190 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



account of the weather from the year 1727 to the year 1748, inclusive, 

 that though there is frequent rain in that district of Devonshire, yet the 

 quantity falling is not great ; and that some years it has been very 

 small : for in 1731 the rain measured only 17'266 in. ; and in 1741, 

 20'354 in. ; and again, in 1743, only 20 F 908 in. Places near the sea have 

 frequent scuds, that keep the atmosphere moist, yet do not reach far 

 up into the country ; making thus the maritime situations appear wet, 

 when the rain is not considerable. In the wettest years at Plymouth 

 the doctor measured only once 36 ; and again once, viz. 1734, 37'114in. 

 a quantity of rain that has twice been exceeded at Selborne in the 

 short period of my observations. Dr. Huxam remarks that frequent 

 small rains keep the air moist ; while heavy ones render it more dry,, 

 by beating down the vapours. He is also of opinion that the dingy, 

 smoky appearance in the sky, in very dry seasons, arises from the want 

 of moisture sufficient to let the light through, and render the atmosphere 

 transparent; because he had observed several bodies more diaphanous 

 when wet than dry ; and did never recollect that the air had that look 

 in rainy seasons. 



My friend, who lives just beyond the top of the down, brought his 

 three swivel guns to try them in my outlet, with their muzzles towards 

 the Hanger, supposing that the report would have had a great effect ; 

 but the experiment did not answer his expectation. He then removed 

 them to the alcove on the Hanger ; when the sound, rushing along the 

 Lythe and Comb Wood, was very grand : but it was at the hermitage 

 that the echoes and repercussions delighted the hearers ; not only 

 filling the Lythe with the roar, as if all the beeches were tearing up by 

 the roots; but, turning to the left, they pervaded the vale above 

 Combwood ponds ; and after a pause seemed to take up the crash again, 

 and to extend round Hartley Hangers, and to die away at last among 

 the coppices and coverts of Ward-le-Ham. It has been remarked before 

 that this district is an Anathoth, a place of responses or echoes, and 

 therefore proper for such experiments : we may farther add that the 

 pauses in echoes, when they cease and yet are taken up again, like the 

 pauses in music, surprise the hearers, and have a fine effect on the 

 imagination. 



The gentleman abovementioned has just fixed a barometer in his 

 parlour at Newton Valence. The tube was first filled here (at Selborne) 

 twice with care, when the mercury agreed and stood exactly with my 

 own ; but, being filled twice again at Newton, the mercury stood, on 

 account of the great elevation of that house, three-tenths of an inch 

 lower than the barometers at this village, and so continues to do, be the 

 weight of the atmosphere what it may. The plate of the barometer at 

 Newton is figured as low as 27 ; because in stormy weather the mercury 

 there will sometimes descend below 28. We have supposed Newton 

 House to stand two hundred feet higher than this house : but if the rule 

 holds good, which says that mercury in a barometer sinks one-tenth of an 

 inch for every hundred feet elevation, then the Newton barometer, by 

 standing three-tenths lower than that of Selborne, proves that Newton 

 House must be three hundred feet higher than that in which I am 

 writing, instead of two hundred. 



