438 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1773. 



Stones were forced out of the walls, some were driven to a considerable distance, 

 one in particular to about 200 feet. The glass of the windows in the north 

 parlour and the chamber over it was forced outwards, except in the casements, 

 which were open, and in which not a pane of glass was broken. The case of a 

 clock in the same parlour fell forwards, and was beaten to pieces; a looking glass 

 over the chimney was thrown on the floor and broken, some of the quicksilver 

 was melted, as was likewise some of the lead belonging to the windows. A 

 bureau, that was locked, was opened; as was also the parlour door, inwards, 

 probably by the external air rushing in to restore the equilibrium. Some bedding 

 in one of the chambers was fired, but the fire was extinguished of itself, or by 

 the rain that fell during the storm, before it was discovered. Several splinters 

 were torn out of a hogshead full of beer, but the cask was not materially 

 damaged, nor the beer spilt. The iron bell wire in both the parlours and the 

 hall was reduced to smoke and entirely dissipated, excepting in those parts where 

 it was twisted, and double, and also the wire springs contiguous to the bell, 

 which the lightning left undamaged, as well as the brass handles and bell itself. 

 The ceiling and wall on each side, where the wire went, was stained irregularly, 

 a foot or more in breadth, with a dark blue intermixed with a deep yellow. It 

 is worth observing, that this iron bell wire was very small, considerably less than 

 a common knitting needle; but though it was itself destroyed, yet it seems to 

 have served as a conductor to the lightning, and to have prevented worse effects 

 than happened. For when the lightning had run along, and consumed all the 

 single wire, and had reached that which was twisted and double in the south 

 parlour, contiguous to the brass handle, which the bell used to be rung with, it 

 made a hole in the wall of 5 or 6 inches in diameter, being attracted probably by 

 an iron stove on the other side in the kitchen chimney, where meeting with se- 

 veral large conductors, handirons, poker, tongs, gtc. it seems to have been con- 

 veyed into the ground. This appears probable, because the progress of it below 

 stairs could not be traced beyond this hole, which it made in the wall. In the 

 chamber over the kitchen, a small piece of wood was indeed struck out of a bed 

 post, and the glass of half a window was driven outwards; but this does not 

 seem to have been the immediate effect of the lightning, but of the shake from 

 the explosion. 



Whether Steeple Ashton is from its situation particularly exposed to thunder 

 storms, is uncertain. It may however be proper to mention, that in the year 

 1670, July the 25th, a violent storm of thunder and lightning damaged the 

 church steeple, which was Q3 feet high ; and on the 1 5 th of October in the same 

 j'car, another thunder storm threw it entirely down, and killed 2 of the work- 

 men, who were repairing it. 



p. s. Mr. Field, a painter of Trowbridge, during the storm, observed a ball 



