the power to bring me here, may perhaps have the goodness to order some of your aerial tailors to furnish me with a suit worthy of the illustrious society to which I am about to be introduced. She immediately gave me a smile, which was at once humorous and delightful; it played upon her lip, dimpled in her cheek, and rising in its course, gave a purer lustre and more renovated beauty to her eyes. "Peri," said she, "conduct this stranger to the chamber I ordered you to prepare for him. You and your brethren must attend to his toilet, and accompany him to the Villa Joviana. I shall meet you there in an hour; but I must rest now for some minutes. My extraordinary toilet, and the humours of Paulus' rout, will form the subject of another chapter.
ACCOUNT OF A THUNDER STORM IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LEADHILLS, LANARKSHIRE;
By Mr James Braid, Surgeon at Leadhills.
(Read before the Wernerian Society, 7th June 1817.)
On Saturday, 15th February 1817, we had very high wind in this neighbourhood. Its direction was southerly, though by no means steady to one point:—it also varied very much as to force.
At mid-day I had occasion to visit a family six miles down the country, which gave me an opportunity of making the following observations:
The wind, as has already been stated, was very unsteady, both as to direction and force. It was so violent as several times nearly to force me from my horse, though I was upon my guard, being afraid it might do so. At one time it was so violent as to force my horse, though very stout, several yards off the high-way.
There were many dark-coloured clouds floating in the atmosphere in all directions. I observed several of these clouds rush suddenly towards others and unite, and I think with the same velocity, though some of them contrary to the direction of the wind. The air felt excessively cold. Almost immediately after the union of these clouds, there was a very loud clap of thunder, followed by a shower of hail, and the air became somewhat warmer. The wind, however, still continued to blow with unabated violence. About five o'clock, P. M. the wind became less violent, and, in a few hours more, was entirely divested of its tempestuous force. I myself heard no more thunder that night, but some in this village assured me that they heard it repeatedly during the night. About Crawford, eight miles east from Leadhills, it was distinctly heard the greater part of the night. I saw several very vivid flashes of lightning from that quarter about ten o'clock, P. M.
On Sunday, when visiting the same family in the country, the master of the house told me that he was very much alarmed as he was going home on Saturday evening, between six and seven o'clock, "from," as he expressed himself, "his horse's ears being the same as two burning candles, and the edges of his hat being all in a flame." I wished much I had seen an appearance of the kind, and it was not long till I had an opportunity of doing so. Tuesday 18th, in the evening, there were such flashes of lightning from the west, repeated every two or three minutes, sometimes at shorter intervals, as appeared to illumine the whole heavens; but I heard no thunder that evening.
On Thursday 20th, I was gratified for a few minutes with the luminous appearance described above. It was about nine o'clock, P. M. I had no sooner got on horseback than I observed the tips of both the horse's ears to be quite luminous: the edges of my hat had the same appearance. I was soon deprived of these luminaries by a shower of moist snow which immediately began to fall. The horse's ears soon became wet and lost their luminous appearance; but the edges of my hat, being longer of getting wet, continued to give the luminous appearance somewhat longer.
I could observe an immense number of minute sparks darting towards the horse's ears and the margin of my hat, which produced a very beautiful appearance, and I was sorry to be so soon deprived of it.
The atmosphere in this neighbourhood appeared to be very highly electrified for eight or ten days about this time. Thunder was heard occasionally from 15th to 23d, during which time the weather was very unsteady;
