142 CHRISTY: THE MID-ESSEX WIND-RUSH AND WHIRL-WIND.
roofings of sheds and the zinc gutterings of houses were torn off.,
whirled about in the air, and deposited elsewhere, twisted and
crumpled "like a lot of Zeppelin wreckage." Most observers
speak of the number of broken branches which were carried up
to a great height in the air, there whirled about, and then deposi-
ted at a distance, One observer says they "were flying about
"like a flock of sparrows in the autumn time." Some quite-large
branches were carried right over the church and deposited several
hundred yards from their starting point and as much to the left
of the track of the storm—one on the Village Green: another
on the play-ground of the girls' school.
No sooner had the storm passed than the inhabitants, aided
by the military, began to remove the debris. By means of
motors and the telephone, stack-cloths and tarpaulins, to keep
out the rain, were secured from the whole of the surrounding
district; and, next morning, the few builders and glaziers
obtainable had a busy time repairing the worst of the damage.
Writtle, as I saw it about forty-eight hours after the storm,
reminded one inevitably of a French or Flemish village which
had been bombarded by the Germans, except that the fine and
spacious church was uninjured. This stands close to the Vicarage
and within one hundred yards of the centre of the storm, but it
escaped. Yet a yew tree growing close to the south porch had
its top neatly wrenched off. The Brewery, a very large building,
also escaped practically uninjured, though houses actually
touching it were largely unroofed. The most telling idea of the
destruction wrought by the storm was to be obtained in St.
John's Green, where the roof of nearly every house was still
covered with stack-cloths and tarpaulins.
Altogether, some fifty houses in Writtle must have been
injured, some of them severely, and the damage can hardly be
estimated at less than several thousands of pounds.
It is not surprising, owing to the extreme narrowness of the
storm, that very few observations as to changes of barometric
pressure during its passage over Writtle should have been
obtained. The only one made, indeed, so far as I know, was by
Mr. Herbert C. Waters, of St. John's Green, who is to be con-
gratulated on having had the presence of mind actually to watch
his barometer (a small aneroid, corrected to the proper height
above sea-level) during the crucial moments. He informs me