8th Day of Novr, 1824
Monday		Read over the Magazine98     the Review of Lord Byrons Conversations is rather entertaining     the pretendery letter of James Thompson is a bold lye     I dislike those lapt up counter fits mantld in truth like a brassy shilling in its silver washings — those brimingham half pence passd off as matter of fact moneys Elia can do better — the rest of the articles are motly matters some poor and some middling     Magazines are always of such wear
Tuesday		Read Shakspears Henry the Fifth99 of which I have always been very fond from almost a boy     I first met with it in an odd Vol which I got for 6d yet I thought then that the welch officer with two other of his companions were tedious talkers and I feel that I think so still     yet I feel such an interest about the play that I can never lay it down till I see the end of it
Wednesday		Read Macbeth     what a soul thrilling power hovers about this tradegy     I have read it over about twenty times and it chains my feelings still to its perusal like a new thing     it is Shakspears masterpiece — the thrilling feelings created by the description of lady Macbeths terror haunted walkings in her sleep sinks deeper then a thousand ghosts     at least in my visions of the terrible she is a ghost herself and feels with spirit and body a double terror
Thursday		Recievd a letter from Inskip100 the friend of Bloomfield full of complaints at my neglect of writing     what use is writing when the amount on both sides amounts to nothing more then waste paper     I have desires to know somthing of Bloomfields latter days but I can hear of nothing further then his dying neglected so its of no use enquiring further — for we know that to be the common lot of genius
Friday		Burnt a will which Taylor of Deeping made for me by Mossops Orders as it was a jumble of contradictions to my wishes — wrote the out line for another In which I mean to leave every thing both in the copy right and fund money etc etc of all my Books M.S.S. and property in the power of my family at le[a]st in the trust of those I shall nominate trustees and Lord Radstock is one that I shoud like to trouble for the purpose
Saturday		Lookd into Thompsons Winter101     there is a freshness about it I think superior to the others tho rather of a pompous cast     how natural all his descriptions are     nature was consulted in all of them     the more I read them the more truth I discover      the following minute descriptions are great favourites of mine and prove what I mean describing a hasty flood forcing thro a narrow passage he says
		‘-----------------rapid and deep
		‘It boils and wheels and foams and flounders through’
		‘Snatchd in short eddies plays the witherd leaf
		‘And on the flood the dancing feather floats’
Sunday		Read in old Tusser102 with whose quaint ryhmes I have often been entertaind     he seems to have been acquainted with most of the odd measures now in fashion    he seems to have felt a taste for inclosures and Mavor that busy notemaker and book compiler of school boy memory has added an impertinent note to tussers opinion as an echo of feint praise     so much for a parsons opinion in such matters — I am an advocate for open fields and I think that others expirience confirms my opinion every day — there is two pretty sonnets in Tusser and some natural images scatterd about the book       the four following lines are pretty     ‘The year I compare as I find for a truth     ‘The spring unto child hood the summer to youth     ‘The harvest to manhood the winter to age      ‘All quickly forgot as a play on a stage’ some of the words in the glossary have different meanings with us — To addle means to earn wages — eddish with us is the grass that grows again af103 it is mown — staddle bottom of a stack etc etc etc

