C 299 ] 
me, that on Monday .the 17th paft, between fix and 
feven o’clock, there was, among many others, one 
moft amazing flalh, accompanied with a clap of 
thunder, that equalled in report the largeft cannon : 
That the next morning, obferving the church-clock 
to be hlent, they went into the bellfry, and found 
the wire and chain, that communicated from the 
clock in the bejlfry to the clapper in the turret, where 
the bells hangs, to be melted ^ and that the fmall bar 
of iron from the clock, that gives motion to the 
chain and wire, juft where the chain was faftened, 
was melted half through, the bar being about three- 
fourths of an inch broad, and half an inch thick. 
Several links of the chain, and of the wire, I have 
now the honour to £hew you, when it will be ob- 
ferved, that the lightning took effedt only in the 
joints. But whether it entered by communication 
from the wire expofed to the air in the fmall turret, 
through the roof of the bellfry, or at the windows, 
there being feveral panes broke in the fouth and weft 
corners, I cannot fay j although I prefume rather the 
fir ft way, as it is very poflible, that the bare report of 
the thunder might have occafioned the latter. 
The pieces of the wire and chain were fcattered 
over the whole bellfry, nor could it be difcernedy 
that the wood- work, or aught elfe, had fuffered. 
LI. 
