This freedom, Sir, perhaps may want an apology: but, as a gentleman[122] of the Society you have the honour to be a member of, did not think something of the like nature either unworthy of his own notice, or that of the world; and as the hurricane principally affected these parts of nature, in the knowledge of which you have so eminently distinguished yourself; I flattered myself you would excuse the trouble I should give you in a perusal of an account of this very strange, tho’ hitherto unnoticed, phenomenon. I am, Sir, with the greatest respect and esteem, Your most humble Servant, Thomas Thomlinson. XXV. _An Account of the Effects of Lightning upon the Steeple and Church of_ Lestwithiel, Cornwall; _in a Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of_ Macclesfield, _President of the R.S. By Mr._ John Smeaton, _F.R.S._ [Read April 21, 1757.] JAnuary 25. 1757. about five o’clock in the evening, returning home from the Edystone works near Plymouth, I observed four flashes of lightning, within the space of six or seven minutes, towards the west; but heard no noise of thunder[123]. A few days after, I was informed, that the same evening the lightning had shattered the church of Lestwithiel in a very surprising manner. The 1st of March I was at Lestwithiel: they had then begun to repair the damages; but had not made such a such progress, but that the principal effects were equally observable as at first. I observed, and was informed, as follows: At the time before-mentioned, the inhabitants were alarmed by a violent flash of lightning, accompanied with thunder so sudden, loud, and dreadful, that every one thought the house he was in was falling upon him; almost every one being within doors, on account of a violent shower of rain, which preceded the lightning: so that no body saw or heard any thing of the mischief done to the church, till it was observed accidentally after the shower. The steeple is carried up, plain and square, to about 49 feet, with a kind of slate-stone, rough-casted on the outside; upon which is formed a very elegant octogon Gothic lanthorn about 9 feet high, and thereon a stone spire about 52 feet height, with a spindle and vane rising about 3 feet above the stone: so that the whole together was about 113 feet. Each face of the lanthorn finishes above with a sort of a Gothic pediment, with a little pinacle upon each, separated from the body of the spire.