282 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER LXVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



WE are very seldom annoyed with thunder-storms : 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 direction to the east or to the west, or sometimes divide 

 in two, 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. 

 The only way that I can at all account for this fact for such it is 

 is that, on that quarter, between us and the sea, there are con- 

 tinual 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 summits as soon as they come in contact with those 

 turbulent meteors ; while the humble vales escape, because they 

 are so far beneath them. 



But, when I say I do not remember a thunder-storm from the 

 south, I do not mean that we never have suffered from thunder- 

 storms at all ; for on June 5th, 1784, the thermometer in the 

 morning being at 64, and at noon at 70, the barometer at 29*6^, 

 and the wind north, I observed a blue mist, smelling strongly of 

 sulphur, hanging along our sloping woods, and seeming to indicate 

 that thunder was at hand. I was called in about two in the after- 

 noon, and so missed seeing the gathering of the clouds in the 

 north ; which they who were abroad assured me had something 

 uncommon in its appearance. At about a quarter after two the 

 storm began in the parish of Hartley, moving slowly from north to 

 south ; and from thence it came over Norton-farm, and so to 

 Grange-farm, both in this parish. It began with vast drops of 

 rain, which were soon succeeded by round hail, and then by 