		15th, Day of Novr 1824
Monday		Went out to gather pootys on the roman bank for a collection      found a scarce sort of which I only saw two in my life one pickd up under a hedge at peakirk town end and another in bainton meadow     its color is a fine sunny yellow larger then the common sort and round     the rim of the base is a black edging which extends no further then the rim     it is not in the collection at the British Museum104
Tuesday		My friend Billings told me to day that he saw four swallows about the second of this month flying over his house     he has not seen them since and forgot to tell me at the time — now what becomes of these swallows for the winter     that they cannot go into another country now is certain and that they must abide or perish here is certain but how or were is a mystery that has made more opinions then proofs and remains a mystery on
Wednesday		The Chrisanthums are in full flower     what a beautiful heart cheering to the different seasons nature has provided in her continual successions of the bloom of flowers — ere winters bye the little acconite peeps its yellow flowers then the snow drop and further on the crocus dropping in before the summer multitude and after there departure the tall hollioak and little aster blooms in their showy colors then comes the michael mass daisy and lastly the Chrisanthemum while the china roses
		‘---------------------------all the year
		‘Or in the bud or in the bloom appear’105
Thursday		Read in Southeys Wesley106 he has made a very     entertaining book of it but considering the subject I think he might have made more of it     the character of Wesley is one of the finest I have read of     they may speak of him as they please but they cannot diminish his simplicity of genius as an author and his piety as a Christian     I sincerly wish that the present day coud find such a man
Friday		Had a visit from my friend Henderson and I felt revivd as I was very dull before: he had a pleasing News to deliver me having discoverd a new species of Fern a few days back growing among the bogs on Whittlesea Mere and our talk was of Ferns for the day     he tells me there is 24 different species or more natives of England and Scotland     one of the finest of the latter is calld the Maiden hair fern growing in rock clefts
Saturday		Went out to hunt the harts tongue species of fern and fell in with the ruins of the old Castle in Ashton lawn107 but found none     its commonest place is in Wells in the crivices of the walls but I have found it growing about the badger holes in open Copy wood108     got very wet and returnd home — finishd the 8th Chapter of my life109
Sunday		Paid a second visit to the old castle in ashton lawn with my companion J. Billings to examine it — we strum it and found it 20 yards long fronting the south and 18 fronting eastward
		we imagind about 12 foot of the walls still standing tho the rubbish has entirely coverd them except in some places were about a foot of the wall may be seen
		it is coverd with in and without with black thorn and privet and s[p]urge laurel so that it is difficult to get about to view it     I broke some of the cement off that holds the stones together and it appears harder then the stone it self     brought some home in my pocket for my friend Artis     there is some rabbits haunts it and the earth the[y] root out of their burrows is full of this cement and perishd stone — part of the moat is still open

		22nd, Day of Novr 1824
Monday		Lookd into Miltons Paradise lost     I once read it thro when I was a boy     at that time I liked the Death of Abel110 better     what odd judgments those of boys are     how they change as they ripen      when I think of the slender merits of the Death of Abel against such a jiant as Milton I cannot help smiling at my you[n]g fancys in those days of happy ignorance
Tuesday		Some months back I began a system of profiting by my reading at least to make a show of it by noteing down beautiful odd or remarkable passages and immitations in the poets and prose writers which I read and I have inserted some liknesses of Lord Byrons in the Apendix No 8111 about which there has been much batteling and ink shed — I never saw some of them noticed before
Wednesday		I have often been struck with astonishment at the tales old men and women relate on their remembrances of the growth of tree[s]     the Elm groves in the Staves acre Close at the town end were the rooks build and that are of jiant height     my old friends Billings says he remembers them no thicker then his stick and saw my fathers uncle set them carr[y]ing a score on his back at once     I can scarcly believe it
Thursday		Recievd a letter from Hessey112     I have not answerd his last and know not when I shall     the worlds friendships are counterfits and forgerys on that principal     I have provd it and my affections are sickend unto death and my memorys are broken while my confidence is grown to a shadow — in the bringing out the second Edit of the Minstrel they was a twelvmonth in printing a title page —
Friday		Went to see if the old hazel nut tree in lea close was cut down and found it still standing     it is the largest hazel tree I ever saw being thicker then ones thigh in the trunk and the height of a moderate Ash — I once got a half peck of nutts when in the leams off its branches when a boy — the Inclosure has left it desolate its companions of oak and ash being gone
Saturday		Recieved a parcel of Ferns and flowers from Henderson113 the common Polipody growing about the thorp park wall the harts tongue growing in a well at Caistor the Lady fern114 growing at whittlesea Meer and tall white Lychnis with seven new sorts of Chrysanthemums — the Paper white the bright lemon 3 sorts of lilac and 2 others — I like these flowers as they come in the melacholy of autumn
Sunday		A gentleman came115 to see me to day whose whole talk was of Bloomfield and Booksellers     he told me to put no faith in them and when I told him that all my faith and M.S.S. likewise was in their hands already he shook his head and declared with a solemn bend of his body ‘then you are done by G–d — they will never print
		them but dally you on with well managed excuses to the grave and then boast that they were your friends when you are not able to contradict it as they have done to Bloomfield’      he then desird me to get my MSS back by all means and sell them at a markets price at what they woud fetch — he said that Bloomfield had not a £100 a year to mentain 5 or 6 in the family     why I have not £50 to mentain 8 with     this is a hungry difference

