138 CHRISTY : THE MID-ESSEX WIND-RUSH AND WHIRL-WIND.
which were either left hanging or strewn thickly over the adjacent
fields and meadows. Nathan's Lane had been completely
blocked at one point by the wreckage of a fair-sized oak. At
Bumpstead's Farm (152ft.), the storm crossed the valley of a
small streamlet, and here several trees were down, though the
house and buildings had not suffered.
From this point, the ground rises mainly for about a mile-and-
a-haif, when Writtle village is reached. All this way, trees by
the score, chiefly oaks and elms, have been smashed and their
branches strewn over the fields. At Montpelier's Farm (Mr.
Herbert Green), which stands rather exposed (about 165ft.), the
farm buildings suffered badly, especially their tiled roofs, one
wooden shed being lifted right off its brick foundation and badly
smashed. Here, too, trees, chiefly tall elms, suffered greatly.
The top of one was broken off and carried by the wind thirty
or forty yards into an adjoining meadow, where it fell on and
killed two pigs.
From Montpelier's Farm, the track crosses open fields. At
one place it descends into the valley of a tiny streamlet, known as
the Sandy Brook, and here considerable damage was clone,
nearly a dozen large elms lying prostrate in one small meadow.
In this meadow were some colts, which were so terrified by the
storm that they jumped hedges and galloped across country ;
while a heavy feeding-crib, of zinc and iron, is said to have been
caught up, whirled about in the air and deposited in another
field. A young son of Mr. Green's, cycling home along the
adjacent road during the height of the storm, was lifted off his
machine and deposited on the road-side hedge. From this
point to Writtle, about half-a-mile, the ground rises again, there
being few trees and no houses.
Writtle is a large and very picturesque village or small town
(about 120 ft.), through the very centre of which the storm
passed, leaving the greater part of the village entirely un-
touched. It first encountered the trees, chiefly large elms, round
the old Rectory or "Priory" (Mr. Clement Wells), which suffered
very severely, the grounds being strewn so thickly with tree-
tops and branches that it was difficult to walk about. Yet a
fine Sequoia standing directly in the track of the storm was
quite untouched. The house and out-buildings, too, were
much damaged—probably to the extent of several hundreds of