AUGUST 319 



within outwards became visible all over its varnished surface, to 

 which they gave a frosted appearance. 



Owing, I suppose, to the proximity of the river bad thunder- 

 storms very seldom visit this house, which perhaps is providential, 

 for when long ago I was first acquainted with the place, I found 

 that for years the severed end of the lightning conductor, that was 

 broken in two by some accident, had dangled against the wall of 

 the building about fifteen feet above the ground. Had a flash come 

 down it ? but fortunately it never did ! The story reminds me of 

 one which I have been told of a local plumber, who volunteered 

 to fit his church tower with a lightning conductor, and having 

 brought the cable to ground, in order to make a tidy job of it 

 fitted its end into a soda-water bottle, which he buried. In due 

 course the lightning descended the rod, and on finding itself 

 cut off from the earth by the non-conducting glass; fled up it 

 again and through the church, to the disturbance of the congre- 

 gation. 



On one occasion, however, I remember a heavy storm here, 

 that is as storms are judged in this country. A meeting was 

 going on in the house, when suddenly the speaker was silenced 

 by a vivid flash and a crashing peal of thunder. I was sure from 

 a certain rending sound that something had been struck, and on 

 going out after the rain had ceased I found that I was not 

 mistaken. About one hundred yards from the garden stands an 

 elm tree, down which the lightning had descended, leaving a 

 broad white gash. Further investigations revealed a very badly 

 scared farm boy. No wonder that he was frightened, for his escape 

 had been marvellous. The lad, who was employed mowing down 

 thistles on the back lawn, when it began to rain went to stand 

 beneath this very tree, taking his scythe with him. The rain 

 increasing in volume and the water beginning to drip on him 

 through the leaves he determined to shelter in a little fowl-house 

 which stood not more than ten paces away. As he entered the 

 fowl-house the lightning struck the tree, passing into the ground 

 at the very spot where he had been standing a few seconds before, 