		29th, Day of Novr 1824
Monday		Lent Henderson 5 Nos of ‘London Mag:’ from July to November and the ‘Human Heart’
Tuesday		An excessive wet day — Recd116 the Literary (Butterflye) Souvenir for 1825117 in all its gilt and finery      what a number of candidates for fame are smiling on its pages — what a pity it is that time shoud be such a destroyer of our hopes and anxietys for the best of us are but doubts on fames promises and a century will thin the myriad worse then a plague
Thursday		One of the largest floods118 ever known is out now      an old neighbour Sam Sharp out last night at Deeping Gate and attempting to get home was drownd
Friday		Found a very beautiful fern in Oxey wood suppose it the White Maiden Hair of Hill119     it is very scarce here
Sunday		I have been thinking to-day of all the large trees about our neighbour hood and those that have curious historys about them — there was a Walnutt tree (now cut down) stood in Loves yard120 a[t] Glinton of which this is the history — old Will Tyers121 now living says while going to Peakirk one day when a boy he pickd up a walnutt and took it home to set it in his garden were it throve well and bore nutts      before he left the house it[s] present occupier got great quantitys of nutts most seasons and a few years back it was cut down and the timber sold for £50

		6th Day of Decr, 1824
Monday
Tuesday		Another Gipsey Wedding of the Smith family fiddling and drinking as usual
Wednesday		Found the common Pollopody on an old Willow tree in Lolham Lane and a very small fern in hilly wood scarcly larger then some species of moss and a little resembling curld parsley     I have namd it the Dwarf Maiden hair122 and I believe it is very scarce here
Friday		Began to take the Stamford Mercury Newspaper with Bradford and Stephenson123

		13th, Day of Decr, 1824
Monday		Bought a Moors Almanack with its fresh budget of wonderful predictions on the weather and the times utterd with such earnest ambition of pretending truth that one shoud think the motto ‘The voice of the heavens’ etc means nothing more or less then the voice of Moors Almanack etc — saw two ‘Will o whisps’124 last night     see Appendix N° 9.
Tuesday		A coppled crownd Crane [i.e. a heron] shot at Billings pond on the green — twas 4 foot high from the toes to the bill — on the breast and rump was a thick shaggy down full of powder which seem[ed] to be a sort of pounce box to the bird to dress its feathers with to keep out the wet — its neck and breast was beautifully staind with streaks of watery brown its wings and back was slate grey the crown on its head was of the same color
Wednesday		Went to Milton     saw a fine Edition of Leniuses Botany125 with beautiful plates and find that my fern which I found in Harrisons close dyke by the wood lane is the ‘thorn pointed fern’     saw also a beautiful book on insects126 with the plants they feed on by Curtis — found Artis busy over his ‘fossil plants’ and ‘Roman Antiquitys’ but his complaints of the deceptions of publishers are akin with mine
Thursday		Saw Hendersons collection of Ferns which is far from compleat tho some of them are beautiful — learnd from him of a singular instinct in plants of the creeping or climbing kind some having a propensity to twine to the left in their climbing and others to the right — the wood bine seems to twine to the left and the travellers joy to the right but this is not an invariable fact
Friday		Recievd a letter from Lord Radstock127
Sunday		Returnd from Milton128

		20th, Day of Decr, 1824
Monday
Wednesday		A coppled crownd hen pheasant shot very large and colord about the breast and back like the cock but the head was plain
Thursday		Recievd a letter from Mrs Emmerson129 and the ‘Observer’ after a long Absence in France — Wrote a letter to Mrs E. and to Francis Freeling Esqr —
Saturday		Christmass day     gatherd a hand ful of daiseys in full bloom — saw a wood bine and dog rose in the woods putting out in full leaf and a primrose root full of ripe flowers — what a day this usd to be when a boy how eager I usd to attend the church to see it stuck with evergreens (emblems of Eternity) and the cottage windows and the picture ballads on the wall all stuck with Ivy holly Box and yew — such feelings are past — and ‘all this world is proud of’
Sunday		Found at the bottom130 of a dyke made in the roman bank some pootys of varied colors and the large garden ones of a russet color with a great many others of the meadow sort which we calld ‘badgers’ when I was a school boy     found no
		were now but in wet places — there is a great many too of a water species now extinct — the dyke is 4 foot deep and the soil is full of these shells — have they not lay here ever since the romans made the bank and does the water sorts not imply that the fields was all fen and under
		water or wet and uncultivated at that time I think it does — I never walk on this bank but the legions of the roman army pass bye my fancys with their mysterys of nearly 2000 years hanging like a mist around them     what changes hath past since then — were I found these shells it was heath land above ‘swordy well’

