238 WHITE 



summer 1783, when, though the country round was continu- 

 ally harassed with tempests, and often from the south, yet we 

 escaped them all, as appears by my journal of that summer. 

 The only way that I can at all account for this fact for such 

 it is is that, on that quarter, between us and the sea, there 

 are continual mountains, hill behind hill, such as Nore Hill, the 

 Barnet, Butser Hill, and Ports Down, which somehow divert 

 the storms and give them a different direction. High prom- 

 ontories, and elevated grounds, have always been observed 

 to attract clouds and disarm them of their mischievous con- 

 tents, which are discharged into the trees and summits as soon 

 as they come in contact with those turbulent meteors ; while 

 the humble vales escape, because they are so far beneath 

 them. 



But, when I say I do not remember a thunder-storm from 

 the south, I do not mean that we never have suffered from 

 thunder-storms at all; for on June 5th, 1784, the thermom- 

 eter in the morning being at 64, and at noon at 70, the 

 barometer at 29.6^ and the wind north, I observed a blue 

 mist, smelling strongly of sulphur, hanging along our sloping 

 woods, and seeming to indicate that thunder was at hand. I 

 was called in about two in the afternoon, and so missed seeing 

 the gathering of the clouds in the north ; which they who were 

 abroad assured me had something uncommon in its appear- 

 ance. At about a quarter after two the storm began in the 

 parish of Harteley, moving slowly from north to south : and 

 from thence it came over Norton Farm, and so to Grange 

 Farm, both in this parish. It began with vast drops of rain, 

 which were soon succeeded by round hail, and then by con- 

 vex pieces of ice, which measured three inches in girth. Had 

 it been as extensive as it was violent, and of any continuance 

 (for it was very short), it must have ravaged all the neighbor- 

 hood. In the parish of Harteley it did some damage to one 

 farm ; but Norton, which lay in the centre of the storm, was 

 greatly injured ; as was Grange, which lay next to it. It did 

 but just reach to the middle of the village, where the hail broke 

 my north windows, and all my garden-lights and hand-glasses, 

 and many of my neighbors' windows. The extent of the 

 storm was about two miles in length and one in breadth. We 



