THUNDER STORMS. 301 



LETTER ex. 



TO THE SAME. 



We are very seldom annoyed with thunder-storms ; and it 

 is no less remarkable than true, that those which arise in 

 the south have hardly been known to reach this village ; for, 

 before they get over us, they take a direction to the east or to 

 the west, or sometimes divide into two, and go in part to one 

 of those quarters, and in part to the other ; as was truly the 

 «ase in the summer of 1783, when, though the country round 

 was continually harassed with tempests, and often from the 

 south, yet we escaped them all, as appears by my journal of 

 that summer. The only way that I can at all account for 

 this fact — for such it is — is, that on that quarter, between us 

 and the sea, there are continual mountains, hill behind hill, 

 such as ISTore-hill, the Barnet, Burter-hiU, 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 

 these turbulent meteors; while the humble vales escape, 

 because they are so far beneath 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 ther- 

 mometer in the morning being at 64, and at noon at 

 70, the barometer at 29*6i, and the wind north, I observed 

 a blue mist, smelling strongly of sulphur, hang 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 

 uncom.mon in its appearance. At about a quarter after 

 two, the storm began in the parish of Hartley, moving 

 slowly from north to south ; and from thence it came over 

 Norton-farm, and so to Grange-£arm, 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, whicli 



