John Clare
@johnclare.bsky.social
Entries from the journal that C19th English poet John Clare kept from Sep 1824 - Sep 1825, posted on the day of the year they were written.
Built by @adriantoll.bsky.social
See johnclaretweets.org for more info.
Also see @gilbertwhite.bsky.social
Built by @adriantoll.bsky.social
See johnclaretweets.org for more info.
Also see @gilbertwhite.bsky.social
1824: Went to see if the old hazel nut tree in Lea Close was cut down & found it still standing it is the largest hazel tree I ever saw being thicker then ones thigh in the trunk & the height of a moderate Ash - I once got a half peck of nuts when in the leaves of its branchs when a boy - the...
November 26, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Went to see if the old hazel nut tree in Lea Close was cut down & found it still standing it is the largest hazel tree I ever saw being thicker then ones thigh in the trunk & the height of a moderate Ash - I once got a half peck of nuts when in the leaves of its branchs when a boy - the...
1824: Recievd a letter from Hessey I have not answerd his last & know not when I shall the worlds friendships are counterfeits & forgeries on that principle I have provd it & my affections are sickened unto death my memories are broken while my confidence is grown to a shadow in the bringing out...
November 25, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Recievd a letter from Hessey I have not answerd his last & know not when I shall the worlds friendships are counterfeits & forgeries on that principle I have provd it & my affections are sickened unto death my memories are broken while my confidence is grown to a shadow in the bringing out...
1824: I have often been struck with astonishment at the tales old men & women relate in their remembrances of the growth of trees the elm grooves in the Staves Acre Close at the town-end were the rooks build & that are of giant height my old friend Billings says he remembers them no thicker than...
November 24, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: I have often been struck with astonishment at the tales old men & women relate in their remembrances of the growth of trees the elm grooves in the Staves Acre Close at the town-end were the rooks build & that are of giant height my old friend Billings says he remembers them no thicker than...
1824: Some months back I began a system of profiting by my reading at least to make a show of it by noting down beautiful odd or remarkable passages - immitations in the poets & prosewriters which I read & I have inserted some likenesses of Lord Byrons about which there has been much nattering &...
November 23, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Some months back I began a system of profiting by my reading at least to make a show of it by noting down beautiful odd or remarkable passages - immitations in the poets & prosewriters which I read & I have inserted some likenesses of Lord Byrons about which there has been much nattering &...
1824: Lookd into Miltons Paradise Lost I once read it through when I was a boy at that time I liked the Death of Abel 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 giant as Milton I cannot help...
November 22, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Lookd into Miltons Paradise Lost I once read it through when I was a boy at that time I liked the Death of Abel 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 giant as Milton I cannot help...
1824: Paid a second visit to the old castle in Ashton Lawn with my companion Billings to examine it - we strum it & found it 20 yards long fronting the south & 18 fronting eastward we imagind about 12 foot of the walls still standing tho the rubbish has entirely coverd them except in some places...
November 21, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Paid a second visit to the old castle in Ashton Lawn with my companion Billings to examine it - we strum it & found it 20 yards long fronting the south & 18 fronting eastward we imagind about 12 foot of the walls still standing tho the rubbish has entirely coverd them except in some places...
1824: Went out to hunt the harts tongue species of fern & fell in with the ruins of the old castle in Ashton Lawn but found none its commonest place is in Wells in the crevices of the walls but I have found it growing about the badger-holes in Open Copy Wood got very wet & returnd home finishd...
November 20, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Went out to hunt the harts tongue species of fern & fell in with the ruins of the old castle in Ashton Lawn but found none its commonest place is in Wells in the crevices of the walls but I have found it growing about the badger-holes in Open Copy Wood got very wet & returnd home finishd...
1824: Had a visit from my friend Henderson & I felt revivd as I was very dull before he had pleasing News to deliver me having discoverd a new species of Fern a few days back growing among the bogs on Whittlesea Mere & our talk was of Ferns for the day he tells me there is 24 different species...
November 19, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Had a visit from my friend Henderson & I felt revivd as I was very dull before he had pleasing News to deliver me having discoverd a new species of Fern a few days back growing among the bogs on Whittlesea Mere & our talk was of Ferns for the day he tells me there is 24 different species...
1824: Read in Southeys Wesley 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...
November 18, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Read in Southeys Wesley 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...
1824: The Chrysanthemums 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 snowdrop & further on the crocus dropping in...
November 17, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: The Chrysanthemums 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 snowdrop & further on the crocus dropping in...
1824: My friend Billings told me that he saw 4 swallows about the second of this month flying over his house he has not seen them since & 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 & that they must...
November 16, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: My friend Billings told me that he saw 4 swallows about the second of this month flying over his house he has not seen them since & 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 & that they must...
1824: Went to gather pootys on the roman bank for a collection found a scarce sort of which I only saw 2 in my life I pickd up under a hedge at Peakirk town-end & another in Bainton meadow its color is a fine sunny yellow larger than the common sort & round the rim of the base is a black edging...
November 15, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Went to gather pootys on the roman bank for a collection found a scarce sort of which I only saw 2 in my life I pickd up under a hedge at Peakirk town-end & another in Bainton meadow its color is a fine sunny yellow larger than the common sort & round the rim of the base is a black edging...
1824: Read in old Tusser with whose quaint rhymes 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 enclosures & Mavor that busy note-maker & book-compiler of schoolboy memory has added an impertinent note...
