212 Some Account of the Storm of January in Bedfordshii^e. 



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 wdnd 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 spund 

 of the falling 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 w^eight alone of the 

 three prevented the vehicle itself from being 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 Brickhill and 

 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, 



John Martin. 



