THE GREAT STORM OF MIDSUMMER DAY, 1897. 115
Mr. Symons is doubtful whether this Bedfordshire disturb-
ance was directly connected with the storm in Essex—probably,
it was not, so far as information yet extends—but we have
indicated it on a small piece of map at the corner of the greater
one.
The earliest Time Record of any disturbance on June 24th
was a shower at Twyford (Berks) at noon. About an hour later
there was a sharp thunderstorm with very large hailstones at
Slough (Bucks), several buildings were struck with lightning
and two cottages were burned down. At 1.30 p.m. a storm of
hail, rain, thunder and lightning was raging round Uxbridge,
Harrow, Stanmore, and Pinner. At 1.55 the wind carried away
some garden frames at Willesden ; at 2.6 the captive balloon
from the Royal Botanic Gardens ; at 2.45 it carried away a tent
a little south of Epping, Essex ; at 2.55 it was wrecking Ingate-
stone ; it reached Chelmsford at 3, Danbury at 3.10, and died
out, south of Colchester before 4 p.m. At Mr. Symons's own
station at Camden Square, London, N.W., he records that the
weather was hot in the morning, (87°.8 in the shade). In fact, he
remarks, the special feature of the early part of June 24th was
its high temperature. If anyone should write a complete
memoir of the events of this day, one point to study would be
the automatic records of temperature, in order to ascertain the
precise time of the sudden fall in temperature, so as to find out
whether it was a cause, or a consequence, of the storms. At
2h. 0m. 36s. p.m. a sudden strong gust of wind and sudden fall
of temperature of 10°, calmer till 2.5, then very rough until
2h. 9m. No rain, lighting, nor thunder, but in the N.W. and
N. a thick darkness covering everything. About 3 p.m. thunder,
and thence till 6.16. p.m. lightning, thunder, and rain, but in a
no wise exceptional degree. Later in the day, in North Surrey,
Hampshire, and other adjoining counties, and along the East
Coast as far as Hull, there were thunderstorms with short heavy
rains. The space of country between Edgware and Epping
appears to have been unvisited by any violent storm, and a like
remark applies to a space S.E. of Witham.
Turning now to the storm as observed in Essex, it will be
at once seen that it was remarkable for the enormous and most
unusual amount of hail. Some of it was extremely large (hail-
stones of from 4 to 6 inches in circumference being commonly
recorded), but in the opinion of Mr. Symons the mischief mainly
came from the great strength of the wind, which gave to the