Dr. Lingard,[87] the well-known Roman Catholic historian, speaking of the battle of Cressy, which was fought on August 26, 1346, says:—“Never, perhaps, were preparations for battle made under circumstances so truly awful. On that very day the Sun suffered a partial eclipse: birds in clouds, precursors of a storm, flew screaming over the two armies; and the rain fell in torrents, accompanied with incessant thunder and lightning. About 5 in the afternoon, the weather cleared up, the Sun in full splendour darted his rays in the eyes of the enemy; and the Genoese, setting up their shouts, discharged their quarrels.” This was not an eclipse, for none was due to take place; and the phenomenon could only have been meteorological—dense clouds or something of that sort in the sky. On June 16, 1406, there was a large eclipse of the Sun, 9/10ths of its diameter being covered at London; but on the Continent it seems to have been total. It is stated that the darkness was such that people could hardly recognise one another. One of the most celebrated eclipses during the Middle Ages was undoubtedly that of June 17, 1433. This was long remembered in Scotland as the “Black Hour,” and its circumstances were fully investigated some years ago by Hind. It was a remarkable eclipse in that the Moon was within 13° of perigee and the Sun only 2° from apogee. The central line traversed Scotland in a south-easterly direction from Ross to Forfar, passing near Inverness and Dundee. Maclaurin[88] who lived in the early part of the last century mentions that in his time a manuscript account of this eclipse was preserved in the library of the University of Edinburgh wherein the darkness is said to have come on at about 3 p.m., and to have been very profound. The duration of the totality at Inverness was 4m. 32s.; at Edinburgh 3m. 41s. The central line passed from Britain to the N. of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, through Bavaria, to the Dardanelles, to the S. of Aleppo and thence nearly parallel to the river Euphrates to the N.-E. border of Arabia. In Turkey, according to Calvisius, “near evening the light of the Sun was so overpowered that darkness covered the land.” In 1544, on Jan. 24, there occurred an eclipse of the Sun which was nearly but not quite total. The chief interest arises from the fact that it was one of the first observed by professed astronomers: Gemma Frisius saw it at Louvain. Kepler says[89] that the day became dark like the twilight of evening and that the birds which from the break of day had been singing became mute. The middle of the eclipse was at about 9 a.m.