484 
Notices, 
year 1793. The apartments were decorated with great elegance, as 
was the taste of persons of rank in that country ; the cornices of 
the room were gilt, in the Italian manner, from whence proceeded 
a number of plat-bands, serving as frames to the tapestry, gilt 
likewise ; so also were the borders of the pannels of the wainscot, 
the frames of pictures, mirrors, and door posts. 
On the 24th of March, Lord Tilney had a numerous party at 
dinner. A loud clap of thunder alarmed the company, and in an 
instant the whole apartment seemed to be on fire. Every one 
thought himself struck by the lightning; but, to their great joy, 
no one was wounded ; for the prodigious quantity of metal con- 
ductors enabled the lightning to pass, without injuring any one. 
On examination, it was found that great part of the cornices 
were damaged, particularly at the corners, and where bell-wires 
passed through ; picture frames much injured; and some of the 
bell-cords burnt. 
By these facts, we have clear testimony that the electric fluid 
most readily attaches itself to metallic conductors ; which in this 
instance, were the means of saving the company from destruction ; 
had any of them, at the time, been in contact with these gaudy 
trappings, it is probable that their lives would have been the 
sacrifice. A. C. 
Cloaths catching Jire. Muslin dresses and silk stockings, with 
midnight dances, have set the consumption at the head of all dis- 
orders in point of frequency and mortality. 
Muslin dresses, and open fire places, have destroyed many a 
valuable and much lamented female, by the most painful of deaths. 
There are one or two plain, common-sense remarks that deserve 
to be borne in mind. 
Fire will consume a piece of muslin placed over it, much more 
rapidly than one placed on the same horizontal line or plane. The 
instant a female finds the fire has caught her cloaths, she should 
throw herself down, and cover herself with the carpet, or the wool- 
len cover of a table ; the very position alone, will aflbrd time to 
extinguish a moderate flame, even without a carpet. 
If a person be near, the fire maybe extinguished, by turning up 
and folding up in a tight roll the garment that has caught fire. T. C. 
END OF VOLUME IL— NEW SERIES. 
Alexander ^ Phillips, Printers, Carlisle. 