November 14, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Read in old Tusser with whose quaint rhymes 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 enclosures & Mavor that busy note-maker & book-compiler of schoolboy memory has added an impertinent note...
1824: Lookd into Thomson's 'Winter' 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 are great favourites of mine & prove...
November 13, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Lookd into Thomson's 'Winter' 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 are great favourites of mine & prove...
1824: 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 outline for another in which I meant to leave everything both in the copyright & fund money &c &c of all my Books M.S.S. & property in the power of my family at...
November 12, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: 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 outline for another in which I meant to leave everything both in the copyright & fund money &c &c of all my Books M.S.S. & property in the power of my family at...
1824: Recievd a letter from Inskip 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 than waste paper I have desires to know something of Bloomfields latter days but I can hear of nothing further than...
November 11, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Recievd a letter from Inskip 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 than waste paper I have desires to know something of Bloomfields latter days but I can hear of nothing further than...
1824: Read 'Macbeth' what a soul-thrilling power hovers about this tradegy I have read it over about 20 times & it chains my feelings still to its persual like a new thing it is Shakespears masterpiece the thrilling feelings created by the description of Lady Macbeths terror-haunted walkings in...
November 10, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Read 'Macbeth' what a soul-thrilling power hovers about this tradegy I have read it over about 20 times & it chains my feelings still to its persual like a new thing it is Shakespears masterpiece the thrilling feelings created by the description of Lady Macbeths terror-haunted walkings in...
1824: Read Shakespears 'Henry the Fifth' of which I have always been very fond from almost a boy I first met with it in an odd volume which I got for sixpence yet I thought then that the Welsh officer with 2 other of his companions were tedious talkers & I feel that I think so still yet I feel...
November 9, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Read Shakespears 'Henry the Fifth' of which I have always been very fond from almost a boy I first met with it in an odd volume which I got for sixpence yet I thought then that the Welsh officer with 2 other of his companions were tedious talkers & I feel that I think so still yet I feel...
1824: Read over the Magazine the review of Lord Byrons Conversations is rather entertaining the pretending letter of James Thomson is a bold lye I dislike these lapt-up counterfeits mantled in truth like a brassy shilling in its silver washings those Birmingham halfpence passed off as matter of...
November 8, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Read over the Magazine the review of Lord Byrons Conversations is rather entertaining the pretending letter of James Thomson is a bold lye I dislike these lapt-up counterfeits mantled in truth like a brassy shilling in its silver washings those Birmingham halfpence passed off as matter of...
1824: Recievd a packet from London with the Magazine & some copies of MSS that come very slowly & a letter very friendly worded but I have found that saying & doing Is a wide difference too far very often to be neighbours much less friends recievd a letter too from Van Dyk lookd into Wordsworth...
November 7, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Recievd a packet from London with the Magazine & some copies of MSS that come very slowly & a letter very friendly worded but I have found that saying & doing Is a wide difference too far very often to be neighbours much less friends recievd a letter too from Van Dyk lookd into Wordsworth...
1824: Took a walk in the fields the oaks are beginning to turn reddish brown & the winds have stripped some nearly bare the underwood's last leaves are in their gayest yellows thus autumn seems to put on bridal colours for a shroud the little harvest-bell is still in bloom trembling to the cold...
November 6, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Took a walk in the fields the oaks are beginning to turn reddish brown & the winds have stripped some nearly bare the underwood's last leaves are in their gayest yellows thus autumn seems to put on bridal colours for a shroud the little harvest-bell is still in bloom trembling to the cold...
1824: Read in Bishop Percy's poems the Reliques of Ancient Poetry take them up as often as I may I am always delighted there is so much of the essence & simplicity of true poetry that makes me regret I did not see them sooner as they woud have formed my taste & laid the foundations of my...
November 5, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Read in Bishop Percy's poems the Reliques of Ancient Poetry take them up as often as I may I am always delighted there is so much of the essence & simplicity of true poetry that makes me regret I did not see them sooner as they woud have formed my taste & laid the foundations of my...
1824: Recievd a letter & prospectus from a School-master of Surfleet wishing me to become a correspondent to a periodical publication calld 'The Scientific Receptacle' what a crabbed name for poesy to enlist with its professes to be a kinsman to The Leeds Correspondant & the Boston Enquirer the...
November 4, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Recievd a letter & prospectus from a School-master of Surfleet wishing me to become a correspondent to a periodical publication calld 'The Scientific Receptacle' what a crabbed name for poesy to enlist with its professes to be a kinsman to The Leeds Correspondant & the Boston Enquirer the...
1824: Took a walk with John Billings to Swordy Well to gather some 'old man's beard' which hangs about the hedges in full bloom its downy clusters of artificial-like flowers appear at first as if the hedge was litterd with bunches of white cotton went into Hilly Wood & found a beautiful species...
November 3, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Took a walk with John Billings to Swordy Well to gather some 'old man's beard' which hangs about the hedges in full bloom its downy clusters of artificial-like flowers appear at first as if the hedge was litterd with bunches of white cotton went into Hilly Wood & found a beautiful species...
1824: Set some box edging round a border which I have made for my collection of ferns read some passages in Blair's Grave a beautiful poem & one of the best things after the manner of Shakespear its beginning is very characteristic of the subject there are crowds of beautiful passages about it...
November 2, 2025 at 6:30 AM
1824: Set some box edging round a border which I have made for my collection of ferns read some passages in Blair's Grave a beautiful poem & one of the best things after the manner of Shakespear its beginning is very characteristic of the subject there are crowds of beautiful passages about it...