XXIY. 
CLIMATOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS TAKEN IN HERTFORDSHIRE 
IN 1887. 
By John Hopkinson, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.B.Met.Soc. 
Read at Watford , 12 th April, 1889. 
PLATE III. 
For several years meteorological observations have been taken 
at Throcking by the Bev. C. W. Harvey, and at "Watford by 
myself, and the results have been communicated to the Society 
and have appeared in our ‘ Transactions,’ and also in the ‘Meteor¬ 
ological Becord ’ of the Boyal Meteorological Society. At the close 
of the year 1886 both places had ceased to be meteorological stations 
of that Society, and although the observations which until then 
were made at Watford are continued at St. Albans, this seems to 
be a suitable time to commence a new departure by giving some 
of the principal results of observations taken at several places in 
the county, and the mean of those results. 
There are, I believe, only five places in Hertfordshire where 
meteorological observations are made with verified instruments and 
with sufficient uniformity for the more important results to be 
strictly comparable with each other and with observations made 
in other parts of the kingdom. These are Boyston, Berkhamsted, 
St. Albans, Bennington (near Stevenage), and Hew Barnet. 
These meteorological stations are well situated for the purpose 
of obtaining a knowledge of the climate of Hertfordshire. Our 
principal river-basins are represented by them, the Cam by Boyston, 
the Colne by Berkhamsted and St. Albans, and the Lea by 
Bennington and Hew Barnet. Their geological distribution is 
representative of the chief geological features of the county, 
Boyston being on the bare or almost bare Middle Chalk; Berk¬ 
hamsted, St. Albans, and Bennington being on the Upper Chalk 
covered more or less by glacial or other superficial deposits of 
gravel, sand, or clay, which is the prevailing geological structure 
of by far the greater part of Hertfordshire ; and Hew Barnet being 
on the London Clay. They represent every part of the county but 
the extreme east, Boyston being in the north, Berkhamsted in 
the west, Hew Barnet in the south, and St. Albans and Bennington 
fairly central, the one towards the south-west and the other towards 
the north-east. And lastly, their height above the sea, from about 
200 to 400 feet, is about the average height of the surface of our 
county; we have but a very small area below 100 or above 500 feet. 
Boyston and Hew Barnet are stations from which returns are 
communicated to Mr. James Glaisher, F.B.S., for his “ Meteorology 
of England” appended to the 1 Quarterly Reports of the Begistrar- 
General ’ and to the Boyal Meteorological Society’s £ Meteorological 
Becord.’ At these stations, and also at St. Albans, the observations 
are made at 9 a.m., the minimum temperature is entered to the 
day of observation, and the maximum temperature and rainfall 
are entered to the previous day. Berkhamsted and Bennington 
