266 
J. HOPKINSON-THE WEATHER 
blown to pieces, several gravestones being broken by tbe fall 
of its branches in different directions ; three large elms on 
Harpenden Common, and three others by the lane from there to 
Redbourn, were blown down, besides several other trees in the 
neighbourhood, at Wheathampstead, and in Lamer Park. 
Damage was also done to houses and other structures. At 
Watford and Bushey slates and leads were dislodged, windows 
blown in, and fences thrown down. At St. Albans part of the 
side wall of a house was carried away, the streets were strewn 
with broken slates and the gardens with broken glass from 
conservatories, and fences were thrown down, one being carried 
a distance of from twenty to thirty feet. Damage to houses 
also occurred at Hemel Hempstead, Redbourn, Harpenden, 
Hertford, and even so far away from the centre of the dis¬ 
turbance as Royston. Later, at about 9.30, part of a house at 
Batchworth near Rickmansworth was blown down. 
An extraordinary thunderstorm occurred on Wednesday 
afternoon the 23rd of February. As observed at Rickmansworth 
it is thus graphically described in the ‘ Herts Advertiser ’ of the 
26th. “ At about 4 o’clock the sun was shining brilliantly, the 
air was balmy, and everything spoke of the approaching spring. 
Shortly before 4.30 the sky darkened with almost tropical 
suddenness, huge masses of black clouds being driven up from 
the west. At 4.35 a vivid flash of lightning startled everyone. 
It was quickly followed by others, and then, for a quarter of an 
hour, fierce flashes of forked lightning and terrific peals of 
thunder prevailed, the darkness being also most impressive. 
Snow fell heavily, and in less than ten minutes the town was 
placed beneath a white mantle half-an-inch thick. By 5 o’clock 
the clouds had passed and the blue sky was again discernible. 
The visitation brought the temperature down very rapidly, 
however, and left the appearance of the town very wintry.” 
The central path of the storm appears to have extended from 
Watford to Rickmansworth. At Weetwood the thunder and 
lightning were almost continuous from 4.45 to 5, when the snow 
came, falling heavily for a few minutes. 
A succession of thunderstorms passed over the county from 
Tuesday the 7th of June to Friday the 10th, being most severe 
in the vicinity of St. Albans. On the 7th thunder was first 
heard there at about 10 a.m., about noon heavy storm-clouds 
gathered round, and soon after 8 p.m. the storm broke over the 
city with great violence, culminating about 9, when torrential 
rain fell, flooding low-lying roads and deluging cellars. Elm- 
trees at St. Michael’s and in Colney Park were struck by the 
lightning and stripped of their bark, and a house at Park Street 
was damaged, the occupant seeing what he described as a ball 
of fire at his feet. About the same time two large elms at 
Kimpton were split from top to bottom and stripped of their 
bark, and a house at Wigginton had a chimney thrown down 
and into it. On the 8th, in the morning, a man at Great 
