British Rainfall 1867, p.15

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	British Rainfall 1867 page 15 James Garth Marshall, Esq., of Coniston Hall, has devoted considerable attention to the rainfall of the district, having at one time a number of gauges in various parts, including one near the summit of Helvellyn. To him and his brothers - W. Marshall, Esq., M.P., of Patterdale, Henry Calder Marshall, Esq., of Keswick, and Arthur Marshall, Esq., of Hallsteads - we are very much indebted for returns of considerable importance. John Fletcher Miller, Esq., F.R.S., Ph.D., A.I.C.E., &c. While others had observed on the confines of the mountain tracts, Dr. Miller plunged into their midst, and planted his gauges alike in valley and on mountain-top; wherever he thought it desirable to have observations made, there a gauge was planted, and regularly observed. Dr. Miller commenced operations by starting a gauge at Ennerdale Lake in November, 1843, and "yearly increased and varied his stations until the fall in the valleys of Wastdale, and Borrowdale, and 'Seathwaite,' and 'the Stye,' became, with meteorologists as well known as London or Dundee;" the principal results of his observations were communicated to the Royal Society from year to year until they were discontinued, in 1853, only about two years before Dr. Miller's death, which occurred in July, 1856. Mr. John Dixon, the agent for the celebrated Borrowdale Plumbago Mine, and resident at Seathwaite, (who died at a ripe and honoured old age, in 1866,) together with his widow and daughter, claim a place among the rain-gauge celebrities of the Lake district - not merely because their garden is one of the wettest spots known, not merely because it was only through him that the wettest spot, "the Stye," was discovered, not merely because they are ever ready to help so far as in their power; but because their record, now extending over twenty-three years without a break, is, as will presently be seen, of immense importance in the interpretation of other returns in the vicinity. That record was continued by them after Dr. Miller's death, when all the other gauges were abandoned, and, without the slightest encouragement from any one, they quietly added, year by year, to their register, until at length the subject was again taken up, and now some of the most important questions of the day have been influenced by the work of these worthy cottagers. Isaac Fletcher, Esq., F.R.S, &c., of Tarnbank, re-organized these stations in the beginning of 1864, provided them with new gauges, and made arrangements for their careful registration, which have proved perfectly efficient, not the slightest interruption having occurred. In the autumn of 1866, I resolved on trying whether it was practicable largely to extend the area of investigation; but the first
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