21 DECEMBER 1951, Page 18

Winter Thunderstorms

My mention of a thunderstorm in late November upsetting the birds provoked a comment as to whether winter thunderstorms are not abnormal. Possibly, but what of the following entry for December 13th, 1790, in Gilbert White's The Naturalist's Journal ?—" Thunder lightning, rain, snow ! A severe tempest. Much damage done in and about London. Vast damage in various parts. Two men were struck dead in a windmill near Rooks-hill on the Sussex downs." White never-intended the journal for publication, and it appears in very few editions. He used it as a quarry for his public utterances, and hence it offers an intimate dressing-gown style which is the antithesis sof that of the formal polished Selborne Letters.