358 



A Sketch of the Parish of Yatesbury. 



the power of wind till the day he visited the scene o£ our Wiltsh're 

 tornado. This narrow helt of storm, which was concentrated within 

 a breadth of about 400 yards, appears to have begun its devastations 

 about a mile to the south of Calne, and coming up from the west 

 shaped its course for east-north- east, and took a straight line in that 

 direction for about thirteen miles. It attained the height of its fury 

 as it reached our village, and though it was only three minutes in \ 

 passing through, yet, during that short period, it overthrew barn, 

 outhouse and cottage roofs, demolished ricks, and tore up the largest 

 trees by the roots. So appalling was its appearance as it came on j 

 like a thin vapour or cloud, so loud and terrific the roar of its ap- 

 proach, so strange and unearthly the darkness, so sudden and furious 

 its onset, that men's senses seem to have been paralyzed with terror 

 during the few moments of its continuance : the air seemed filled 

 with thatch and rafters and tiles and falling timber, and when it 

 had passed by, desolation and ruin lay all around. Yet the havoc 

 was not in a continuous line : this strange revolving storm selected 

 its victims in its onward course, overthrowing some and sparing J 

 others with the most capricious partiality : uprooting several large ; 

 yew-trees on my glebe on either side, but Providentially missing 

 the Church and the magnificent yew-tree in the churchyard : and 

 so it threw down garden walls and barns, unroofed cattle-sheds, I 

 cottages and ricks, but left quite unmolested others which stood 

 hard by. Finally it hurled a large cart-horse from one end of a f 

 yard to the other; threw a cow into an adjacent pond; rolled over 

 a man who had no time to seek shelter, but tried to cling to a bank 

 for protection j and, as a climax, lifted a heavy broad-wheeled 

 waggon clean off the ground and over a high hedge, depositing it 

 on its side a dozen yards or more from where it stood ! And yet, 

 amidst all this destruction of roofs, cattle-sheds, barns, and timber- 

 trees, not a single life was lost, nor did any serious injury occur to 

 either man or beast : hair-breadth escapes there were in abundance : 

 men and boys crept forth from the heavy beams and rafters which 

 had fallen all around them in the barns which had been blown down [ 

 over their heads; large elm- trees fell in all directions across roads 

 and gardens ; but mercifully all were preserved from harm ; and ! 



