( 133 ) 



thunder strake through the wall of the same church into 

 the ground almost a yard deep, drave down all the people 

 on that side, above twenty persons, then renting the wall 

 up to the revestry cleft the door, and returning to the 

 steeple rent the timber, brake the chimes, and fled toward 

 Bongie, a town six miles off. The people that were 

 stricken down were found grovelling more than half an 

 hour after, whereof one man more than forty years old, and 

 a boy of fifteen years old, were found stark dead. The 

 other were scorched. The same or the like flash of 

 lightning and cracks of thunder rent the parish church at 

 Bongie, wrung in sunder the wires and wheels of the 

 clocks, slew two men which sat in the belfry, and scorched 

 another (Holinshed). 



1578 Wheat prices lower. 



Wheat, ijs. 4\d. ; barley, 85.; oats, 4^. $\d. ; rye, 

 175. &d. ; beans, 95. ; peas, los. ; malt, 13.$-. (Rogers). 



May 6. Snow did lie so thick on the ground at Broad 

 Chalke that the bearers of Edward Saintlowe, Esq., 

 carried his body over the gate in Knighton Field, and 

 they digged a way to the church porch (Aubrey}. 



1579 Wheat, 17^. 6\d. ; oats, 6s. i\d. ; rye, igs. 6\d.', peas, 

 us. Q\d. ; malt, I2S. $d. per qr. (Rogers). 



April 24. Fell such a snow between four a.m. and 

 nine a.m., that in London it was a foot deep (Holinshed). 



Great flood at Westminster. Fishes were left upon the 

 floor of the Hall by the subsiding stream ( Walter Thorn- 

 bury]. 



In September and October fell great winds and raging 

 floods in sundry places of this realm. In Newport cot- 

 tages were borne down, corn lost, pasture ground over- 

 whelmed, and cattle drowned. In Bedford the water 

 came up to the market-place. Also Saint Edes and God- 

 manchester suffered severely (Holinshed). 



Feb. 4, and the night following, fell such abundance 

 of snow that next morning it was two feet deep in Lon- 



