OF SELBORNE 287 



LETTER LXVI 



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 into two, and 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 

 continual mountains, hill behind hill, such as Nore-hill, 

 the Barnet, Butser-hill, and Ports-down, 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, six-tenths one half, 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 afternoon, and so missed seeing the gatliering of the 

 clouds in the north ; which they who were abroad assured 



