120 J. HOPKHSrSOIf — THE EAINFALL IN 1895. 



in the low-lying parts of the town. At Watford, at about 4.30, 

 a house was struck and the stack of chimneys crashed through 

 the roof. In the centre of the county it was most severely felt 

 in the neighbourhood of Codicote, where houses were flooded, 

 and at Potters Heath a cottage was struck by the lightning, the 

 slates being torn off part of the roof, and the Joists set on fire. 

 In the east of Hertfordshire the storm was terrific How it 

 behaved at Hoddesdon was thus described in the ' Hertfordshire 

 Mercury' of the 14th of September: — "In the early hours of 

 Saturday morning there was a terrific thunderstorm, accompanied 

 by very vivid lightning and a deluge of rain. About 4 a.m. 

 there were some extremely vivid flashes of lightning, followed 

 by a tremendous crash of thunder and other noises, which very 

 much alarmed the inhabitants of Eriscoe Koad; and later in 

 the morning it was found that Crofton Villa had been struck 

 by lightning. A stack of chimneys was shattered, and the tiles 

 of the whole of the roof were loosened, whilst one side of the 

 wall was bulged out and shivers of the woodwork were driven 

 into the brick wall. After striking the chimney the lightning 

 appears to have passed down the roof, scorching the verge-board 

 and pulverizing the face of the bricks. It then spent itself 

 down the waterpipe at the side, which is broken. Hundreds of 

 bricks and tiles (whole and in pieces) were scattered over the 

 garden and the adjacent gardens, and sent flying to a distance 

 of many yards. Inside the house the chimney-wall was cracked 

 all the way down to the fireplace in one of the upstair rooms, 

 the stove and its surroundings being forced out into the room. 

 In the front sitting-room, underneath it, the marble mantel was 

 broken to pieces. There is quite a large hole in the roof, and 

 at 10 a.m. there was a strong smell of sulphur very perceptible 

 along the front of the house." There seems to have been only 

 one other case of structural damage in the east of the county. 

 The windmill near Much Hadham was struck, and several of 

 the sails were torn off. 



During this storm heavy rainfall was general all over the 

 county. In the Ouse river-basin the fall averaged 0-82 inch, 

 ranging from 0-73 in. to 0-90 in. ; in the Colne it averaged 

 ()-83 inch, ranging from 0*66 in. to 0-94 in. ; and in the Lea 

 it averaged 1*78 inch, ranging from 0*54 in. to TOl in. 



