hen] would not continue a
year in the government."

The same eclipse is also thus mentioned in the _Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle_:--"Afterwards in Lent the Sun and the day darkened about the
noontide of the day, when men were eating, and they lighted candles to
eat by; and that was the 13th of the Calends of April, March 20. Men
were greatly wonder-stricken." The greatest obscuration at London took
place at 2h. 36m. p.m., but it is not quite clear whether the line of
totality did actually pass over London.

It was long supposed that this eclipse was total at London, an idea
which seems to have arisen from Halley having told the Royal Society
anent the total eclipse of May 3, 1715, that he could not find that any
total eclipse had been visible at London since March 20, 1140. In
consequence of this statement of Halley's, Hind carefully investigated
the circumstances of this eclipse, and found that it had _not_ been
total at London. The central line entered our island at Aberystwith, and
passing near Shrewsbury, Stafford, Derby, Nottingham, and Lincoln,
reached the German Ocean, 10 miles S. of Saltfleet. The southern limit
of the zone of totality passed through the South Midland counties, and
the nearest point of approach to London was a point on the borders of
Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire. For a position on the central line
near Stafford, Hind found that the totality began at 2h. 36m. p.m. local
mean time, the duration being 3m. 26s., and the Sun's altitude being
more than 30 deg.. The stars seen were probably the planets Mercury and
Venus, then within a degree of each other, and 10 deg. W. of the Sun, and
perhaps the stars forming the well-known "Square of Pegasus." Mars and
Saturn were also, at that time, within a degree of each other, but very
near the western horizon. It is therefore necessary to look further back
than 1140 to find a total solar eclipse visible in London.[83]

A solar eclipse seems to have been alluded to by certain historians as
having happened in A.D. 1153. We have the obscure statement that
"something singular happened to the Sun the day after the Conversion of
St. Paul." A somewhat large eclipse having been visible at Augsburg in
Germany, on January 26, this may have been the "something" referred to.
It would seem that about 11/12ths of the Sun's diameter was covered.

On May 14, A.D. 1230, there happened a great eclipse of the Sun, thus
described by Roger of Wendover[84]:--"On the 14th of May, w