212 Some Account of the Storm of January in Bedfordshire. 
him to retrace his steps. He had reached on his way back the 
corner of the wall close to the fir plantation in the Grange Belt, 
which he had only passed a few minutes previously, when he saw the 
whole clump of trees growing at the corner simultaneously laid 
prostrate. The action of the wind appeared to him to heave them 
up; in all probability, the blast, acting under the greater and lower 
branches, raised them in this manner. He describes the air around 
him as being darkened with the young shoots of the trees, 
mingled with thatch from haystacks in the adjoining fields ; the 
roar of the storm was so great as entirely to drown the sound 
of the fallmg timber, although he stood so close to the scene of 
its fury. A gig with three persons in it had only passed a few 
seconds previously ; though conscious that trees were falling, they 
did not actually witness them; it was with the utmost diffi- 
culty that the horse kept its legs, and the weight alone of the 
three prevented the vehicle itself from bemg blown over. ; 
At the lodge called the Deans there is a very fine Weymouth 
pine ; the keeper describes this tree as appearing to shiver to its 
very base, seemingly heaving up, as though underground action 
was at work ; happily for the security of the cottage it rode out 
the storm. 
A person residing at Castle Thorpe, two miles south of Hans- 
lape in Northamptonshire, states that the day was remarkably 
clear till half-past one, when he distinctly saw the storm-cloud 
rise from the west and overspread the sky in a quarter of an 
hour and proceed eastward. : 
From information obtained through the kindness of a friend, 
it appears that the storm was observed at Bristol between twelve 
and one, and rather later at Cheltenham ; its course is not known 
to me thence until it arrived at Fenny Stratford, Bow Brickhilland . 
Woburn Park—at Bishops Stortford and Colchester it was noticed 
at about three o’clock. It most probably swept across the island, 
rising in the British Channel and terminating in the German 
Ocean. On reference to the map, it appears to have assumed a 
semicircular shape, agreeably to the law laid down by Col. Reid in 
his very interesting record of facts in his work upon that subject. 
Some of your correspondents may have noticed its progress in 
other localities, and thus more effectually complete the course it 
took, and more decidedly establish in this instance the value of 
Col. Reid’s theory. 
The remarks with which I trouble you were intended princi- 
pally to describe the effects of the storm in the Duke of Bedford’s 
Park, where, from all that has been collected during its progress, 
the chief injury was sustained. 
I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, 
Joan Martin. 
