OP THE 20th of November, 1887. 
35 
Observations and Notices. 
Hertford. —At 8*20 on the morning of the 20th ult., my 
daughter [Miss Anne Dear], who was in her room, called to her 
mother, who was downstairs, to notice a falling star. The 
morning was dull and foggy. I was out of doors at the time, and, 
on coming into the house, she asked me if it were not an unusual 
occurrence for a shooting star to be visible by daylight. On 
questioning her as to its appearance, she described it as a brilliantly 
luminous body, travelling across the sky from a N.E. to W. direction. 
In its passage a portion became disconnected and fell, the main 
body continuing its flight further. The time occupied from first to 
last 3 or 4 seconds. She did not hear any report.— F. C. Fear, 
Ivy Cottage, Port Vale, Hertford. 
[Ivy Cottage stands on the side of a hill sloping to the S.W., 
and almost in the mouth of a disused sand-pit, cut into the hill 
above: the hill rises sharply, and the ridge above the pit bounds 
the view to the N. From a window on the first floor, facing about 
N.N.W., there is a distant view to N.N.W., and to the W. of that 
point until it is cut off at about W.N.W. by a projecting portion 
of the house. The meteorite was first seen from this window by 
Miss Dear just over the ridge above the quarry at about N.E., and 
at an elevation of about 20°. It passed across the whole view 
from the window, disappearing behind the projection of the roof 
at an elevation of about 13°. At a point about N.W., a piece of 
the meteorite appeared to fall, but without any apparent diminution 
of size in the main mass. The meteorite appeared to travel slowly 
—so much so that the observer ran to another window, expecting 
to see it pass further to the westward, but it had disappeared.] 
Solihull. — I saw the meteor from here, and, being broad day¬ 
light, I thought it very unusual. It seemed to drop from a clear 
patch in the sky, and much to resemble a rocket with light blue and 
red sparks dropping from it. I am about miles from Birming¬ 
ham, S.E. The meteor seemed to drop rather more S. I did not 
hear any report or unusual noise. 
The time, as near as possible, was 8'20 a.m.; it may have been 
2 or 3 seconds past, not more. The star itself I did not actually 
see before it collapsed. I can compare it to nothing but an ordinary 
sky-rocket just at the moment after it has spent itself in the air. 
It was in full S. direction, and did not appear far away.— TV. J. 
Whitrod, Rose Cottage, Olton, Solihull. 
SUFFOLK. 
Westley.— [The sound] was distinctly heard here by some of 
my men, who told me they had heard a blow-up in the SAY. at 
8'20 a.m., and that the pheasants crowed in all directions, the 
same as they did at the Erith explosion. They described it as a 
double explosion.— Rolert Burrell, TVestley Hall, [2 miles ~W. of] 
Bury St. Edmunds. 
