, each sound, each smell combine ; The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, Or cottage-chimney smoking through the trees. The chilling night-dews fall: — away, retire ; For see, the glowworm lights her amorous fire ! Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured...
Page 178 - The rattle and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it, that when I turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden ; however in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould and continues still concealed.
Page 42 - Assaying by his devilish art to reach The organs of her fancy, and with them forge Illusions as he list, phantasms, and dreams ; Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint...
Page 6 - ... the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest; and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the...
Page 199 - Less than archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured ; as when the sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs.
Page 137 - ... single filmy threads, floating in the air in all directions, but perfect flakes or rags; some near an inch broad, and five or six long, which fell with a degree of velocity that showed they were considerably heavier than the atmosphere.
Page 152 - For to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants...
Page 145 - ... it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is of so baneful and deleterious a nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the limb.