256 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1765. 



no doubt discoloured the silver. The window fronting the quadrangle to the n. 

 had every pane of glass in it forced outwards, and broken to pieces ; the case- 

 ment, which was open, escaped unhurt. The lead belonging to each pane was 

 bent outwards exactly in the middle, but there were no signs of fire here ; and 

 indeed it is probable that the lightning reached no farther than the beaufet. A 

 young gentleman, who stood in his window, was almost blown down by this 

 sudden gust of wind. A painter was at work in this room when the accident 

 happened. He was at the window, on the left side of the fire-place from that 

 which the lightning came in at. His account is, that he felt an intense heat; 

 saw, as he thought, fire running all round him in circles; that he had a stroke 

 on the shoulder, which beat him down, and made him senseless for some time; 

 when he recovered, the room was full of smoke, and smelt strongly of brim- 

 stone. Near the window, where the lightning entered this room, it made a 

 round hole through the floor into the ground room, inhabited by Mr. Williams, 

 a young gentleman of this college, who had gone out but a very little time be- 

 fore. Near one corner of the iron window frame, a round hole, about an inch 

 in diameter, was struck through the stone work, as if made with a bullet. A 

 strong iron bar in the window was forced into the room, and carried to some dis- 

 tance. The hinges of the window shutters, and the wall they touched, were 

 discoloured, just as if gunpowder had been fired on them. A nail happening to 

 be in the stone, on the side of the chimney, the lightning drove it with great 

 force into the solid free-stone, making a round hole to a considerable depth. 

 The window-curtain here was thrown to the same distance, and in the same di- 

 rection, as in the room above, and pretty nearly the same effects appeared; only 

 the wainscot and window-seat were not shivered into small pieces, as in the room 

 above, but were thrown in large splinters, and with great force, about the room ; 

 some of them broke the window and a large looking-glass on the opposite side, 

 and more than one flew endwise like an arrow, with sucli force as to pierce 

 through a very strong lath-and-plaster wall, the ends of them appearing several 

 inches through the wall in the adjoining stair-case. Close to the window where 

 the lightning entered, was a strong piece of oak timber, being the corner of the 

 partition to a closet. This post, Q feet long, and 6 by 6-i- inches in the clear, 

 was thrown in a different direction from any thing else, from b. to w. into the 

 closet. It was carried near 8 feet, and then struck a clothes press with such 

 force, as to do it very considerable damage. At the bottom of this, a hole was 

 made through the floor into the ground; the window of this room was not 

 blown out. For some time, it was supposed that these 3 rooms only had suf- 

 fered; but, going to view the ruins on the outside, there were observed some 

 trails of mischief in the roof of the garret opposite to that first mentioned, and 

 near 40 feet w. of the chimney which was beaten down. And though all had 



