England has been enjoying this week the blessings and the
miseries of a semi-tropical climate. The thermometer has risen to 85, everybody wants to bathe at once, and the provinces have been visited with terrible thunderstorms. In the North more especially several persons have been struck dead by lightning, towns have been flooded, trees have been destroyed, and the gardens have been devasted by huge hailstones. Entire valleys have been turned into marshes, drainage works have been burst, and in one instance a tunnel has fallen in on a train, a stratum of clay on which the rocks rested having become too saturated to bear their weight. It is a strong testimony to the general moderation of the English
climate, that the whole country should be interested and alarmed by storms which are the daily incidents of life in the tropics, and even in the Mediterranean.
Previous page
