m 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



immense height. The fire was 

 principally confined to the hills, 

 the property of the earl of Oxford, 

 Mr. Lewis, and Mr. Lewin. 



Between five and six P. M. there 

 fell, at Upper'Heyford, in Oxford- 

 shire, a most violent storm of hail, 

 accompanied with thunder and 

 lightning, and succeeded by a tre- 

 mendous gust of wind : a storm so 

 dreadful in its efl:'ects, and so alarm- 

 ing to the beholder, was seldom 

 or never experienced in that coun- 

 try. The hail, or, more properly 

 speaking, large irregular pieces of 

 ice, of the size in genei-al of a 

 hen's egg, broke the windows of 

 many houses that were in the di- 

 rection of the storm ; and the 

 whole of Heyford affords a specta- 

 cle truly shocking. The corn, the 

 greater part of which was barley, 

 and very little of it cut, appeared 

 entirely threshed out by the vio- 

 lence of the haU ; scarcelj'^ an ear 

 remained whole on the straw, and 

 the ground was totally covered by 

 the shattered corn. The violence 

 of the storm lasted about a quarter 

 of an hour, during which time, the 

 poultry suffered much ; and the 

 smaller birds of every description 

 were found dead in great numbers 

 on the ground. 



22nd. Wohiirn. On Tuesday af- 

 ternoon the weather was uncom- 

 monly hot ; clouds came on from 

 the northwest, and distant thunder 

 was heard, v/hich continued inces- 

 santly till near seven o'clock, when 

 the most tremendous storm of hail 

 ever known in the memory of the 

 oldest man living, in this county, 

 came on. Its ravagf^s .seem to have 

 begun at Broughton ; then passing 

 over by Cranfield, Lidlington, 

 Crawley, Ridgmont, Ampthill, and 



Clophill. Great numbers of the 

 hail stones measured 9, 10, and 

 even 11 inches in circumference. 



23rd. Edinburgh. Miss Ayres, 

 only daughter of Mr. Ayres, and 

 Miss Anderson, a young lady resid- 

 ing at Yarrow, were last week on a 

 visit to the family of Mr. Scott, of 

 Singlee, near Selkirk. On Satur- 

 day afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Scott 

 being from home, these ladies, ac- 

 companied by two Miss Scotts, 

 went into the garden to walk, hav- 

 ing previously enquired at what 

 hour dinner would be ready. The 

 river Ettrick runs past the bottom of 

 the garden. Having been absent 

 considerably beyond the usual hour 

 of dinner, one of the maid-servants 

 wentout to inform them thatdinner 

 was on the table. On entering the 

 garden, she was struck by the sight 

 of their clothes lying on the bank of 

 the river ; and, on rushing forward, 

 she discovered the hapless victims 

 four lifeless corpses at the bottom. 

 She flew back to the house, and im- 

 mediately returned with assistance. 

 The bodies were taken out of the 

 river, but every effort to restore 

 animation was ineffectual. This 

 catastrophe is as singular as it is 

 afflicting. The )'oung ladies had 

 gone in to bathe ; the Ettrick, 

 where it passes the garden of Sin- 

 glee, is, in general, remarkably shal- 

 low ; but there is one small part of 

 it which is very deep. Into this 

 fatal spot, it is supposed, one of the 

 3'oung ladies, (perhaps, one of the 

 strangers) had, by some unhappy 

 means, been conveyed ; and the 

 others, witnessing her ineffectual 

 strnjjffles, had either lost their lives 

 in attempting to rescue their com- 

 panion, or, deprived of all consfious- 

 ness, bv the dreadful scene, had 



