(To THE EDITOR OF THE " qPECTATOR.")
SIR,—In the Spectator of October 21st is a letter signed B. C. Durrant, from Beshey, Herts, about the appear- ance of a rainbow on the 11th. On the 11th, about four o'clock, at Bournemouth, I saw a highly respectable trades- man of that town who was in rather an excited state, as he said he had just seen a thing he had never before seen in his life,—a neighbour had called him out into the open air to see a rainbow which was "upside down,"—" reversed." I said, "What, concave instead of convex?" He said, "Yen, re- versed, like a cup." It must have been about three o'clock when these men saw it. I said, "If it really was so, no fancy, we shall see some notice of it in the papers," but till yester- day, in your paper, I have seen no reference to it. As far as I can remember it was (here) a bright, sunny day,—no rain or clouds. At the time it occurred to my mind: "Some people would think this an omen, a sign of war or of calamity; it certainly would have been so in the Middle Ages." If it was seen at Bushey, very high up, as stated, near the zenith, is it not possible that a rainbow would be simultaneously seen lower, but of a concave form, the sun being the centre of
Previous page
