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six inches less than it is to-day. But these years include the great 
drought which came to an end in 1763, and was one of the most 
striking that ever visited this country. Then we have a record 
from the Rev. Joseph Golding, at Aikbank, Wigton, from 1792 to 
1810, the mean average of which is close on 35 inches, or very 
nearly the same as the average of Wigton for the last twenty-five 
years. Finally, we have that of Dr. Barnes himself, kept at 
Bunker’s Hill from 1852 to 1870, with an average of 26'04 inches, 
some four inches less than that registered at the Cemetery from 
1863 to 1887, which included, however, that unfortunate cycle of 
wet years that lasted from 1872 to 1881. That, as we all remember, 
was a most disastrous period for our agriculturists. Mr. Bright, in 
one of his famous speeches, reckoned up the loss that it inflicted 
on them at many millions. It culminated in the cold, sunless, 
rainy summers of 1877 and the two succeeding years, when no kind 
of crop could thrive, and the very heart seemed to be washed out 
of the soil by copious deluges of chilling rain. 1877 was the 
wettest year I have registered at Scaleby. It had a rainfall of 
45°31 inches—nearly fifty per cent. above the average—13°68 of 
which fell in the months of June, July, and August. At Carlisle 
in the same three months you had 1504 inches. That August 
was the wettest month upon my record, with a fall of 7°34 inches ; 
and it also contained the wettest day—August 18th—when 1°92 
inches fell. It was indeed a troublous time. We began to think 
that the seasons had degenerated altogether, and old people were 
found affirming that since their youth the climate had changed 
greatly for the worse. Enquiry, however, leads one to the more 
comforting belief, that no radical change has really occurred, and 
that there have been at all times cycles more or less prolonged of 
good and bad seasons alike ; and that when you have had the one, 
you are pretty sure, if you only wait, in its turn to have the other. 
The wettest average month for twenty-five years at Scaleby is 
July, with an average of 3°72 inches ; September follows with 3°38, 
and August with 3:27; and this accords with the experience of 
Dr. Barnes, who also describes those as the three wettest months, 
and speaks of it as a happy arrangement of nature to us poor 
