The haymakers sometimes talk of mysterious noises heard in the very finest weather, when it is still and calm, resembling extremely distant thunder. They were convinced it was something ‘in the air;’ but I feel certain it was the guns of the fleet exercising at sea. In that case the sound of the explosion must have travelled over fifty miles in a direct line—supposing it to come from the neighbourhood of the nearest naval station. I have found by observation that thunder cannot be heard nearly so far as the sound of cannon. I doubt whether it is often heard more than ten miles. Some of the old cottage folk are still positive that it is not the lightning but the thunder that splits the trees; they ask if a great noise does not make the windows rattle, and want to know whether a still greater one may not rive an oak. They allow, however, that the mischief is sometimes done by a thunder-bolt.
| [Preface] | | [Chapter 1] | | [Chapter 2] | | [Chapter 3] | | [Chapter 4] | | [Chapter 5] | | [Chapter 6] | | [Chapter 7] | | [Chapter 8] | | [Chapter 9] | | [Chapter 10] | | [Chapter 11] | | [Chapter 12] | | [Chapter 13] | | [Chapter 14] | | [Chapter 15] | | [Chapter 16] | | [Chapter 17] | | [Chapter 18] | | [Chapter 19] | | [Chapter 20] |