THE GREAT STORM OF MIDSUMMER DAY, 1897. 125
evidently a prosperous crop of onions has been reduced to pulp, and in every
plot, potato-bines lay broken and beaten down in their furrows.
Hailstones could be picked up as large as walnuts an hour after the storm
had passed, though the thermometer stood at So degrees. At Fretton's nearly
200 panes of glass, and at the Palace 1000 panes, were smashed, about half
that number being in the conservatories and greenhouses, and the rest in the
mansion itself. The park was littered with branches of trees. Huge arms of
oaks and beech lay on the ground in confused heaps, and here and there
immense limbs, whose weight failed to force a passage to the ground, were held
aloft on the out-stretched boughs of neighbouring trees. The permanent
road way was greatly damaged, and was impassable for vehicles, owing to
the falling of trees. Between one and two hundred panes of glass on the
west front of the Church were destroyed, and the "Griffin" Hotel, which is
on a rather exposed situation on the crest of the hill, had over 80 panes of
glass smashed, At Major Rasch's house, he says that the hailstones were as
big as marbles, and that 100 panes of glass were broken. At the Rectory
stables, the hail cut right through the water spouts, on the side of an out-
building. In several places the holes are the size of a three-penny bit, and
one hole was a couple of inches in diameter.
The Rev. J. Bridges Plumtre, rector of Danbury, sends the following
careful observations which he made at Danbury Rectory House, which
was exposed, from its position, to the full fury of the storm : "At 3 p.m. the
storm was travelling from the due West to this hill, accompanied by unusual
darkness, vivid forked lightning and a rushing wind that came along in swirls
and eddies rather than in one direct blast. At 3.4 p.m., rain began to fall ; at
3.10 p.m. the wind was blowing a hurricane, and huge hailstones were hurled
upon us ; at 3.15 (about) the worst was over; at 3.30 p.m. the storm had
passed. My rain gauge measured 83 during the 26 minutes. I should like to
observe that there were no hailstones in the funnel of the gauge when I
examined it at 3.30 p.m., though the ground all round was strewn with them.
(Diameter of gauge is 5 inches, height from ground 1ft.) Owing to the
velocity of the wind, the hail fell at an unusually acute angle, but why none
were in the guage I do not know. I weighed one of the hailstones, which
was an average one of the larger sized ones, and it scaled 1/2 oz. Almost every
pane of glass on the west side of the house was shivered, including a large
sheet of plate glass."
Maldon. Mr. Thos. Isaac reports:—"The storm was not at its worst
here. The hailstones were all rounded at the edges, and I think did not
exceed half-an-inch in diameter. Hence, we had no broken windows, nor
even frame or pit lights, nor was my garden much injured. Rain 1.12 in., the
greater part of which fell in an hour. The lightning and thunder were very
severe, being almost continuous throughout the hour that the storm lasted."
But all parts of Maldon were not so fortunate as Mr. Isaac's neighbourhood.
The Essex Weekly News' reporter stated that "large pieces of ice and hailstones
larger than ordinary marbles fell and did considerable damage to the glass of
many houses and to the crops of grass, &c., and fruit. The hailstones were of
very curious formation, and many seemed as if they had been split from
larger ones. Some measured three-quarters to one inch across and through.
The High Street presented the appearance of a swift flowing river, and
considerable damage was done to the roads on Cromwell-hill and Church-hill.