Umbrellas made of wood and oiled silk did not appear in this country until the middle of the 18th century. And we have a Jonas Hanway to thank. Upon returning to England from Persia, and in somewhat delicate health, Hanway could be seen around the streets of London using his parasol to keep the rain off his face and wig. He was frequently ridiculed as, for many years, the umbrella was seen as something ‘foreign’ and to be treated with scorn and suspicion. Early English umbrellas were made of oiled silk and were very difficult to open or close when wet. Umbrellas made of silk and gingham remedied this problem but they remained very expensive. Fortunately umbrellas today are relatively cheap, which is just as well. We get more than 800 millimetres of rainfall here in Bristol each year. The wettest day on record saw 43 millimetres fall over the city. That does not begin to compare with Mawsynram in India where, thanks to the summer monsoon, almost 12000 millimetres fall each year. When the rain’s that heavy we sometimes talk about it raining cats and dogs. There is no record of cats or dogs falling out of the sky but we have had falls of frogs in Trowbridge and Shepton Mallet and jellyfish in Bath back in 1894. If you don’t like rain then head for the Atacama Desert in Chile. They get about 1 mm each year and some parts of the desert have experienced no rain for 15 years. Personally, I don’t understand people complaining about the rain - its invigorating, it washes everything down and makes the grass grow. Now if you lived on Reunion in the Indian Ocean then you might have cause to complain. In one day in March 1955 they had an amazing 1800 mm or 6 feet of rain. Can you imagine what that must have been like? | 
