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The Hail Shower of the 22nd July, 1873, at Chirnside. 

 By Chakles Stuakt, M.D. 



On Tuesday the 22nd July, about 10 minutes to 5 o'clock 

 p.m., a remarkable shower of ice or hail fell over a consider- 

 able district of country in Berwickshire, extending from 

 Reston on the north and east to Whitsomehill on the south. 

 T^e weather had been for two days unusually sultry, tem- 

 perature at 400 above sea level, 82° in the shade._ The 

 thunderstorm which followed the shower came . in an 

 easterly direction up the Tweed and Whitadder. While 

 standing in the garden watching the approaching storm, I 

 perceived something fly through the air and fall with a 

 noise among the leaves of the bushes. I at first considered 

 it to be lightning ; but presently another piece of ice — for 

 the first was undoubtedly one — fell on the walk near me, 

 and I picked it up : an irregular crystallized mass, larger 

 than a boy's marble. Immediately a number fell, till the 

 shower was at its height, and continued for ten minutes. 

 For the most part, the pieces of ice were of a rounded form, 

 flattened occasionally on the upper surface ; but some were 

 angular masses, very sharp and formidable looking had they 

 come in contact with the face. The largest piece which was 

 measured was no less than 3^ inches in circumference, and 

 many others 2\ inches. The noise produced by the hail on 

 the roofs of the houses and on the foliage of the trees was 

 very loud, and unusual in its character. Falling on a flat 

 pitched glass roof, they went through like pistol bullets. 

 Hartley's patent rough plate, however, remained _ uninjured ; 

 but considerable damage was done in the district to horti- 

 cultural glass and window panes. Upon inquiry, I find that 

 none of the old men remember of a shower of such consider- 

 able sized pieces of ice having fallen for forty-three years, and 

 at that time, so far as can be ascertained, the hail was smaller 

 in size ; so that the shower, for violence while it lasted and 

 size of the hail, is unprecedented in the memory of the 

 oldest inhabitant. For half-an-hour after it fell the hail lay 

 unmelted in a grass field next my house, and was gathered 

 in quantity and used to ice the water, which was very warm. 

 The shower was partial ; a mile to the east and to the west 

 of Chirnside very little fell ; but four miles to the south, at 

 Whitsomehill, and at Reston, five miles to the north-east, it 

 was very severely felt. The thunderstorm, that raged more 



