1845—JULY 6—A terrific thunderstorm, extending over all the S.W. and midland counties of England, broke this evening over Worcester, just as the several congregations were leaving their respective places of worship. Just before the hurricane of rain commenced, the whole clouded sky was covered with a lurid glare, as if from the reflection of a distant conflagration. A great number of fine trees were uprooted, especially near Bewdley. At Witley Court, great damage was done to the windows and conservatories; at Pershore the hailstones were, in fact, large pieces of ice, and some 2,000 panes of glass were broken. 1846—AUGUST 1—A violent thunderstorm, which did considerable damage in some parts of England, but not much in this neighbourhood. Two lambs, belonging to J. Lea, Esq., of The Shrubbery, Kidderminster, were killed by the lightning. MISCELLANEOUS OCCURRENCES. 1800. THE present century opened in a tempest of war and confusion, which gave little prospect of soon exhausting its fury. Mention will be found below of several serious riots on account of the high price of provisions, which may be thus accounted for: The exemption from cash payments in 1797 had given great relief to the merchants and tradespeople generally, but had little effect upon the condition of the working classes; and the war had not yet withdrawn so many men from productive industry as materially to raise the rate of wages. The total number of levies for the army, from the commencement of the war to the end of 1800, was but 208,388. It had, however, continued sufficiently long to raise the price of all provisions enormously, and the very deficient harvests of 1799 and 1800 greatly increased this evil, and added to the distress. So much disquiet was excited by these causes that Parliament was called together for a second sitting in November, and all sorts of expedients were resorted to to increase the supply of food—bounties were granted on the importation of foreign corn—the use of corn in distilleries, or for making starch, was prohibited—the manufacture of fine flour, or the use of it in making bread, was forbidden, while the use of oats and barley was permitted and encouraged—bakers were prohibited from selling bread that had not been baked twenty-four hours—and, lastly, in the month of December His Majesty issued a proclamation exhorting the strictest economy in families on the use of every kind of grain, recommending that people should abstain from pastry, and on no account allow the consumption of bread in their households to exceed one quartern loaf for each person in a week. Statutes against “engrossing and regrating,” that had almost become obsolete, were also raked up and eagerly put in force against speculators, whether great or small, both by country magistrates and chief justices, though the great Holt had long ago laughed at them. The average price of wheat this year was 119s. 6d. per quarter; and Three per Cent. Consols averaged 63½.