The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1809-08-11 00:00:00

THUNDER-STORM.

. • On Tbursday so'nnight, Nei...wide was visited
by a most awful tor of thunder and lightning,
hecompanied by a torrent of ram, d great q (Mb.
any of hail. During the whole afternoon, wloch
,wsis eery
.close and sultry, distant thunder was
fled iu the anntli-east; about half-past live, the
stoma reached that place, and cinitintitil About an
hour, during which time the flashes of lightning
followed'each other in awful and rapid stici:esUo;,,
. .

accompanied with such trementiou.s thunder, as

threatened to dissolve the town, mid
" Leave Dot a wreck bcbiu4!"
The deluge of rain aad hail that fell, speedily
undated the streets, and uivat have done condidtr-

able damage in the lower parts of the town. Thee
injury done by lightning is vet, greet, as will ap..
pear by the following particula►a:—
A ball of electric matter catered the house c.f
Mr. D. Sutton, in Prince's-street. It hrmt .truck

the chimney-top, which it threw down, frailly iota
the street, and partly into the house.—it then fol-
lowed the direction of the citamuey into th • sitting
parlour, in which were eight per,nua, dashed part
of the tea equipage on the floor, shivered the
book-case, and, proceeding toward, the door, whiel
was fortunately open, burst, with a (lreadik,i •!xplo-
*ion, followed by six small ones, but, fortuo.triv,
jujared no popeelal seeloosay........Tem Ladies were
ustightly or ruck,_ out on the •ide of her head, aiod
the other's 'nit, W4l singed. aort the arm a little a;-
fected ; • gentleman of the party wets sko slightly
struck on the face. Tile &retro: fluid theo cusps

munieuted with tl►e bell wired, wL. rL it melted

ote► the house, following them flow room to roma.
in an upward direction, tearing up the floors, lac.
in its rissage ; it broke Cie glass of a clock and
stopp.-d it, shivered three bed poles, and finally
passed out at the upper part of the house. lit the
different rooms 421 squares of glass were broken end
forced outwards, sod in one of the rooms Mr. Sut-
ton had a most providential crape, being there
with the intention of shnttin4 a window at the time
it was stroek. The oxydetiun of the beil,ortect
has produced an effect beautiful beyond decry.
tion.. immediately after the explosion, the sitting-
' rerun 4Vas tilled with rinule, attended with such a

strong smell of stilishura.aa rendered it 'dangerous
to retrial!, in the main. The door jamb of the ad-
jutaing'house was also torn off. The lightning also
elm& down a clumaer and entered the roof of
Mr. (fumble's rbeetlini-bone, riesr the Forth, and
at the same time sirettered one of the pillars isf the
front door, communicating with and destroying all
the wires of the belloin the first and second stories ;
shattered the steak of a Ten in the kitchen, also
the window shutters of three rooms, ringing 6e
paper, 4'o tasing about the lime from theetonsi
of the winslowA wherever the bell-wires v.:intuit:n-
ested ; then burs.. out of the back staircase our
dow, with a dreadful explain'', similar to the dis-
charge of a cannon, and tilling the different morns
with black sulphnreous smoke. Providentially
1100 e of the family were materially kiurt. Mrs.
Humble was deprtrwd, for a few minutes, of her
hearing, and experienced a numboess is sore arm ;
one of the servants was slightly scorched iii one
hand. Mrs. Hissl,s house, hear Jesalond. was
struck; and the work* of a gold watch, which was
hanging up in one of the rooms, were melted, and
considerable damage done to the walls, plait:res.
&c. The lightning set a bark mill, near st. An-
drew's church, oil fire, but fortunately it wascattn.
guished without m clots damage, except to the wands
and one beam. Here we cannot omit noticing the
alacrity with which the engines belonging to the
military depot oa the Town Moor were brought to
the spot, accompouied by a number of active hands,
atl of whom strove to meet each other in rendering
assiwance.

On the same day, the house of Mr. Usha, at
Preston, near North shields, suffered materially
by the lightning, which entered the chimney, and
made its way to a front room on the ~,,•rolind
where' it damaged some of the furniture; it tiara'
brake the partition betwixt the room and the kit-
chen, where it struck one of Mr. Uslia's daugh-
ters to the ground, and severely burned -her neck
and arms ; it then shattered enother partition in
its course to a back kitchen, whence it forced its
way out of the house through a strong wall, which
it considerably rent and damaged. A lamb win
struck dead, amongst mans others, belonging to s
butcher of North Shields.
Thunder...storms appear to hare been general
throughout the couutr), aid in different parts have
been attended with serious consestuences, as will be
seen front the following articles
On Tuesday, a violent thunder-storm, accompa-
nied with rain and hail, took place at Aluve:ck ; the
ire entered the house of Major Cmtles. and shiver-
ed a bedstead to pieces, tore the eall an scum rat
places, and completely demolished the bell-wire.;
a servant maid was in au odjuming bed room, but
escaped unhurt.
On Monday sennight, a storm passed over Be-
verley; the claps of thunder were tremendou-ly
loud, and the lightning uncommonly vivid ; the
rain poured doom io torrents.-eel/tiring the sto:
the house of Mr. Daniel Foster, in Loindreveeliii.-,
uses struck by the lightning, which shattereii ;..
top of the eininite), then penetrated the ring. ,
proceeded Jute?, the gsrret wall into a lodging-yo ..1:,.
After pressing some space down the wall, it 5,.•
the bedstead, and shattered it in a WO.ltir huh
manner, one of the castors being driven int," t,e
lauding adjoi bb I t ig. Mr. Foster had provident, thy
gut out of bed a few minutes before. The elec-
tric Auld then passed into the kiehen below, and
was attracted by a pair of tones, hind in the co,..wr
of the chimney, leaving a sufficient liar to mink its
progress. The whole of the glass was driven out ut tt.e
chamber window ; and, of twelve squares an the kit-
chen window, only four were let; the easing of the
window was entirely erten wavy, mid the plasteiii
dremaieed iu different places. Mrs, Foster, her
graini•on, and maid-serentit, were struck down in
the kitchen, but received no materiel injury.
Vt,tenday the lestimit nurse of a cart being too
eager in pining the acclivity of illackfriani'-bridge,
the brutish carman, in striking the animal an un-
roerciful blots on the head, had, in return, the
bridge of his rime nearly broken by the horse sud-
denty dropping his heaci to avoid the force of the
impending stroke, which afforded no small amuse.
merit to the spectators, who thowaht biro nghtiy
paid is his own coin.