		27th Day of Decr, 1824-5
Monday
Wednesday		Went with neighbour Billings to Southey Wood and Gees Holt to hunt ferns — found none — met with a new species of moss fern shapd growing on a common species like the missletoe on the thorn — it is a sort of moss missletoe131 — preserved a specimen — saw a branch of black thorn dog rose and eldern in full leaf all in one hedge row — saw a bumbarrel with moss as if building a nest
Thursday		Recievd an answer from F. Freeling132 to my enquirey wether the charge of a penny is legal at Deeping office for post paid and frankd letters and News papers and I find that it is for letters but no mention is made about News papers so I am as ignorant as ever on that head but I will enquire further
Friday		Recieved a letter from Hessey133 containing a Draft for £20 being the fund money and Earl Spencers half yearly salary — nothing further about my new poems is mentiond — wrote to Revd H F Carey — Gatherd a Crow flower in full bloom
Saturday		Saw a Reciept to mend broken china in the Stamford Mercury134 — ‘Gloucester cheese softend by warm water and mixed with quick lime is a good cement for china-ware etc etc’ —
		News papers have been famous for Hyperbole and the Stamford Mercury has long been one at the head of the list of extravagance — in an article relating an accident at Drury lane Theatre is the following ‘A large piece of timber fell on Miss Poveys head and wounded her severly She was of course incapable of performing etc — who woud not of course believe Miss Poveys head harder then a statues after this
Sunday		Recieved a parcel from Mrs Emmerson135 — took a Walk to ‘Simons wood’ found 3 distinct species of the ‘Bramble’ or mulberry — Henderson will have it there is but 2 but I am certain he is wrong and believe there is 4 — the common one that grows in the hedges — the larger sort that grows on commons bearing larger fruit — calld by
		childern ‘black berry’ the small creeping ‘dew berry’ that runs along the ground in the land furrows and on the brinks of brooks and a much larger one of the same kind growing in woods     botanists may say what they will — for tho these are all of a family they are distinctly different — there are 2 sorts of the wild rose the one in hedges bearing blush colored flowers and the other much smaller in woods with white ones

		3rd, Day of Jany, 1825
Monday
Wednesday		Jiliflowers Polanthuses Marigolds and the yellow yarrow in flower and the double scarlet Anemonie nearly out — crocuses peeping out above ground swelling with flower — the authoress (Miss Kent) of the ‘Flora Domestica’ says the snow drop is the first spring flower     she is mistaken     the yellow winter aconite is always earlier and the first on the list of spring
Thursday		My dear boy Frederick is one yeer old this day
Friday		Bought some cakes of colors with the intention of trying to make sketches136 of curious snail horns Butterflys Moths Sphinxes Wild flowers and what ever my wanderings may meet with that are not too common
Saturday		A ryhming school master is the greatest bore in literature     the following ridicilous advertizement proves the assertion taken from the ‘stamford mercury’137
		‘Boston
		‘Mr Gilberts boarding and day school will reopen on Monday January 17th 1825’
		‘For favours past his heart must flow
		‘And kind regard to youth shall show
		‘That Gilbert feels and grateful will
		‘The noble art “to learn” instill’
Sunday		News paper Miracles Wonders Curositys etc etc      under these heads I shall insert any thing I can find worth reading and laughing at — ‘Two extraordinary large eels were last week taken upon the saltings at Steeple in Dengie hundred
		Essex — these monsters of their species (138and there is every reason to believe them to be the fresh water silver eel — One was seven feet in length twenty one inches in surcumferance and weighd fifty seven pounds the other was six feet long larger round then the former and weighd
		sixty two pound — twenty years back one was taken nearly six feet long close to portman marsh wall — in Essex a quarter of a mile from Maldon bridge — a part of one of [the] eels was eaten by our correspondent who speaks highly of its flavour’ — Essex herald139     ‘A parish clerk 115 years old is now able to read without spectacles and dig graves’ etc etc — Stamford Mercury

		10th, Day of Jany, 1825
Monday		Saw a white thorn bush yesterday in Oxey-wood in the leaf all over and by next Sunday no doubt the knots of may may be seen — the winter ackonite just peeping out with its yellow flowers — the Aron just appearing under the hedges as in april and the Avens (a common hedgrow plant) has never lost its leaves but appears as green as at spring —
Tuesday		Began to fetch maiden earth from molehills for my flower beds — heard the Mavis thrush sing for the first time this winter — it of[ten] sings earlier and has been heard on christmass day when the weather has been open
Thursday		Help’d Billings to take in Beans
Friday		A scarlet daisey in flower in the Garden — Recieved a letter from C.A. Elton140 who tells me there is a many plants and ferns about Bristol downs and valleys and ‘some rathe[r] peculiar to the country.’ I hope I shall be able to go in spring
Saturday		This day is my Fathers birthday who is 60 years old — ‘Thus runs the world away’141
Sunday		Took a walk in ‘Porters snow close’ to hunt ferns in the morning and in Turnills ‘heath wood’ in the afternoon     found nothing but the fox fern which is the commonest of all about here — Recieved a letter from Mrs Emmerson142 and answered it

