Captain Wilkes, in 1844, between Washington and Baltimore, in the United States of America. An interesting account of the process adopted and followed is given in Professor Lomis's instructive volume, entitled The Recent Progress of Astronomy. The chapter on electric telegraphs is especially deserving any one's attention, who takes an interest in the subject of this paper.

From these remarks I think it will appear that, although our tables of longitude are not strictly to be relied upon, we have ready at our hands the best means of rendering them accurate. I have ventured briefly, and I feel inadequately, to call your notice to the subject, in the hope that some of the members of this Association, especially our talented and accomplished President, who have the requisite influence, and the necessary esteem for the scientific credit of their country, will call the attention of the Astronomer Royal to the subject. Such a truly national undertaking falls entirely and most appropriately within his official duties; and there is no man in existence better qualified to devise such a scheme, and to superintend its working, so that it may completely accomplish the object aimed at, than he is. Under the Astronomer Royal's official superintendence, it may be hoped that England will hereafter make up for its lost and neglected ground in this unique application of the electric fluid; and that it will also, to some extent, make amends for the outrage which sometime ago it permitted King Hudson to perpetrate on English science, by enforcing his royal order that the same time should be kept at all places; that philosophical monarch practically annihilated the difference of longitude between all places, and made every clock east or west of Greenwich tell a lie every time it strikes. This may be termed the Hudsonian legislation on English science; it has a depressing operation in discussing the difference of longitudes of places, and may, perhaps, account for the many defects of this article.

It may prevent erroneous inferences, if, in conclusion, I remark, that I have, more than once, made attempts to call attention to the subject of this article; one of these is mentioned above, which alludes to others. I believe, however, that the preceding argument is my own. When, therefore, the national importance of the matter is considered, I trust I shall be forgiven for again bringing it before the public, and that seeming iteration will be treated indulgently.

ON ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, TORQUAY, STRUCK BY

LIGHTNING.

BY E. VIVIAN, F.M.S.

ON Tuesday, the 16th instant, the Church of St. John's, Torquay, was struck by lightning. The day had been fine, with heavy showers, and light wind from the south-west. Distant thunder had been heard several times, from isolated clouds at a low altitude, for several hours previously.

Between three and four o'clock, a small dark cloud, which had given not more than two or three discharges as it rose from the opposite side of the bay, passed over the town. A tremendous explosion, terminating in a peal of thunder, and immediately accompanied by a vivid flash, was heard over St. John's Church. This was followed by a shower of stones, many of which were hurled to a distance of from 200 to 300 yards. The roof of Lawrence Place, on the Strand, where I was at the time, was broken through, and several heavy fragments struck the fronts of the houses. At first, it seemed as if an aërolite had burst; but, on picking up a portion of the stone, several pounds in weight, I found that it was evidently Ham Hill oolite-not very likely to have come from the moon, or the meteor belt. It was then observed that St. John's Church had been struck, the dressings of the handsome new chancel of which consisted of this stone.

On carefully examining the building, I found that the cross, weighing 24 cwt., on the summit of the chancel arch, the highest point of the fabric, had been first struck. The lightning appeared to have entered at the summit, where several small holes had been fused, and the fractures were marked with a dark ochreous stain. Portions of the cross were picked up on each side of the Church. The current then divided, passing down the copings of the gable, massive fragments of which were dispersed in every direction. On the north, it passed away into the adjoining cliff; on the south, it leaped across to the flying buttress, whence it must have

diffused itself over the roofs of the houses below, the deluge of rain causing their wet surfaces to act as a conductor. Some have supposed that it passed down by an iron shute into the ground. This could not, I think, have been the case, as the pipe does not reach to the ground, and there was no disturbance of the surface, or any marks upon the wall. The upper end of the shute reaches within a few feet of the coping, proving, as Mr. Hearder remarked in a paper published in our Transactions, that even a lightning-rod is not an attractor at any considerable distance, but simply a conductor, and should therefore extend to every elevated point.

The entire building must have been violently shaken, as plaster was dislodged from the chancel wall, and strewn around the communion table. Two of the handsome marble pillars on either side are slightly injured, although the lightning did not enter the Church, as is clearly shown by the gas pipes not being fused, or the metallic ornaments discoloured. Had the copings and roof not been wet, the electricity would, doubtless, have fissured the walls, and caused much greater damage. The principal injury is now the destruction of the cross and copings, a dangerous shake to the gable separating the two faces of the wall, and the fractures in the roof from falling stones.

