30th August 1825

The account of Lord Radstocks death was thus mentioned in Bells Weekly Messenger of August 29th — On the 17th Instant Admiral Lord Radstock was seized at his house in Portland Place with a sudden attack of apoplexy — The strength of his constitution struggled with that of the malady till the 20th when the hopes which had been entertained of his recovery vanished & his Lordship expired — Admiral Lord Radstock G.C.B. aged 72 was the second son of John third Earl of Walgrave by the Lady Elizabeth Leveson Gower sister of the Marquis of Stafford.

29th August 1825

Went to Milton turned out a very wet day took the 2 large catterpillars which I had found in Billings Potatoes & found they are the Deaths Head Moth

28th August 1825

Yesterday I found another of those Deaths Head Moth Catterpillars in Billings Potatoes.

27th August 1825

[A Reed Warbler feeding a Cuckoo]

James Billings shot a Cuckoo to-day on one of his Plumb trees — it was very like the sparrow hawk in color but it had a strait bill & very thin short yellow legs neither of which seemed able to turn assailants in its own defence for it had only its wing broke & lived a long while it peckd at the hand that was held to it but it could not peck so hard as a blackbird — the inside of its mouth was of a fine red which led us to think it was a cuckoo

26th August 1825

Recievd a letter from the Editor of a new Almanack of the Muses or Souvenir or Forget me not or some such thing intended to be published by Messrs. Baynes & Son of Paternoster Row requesting me to send a contribution.

23rd August 1825

Found a beautiful Deaths head Moth catterpillar in Billings potatoes it is about four & a half inches long of most beautiful rainbow colors

21st August 1825

Recievd a letter from Mr Emmerson which tells me that Lord Radstock dyed yesterday he was the best friend I have met with tho he possessed too much of that simple-heartedness to be a fashionable friend or hypocrite yet it often led him to take hypocrites for honest friends & to take an honest man for a hypocrite.


William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, GCB (9 July 1753 – 20 August 1825) was the Governor of Newfoundland and an Admiral in the Royal Navy. Waldegrave was the second son of John Waldegrave, 3rd Earl Waldegrave and Elizabeth (née Gower). Joining the navy at age 13 in 1766, Waldegrave rose rapidly through the ranks, receiving his own command, the Zephyr in 1775, and being promoted to Vice-Admiral in 1795. He was the third in command on the British side at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in February of 1797, and was offered a baronetcy for the role he played in the battle. Waldegrave declined the offer (on the grounds that as a son of an earl, he already held a higher station), and was appointed the Governor of Newfoundland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, on 16 May 1797.

(Source: Wikepedia)

20th August 1825

Wrote a letter to Henderson & sent one with it to get frankd for A. A. Watts Esq* Editor of the Literary Souvenir with a Ballad ' First Loves Reccolections * for insertion in that book
.
* See ‘Letters’ for Clare's correspondence with Watts, also Biographical Memoranda, in that volume, on Watts himself

14th August 1825

Returned from Milton brought home some flower seeds & roots—saw 2 very large catterpillars which a man found among the Potatoes in his garden one was about 3 inches long & the other 4 the smaller one was green with triangular marks of black, light blue, & yellow, the other was yellow with triangular marks of the same colors as the other save that were the other was yellow this was white

13th August 1825

Went to Milton wrote a Letter to Miss Kent — & corrected & sent the Proof back to Taylor — saw the transactions of the Horticultural Society

10th August 1825

A Newspaper lye of the first order—Mr Gale of Holt[?] in the parish of Bradford Wilts has at present a Pear of the jargonel kind in his possession which was taken by himself from the tree in 1776, 49 years ago & is now as sound as at the first moment it -was gathered. It is hung up by the stalk & no means whatever has been adopted to preserve it—' it must have been a wooden one

9th August 1825

Sowed my Anemonie & Bath Polyanthus seed—lent Mrs Fanny Knowlton Bloomfields Hazlewood Hill & Remains & Aytons Essays—Got a look at Giblead of Spaldings Alworth Abbey & I never saw such a heap of unrational absurdities & ridiculous attempts at wit & Satire strung together in my reading existance

4th August 1825

Recievd a letter from Mrs Gilchrist in which she says that Barron Field* has offered to edit Octave's miscellaneous papers

*Field projected a life of his friend Lamb, and also offered to do one of Words­worth. Wordsworth dissuaded him. And Field's editing of Gilchrist's papers did not materialize.

3rd August 1825

A person of the name of Clay came to see me the 'Editor of the Scientific Receptacle' he stopt with me all the rest [of the] day he talked much of poetry & Poets but the latter were such names that nobody knew but himself the correspondents of Dewey's Mathematical Companion &c &c— he told me an odd circumstance of the farmer in the fen growing nothing but 'Teazles' for the purpose of cording a nap on cloth they are stronger he says then the wild made so perhaps by cultivation

2nd August 1825

Wrote a Letter to William Hone's Every Day book signed 'Roberts' with a copy of Verses which I have titled 'A Farewell & Defiance to Love’ & fathered on Sir John Harrington but I don’t suppose they will get inserted.

To William Hone*
2. August 1825
sir
I have an old Copy of the 'Reliquiae Wottonianae' on the flye leaves of which is the following verses in M.S. entitled a Defiance to Love & attributed to Sir Henry Wooten by the Writer. If they are worthy mention in your everyday book they are at your service as I see by 'your insertion of a Poem' of Andrew Marvels’ that you give room to such 'Reliques'— I myself am very fond of these old. votarys of the muses & I may confess my taste to be laughd' at by the moderns when I say that I prefer Shakespear to Byron, Spencer to Sir Walter Scott, Sir John Suckling to Moor &every, other of the Elizabethan Bards to the rest of the Modern's—I am also a constant reader of your Every day book & a yearly purchaser of Moors Almanack & I am in the habit of'taking your key to unlock every mystery of Saint Abildquenty [?] Q inserted in the months of the latter in the mysterious garb of abridgment till they become as dark & difficult of explanation as the Hieroglyphics of the Sarcophagus in the Museum & to my disappointment I find you have omitted to say anything of 2 subjects in July viz 4M—Tr of St Mart & 7TH—Thomas a Becket & perhaps I may have further room for complaints tho I hope not & I wish you woud give us an explanation of the above as it is not yet too late for every old fashioned reader of Moors Almanack will be equally dissapointed at your omissions of such things & gratified to see you correct them & fullfill the prospectus with which you started in making your book a "perpetual Almanack'

Yours &c

F. ROBERTS

1st August 1825

Heard an old Fen Farmer say to-day that on his farm he finds a great deal of wood particularly Oak, Hazel & Yew in the earth he says that the earth is actually nothing else but a decomposition of wood & that it will grow nothing but Oats. He says that the Hazel will burn well as firewood but the Oak dyes out unless continually blown — he also talked of great quantitys of shells being found as white as Dogs teeth.