OF SELBORNE. 333 
us and the sea there are continual mountains, hill 
behind hill, such as Nore Hill, the Barnet, Buster 
Hill, and Portsdown, which somehow divert the 
storms and give them a different direction. High 
promontories and elevated grounds have always 
been observed to attract clouds and disarm them of 
their mischievous contents, which are discharged 
into the trees and summits as soon as they come in 
contact with those turbulent meteors; while the 
humble vales escape, because they are so far be- 
neath them. 
But when I say I do not remember a thunder. 
storm from the south, I do not mean that we never 
have suffered from thunder-storms at all; for on 
June 5th, 1784, the thermometer in the morning 
being at 64°, and at noon at 70°, the barometer at 
29 six tenths and a half, and the wind north, I ob- 
served a blue mist, smelling strongly of sulphur, 
hanging along our sloping woods, and seeming to 
indicate that thunder was at hand. I was called in 
about two in the afternoon, and so missed seeing 
the gathering of the clouds in the north, which they 
who were abroad assured me had something un- 
common in its appearance. At about a quarter af- 
ter two the storm began in the parish of Harteley, 
moving slowly from north to south, and from thence 
it came over Norton farm, and so to Grange farm, 
both in this parish. It began with vast drops of 
rain, which were soon succeeded by round hail, and 
then by convex pieces of ice which measured three 
inches in girth. Had it been as extensive as it was 
violent, and of any continuance (for it was very 
short), it must have ravaged all the neighbourhood. 
In the parish of Harteley it did some damage to one 
