( 136) 



being at the first is left like unto a great hollow pit 

 (Holinshed). 



1584 July 24 (St. James' Day). At Chester such a 

 storm of thunder, lightning, hail, and rain raged from 

 noon till midnight, that the streets were flooded and the 

 cellars filled with water. Great harm was done to the 

 mills, much hay and corn destroyed, and many glass 

 windows broken with the hailstones (being five inches in 

 compass). " Many men and cattle were slain by the 

 Lights bolt in divers places." The like was never heard 

 of in man's memory (Pigott). 



1585 Wheat at Chester on May 6, 24.?. per bushel ; barley, 

 14$. September 2, a great fall in price : wheat, qs. ; bar- 

 ley, 4s. ? per qr. (Lowe ; T. H. B.}. 



1586 Wheat was 7$. 6d. per bushel (Somerset Magazine, 

 vol. xviii.). 



Great dearth of corn (Holinshed). 



On Saturday, October 8, there arose the greatest storm 

 that happened since the wind which some do call Dover 

 wind, which was in the time of the reign of Queen Mary. 

 It was thought universal, as also that which raged in 

 September, wherewithal fell such sharp showers of rain 

 that the drops thereof beating against the faces of travel- 

 lers made them so smart as with twigs of birch. Besides 

 great harms which happened that night upon the seas 

 there were upon the land in every quarter overthrown 

 thereby houses, cottages, barns, haystacks, tiles, chim- 

 neys, pales, and gates innumerable, and many trees, both 

 great and small, were not only torn and rent asunder, but 

 grubbed up by the roots, in so much as upon the Mon- 

 day next in many places men could not pass on horse- 

 back in the highways by reason of the trees that lay 

 blown and broken down cross overthwart the streets 

 (Holinshed). 



November 29. Violent gale at Beccles, Suffolk. Se- 

 vere frost. The river hard frozen (Lowe). 



