136 CHRISTY : THE MID-ESSEX WIND-RUSH AND WHIRL-WIND.
(about 8,600 acres); and it is, in general, quite straight, though
slightly wavy in parts. Its direction, from beginning to end,
was N.E. by N., as is shown upon the map on page 137.
A striking feature of the storm was its extreme narrowness.
I could see no sign of its having been more than about one
hundred yards wide, and its average width seems to have been
less. Another feature was its very sharply-defined edges.
In not a few places, I saw trees, standing just on its edge, which
had lost most of their branches on the side next the storm, but
were practically uninjured on the other side. Nearly every
where, too, one saw evidence of what one may call partiality on
the part of the storm—a tree standing right in its track and close
to other trees which had been largely destroyed, but itself almost
untouched. Yet another feature which seemed obvious was
the ease with which the storm accommodated itself to the
varying levels of the ground. At one or two low points (men-
tioned hereafter), as much damage seemed to have been clone
as on higher ground.
The number of trees, chiefly oaks and elms, blown down or
smashed certainly runs into thousands. The elm (a very shallow
rooted tree) suffered most, and great numbers were either
decapitated, broken off short, or blown up by the roots. In
the case of the oak (a much more robust tree), I saw none blown
up by the roots, very few broken off short, and few which had
lost their larger branches, but many which had had their upper
and outer branches twisted off, apparently by the rotary motion
of the storm. In many cases, these were not actually removed
from the trees, but were half broken off and left hanging, giving
a very curious appearance.
The storm, owing to its extreme narrowness, struck buildings
at five points only—Bumpstead's Farm, Montpelier's Farm,
the village of Writtle, some cottages by "No. 1 Bridge," and
some cottages by, the Claypits at Broomfield, all mentioned
hereafter. At the first named, no damage was done; and, at
the others, the damage was small, except in the village of Writtle
In general, the effect of the storm was much as though a
gigantic whip-lash, one-hundred yards wide, had been slashed
across the face of the country for five miles.
The whirl-wind started (as far as I have been able to ascer-
tain) on the high ground (over 300 ft.) in the Writtle and Mar-