ant patron of literature and of
distressed men of letters. Abraham, in like manner, gave royal
entertainments, and was the unshaken friend of Lord Nelson, and of the
interesting widow of Sir William Hamilton, whose premature death in a
state of poverty, was a consequence of the misfortunes of her generous
protector.

Adjoining the splendid iron gates which lead into these grounds,
stands a house memorable for the violent effects of a thunder storm.
The records of the year 1780 probably describe the details of these
phenomena; but, happening to meet, on the premises, with a man who had
witnessed the whole, I collected from him the following
particulars:--He related, that, after a pleasant day in September, a
sudden storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied by rain and wind,
took place, which lasted not more than ten or fifteen minutes. That,
believing "the world at an end, his master and family went to
prayers;" but, on the noise abating, they found that their extensive
barn, with various out-buildings, had been entirely carried away.
Parts of them were found, on the following morning, on Barnes Common,
at the distance of a mile, while other parts were scattered around the
fields. He related also, that two horses which were feeding in a shed,
were driven, with their manger, into the ditch on the opposite side of
the lane; and that a loaded cart was torn from the shafts and wheels,
and wafted into an adjoining field. A crop of turnips were mowed down
as with a scythe, and a double row of twenty or thirty full-grown
elms, which stood on the sides of the lane, were torn up by the roots.
One man was killed in the barn, and six others were wounded, or so
severely shocked as to require relief in an hospital.

Having never before met with a case of such total destruction from the
action of electricity, I considered these facts as too interesting to
be lost. It may be worth while to add, in elucidation, that the
mischief was doubtless occasioned by an ascending ball; or rather, as
the action extended over a surface of three or four acres, by a
succession of ascending balls.[3] The conducting substances were dry
or imperfect, and thence the violence of the explosions. This is
neither the time nor place to speak of the erroneous views still
entertained of a power which is only known to us by experiments made
within a non-conducting atmosphere, whose antagonist properties, or
peculiar relations to it, afford results which are m