		17th Day of Jany, 1825
Monday
Wednesday		A slight storm of snow for the first time this winter — just compleated the 9th Chapter of my Life — corrected the poem on the ‘Vanitys of the world’ which I have written in imitation of the old poets on whom I mean to father it and send it to Montgomerys paper the ‘Iris’ or the ‘Literary Chronicle’ under that character 143
Thursday		Wrote a letter to Hessey144
Friday		A robin whistling on the plumb trees by the window      I never heard one so early before
Saturday		‘A new vegetable called the “Asparagus Potatoe” has been introduced into this country     it comes into season just as the asparagus goes out’ — ‘So little wind prevails in Italy that not a wind mill is to be seen in any part of it, there were two in venice but were taken down as usless for want of wind’ — ‘An elm tree suppos’d to be a thousand years old was blown down near ludlow castle’ — ‘A black birds nest with four young ones was found a few days ago in Yorkshire’ — Stamford Mercury145
Sunday		News paper wonders — ‘There is now living at Barton an old lady of the name of Faunt who has nearly attained the great age of 105 years — she has lately cut new teeth to the great supprise of the family’ Stamford Mercury146 — Took a walk to hilly wood brought home another plant of the
		white maiden hair fern that grows on a sallow stoven in a sort of spring — wrote to Mr Sharp147 of the dead letter office — finished my ‘two ballads to Mary’148  which I intend to send to the ‘Litterary Gazette’ as also my three Sonnets to Bloomfield149 and I am weary of writing for the London Magazine      these recent refinings are petty and trifling at best150

		24th, Day of Jany 1825
Monday
Tuesday		A fine day     the bees were out busily flying as if seeking flowers     the sky was hung with light flying clouds and the season appeard as if the beginning of april
Wednesday		Fetchd some soil from Cowper green for my ferns and flowers — the sharpest frost for this winter which woud not bare [i.e. bear] a boy to slide on — From what cause sprung the superstition of making the No 3 a fatal No? — it is so much so — that ghosts use it and never pay a visit without giving their (fashionable) signal of 3 raps to anounce their arival
Thursday		Recieved a letter from Mr Sharp151 and one from Lord Radstock — and answerd his Lordships sending in it the ‘Vanitys of Life’ a poem — heard the buzz of the black beetle or cockchaffer152 that flyes about in the autumn evenings and early in spring — it is different to the brown or summer beetle which is described by Collins — ‘the beetle winds
		‘His small but sullen horn’153
		and is not so common
Sunday		Recieved a letter from Mrs Emmerson154 and a ‘Litterary Gazette’ from somebody in which is a Review of an unsuccessful Attempt to reach Repulse Bay etc By Captain Lyon155 from which the following curious incident is extracted     speaking of some graves of the Esquemaux he says
		‘Near the large grave was a third pile of stones covering the body of a child which was coiled up in the same manner. A snow bunting had found its way thro the loose stones which composed this little tomb, and its now forsaken neatly built nest was found placed on the neck of the Child.
		As the Snow bunting has all the domestic virtues of our English Red breast it has always been considerd by us as the Robin of these dreary wilds and its lively chirp and fearless confidence have renderd it respected by the most hungry sports men — I coud not on this occasion view its little nest placed on the breast of Infancy without wishing that I possesed the power of poeticaly expressing the feelings it excited’

