On Thursday afternoon a thunderstorm of almost unprecedented fury broke over the whole of this neighbourhood, lasting for nearly two hours. It had been evident all the previous night that storms were in the neighbourhood, and loud thunder was followed by a sharp downpour of rain, about 4 a.m., but it was not until the afternoon of yesterday that the electrical disturbance affected the immediate neighbourhood. Thunder was heard all the afternoon, and between three and four o'clock the lightning was almost without intermission, and the thunder one continuous roll. At Wellingborough the storm was terrific, and damage by the lightning and floods is reported. Loud and frequent peals of thunder were heard between three and four o'clock and the lightning was exceeding vivid. For nearly two hours rain descended in torrents, flooding the streets in various parts of the town. The drains could not carry off the great rush of water and the lower rooms of many of the low-lying houses were flooded. With the flow of water from portions of the Park and Church-street, Gloucester place was a miniature lake, the water on the footpath in front of the Cambridge Hotel and on the other side of the road being "knee-deep". The cellars and tap room of the "Cambridge" were speedily flooded, several articles of furniture floating about. Another outlet for the great body of water at this point was down the yard of the hotel mentioned, through a portion of the garden at the rear of Mr. W. J. Henry's residence, and into several of the cottages in Mr. Thompson's yard, in the Midland Road, where the occupiers were for some time busily engaged in removing furniture to the upstairs rooms. The manhole near the lamp in Gloucester-place was converted into a fountain, emitting large volumes of water to an elevation of four to five feet. In other parts of the town too there were also floods, but with the cessation of the rain the water was speedily carried off. The lightning struck the zinc flooring of the out-house at the rear of Messrs. Watkin's shoe factory, and glancing off appeared to have spent its fury on a pipe attached to the wall. This it burst, and fragments were hurled through a window of the factory-and, probably by one of the fused pieces of pipe, a zinc pattern was struck and melted. Much consternation was caused amongst the operatives, and several of the females fainted. The electric current injured the telephone instruments, communication between Wellingborough and Kettering being cut off. We have not heard of any other serious damage by the lightning, but many of the crops in the neighbourhood have been badly beaten down, and quantities of grass, which in some of the meadows during the past week has been cut, were washed away. At Rushden the storm was exceptionally severe. Towards four-o'clock there occurred one of the most remarkable discharges which Rushden people have ever heard. To those in the houses and in the street one intense blaze seemed to envelop all the neighbourhood. This was accompanied with a tremendous explosion. The Argus telephone wire snapped and fell into the street and Mr. Knight's assistant at the telephone office states that at the instrument the electric sparks were dancing about in a manner anything but suggestive of safety, and damage to other wires are reported. So dreadful was the flash, and deafening the report that there were wholesale faintings among the girls in the shoe factories and many of the sterner sex were very much alarmed. The lightning "took" the knife of one of Messrs. Cave's clickers, and knocked him down. The man says he felt a tingling sensation in his arm for some hours after. This particular discharge seems to have been one of the most dangerous of the three kinds of lightning, viz., the fireball. An eye-witness who, was standing in a gateway in Church Street, looking over the Argus office, described it as a pillar of fire, which did not travel with quite the usual rapidity of lightning, and which descended just behind the High Street. When near the earth it seemed to hang for an instant, and then with the crash referred to, exploded. During the storm, too, the rain descended in torrents, and cellars were flooded. At a house on Wellingborough Road, belonging to Mr. Reid, and occupied by Mr. A. Dungate, the electric fluid struck the ridge, and in its course tore off the slates, and exposed the wood-work. The chimney pot was also shattered, and it is believed the chimney stack inside the roof is also cracked. The grate in the back bedroom was thrown out of position, and other grates in the house loosened. The storm lasted nearly two hours in Rushden.

At Finedon the roads and footpaths were rendered impassable by the flood and many houses of the village were flooded, those suffering most being at the bottom of Bell Hill and on the Dolben Square. In many places the road has been torn up by the force of the water. The unanimous opinion is that such a storm has not been known in Finedon during the present generation.

At Olney a young man who was painting a railway bridge that spans the Ouse was struck by lightning and fell into the river. The body was not recovered for about two hours. Our Higham Ferrers correspondent says the storm visited that town in all its fury. The living rooms of low lying houses were flooded and the lightning was intensely vivid, but happily no injury to life and limb is reported. Accounts are also to hand from correspondents in several other neighbourhoods towns and villages, reporting damage of more or less serious character.