by Livhtn'ft?'pt Beckingharm ^6y 
ham ; but as the men, who had gone up to the corner of the- 
houfe qn the firft appearance of the fire, feemed to recoiled 
very well the hate in which they had found the lead and tiles 
at that moment, they were deli red to put every thing in the 
fame hate to the beft of their memory. With this view they 
turned back the lead at the bottom of the hip on its fouth fide, 
fo that the fouth- weft face of the hip-pole might be feen, and 
threw down a few tiles, after letting one on edge againft the 
hip-rafter. The lightning then, if fuch evidence be admitted, 
had railed up that corner of the lead to the breadth of about 
fix inches at the bottom-, and difplaced fome tiles. ■ An effed 
of this kind upon the lead, is one of the commoneft fads ob- 
ferved in buildings that have been ftruck by lightning. It fo 
happened, that the piece of lead which we found on the bot- 
tom of the hip at Heckingham, had upon it feveral impreftions 
or pits ; concerning which various opinions were entertained, 
till an experiment, made fince our return to town, feems to 
have put it beyond doubt, that they are nothing but marks of 
large fhot, fuch as might have been produced by firing, with a 
large fowling-piece, at a bird fitting on the corner of the 
houfe. All the people who affifted in extinguifhing the fire 
agreed, that on the eaftern fide of the hip, the lead remained, 
after the ftroke, in its ufual fituation. 
On removing entirely the lower part of the lead, no kind of 
damage was feen on the wood of the hip-pole, except that near 
the lower end it was {lightly fcorched in one place, apparently 
by the flame which had burft: forth from below ; the fpike-nail 
which had .faftened the lead to it appeared perfectly found, and 
even the bole made by that nail in the w r ood was neither burnt 
nor fplintered. This hip-pole was fupported, at its proper diftance- 
from the hip-rafter, by an iron-ftrap, or holdfaft, which was 
driven 
