43' Account of a fingular Accidtdt by Lightning. 



■his mill, which I cotifider as the moll benevolent thing that can be done for the p6or, 



-and which I moft parneftly recommend to all Gentlemen of landed property, who have 



.J,ike means of doing it. A fmall over-fhot mill is erefted, and worked by the wafte 



water from the lake below the Lodge, where a fufficiency of corn, two thirds wheat, 



and one third rye, is ground, dreffed, and given to all the labourers, at fixteen-pence 



per ftone of fourteen pounds, in quantities fuitable to the fize of their families, which 



is the firft of all comforts to them, and a faving of at leaft twenty per cent, from what 



it would, coft them to buy it from the mealmen or fliopkeepers. 



I am. Sir, 



Your obedient humble fervant, 



Nathaniel Kent^ 

 Craig's Court, 



gp/A OBohcTy 1798. 



II. 



ExtraB of a- Letter from 'WifLih.U Petrie, Efq. on Board the Good-Hope, India- 

 man, at Sea, lat. 3,5. 40. S. long. 44. E. giving an Account of aftngular Accident 

 by Lightning. Communicated by Rob. Petrie, M. D. 



s 



ATURDAY, the 13th July, about midnight, a flafh of lightning of a globular 

 form, came in contaft with the fore part of the Ihip, and inftantly exploding, ' occa- 

 fioned a report, compared by thofe who heard it, to that of a cannon hard chargcd'with 

 double-headed fliot ; differing much from the found of ordinary thunder, whicTr had 

 been frequent in the courfe of the evening. This might have been owing to the near- 

 nefs of the explofion, the found neither vibrating much nor meeting with any body to 

 revibrate it, before reaching the ear, as happens when fuch explofions take place liigh 

 up in the atmofphere. 



At the moment of explofion feveral people on the main deck felt fenfibly (liocked in 

 different parts of the body, and William Stanhope, a foldier in the 29th L. Dragoons, was 

 inftantly killed. Thomas Steelman, a failor, fitting wrapped up in a fail and leaning to 

 the foremaft, was found in a ftate of infenfibility, and feemingly lifelefs. He was im- 

 mediately carried below, and as the body palled me, I was fenfibly affetled with the 

 fmell of burnt horn or finged wool, which, however, was compared by others to the 

 fnlell of burning fulpvhur. From the time of his being ftruck until fymptoms of re- 

 •tVirning life made their appearance, at leaft fix or eight minutes muft have elapfed. Being 

 at that moment engaged in fruitlefs attempts to recover the foldier, I had not an oppor- 

 tunity of afcertaining whetjrer the motion of the heart and arteries was entirely interrupted, 



nor 



