OfOXFO%T),SHlKjE. 1 



England)yet was remarkable at Oxoni'm thefe two refpe&s. i .That 

 though it forced the ftones inwards into the cavity of All-hallows 

 Spire, yet it over-threw it not. And 2 1)T * That in the morning, 

 when there was fome abatement of its fury, it was yet fo vio- 

 lent, that it laved water out of the River Cherwcll, and caft it 

 quite over the Bridge at Magdalen College, above the furface of 

 the River nea- 20 foot high ; which paflage, with advantage of 

 holding by the College walls, I had then the curiofity to go fee 

 my felf, which otherwife, perhaps, I friould have as hardly cre- 

 dited as fome other perfons now may do. But thofe that have 

 failed, to the Indies can inform them what force Hurricane's and 

 Turbo' shave, with what violence and impetuofity they take up 

 whole Seas of water, and furioufly mount them into the air n . 

 Now that fuch as thefe may alfo happen at Land (though per- 

 haps for the moft part of lefs ftrength) I think we have little rea- 

 fon to doubt,fince our own Chronicles inform us, that in Q^Ma- 

 ties time, within a mile of Nottingham, all the houfes of two 

 little Parifhes, with their Churches, were wholly born down by 

 fuchaTempeft ; and the water, with the mud from the bottom 

 of the River Trent, that ran between them, carryed a quarter of 

 a mile and caft againft Trees, with the violence whereof they 

 were torn up by the roots. 



10. Of much fuch another Land Hurricane, Bellarmin gives us 

 a relation fo incredible, that he himfelf premifeth, Quod nifi vi- 

 difftm non crederem. Vidi (faies he) a vehementijftmo vento effojfam 

 ingentem terrae molem, eamque delatamfuper pagum quendam, ut fovea 

 altiffima confpiceretur unde eruta fuerat, iy pagus totus coopertus iy 

 quafi fepultus manferit, ad quern terra ilia divenerat . Which be- 

 ing fufficient (I fuppofe) to evince the poffibility of my ftory, I 

 proceed to 



11. The fecond tempeft of Thunder and Lightning, on the 

 10 th of May, 1666. which though terrible enough to all parts 

 adjacent to Oxford, yet was mifchievous only at Medley, a well 

 known Houfe, about a mile or fomwhat more diftant from it ; 

 two Scholars ofcWadham College, alone in a boat, and new thruft 

 off fhore to come homewards, being (truck off the head of the 

 boat into the water, the one of them ftark dead, and the other 



n It nuat obfervedby an able Seaman of Briftol, that this luintttuas the fag-end of a Hurricanc> -which 

 hegan in NViy-England about three hovrsb?f rt it came hither ; the Sea-men obJer r Sdthat it went dinilly t~ 

 wards England. " Bellarmin. de afienf.ment. in Deum, Or ad t- cap- 4, 



jftuck 



