Star.
London, England, 1824-09-09 00:00:00

STORAIS IN THE COUNTIIE

Boston, Sept. 7.—,Yesterday afternoon, about dne
o'clock, soon after.two clnuds of peculiar shape, fraught
with a tempest and heavily char gccl. had been observed
to meet together in the south-west; there came on here,
and lasted for some minutes, a hurricine; said to be the
most tremendous ever witnessed by the oldest inhabitant
of Boston. In Shirbeck-quarter it seized the top of a
haystack, which it whirled about spirally to a great
height, and scattered far from the spot where it stood.
In High-street,where its violence increased, a large pop-
lar treE and a hot-house were blown down, and the tiles
forced from several buildings. A whole frame, belong-
ing to a peachery in a garden, near S ruthend, Was
blown to the distance of SO or 40 yards, and every pane
of glass broken :an elm-tree, in an adjoining g:t! den,
said to be five or six yards in circumference, was also
blown down, and two others which stood in adjoining
pastures. An ancient thorn-bush shared the same fate,
near which some cattle had just before been grazing,
but were then, fortunately, out of the way. In Main
Ridge and its immediate neighbourhood, where the hur-
ricane raged with such dread-inspiring fury as caused
the utmost consternation and dismay, much injury was
sustained in various directions : for there some building.
were partly unroofed several windows broken ; a gar-
den-wall, some yards in extent, overwhelmed, and the
sails of a mill, used in a brick-yard, tattered into shreds
in a moment of time. This hurricane w. 45 rendered still
more alarming by being accompanied and followed by
a violent thunder-storm; during which the lightning,
which was vivid and diffusive, scarcely ever ceased for
a minute, and peal succeeded peal with little intermis-
sion. The re-echoed crack of several peals was by some
persons compared to the report occasioned by resound-
ing artiller y besieging a town.

Monday evening, the 30th ult. a violent thunder storm com-
mitted dreadful havoc along the vale of Glamorgan, whole fields of
corn having been demolished by the rain, which fell in torrents for
five ho'irs, besides the damage done to houses, mills, &c. which
opposed its impetuous course. The (torn commenced between
five and six o'clock, and so excessively heavy was the rain, that the
turnpike roads in several places between Pyle and Swansea became
impassable fur carriages or horses for a considerable time. The
mail and Cambrian coaches with great difficuhy reached Neath that
evening, about two hours later than usual, the coachmen declaring
that they never experienced so violent a storm, accompanied With
such vivid lightning, and terrific thunder.
At Neath the rain fell in enormous drops, which quickly became
a perpendicular torrent, stripping fruit-trees of their crop, and even
tearing away small branches in its precipitate deshent. The flashes
of lightning were almost continuous, and of intense brilliancy; the
thunder-claps might be compared to the discharge of artillery, fol-
lowed by a fire of musketry, and the roll of drums; only all these
sound, were far louder, sharper, and deeper, than their artificial re-
semblances. At the little mountain farm of Ty-draw, a cow-house,
containing dry hay, was set en fire by the electric fluid, Ltd destroysid.
The village of Melincrythan has suffered serious injury by the
unwonted torrent which rushed down the bed of the Crythan, usu-
ally an insignificant streamlet, within ten minutes notice of its ap-
proach. One end of a small woollen factory was carried away,
with part of the machinery, a rick of hay, and the poor industrious
owner's whole stock of wool, &e. to the destruction of kis means
of subsistence. Most of the cottages were inundated, some three,
four, and five feet deep, and one was filled with water to within a
foot of the Telling. The consternation of the poor Inhabitants may
be well conceived.

But the most extensive injury was sustained by Mr. Gibbins, at
the Melinerythan chymical works, where a large quantity of sugar
of lead, packed in casks ready for exportation, was dissolved by the
water, probably to the value of some hundred pounds; while the
mischief produced amongst the very valuable and extensive chymi-
cal apparatus, which that Gentleman had perfected with great skill
and expense, cannot be readily estimated. So powerful was the
flood, which completely invested the works, that it removed some
very large and massive Iron pans to a distance of many yards. At
the period when the lightning was most intense, a strong sulphurout
smell pervaded the atmosphere, and penetrated the closest apart-
ments within its influente.