		31st, Day of Jany, 1825
Monday		Went to Simons Wood for a succor [i.e. sucker] of the Barberry bush to set in my Garden — saw the Corn tree putting out into leaf — a yellow crocus and a bunch of single snow drops in full flower — the mavis thrush has been singing all day long      Spring seems begun — The wood bines all over the wood are in full leaf
Tuesday		A beautiful morning     took a walk in the fields      saw some birch poles in the quick fencing and fancyd the bark of birch might make a good substitute for Paper     it is easily parted in thin lairs [i.e. layers] and one shred of bark round the tree woud split into 10 or a dozen sheets and I have tryd it and find it recieves the ink very readily
Wednesday		Went to walk in the fields and heard Ufford bells chimeing for a funeral     when I enquired I found it was for poor old John Cue of Ufford a friend of mine with whom I workd some seasons at turnip hoeing for which he was famous — he knew my Grandfather well and told me many reccolections of their young day follys — John Cue was once head Gardener for Lord Manners of Ufford hall — he was fond of flowers and books and possesd a many curious ones of the latter among which was ‘Parkinsons H’
Thursday		Recieved a letter from Hessey156 with £5 enclosed and a parcel containing 2 Nos of the New Series of London Mag: and ‘Waladmor’ a German-scotch Novel — if Job was living now he woud stand a chance to gain his wish ‘O that mine enemey woud write a book’157 for this is the age of book-making — and like the small pox almost every body catches the plague
Friday		The first winters day a sharp frost and a night fall of snows drifting in heaps by a keen wind — there has been a deal of talk about the forwardness of this season but last season was not much behind — on the third of this month I found an hedge sparrows nest in Billings Box trees before the window with three eggs in it     I lookd again in March and found two young ones pin featherd starved to death — she laid agen in the same nest and brought off a fledgd brood in april
Saturday		Severe frost – Recieved a joint letter from Lord Radstock and Mrs Emmerson158 under a Frank which was put into post too soon for which a charge of 1 py was made — ‘knaves in office’ watch chances as the cat watches mice and are of that species of animals that catch their prey by supprise
Sunday		Severe frost – Recieved a letter from Mrs Gilchrist159  — heard by Ned Simpson160 of Stamford that a bird of the hawk kind was shot at a fountain in hollywell Park of a large size which he calls the ‘hair legd falcon’      heard by the same of a white mole being caught in Stamford field

		7th, Day of Feby, 1825
Monday
Thursday		Fine day     the bees are out and busily seeking for wax among the little flowers of the yellow acconite — a sparrow is building its nest in a hole in the old wallnut tree in the Taylors Gardens
Friday		Saw the first young Lamb this season — saw a blue violet on the Ivy bank next the lane in Billings Close
Saturday		Recieved a letter from Van dyke161 in which he appears as the Editor of my Poems     they chuse who they please this time but my choice comes next and I think I shall feel able to do it my self     he wishes me to alter the title of my song written in imitation of Peggy Band to Peggy Bland because the old ballad is bad     I did it in memory of the music and shall not alter it
Sunday		Recieved a letter from Dr Darling162 — an odd sort of fellow came to day with a bag full of old school summing books wanting me to buy them and vowing that he was the author of them and that I might make a good bargain by publishing them     what odd characters there are in the world     the fellow
		fancied that I was excessive ignorant to palm such ignorant impudence upon me for truth     after he found that his scheme woud not take he begd two pence and departed — he is the son of an odd fellow at Baston — he is a little foolish in his nature and they put him along while to school to compleat what she began — my dear Anna taken very ill163

		14th Day of Feby, 1825
Monday		Wrote to Vandyk and Dr Darling164     in my letter to Vandyk I inserted the tune ‘Peggy Band’      there is a many beautiful tunes to these provincial Ballads     such is the ‘White Cockade’ ‘Wars alarms’ ‘Down the Burn Davy’ old and new ‘Through the Wood laddy’ ‘Dusty Miller’ ‘Highland Laddie’ and a very beautiful one I forget the title it begins ‘A witherd old gipsey one day I espied Who bade me shun the thick woods and said somthing beside’ but the old woman that sung it is gone — the ‘old Guardian Angels’ ‘Banks of Banna’ and a thousand others
Tuesday		Heard the Black bird sing in Hilly wood — received a Valentine from Mrs Emmerson165     this new thing of affections flowering in such things is a sort of fishing for Wales in buckets — My Anna is somthing better166
Wednesday		Heard the Skylark sing at Swordy well — saw a piece of bayonet and gun barrel found while digging a stone pit     this proves the story that superstition tells of a battle fought here by the rebels in Cromwells time167 — it is said were
		there is smoke there is fire and I often think were superstition lingers with her storys there is always some truth in them — brought home a bush of Ling or heath to plant in the garden
Thursday		Saw a large bunch of blue violets in flower and a root of the Bedlam Cowslip
Saturday		Received a News paper from Montgomery in which my poem of the ‘Vanitys of Life’168 was inserted with an ingenius and flattering compliment past upon it     praise from such a man as Montgomery is heart stirring and its the only one from a poet that I have met with — went to Turnills Heath close to get some furze bushes to set in the Garden
Sunday		Found several pieces of roman pot169 in Harrisons top close on the hill over which the road crosses to the Tindhills at the north east corner of Oxey wood     one piece was the letter V     Artis says they are Roman and I verily believe some Roman camp or pottery was made there

