Star.
London, England, 1813-08-04 00:00:00

THE LIFE NEAT Ritl744.

Diassiox, JULY r7.—We lard here, on Sunday
last, about ten o'clock, A.M. the heaviest rain I ever
witnessed ; it seemed to fail in sheets, the roads were
filled from side to side, and every hollow war ap-
peared a rivulet; it was accompanied by hail and re-;
markably loud peals of thus der, with vivid flashes of
lightning. It lasted nearly half an hour. About the
commencement of the ram, and a considerable time'
befeire any thunder was heard, I observed rather a
rare phenomenon—a water-spout. When I first gotl
my eye upon it, it appeared to dticend from a large
black cloud, at an elevation of 65 to 70 above the ho.
rizon, and immediately over the west end of Blair
Drummond moss, about two miles distant in a south
direction. An intervening height prevented me from"!
seeing I! it actually reached the ground, it wrs in a '
direct line towards it, with an apparent diameter of
feet, of an equal width from leaving the
as far as I 'could see (say about Tt had then the
appearance of bong shaggy or featnered on the sides,
probably from attracting the minor c10u.2. :'nd v:!-
pours as it descended. In about two or three minutes !
it Became smo. th and well defined, and from the
,
great height of the cloud, beautifully rand. As the!
storm increased, it beried in the direction of the I
wind, to a considerable c illy:, and again approached
near- to its original straight lit., continued in sight
from eight to ten minutes, when my view was inter-
cepted by dark rolling clouds," and the increasing
storm. Thermometer, in a north window, at the com-
mencement of the storm, 64. deg. Fatenheit ; when
it ceased 61 deg. Barometer, at the commencement,
20 deg. 05 min ; rose during the storm to 29 deg
15 min. (which I think uncommon), and two hours
alterwards was at .'4:9 deg.
Nowsouch, FIFE, JULY 25.—This day, after seve-
ral loud peals of thunder, a heavy shower of rain fell
in this neighbourhood, but at Hatten.liiil it fell in
such torrents as to rescrible a water-spout. A small
rivulet which, at the time the rain began to fall, was
almost dry, rose in the spacz of ten minutes about I
ten feet perpendicular, and such were the effects of
the flood, that a small field of poetthes, with the sur-1
face of the ground in which they were planted, was
literally removed out of its plare, and • ov-•rl id two !
ridges of oats, so :hat tle. c:,.ps or potatoes oats
are both destroyed. At the village ..f. Grange, the!
rise of the water was so sudden and unexpecte..l, that
it carried off many shirts, several pairs of sheets, and
webs of cloth from the bleaching green. At Den-
miln, the house of Mr. Peter Nicol was so much un-
der water, that had it happened in the night the
family would have been overll:,wed in bed. The archl
of the bridge not being litre. • erongn to receive such
a quantity of water, it terced its way over the top,
and threw ,1 • •. parariet wall. At New-miln of
the Abbey of Liedores, such was the '
force die accumulated torrent—a pie:e of earth„
up.... .:ds of 200 tons, fell inso the mill-lead, forced
-• water into the threshing and barley 'trills, and
occasioned damage to a considerable amount. •
BELFAST, JULY 27.—Sunday, about 12 o'clock, the
neighbourhood of this city was visited by a mere
storm, accompanied by thunder, lightning, ttcc...TAt
Hillsborough, the hailstones were Temar kably large ;
and about three miles from this town, at Malone, a
whirlv.ind did some damage, scattering a great num-
ber of hay-cocks in the grounds belonging to Mr.
Legg, and stripping a house in that neighbourhood
of a quantity 01 its thatched roof.

The weather seems to have affected the price n 4
butcher's meat in the country. At Abingdon, lamb
is Rid. per lb. and beef, veal, and mutton at Ad.
Thursday, in Fountainbridge, near Edinburgh, a
cart, upon which some children mere stinging, fell
upon the .head of a fine young boy, and instantly
crushed him to death.

A serious accident happened to a private belonging
to the Sd Dragoon Guards on Wednesday last, at
Chichester, while exercising his horse ; the animal on
a sudden became unruly, and threw the rider with
such violence against the curb stone, as to fr..cture
his skull. The unfortunate man now lies at the hos-
pital in a dangerous state.
A letter from an Officer of his Majesty's ship AME-
RICA, of 7+ guns, dated Alicant, June '2+, says—
" On the .sth instant, just before we left Palermo with
Lord WILLIAM BENTINCK on board for Alicant, we
fell in with MURAT'S squadron in the Bay of Naples,
consisting of one line•ol-battle ship, three frigates, and
a schoonvr. We ran to within four miles of them be-.
fore we hove to; but, notwithstanding their superior
force, and we lay to an hour and an halt; they did
net attempt to make any sail after us. The wind
blew fresh, aid dead upcn the shore, from which they
were distant four or five miles. We could not at-
tempt any thing; for, had we met with any accident,
we should have had a host of gun-boats around us
directly."
Dr. Ralloof.rtr, late Bishop of London, was trans.
lated from Oxford to the Metropolitan See on the
death of Bishop Powret:s. He had augmented the
revenues t f the See from 7 to neatly i'..12,000.per
annum, and had just completed the reparation of the
Palace of Fulham and its appendages, at a cpnside-
rable expenditure. His Lordship had fortunately
provided for his eldest son, by recently collating him
to, the valuable Rectory of Much Hadham, in Hert-
fordshire, vacant by the death of the late Dr. HANtit.-
TON. The successor to the See of London is expected
to be Dr. Fina', )Bishop of Salisbury, and the Hon.
and Rev. Mr. JENKINSON is generally spoken of as the
probable new Bishop.

A N FCDOTF. —Tbe following whimsical circum-
stance is related of Mr. Astley, a fellow-pupil with Sir
Joshua Reynolds : Mr. Astley did not excel in ge-
nius, but he was a very respectaLle chancier in pri-
vate life. It was the custom of, English ',mu-1-s at
Rome to make little excursions together in the coon-
, try. On one of those excursions, on a summer after-
noon, when. the season was particularly hot, the
whole company threw off their coats, as being an in-
cumbrance to them, etcept poor Altl,,y, who alone
shewed great reluctance to take off his ; this seemed
very unaccountable to his companions, when vine
jokes made on his singularity at last obliged him io
take his coat off also. The mystery was then imme-
' diattly explained ; for it appeared that the hinder-
part of his waistcoat was made, by way of thi iftiness,
out of one of his own pictures, and thus displayed a
tremendous waterfall on his back, to the great diver-
',sion of all the spectators I