About eleven o'clock on the forenoon of Sunday Week, the village
of Campbeltown, Ardersier, was visited by a thunder storm, ac-
companied by torrents of rain, which lasted nearly half an hour.
The thunder was heard in a circuit of upwards of twenty miles ; but
the rain fell very partially. The house at Milton of Connage, which
belonged to the late Wm. Bremner, and now occupied by one of his
daughters, was struck by the lightning. The chimney-stack at the
west end of the house was thrown down, and the gable wall rent
nearly to the foundation; a large stone in the angle of the fissure was
pounded into sand ; the electric fluid seems to have entered in three
streams, there being so many holes in the line of the rent, enlarging
inwards. A box which lay in the room near one of the holes was
shivered to pieces, and a handkerchief and some caps which it con-
tained were burnt; the glass and gilt ornaments of a clock in the
room were broken, and the works injured; the electric fluid ap-
pears to have escaped by the winder*, in which the greater part of
the glass was broken ; there is a circular hole about the size of a
musket ball in one of the panes, without a crack in the glass ; a
great part of the. ceiling of the room fell, it is cupposed by the shock.
The window of a room in the attic story was completely smashed,
the brass nails in the chairs were extracted and driven into the side
of a chest on the opposite side of the room with such force, that
some of them can with difficulty be drawn out; the nails could not
be more regularly taken out of the chairs by an upholsterer with-
out injuring the hair-cloth coverings of the cushions; the foot of
one of the chairs was shivered, and the splinters stuck in the door
of the room ; the door posts were shattered. The respectable female
inhabitant was sitting in the kitchen, between the fire place and the
window ; the electric fluid appears to have conic down the chimney,
ploughed up the clay floor in front of her chair, with such violence,
that the ceiling is spotted with ft, passed by her side to the wall,
along which it ran at her back, breaking the stones, and again rose
and escaped by the window, in which there is only a single pane
broken ; thus playing about and approaching dose to her person,
yet she miraculously escaped uninjured. She was enveloped in a
cloud of dust, and thought from the noise the house was falling.
No farther trace of the lightning has been observed about the pre.
tithes, with the exception of the chimney-stack of a back wing hav-
ing been shattered.

Thursday evening, the neighbourhood of Berwick was visited by
a thunder storm. Torrents of rain fell during the evening and
throughout the night. The only damage done by the lightning was
that a pig was killed by it, at a house near Morton-square, a few
miles frdin Berwick, and a man at the same place slightly injured.
Thursday last, we were visited by one of the most alarming
storms of thunder and lightning we remember to have encountered.
The dark and troubled clouds " gave dreadful note of preparation,"
and it commenced about half-past five o'clock in the evening, the
rain falling In torrents. The thunder was loud and threatening,
and seemed to roll Immediately above sue heads, while the rapidity,
the frequency, and the brilliancy of the flashes of lightning, were at
once dazzling and awful. The electric fire seemed to be both of
the sheet and forked description, and was accompanied occasionally
by a blue tinge, that while It made it more imposing, added to the
beauty and grandeur of the sight. The storm appears to have been
by no means confined to this district, for they had a similar visita-
tion at Sunderland, Shields, Hezham, Carlisle, and throughout that
part of the country. Several balls of fire fell in this neighbourhood,
but fortunately without doing any damage. Towards the Westward,
however, the effects have been more serious. As Michael Ander-
son, herd to Messrs. Ward and Armstrong, was riding with his
wife on horseback between Riddlehamhope and Westburnhope, near
Hexham, both the horse and Mrs. Anderson were instantaneously
struck dead, and what is remarkable, her husband escaped unhurt!
She has left a numerous family to lament her loss. Mr. Ralph
Foster, of Riverhill, near Barrasford, had three fat kyloes, two
queys in calf, and one steer, all killed at the same moment by the
lightning. A horse, the property of John Willy, at Whittonstal, in
the parish of Bywell, was also struck dead. A stack of barley, be-
longing to Mr. J. Harrison, was, on the same evening, burnt in a
field adjoining Styford bar, near Corbridge. At Sunderland, a
house In the occupation of Mr. Mathews was struck by the light-
ning; the walls were rent in several places, the fire irons in the
parlour were driven to the opposite side of the room, and partly
melted, together with some skewers, which were run together into
a solid mass. Mr. Mathews himself was rendered insensible for
some time, during which it was feared both his sight and hearing
were destroyed. He has since, however, entirely recovered. A
house in Union-lame was also struck ; the chimneys and the back
part of the roof were thrown down, At the same instant, near the
same place, six out of 20 lambs were killed, and a butcher of the
same of Merriman, echo attended them, pas slightly affected.—
note Mercury.

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