		21st, Day of Feby, 1825
Monday		A Robin busy at building its nest in the Garden —
Tuesday		A hedge Sparrow building its nest in one of Billingss Box trees
Saturday		Recieved a Letter from Lord Radstock170 filld with scraps of News paper Poetry among which was a pretty Valentine by Montgomery and some verses said to be written by Lord Byron     they are in his manner — the rest after the perusal of the News papers are ‘nothings’ — when his Lordship sees any thing he fancys better then the rest he always attributes it to Mrs Emmerson or some of his friends as he has done now     one to her and one to Vandyke
Sunday		Recieved a letter in ryhme from a John Pooley171 a very dull Fooley who ran me 10d further in debt as I had not money to pay the postage     I have often been botherd with these poet pretenders…pilfered … the ryhmes …

		28th, Day of Feby, 1825
Monday
Tuesday		Saw to day the largest piece of Ivy I ever saw in my life mailing a tree which it nearly surpassd in size in Oxey wood     it was thicker then my thigh and its cramping embraces seemd to diminish the tree to a dwarf — it has been asserted by some that Ivy is very injurous to trees and by others that it does no injury at all — I cannot deside against it — the large pieces were covered all over with root like fibres as thick as hair and they represented the limbs of animals more then the bark of a tree
Wednesday		Found A Mavis Thrushes nest with 3 eggs     these birds always build early     they make a nest like a black birds but instinct has taught them a lesson against the cold which the other has no occasion for and that is they never line their nests without wool which keeps the nest warm at this early season     they always begin to sing as soon as the male blossoms of the hazel or (Trails) make their appearance and build their nests when female flowers put forth their little crimson threads at the end of the buds to recieve the impregning dust of the male dangling trails
Thursday		This is Pattys Birth day
Friday		Went to Ailsworth heath to fetch ling or common heath and furze bushes to set in my garden — went in Bates spinney to hunt the black maiden hair172      found none but saw some of the largest furze and common brakes I had ever seen     my friend Billings measured a furze bush which was 11 foot and a ½ high and a brake branch 8 foot and a ¼ — found a curious sort of Iris173 or flag growing in a pond in the wood and fancy it not a common one      broght a bit home to set
Saturday		Recieved a letter from Lord Radstock and Mrs Emmerson174 — also one from a Mr Weston the Editor of poor Bloomfields Letters and Remains requesting me to send him the letters I have of the poet and asking permission to publish those of mine     poor Bloomfield I wish that death had left me a little longer the pleasures of his friendship — Went to see the Fox cover in Etton field sown with furze some years ago which now present a novel appearance and thrive better then on their native heath tho the place is low ground
Sunday		Recieved a parcel from Hessey with the Magazine and a leaf of the new poems also a present of Miss Kents Sylvan Sketches175     she seems to be a thorough book maker and tis a thorough book sellers failure to see the point of a new history of birds176      Parish Officers are modern Savages as the following fact will testifye — Crowland Abbey — ‘Certain surveyors have lately dug up several foundation stones of the Abby and also a great quantity of stone coffins for the purpose of repairing the parish roads!!’ Stamford Mercury177 — Anna taken agen for the worse yesterday had a terrible fever all night and remains in a doubtful state —

