Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1861-08-09 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

EXTRAORDINARY DAIL STORM AT DUNBAR. —One of the most terrific hail storms that has ever been witnessed in this locality occurred on Saturday afternoon. The storm commenced about five o'clock and was preceeded by several loud peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning. Previous to the fall of the ice bullets, a dense black cloud was seen hanging over the villages of Westbarns and Bilhaven. All at once the cloud seemed to break up, and the ice bullets, each fully a quarter of an inch in diameter, descended with great fury. The fall continued for nearly an hour, and the hailstones lay in many :places from six „ .  inches to a foot in depth. Crops of it'll kinds ithin the range of the storm have suffered severely. Whole fields of barley have been completely stripped ; the heads, where the grain had not been lodged, standing  with not a single grain upon them. Wheat' and oats do not appear to have suffered to the same extent although the loss must also be very great. Beans and potatoes have little left, except the hare stems, while tile other green crops are all broken and destroyed. In the gardens, the flowers, bushes, and fruit trees are stripped td. fruit and foliage, and look as bare as if it were mid-winter. The range of the storm seems to have been very limited, not greater than a mile and a half. The greatest damage has been done in the neighbourhood of Westbarna, where it swept everything before it with all the violence of a tropical tornado. Previous to the storm the temperature fell very low, and after it the cold was intense. On Sunday the fields were still covered with hailstones, which did not seem to be melting fast. CONFESSION OF THE ILKESTON MURDER George Smith, who was sentenced on Monday last, by Mr. Justice Willes, at Derby, to be hanged for the murder of his father, at Ilkeston, on the Ist of May. has made a full written confession of his guilt to the High Sheriff of the county and the Rev. Andrew Knox, Incumbent of Birkenhead. The above gentleman had a lengthened interview vith the prisoner on Thursday, but he would not then say anything, and told them to come on Friday. They accordingly went on Friday afternoon, at one o'clock, and after an earnest conversation with the Rev. Mr Knox, and prayer had been offered up, the culprit said he would make a clean breast of it, and confess his guilt. He then said he went to Nottingham on the Ist of May, for the express purpose of purchasing a pistol with which to shoot his father ; that lie took the pistol home, loaded, and found his father lying :on the sofa ; that he could not then semnrion resolution to shoot him, although he measured the distance of his head with the pistol. He put the loaded pistol into the drawer, left the house, and went to the Queen's Head public house, and got a quantity of driek. He then returned home for the purpose of shooting his father, but the latter had gone out, and he (prisoner) again went hack to the public house, partook of more drink, and had a quarrel with a man. Ile then returned home for the last time, and unfortunately found his father sitting on a chair, with his head resting on his hand. His father said to him, " George, you must not go on so ; you come in at all hours of the night. and I don't believe you get any better— but worse." He then thought he would make an end of the matter, and. with the loaded pistol in his hand, went behind his father's choir, and shot him through the head. The confession was a written one, and signed by the murderer. He was very calm and penitent after he had made his confession. A