120 THE GREAT STORM OF MIDSUMMER DAY, 1897.
At Hardings farm and Hyde Park 40 large trees were uprooted, and 150
others broken. Nearly every private house was damaged, not merely the
windows, but the roofs, and that often by overthrown trees. At Jordan's farm
about 300 tiles were blown off. Mr. Arthur H. Raven says that he picked up one
stone which measured 51/2 inches round, and another which weighed (at the
Post Office) 31/2 ounces. At Lee farm the hail went through the slate roofing,
and at Mill Green Park, twenty-four hours after the hailstorm the stones lay
a foot deep on the N.W. side of the house, and one taken up at haphazard
measured 41/2 inches in circumference. The roof of Mr. Du Cane's house
looked as if some one had gone along and broken the tiles with a hammer, and
all three chimneys came down, one falling through the roof on to a bed.
At Margaretting, one lamb and several chickens were killed ; Mr. Bright
reported hailstones six inches round, and Mr. David Christy, of Margaretting
Hall, thus relates his experience :—" I was on the top of that haystack when
the storm broke. The wind blew away the poles and ladders, and there I had
to stay ! Two trees close to the stack were twisted and blown about to such
an extent that I expected them to come down upon the stack every moment.
One or two trees were blown down quite close to me, but I did not hear
them, owing to the noise of the wind and hail. One of my old men (Cheek),
who is of the same age as the Queen, was caught in the storm, and his arms
and body were beaten black and blue by the hail. He has been in bed
until this morning, unable to get up. Five other men took shelter under a
tree, but when they saw a tree on each side of them blown down, they rushed
into the open. Two of my horses bolted with a wagon which overturned
into a ditch, and we had to take the wagon to pieces before we could get it
out again."
A correspondent of the Essex Weekly News writes'—"The full effect of
the hurricane can only be realised by a visit to the farms and a walk through
the fields. In every instance it will be found that the barley stems are cut
through ; wheat stalks, being of a tougher fibre, are partly cut through, and
the ears of corn are hanging down ; and the mangel, swedes, and turnip crops
are battered into the soil or, in the case of late sown, washed out. The grass
crops are lying flat on the ground, and in most cases it will be necessary to
allow the undergrowth to lift the crop before the mowing machine can be set
to work. The pea crops are crushed into pulp ; the bean crops are stripped
of all foliage, and the pods knocked off; and the potatoes have the tops cut
off just above the ground."
But the records of disaster in this devoted district alone would fill a
dozen pages, and as personal observations are always the most valuable, they
may be summed up in the words of Mr. J. L. Wharton, M.P., Chairman of
the Central Chamber of Agriculture, in a letter dated July 28th :—
" On July 21st and 22nd I visited the area in Essex affected by the storm.
I drove over about eleven miles of the most severely struck part of that area,
and I can only say that I was astonished to see that a storm, lasting at the
most twenty minutes, could have caused such terrible injury.
" It is certainly not too much to say that on the arable land I saw, there
is no crop of wheat, barley, oats, or beans which will not cost more to remove
from the land than can be repaid by any attempt to harvest it. The result
must be that, as far as arable land is concerned, in the first place, the land-
lord's rent is gone for this year. The tenant has lost not only his crop, but