		7th, Day of March 1825
Monday		Wrote to E.T. Artis178 — Mrs Gilchrist and Mrs Emmerson — enclosing one in Artis’s Letter (to get it Frankd) for Mrs W. Wright of Clapham179 — requesting her to give me a bulb of the ‘Tyger lily’ and a sucker of The ‘White Province Rose’
Tuesday		Wrote to Hessey and to Jos Weston180 of 12 Providence Row Finsbury Square London enclosing my letters of Bloomfield for his use in a forth coming Vol of his Corespondence — went to Royce wood to get some Service trees to set in Billings close
Wednesday		I had a very odd dream last night and I take it as an ill omen for I dont expect that the book181 will meet a better fate — I thought I had one of the proofs of the new poems from London and after looking at it awhile it shrank thro my hands like sand and crumbled into dust — The birds were singing in Oxey wood at 6 oclock this evening as loud and various as at May
Thursday		Heard an Anecdote yesterday of Dr Dodd182 which is well known and considerd authentic among the common people     it is said that Dr Dodd was taunted on his way to the place of execution by a lady who had envied his
		popularity and looking out of a window as he passd she exclaimd ‘Now Dr Dodd weres your God’ when he bade her look in the last Chapter of Micah and read the 8th 9th and 10th verses for an answer which she did and dy’d soon afterwards of a broken heart
Friday		Intend to call my Natural History of Helpstone ‘Biographys of Birds and Flowers’ with an Appendix on Animals and Insects — The frogs have began to croke and spawn in the ponds and dykes
Saturday		Received the first proof of the Shepherds Calender from Hessey to correct — and a letter from Lord Radstock183 in which he seems to be offended at a late opinion of mine of some News paper Poems that he sent me as specimens of the
		beautiful — and he thanks his stars that his taste is not so refined as to make him above admiring them — the word refinement has lost its origional use and is nothing more then a substitute for fashionable coquette which I thank my stars for keeping me too ignorant to learn
Sunday		Recieved a letter from the Editor of Bloomfields Correspondence184 inclosing the return of my letter of Bloomfield and a scrap of his hand writing written in his summer house at Shefford an Inscription in it which I hear is now defaced     what a sad thing it is to see the relics of such poets destroyed      who woud not have made a
		pilgrimage to have seen the summer house and its inscription as left by the Bard — in the same letter also was a pretty unaffected letter from Hannah Bloomfield his daughter      she seems to inherit the gentle unasuming manners and feelings for which her father was loved and esteemd — lent Henderson 3 Nos of the New ‘London Mag: and Review’     took a walk to open copy to see the Nutt trees in flower which promise a great nutting season

		14th Day of March 1825
Monday		My double Scarlet Anemonie in full flower — A sharp frosty morning
Tuesday		I have been reading over Mrs Barbaulds Lessons for Childern185 to my eldest child who is continually teazing me to read them     I find by this that they are particulary suited to the tastes of childern as she is never desirious of hearing anything read a second time but them
Wednesday		Took a walk to hunt pootys about Royce close and the Tindhills — went to visit an old favourite spot in Oxey wood that used to be smotherd with Ferns — got some sallow trees186 to set in Billings Close and a stoven of Black alder to set in my garden
Thursday		Recieved a letter187 and present of Books from Lord Radstock containing Hannah Moores ‘Spirit of Prayer’ — Bp Wilsons ‘Maxims’ Burnets ‘Life of God in the soul of Man’ — ‘A New Manual of Prayer’ and ‘Watsons Answer to Paine’ a quiet
		unaffected defence of the Bible and an example for all controvertialists188 to go bye were railing has no substitute for argument — I have not read Tom Paine but I have always understood him to be a low blackguard
Friday		The sharp frosty mornings still continue
Saturday		Had from Drakards189 a folio book price 9s/d. to insert the best of my poems in that Hessey says he will send down
Sunday		Still sharp frosty mornings — Recieved a letter from Mrs Emmerson190 with an Ode to Spring — Spring is a wonderful mother for ryhmes

		21st, Day of March 1825
Monday		Had a double Polanthus and single white Hepatica sent me from Stamford round which was rapped a curious prospectus of an ‘Every day book’ by W. Hone.191 if such a thing was well got up it woud make one of the most entertaining things ever published — and I think the prospectus bids fair to do something     there is a fine quotation from Herrick for a Motto     how delightful is the freshness of these old poets     it is meeting with green spots in deserts
Tuesday		A cold wintry day
Wednesday		Recieved a parcel from Holbeach192 with a Letter and the Scientific Receptacle from J. Savage — they have inserted my poems and have been lavish with branding every corner with ‘J.Clares’ — how absurd are the serious meant images or attempts at fine writing in these young writers
		on[e] of them concludes a theme on a dead school master with a very pathetic and sublime wish as he fancys perhaps ‘wishing that the tear he leaves on his grave may grow up a marble monument to his memory’193 — this is the first crop of tears I have ever heard of sown with an intention to grow.
Thursday		Recievd a letter from Lord Radstock194 with a packet of News papers from Mrs Emmerson
Sunday		This is Palm Sunday — I went to the woods to seek some branches of the sallow palms for the childer calld by them ‘geese and gosslings’ and ‘Cats and Kittens’ — Susan Simpson and her brother195 came to see me — lent her the 2 Vols of ‘Walladmor’