196 METKORIC STONES. 
and weighed fifty-six pounds. Whilst this stone was in 
motion through the air, several persons perceived a body 
passing along the clouds, although they were unable to 
ascertain what it was. It passed over several different 
villages, and was also accurately and distinctly heard. 
The day was foggy ; and, though there was some thun- 
der and lightning at a distance, it was not until the 
stone fell that an explosion took place which alarmed 
all the adjacent country ; and created, distinctly, a sen- 
sation that something very extraordinary had happened. 
A shepherd belonging to Captain Topham was within 
a hundred and fifty yards of the place where it fell ; 
George Sawden, a carpenter, within sixty yards ; and 
John Shepley, one of Captain Topham's farming ser- 
vants, was so near that he was forcibly struck by some 
of the mud and earth that were raised by the stone 
dashing into the ground. In its fall the stone excavated 
a place nineteen inches in depth (seven inches of which 
were in a solid rock of chalk), and somewhat more than, 
three feet in diameter, fixing itself so firmly that some 
labour was required to dig it out. 
Another stone of considerable size fell in Scotland 
on the fifth of April, 1704-. A misty commotion was 
observed in the atmosphere, and, nearly at the time of 
the stone falling, a report was heard as loud as if three 
or four cannon had been fired at a little distance. The 
report was succeeded by a violent rushing or whizzing 
noise ; and, almost immediately afterwards, the stone 
fell into a drain, in the presence of two men and two 
boys, splashing the water to a distance of twenty feet 
around. The stone, when dug out, was found to have 
sunk about eighteen inches into the earth. 
On the fifth of November, 1814, about half past four 
o'clock in the afternoon, a dreadful peal of thunder was 
heard in the Doab in Persia, and was immediately suc- 
ceeded by a shower of large stones, many of them from 
twenty-six to thirty pounds weight each. Several inha- 
bitants of the adjacent country were present at the time ; 
and not fewer than nineteen of the stones were collected. 
