398 NATURAL HISTORY 



As when the sun, new riseii, 



Looks through the horizontal misty air 

 Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon, 

 In dim eclipse disasterous twilight sheds 

 On half the nations, and with fear of change 

 Perplexes monarchs." 



LETTER LXVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



WE are very seldom annoyed with thunderstorms; and 

 it is no less remarkable than true, that those which 

 arise in the south have hardly been known to reach this 

 village ; for before they get over us, they take a direc- 

 tion to the east or to the west, or sometimes divide into 

 two, and go in part to one of those quarters, and in 

 part to the other, as was truly the case in summer 

 1783, when though the country round was continually 

 harassed with tempests, and often from the south, yet 

 we escaped them all ; as appears by my journal of that 

 summer 1 . The only way that I can at all account for 

 this fact for such it is is that, on that quarter, be- 

 tween us and the sea, there are continual mountains, 

 hill behind hill, such as Nore Hill, the Barnet, Butser 

 Hill, and Portsdown, which somehow divert the storms, 

 and give them a different direction. High promontories, 

 and elevated grounds, have always been observed to 

 attract clouds, and disarm them of their mischievous 

 contents, which are discharged into the trees and sum- 

 mits as soon as they come in contact with those turbu- 

 lent meteors; while the humble vales escape, because 

 they are so far beneath them. 



1 To this awful summer of 1783, Cowper also alludes, in his Task, 

 book ii. p. 41. 



-A world that seems 



To toll the death-bell of its own decease ; 

 And by the voice of all the elements 

 To preach the general doom." 



