BOOK OF THE DAMNED 109 



Garden familiar ground I suppose that, in Mr. Symons' opinion 

 this symmetric object had been upon the ground "in the first 

 place," though he neglects to say this. But we do note that he 

 described this object as a "lump," which does not suggest the 

 spheroidal or symmetric. It is our notion that the word "lump" 

 was, because of its meaning of amorphousness, used purposely to 

 have the next datum stand alone, remote, without similars. If 

 Mr. Symons had said that there had been a report of another round 

 object that had fallen from the sky, his readers would be attracted 

 by an agreement. He distracts his readers by describing in terms of 

 the unprecedented 



"Iron cannon ball." 



It was found in a manure heap, in Sussex, after a thunder- 

 storm. 



However, Mr. Symons argues pretty reasonably, it seems to me, 

 that, given a cannon ball in a manure heap, in the first place, 

 lightning might be attracted by it, and, if seen to strike there, the 

 untutored mind, or mentality below the average, would leap or 

 jump, or proceed with less celerity, to the conclusion that the iron 

 object had fallen. 



Except that if every farmer isn't upon very familiar ground 

 or if every farmer doesn't know his own manure heap as well as 

 Mr. Symons knew his writing desk 



Then comes the instance of a man, his wife, and his three daugh- 

 ters, at Casterton, Westmoreland, who were looking out at their 

 lawn, during a thunderstorm, when they "considered," as Mr. 

 Symons expresses it, that they saw a stone fall from the sky, kill a 

 sheep, and bury itself in the ground. 



They dug. 



They found a stone ball. 



Symons: 



Coincidence. It had been there in the first place. 



This object was exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Meteorolog- 

 ical Society by Mr. C. Carus-Wilson. It is described in the Jour- 

 nal's list of exhibits as a "sandstone" ball. It is described as "sand- 

 stone" by Mr. Symons. 



Now a round piece of sandstone may be almost anywhere in the 

 ground in the first place but, by our more or less discreditable 

 habit of prying and snooping, we find that this object was rather 

 more complex and of material less commonplace. In snooping 

 through Knowledge, Oct. 9, 1885, we read that this "thunder- 



