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thereby. Also a great snow fell this year, which by 

 reason of the hard frost that chanced therewith continued 

 long without wasting away, so that fishes, both in the sea 

 and fresh water, died through sharpness and vehemency 

 of that frost ; neither could husbandmen till the ground. 

 On Midsummer Day there fell such a storm of hail that it 

 killed many sheep and small cattle. The sun in Septem- 

 ber about noontide was darkened for the space of two 

 hours together, without any eclipse or cause natural by 

 interposition of clouds. In Yorkshire was such terrible 

 thunder with strange lightning that many abbeys and 

 churches were consumed with the fire (Holinshed}. 



1177 It rained blood in the Isle of Wight for the space of 

 two days together, so that linen clothes that hung on 

 the hedges were coloured therewith (Holinsked ; Roger de 

 Hovedeii). 



1178 A great snow filled the valleys and buried the thickets 

 and trees, and when it melted away many cattle and some 

 men were carried away by the flood, and so perished. 

 Jan. 8th. The sun eclipsed (M. of W.). 



June 1 8. After the setting of the sun there appeared 

 a marvellous sight in the air. For whereas the new moon 

 shone forth very fair with his horns toward the east, 

 straightways the upper horn was divided in two, out of 

 the midst of which division a burning brand sprung up 

 casting from it afar off coals and sparks as it had been of 

 fire. The body of the moon in the meantime that was 

 beneath seemed to wrest and writhe, in resemblance like 

 to an adder or snake that had been beaten, and anon 

 after it came to the old state again. This chanced above 

 a dozen times, and at length from horn to horn it became 

 black. In September following, at six of the clock, a partial 

 eclipse of the sun appeared. About Christmas, at a place 

 called Oxenhall, within the lordship of Darlington, a part 

 of the earth lifted itself up on high in appearance like to a 

 mighty tower, and so it remained from nine of the clock 