Evidence more or less reliable seems to show that the electric current in a concentrated form was felt at points many hundred yards distant from the Church, where the main stroke fell. In the shipwrights' yard near Beacon Hill, three men, who were sheltering under a shed immediately adjoining, affirm that a mass of limestone lying on the beach was struck, and fragments thrown across the yard. I have examined the spot, and heard their statement, but have much doubt as to the inferences. The fracture of the rock appears to have been caused by mechanical blows from above; and the fragments said to have been thrown across the yard were not seen, but only heard, to fall. As Beacon Terrace intervenes between this spot and the Church, it seems impossible that the current should have passed over it without striking the elevated points. It might have been a back-stroke passing upwards from the earth; upon this point I am very desirous of having the opinion of electricians. At the residence of Sir Thomas Symonds, on the hill above the Church, a chimney top was struck off, and picture-frames blackened in the drawing-room. A ball of fire is reported to have fallen, or possibly risen, in George Street; and a numbing shock of electricity was felt for some distance in every direction.

The phenomena of thunderstorms are so extremely varied, that I might extend this paper to any length by a comparison which, if carefully pursued, might throw much light upon the true action of electricity on the grand scale of nature. I will only briefly advert to two of strongly contrasted characters. From the summit of Lustleigh Cleve, on a calm August day, I saw a heavy bank of cloud rising over Exeter. On the opposite horizon, a small detached cloud was moving from the south-west. As it passed with increasing speed over Hounds Tor, it fired a single shot, as if finding its range before coming into action. The two clouds met immediately over our heads, and, as their edges approached, a fringe darted forward, and a brilliant sheet of flame illumined the whole space between them. In a moment a shower of soft hail fell around us, followed by rain. The lightning, which was, doubtless, in the opposite conditions of electricity, merely passed from cloud to cloud without striking the earth, and equilibrium was restored; for no further discharges occurred after the clouds collapsed and moved slowly across the moor. I observed the same phenomena during a clear night from Box Hill, in Surrey, when the effects were most brilliant, several small clouds being successively in collision and collapsing. At Axminster a heavy mass of cloud rose over the sea with almost continuous discharges of sheet lightning. As it approached, I observed that long serpentine flashes were passing through the body of the cloud in all directions without any reaching the ground. Two heavy strata must have been firing into each other; but it is inexplicable why they did not sooner collapse. The storm passed away to the north-east without any cessation in the discharges. The hail which fell along its course was as large as pigeons' eggs. Great injury was done to crops and glass; and a countryman, who described what seemed to be at least a fall of aërolites, took us to a hollow lane, where he had been sheltering under the bank, and we found it was a herd of cattle which had leaped over him!

The exemption of Torquay from thunderstorms or hail, ordinarily, is very remarkable. During more than 30 years, in which I have recorded meteorological observations, I have never known a plane of glass broken, or heard thunder follow a flash within less than five seconds; so that, probably, lightning had never before fallen in the parish. The course of storms is from the high land of Cornwall over Dartmoor; or from the Start Point across to Beer Head. The prevalence of rainfall follows the same lines of attraction.

ST. ANNE'S CHAPEL-THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL,

BARNSTAPLE.

BY CHARLES JOHNSTON, M.R.C.S.

A VERY ancient looking Chapel, now used as a Grammar School, in the churchyard of Barnstaple Old Church, is described in Oliver's Monasticon Exoniensis as being dedicated to St. Anne, and built over the charnel house of the parish cemetery. Reference is also made to the antiquary Leland's account, which states that one Holman, a former vicar, was its founder; but, as Dr. Oliver remarks, "this admits of doubt; for Mr. John Holman did not become vicar until December, 1461, and died a few months after, whilst there was certainly a chapel of St. Anne here in 1444; for Bishop Lacy in that year granted an indulgence of forty days to all sincere penitents who would contribute towards its maintenance." This meagre information is all that can be obtained upon the subject in Barnstaple, and carries us to a time the architectural evidences of which, in some parts of the building, point no further back than to the beginning or middle of the 15th century, coincidental certainly, so far, with the period of its foundation as described by Leland, and not conflicting with the earlier proclamation of Bishop Lacy. When we come, however, to examine the structure as a whole, a very great difference is immediately detected, not only in the material employed and the workmanship displayed, but also in the design and style of what may be described as an earlier edifice, for whatever purpose raised, and additions which have evidently been made to adapt it to a new and special object, as the chapel in modern times known to have been dedicated to St. Anne. This admission, as regards the latter, concludes, therefore, that part of the question historically, and leaves to be chiefly considered in this paper the age and designation of the first building, and which I have good reason to believe is the original chapel of St. Sabinus, mentioned in the charter of Joel the founder of the Priory of St. Mary Magdalene, to which it was given with the church of St. Peter, Barnstaple, with all dues and offerings, in part support of the new community. I have been fortunate in