244 



uprooted, and 920 wherries, ships' boats and barges sunk. Tiles rose in price 

 from 50s. to £10." De'foe says— " Horror and confusion seized upon all: no- 

 pen can describe it, no thought conceive it, no tongue can express it unless some 

 of those who were in the extremity of it." 



Dr. Isaac Watts in his diary speaks of it thus : 



Friday night, Saturday morning. 

 The great and dreadful storm. 



1740. November, a storm on the coast of England. 



1745. In Yorkshire, hailstones 5 Inches round. 



1729. May 20, described as a hurricane. 



1772. Hailstones as large as nutmegs at Leeds, in Yorkshire. 



1770. August 9th, the most terrible storm of thunder add lightning oc- 

 curred in Kent, known at any time or in any country. The flashes of lightning 

 were like blazes of flame, which succeeded one another almost without interrup- 

 tion. Hailstones of uncommon size fell at Eltham. At Hereford, on the same 

 day, a most violent storm from 5 a.m, to 5 p.m. At Norton Common two horses 

 were killed ; and at Bredwardine a range of buildings with much produce was 

 destroyed. At Lewes, great storm. At Brighton the tide flowed at one motion 

 fifty feet, which the oldest people never knew before. At Marlborough upwards 

 of 70 sheep killed, and great losses on Salisbury Plains. 



1770. December 6th, storm of wind, doing incredible damage at Liverpool, 

 S.W. to N.AV. Dublin packet foundered and all souls perished. Great inun- 

 dations on the Continent — France, &c, as well as in this country— at the end of 

 November and beginning of December. In the province of Touraine, in France, 

 30 bridges, 100 houses were destroyed, and 50 people killed by falling buildings. 



1771. January 3rd, chimnies blown down in Hereford. 



1771. August 9th, 5 p.m., violent thunderstorm in Norfolk. At this time 

 the roads in Herefordshire, about Marden, were reported so bad as to be nearly 

 impassable. Sept. 24th, earthquake felt in Herefordshire. 



1772. February 2nd, " A tremendous hurricane " happened at Asberton, 

 in Shropshire, between 9 and 10 a.m. A thick mist preceded it. It came from 

 the Long Mynd mountain, accompanied by a prodigious fall of snow — levelled 

 three houses and barns ; seven people lost their lives. 



Three years before occurred a hurricine in the Clee Hills. — Hereford 

 Journal. 



1773. May 27. Tremendous flood, caused by a violent storm. In Gloucester 

 the water was only two feet lower than the extraordinary flood of 1770.— -Hereford 

 Journal. 



July. Earthquake felt in Staffordshire and Shropshire. 



August 21st. Leominster. " The oldest inhabitant of this town does not 

 remember so violent a storm of wind and rain as we had last Monday afternoon, 

 Tho hail, remarkably large, broke the windows. — Hereford Journal. 



