212 | Aerolites. 
last when it came to the earth to the height of the report 
of a peternel, or pistol. It was for matter like unto a stone 
singed, or half-burned for lime, but being larger described 
by a richer wit, I will forbear to enlarge on it.” 
The “richer wit” here alluded to, was, in all probability, 
the author of a pamphlet published at the time, which 
further describes this aérolite as having fallen on January 
1oth, 1623, in an orchard, near some men who were plant- 
ing trees. It was buried in the ground three feet deep, and 
its dimensions were 34 feet long, 24 wide, and 14 thick. 
The pamphlet also states that pieces broken from off it 
were in the possession of many of the neighbouring gentry. 
We may here remark that no specimen of this stone is at 
present known to be in existence, and that although living 
in the county where it fell, we have hitherto failed in 
tracing any of the fragments here referred to. A few years 
later, in August, 1628, several meteoric stones, weighing 
from one to twenty-four pounds, fell at Hatford, in Berk- 
shire; and in the month of May. 1680, several are said to 
have fallen in the neighbourhood of London. 
_ The total number of aérolitic descents, which up to this 
present time have been observed to take place in Great 
Britain and Ireland, is twenty, of which four occurred in 
Scotland, and four in Ireland. The largest am@@eniese 
noticeable of all these fell on December 13, 1795, near 
Wold Cottage, in the parish of Thwing, East Riding of 
Yorkshire. Its descent was witnessed by two persons; 
and when the stone was dug up, it was found to have pene- 
trated through no less than eighteen inches of soil and hard 
chalk. It originally weighed about 56 lb., but that portion 
of it preserved in the British Museum is stated in the 
official catalogue to weigh 47 lb. 9 oz. 53 grains—just 
double the weight of the Devonshire aérolite. 
When we come to inquire into the various opinions which 
have been held in different ages respecting the origin of 
aérolites, and the power which causes their descent, we 
must go back to the times of the ancient Greeks, and we 
find that those of their philosophers who had directed their 
attention to the subject had four theories to account for 
this singular phenomenon. Some thought that meteoric 
stones had telluric origin, and resulted from exhalations as- 
cending from the earth becoming condensed to such a de- 
gree as to render them solid. This theory was in after- 
years revived by Kepler, the astronomer, who excluded 
fire-balls and shooting stars from the domain of astronomy ; 
