Part of a Letter from the Reverend Mr Abraham de la Pryme F. R. S. to the Publisher, concerning a Spout Lately Observed by Him in Hatfield

I. Part of a Letter from the Reverend Mr Abraham de la Pryme F. R. S. to the Publisher, concerning a Spout lately observed by him in Hatfield. Thorn. June the 26th. 'Tis sometime ago that I sent you an account of a Spout, that my self and many others saw in Hatfield Parish in 1685, with some few conjectures upon the Cause of it. Since that time I have been so happy as to see another in the same place, which very much confirms me in my notion of the Origin and Nature of them. The Weather here in this part of the Country, hath been exceeding wet and cool, insomuch that it seem'd rather to be Spring than Midsummer, yet for all that Monday the 21st ditto was pretty warm, on the afternoon of which day, about 2 of the Clock, no Wind stirring below, tho' it was somewhat great in the Air, the Clouds begun to be mightily agitated and driven together; whereupon they became very black and were (most visibly) hurried round, from whence proceeded a most audible whirling noise, like that commonly heard in a Mill. After a while a long Tube or Spout came down from the Center of the congregated Clouds, in which was a swift spiral motion like that of a Screw, or the Goeblea Archimedis when it is in motion, by which Spiral Nature and swift turning, Water ascends upin to the one as well as into the other. It travelled slowly from West to North East, broke down a great Oak-tree or two, frighted the Weeders out of the Field, and made others lie down flat upon their Bellies, to fave being whirl'd about and killed by it, as they saw many Jackdaws to be that were suddenly catched up, carried out of of sight, and then cast a great way of amongst the Corn; at last it pass'd over the Town of Hatfield, to the great terror of the Inhabitants, filling the whole Air with the Thatch that it pluck'd off from some of the Houses; then touching upon a corner of the Church, it tore up several Sheets of Lead, and roll'd them strangely together, soon after which, it dissolved and vanished without doing any further Mischief. There was nothing more extraordinary in this, than in the other that I gave you a former account of, and by all the observations that I could make of both of them, I found that had they been at Sea, and joyn'd to the surface thereof, they would have carried a vast quantity of Water up into the Clouds, and the Tubes would then have become much more strong and opake than they were, and have continued much longer. It is commonly said that at Sea the Water collects and bubbles up a foot or two high under these Spouts before that they be joyned: But the mistake lies in the pellucidity and fineness of those Pipes, which do most certainly touch the surface of the Sea before that any considerable motion be made in it, and that when the Pipe begins to fill with Water it then becomes opake and visible. As for the reason of their dissolving of themselves after that they have drunk up a great quantity of Water, I take it to be by and through the great quantity of the Water that they have carried up, which must needs thicken the Clouds, and impeade their motion, and by that means dissolve the Pipes.