Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 029.djvu/429

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That we might by the ſame Scheme ſhew the Appearance of the laſt Hours, after Midnight; the Reader is deſired to take notice that we have made the Light at , much bigger than what appeared in the Weſt about Ten of the Clock; ſo as to repreſent truly that other. In this Caſe the Point muſt, by the Imagination, be ſuppoſed transferred to the Interſection of the Horizon and Meridian under the Pole. And that we might the better be underſtood in what follows, we have made this ſhort Recapitulation as annex’d to, and explicative of, the Scheme, which could by no means be contrived to anſwer the wonderful Variety this Phænomenon afforded; ſince even the Eye of no one ſingle Obſerver, was ſufficient to follow it in the Suddenneſs and Frequency of its Alterations.

Thus far I have attempted to deſcribe what was ſeen, and am heartily ſorry I can ſay no more as to the firſt and moſt ſurprizing Part thereof, which however frightful and amazing it might ſeem to the vulgar Beholder, would have been to me a moft agreeable and wiſh’d for Spectacle; for I then ſhould have contemplated propriis oculis all the ſeveral Sorts of Meteors I remember to have hitherto heard or read of. This was the only one I had not as yet ſeen, and of which I began to deſpair, ſince it is certain it hath not happen’d to any remarkable Degree in this Part of England ſince I was born; nor is the like recorded in the Engliſh Annals ſince the Year of our Lord 1574, that is above One Hundred and Forty Years ago, in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Then, as we are told by the Hiſtorians of thoſe times, Cambden and Stow, Eye-Witneſſes of ſufficient credit, for two Nights ſucceſſively, viz. on the 14th and 15th of November that Year, much the ſame wonderful Phænomena were ſeen, with almoſt all the ſame Circumſtances as now.Nor