1808.] Account of thé late Thunder-storm in Somerseish ire. 
sustained no injury; but the lightning, 
my correspondent observes, was one con- 
tinued wavering flash. 
At Chew-magna, the Rev. Mr. Hall 
writes me the storm continued furiously 
two hours and a half, and went off to the 
N.E.; little hail; but what did fall, was 
more like pieces of ice than common 
hail-stones. About the middle of the 
storm, this gentlemen remarks, there was 
the appearance of a ball of fire, attended 
instantaneously with a tremendous clap 
of thunder, and a succession of reports, 
similar to the bursting of a bomb-shell. 
The city of Bath felt very little of the 
destructive part of this awful occurrence; 
but the neighbouring villages in the vale 
below (Priston, Farmborough, Newton- 
park, Kelweston, Keynsham, and Bris- 
lington) suffered materially. At Bristol, 
the storm was violent in lightning and 
rain; but the hail-stones are stated to be 
not larger than small marbles, Here 
then we may perceive that the extreme 
fury of thenorthern branch of this storm 
was abated; and its progress in the coun- 
ty of Gloucester (where the thunder and 
lightning were tremendous) was not mark- 
ed with the demolition of windows, corn- 
fields, gardens, and vegetables, as in its 
course through Somersetshire. 
In order to trace the full extent of 
this phenomenon, and its effects, through 
Somersetshire, it is necessary to return to 
the point I first set out from, and follow 
its other main branch in its western pro- 
gress. 
From Milborne-port, its direction 
seems to have been towards Yeovil, pass- 
ing over the Earl of Digby’s-park, at 
Sherborne-castle, where two sheep were 
destroyed by the lightning, and a large 
oak tree shivered to pieces.—At Yeovil, 
the thunder and rain continued from se- 
ven to eight, without any material mis- 
chief. The storm appeared to come 
from the S., S.W., W.,and N.W. Be- 
tween the flashes of lightning there was 
scarcely any intermission, and the thun- 
‘der was continual, forming altogether a 
most terrific and wonderful scene. Al- 
‘though no mischievous effects were ob- 
served in the immediate vicinage of Yeo- 
vi), yet my correspondent (Major White) 
informs me, that in his rides through the 
surrounding villages, shortly afterwards, 
he observed much devastation of corn, 
unmown grass, beans, and potatoes, all 
which. were literally beaten into the 
ground: Jeaves and branches of trees, 
eaten off, covering the ground as in au- 
tufin, Ina fallow field at Horsington, 
307 
he saw the impression of hail-stones, two 
inches and a half in diameter, five days 
after the storm. Between Tintinhull and 
Ilchester, a horse was struck dead by the 
lightning; the rider unhurt. 
At High Ham, the storm is stated to 
have begun at eight; the hail to have 
continued half an hour; the stones from 
six to eleven inches. It appeared to come 
from the north, aud to pass to the east. 
At this village, and at Pitney, Upton, 
and Long-Sutton, apples sutlicient te 
make. hundreds of hogsheads of cyder 
were beaten down ; wheat, beans, peas, 
barley, and potatoes, to the value of one 
thousand pounds destroyed. Windows 
beaten to atoms. * 
At Pedwell, near Asheot, the storm 
began at nine; its continuance three 
quarters of an hour; its approach was 
from the south-east ; its departure to the 
west; the hail-stones from three to six 
inches; the lightning almost continual ; 
the thunder incessant. My correspon- 
dent (Mr, Lilly) had more than one 
hundred sash-squares broken in his house 
and premises. Similar were the effects 
at Butleigh (the seat of Lord Glaston- 
bury,) at Kingweston, &c. The damage 
done at Kingweston, and its vicinity, is 
estimated at many thousands of pounds. 
The destruction of corn and apples in 
the neighbourhodd of Aslicot, is very 
great: one gentleman is supposed to have 
lost one hundred hogsheads of cyder, 
At Langport, it began at. half past 
nine; continued three quarters of an hour; 
came from the south-west, and passed off 
to the north-east: the hail-stones froin 
four and a half to six inches ; little or ne 
intermission between the flashes of light- 
ning: Many fields of wheat, barley, oats, 
and potatoes, entirely destroyed: the 
ravages of the storm, my friend observes, 
are beyond description; and nothing but 
ocular observation, he remarks, | could 
satisfy the enquiry I had made. 
This western branch of the storm (now 
much abated in its fury) passed over tthe 
low, rich lands of the county, and crossed 
the Bristol Channel, between Bridge- 
water bay and Watchet. 
Imperfect as my account of this awful 
phenomenon must necessarily be, yet it 
will appear to be more extensive in its 
progress, and far more injurious in its 
effects, on the produce of the earih, than 
any other tiiat is either remembered or 
recorded: yet it is highly consolatory to 
observe, that not a single human indivi- 
dual perished by it! Whw shall assert, 
that it may net even have been an ine 
strument 
