Excerpt from The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 13: From Their Commencement, in 1665, to the Year 1800; Abridged With Notes and Biographic Illustrations; From 1770 to 1776

In the afternoon, mr.w.'s thoughts being a little composed, he walked to the church, to see what damage was done; and such a scene presented, as is horrible to think of, much more to see. The church-yard was almost full of ruins; the spire, which.was about 48 feet high from the battlements of the tnwer, was carried off half way down, and the remaining part cracked in 4 places very irregularly down to the bottom. The north side of the tower, from the battlements to the arch of the bell chamber window, was quite out, except the corner stones, which remained firm; the lead on the top of the tower was greatly damaged, melted in several places, and as it were rolled together. The arch of the belfry door, which was very strongly built with a remarkably hard iron stone, laid in lead, was also greatly damaged; some of the stones were cracked cross ways, and Just removed out of their places, others were quite thrown out, and the lead between thejoints not only melted, but loosened so as that they might be picked out with your fingers. The traces of the lightning were here discovered along the surface of the earth; the stones were thrown from the spire on the tow ofmany houses in the Church town, but did no great hurt; in a gentleman's house, one stone weighing 14 pounds fell through the roof into the chamber, but did no further hurt than to make a hole in the roof and plastering. The stones from the spire were scattered in all directions, as well against the wind as with it, some of which, but not very large, were found but a little short of a quarter of a mile. The spire from the top 6 feet downwards was solid, through which passed an iron spindle to fix the weather-ooch oh. Did not the lightning first strike on this iron, and was conducted through the solid part of the spire, and having not iron to conduct it any further, burst in the hollow part of the spire, and threw the stones about in all directions? It is remarkable that the spindle was found in the bell-chamber, and the weather-cock in the battlements; and that the bells were not in the least damaged, though a deal board, that lay across the beams to which the bells were hung, was split long-ways in 2 pieces. The inside of the church still presented a much more horrible spectacle; the roof of the church was almost all gone, and some of the timber4work in'the north aisle shattered to pieces; every seat in the church had rubbish in it, more or less, and stones of large size, some of 150 pounds weight and upwards, scat tered here and there amidst the congregation, which damaged the seats, but did no hurt to the people, though they sat in those very seats where the stones fell. The-lightning entered at the three ends of the church at west, made its way through the body of the church, and went out through the 3 ends of the church at east; the holes where it mme in and where it went out are not large.

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