Recent  British  Weather. 
417 
of  the  preliminary  stages,  and  to  refer  those  interested,  to  the 
annual  volume  in  which  they  are  fully  described.* 
Fairly  trustworthy  records  of  rainfall  have  been  kept  at  two 
or  more  stations  in  every  year  from  1726  onwards.  In  the 
Report  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  for  1866,  I gave  a series  of  calculations  whereby  I 
had  ascertained  the  relative  rainfall  of  every  year  from  1726  to 
1865.  In  the  above-mentioned  work  this  calculation  is  extended 
to  1882,  and  a diagram  is  given  illustrating  the  relative  wetness 
of  each  of  the  157  years.  This  diagram,  which  is  chiefly 
applicable  to  central  England,  shows  a group  of  4 consecutive 
wet  years,  1734-7  ; of  4 very  wet  years,  1773-6  ; of  5 slightly 
wet  years,  1827-31,  and  of  the  unprecedented  number  of  8 con- 
secutive wet  years,  1875—82.  As  it  shows  that  on  the  average 
the  excess  has  been  rather  more  than  14  per  cent,  per  annum,  it 
follows  that  in  the  last  8 years  there  has  fallen  rather  more  than 
the  average  fall  of  9 years. 
This  excess  has  heen  greater  in  some  parts  of  the  country 
than  in  others,  and  although  the  determination  of  the  areas  over 
which  it  has  prevailed  with  various  degrees  of  intensity  is  rather 
laborious,  it  seems  likely  to  be  of  primary  importance  to  the 
agricultural  interest,  as  it  is  quite  possible  that  these  areas  may 
be  found  to  have  features  of  resemblance  to  those  where  sheep- 
rot  and  other  causes  of  agricultural  depression  have  been  most 
prevalent. 
It  is  a fortunate  fact  that  the  rainfall  during  the  ten  years, 
1860-9,  was  very  nearly  the  same  as  the  average  of  a long 
period  of  years.  It  was  perhaps  one  or  two  per  cent,  in  excess  ; 
but  it  may  for  all  practical  purposes  be  regarded  as  very  near  the 
truth.  In  Table  V.  (pp.  419-421)  only  those  stations  are  quoted 
at  which  the  rainfall  was  regularly  recorded  during  the  ten 
years,  1860-9,  and  also  during  the  years  1875-82.  As,  for  the 
present  purpose,  I wish  to  show  primarily  the  areas  over  which 
the  excess  has  been  most  severe,  the  table  does  not  give  actual 
rainfall,  but  percentage  of  excess.  For  instance,  at  the  first 
station  the  mean  ratio  of  rainfall  for  1875-82  is  given  as  115  ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  fall  during  those  eight  years  has  been 
15  per  cent,  above  the  average,  and  therefore  (8  X 15  = 120)  in 
those  eight  years  there  has  been  a total  excess  of  120  per  cent. 
Or,  to  put  it  in  its  simplest  form,  during  the  last  eight  years 
there  has  fallen  one  and  one-fifth  more  than  the  average  ; we 
have,  therefore,  had  the  average  rainfall  of  9 years  and  2 months 
deposited  in  8 years.  It  will  be  noticed  that  there  are  in  the 
* ‘ British  Kainfall,’  1882.  London : Stanford. 
