210 Reports on the Great Storm of October, 1881. 



afternoon of the following day. Pigeons flew to their dovecots as beforo 

 a thunder storm, and no living animal was visible, when the storm was 

 at its height. The windows were so obscured by vapour and dirt from 

 the outside, that it was only by partially raising a sash on the south side, 

 that I could get a view of the ruin, that was going on outside. Slates, 

 cans, and tiles were flying from the houses ; and the half of the roof of a 

 neighbouring church was lifted entire the slates adhering to the wood, 

 carried through the air and deposited in a neighbouring garden ; in its 

 course carrying away a turret, composed of stones weighing 1 cwt. each. 

 The noise was deafening, the roar of the wind, the plash of the rain, hail, 

 and snow furiously driven against the north side of the house. Alto- 

 gether for three hours, while the storm was at its height, no one living 

 recollects of its equal. Nervous women went to bed, could take no food, 

 and were helpless all that day. Then news arrived of the disasters to the 

 Eyemouth fishing fleet, which at the time were discredited ; but now we 

 know, how far short of the truth was known, and how much more disas- 

 trous the calamity proved. These have already been -described in the 

 newspapers, but the damage on land has yet been very imperfectly des- 

 scribed. No one can have the least idea of the destruction, in this dis- 

 trict, without inspecting the trees, as they now cumber the ground, 

 obstructing all passage : and it will take a very long time, before order 

 can again be restored. During the height of the gale, a funeral proceed- 

 ing from Huttonhall Barns to this place had a very perilous journey. 

 Trees were falling in every direction; large branches obstructing the 

 road, and the wind almost overturning the hearse. Some persons in the 

 company, were obliged to go on before, and clear the obstructions on the 

 road. At one period progress was entirely arrested by the falling trees, 

 but by making a detour into a private approach the procession was en- 

 abled to extricate itself. At Marchmont, Dunse Castle, Manderston, 

 Wedderburn, and Broomhouse, the injury to the woods, will never be re- 

 covered from. Considering the velocity of the wind said to be 701bs to the 

 square foot, it seems remarkable that buildings withstood its violence. 

 In the fine woodlands at Whitehall, Ninewells, Blanerne, and Mains, 

 close to my residence, the injury to the trees is irreparable. Avenues of 

 large beeches meeting overhead are completely prostrate. Large spaces 

 were cut through exposed parts of thicker woods, by the destroying wind. 

 In a wood at Craigswalls there is a space of 20 acres, with not one tree left 

 standing, all blown down, one on the top of the other. At Whitehall a 

 similar gap is made, where the largest Oaks, Beeches, Ashes, and Elms 

 are torn up by the roots, leaving nothing standing, destroying one of the 

 most picturesque glades in the south of Scotland. Magnificent Spanish 

 Chestnuts, some of them 13 feet in circumference four feet from the 

 ground, are overthrown. Seven of the group remain, six of the best were 

 prostrate. The Scotch Firs in front of the house, remarkable for their 

 gnarled boughs, and picturesque outline, are very much destroyed, large 

 branches having been torn off. Silver Firs, a hundred feet high in the 

 avenue, are torn up by the roots, greatly disfiguring the approach. 

 While Ashes, of great size, are snapped through, above the ground ; in 



