CHRISTY : THE MID-ESSEX WIND-RUSH AND WHIRL-WIND. 137
garetting Woods, at the extreme southern end of the parish of
Writtle. Here, in Parkfield Wood, just at the back of Coptford
Hall, I found, in a line through the wood, several young oaks
with smashed branches, though no open way had been cleared.
Some men who were at work in the fields near at hand claim to
have seen the actual start of the storm. They say that two black
clouds came together and coalesced high in the air, whirling
COURSE (ABOUT 5 MILES) OF THE MID-ESSEX WIND-RUSH OF
27 OCTOBER 1916.
round rapidly, to the accompaniment of very violent thunder
and lightning.
From this point, the track of the storm was clearly apparent.
It ran first across soms arable fields; then down a row of meadows;
next along the eastern end of Nathan's Lane to Bumpstead's
Farm, a steady descent of rather over a mile. All this way,
many trees, mostly oaks, standing in the narrow track of the
whirl-wind, were smashed and deprived of many of their branches,