376 



The Great Wiltshire Storm. 



home perfectly untouched. Again at Mr. Neate's farm in the same 

 village, eight cows were inclosed with hurdles in a narrow space, 

 and across this enclosure several trees fell in different directions, 

 yet not a cow was even scratched, to the amazement of every one 

 who has seen the spot. I have already remarked on the overthrow 

 of Mr. Tanner's cart horse and cow at Yatesbury ; but when the 

 storm was gone by, they seem to have emerged, the one from the 

 shed into which he was whirled, the other out of the pond into 

 which she was cast, none the worse for their temporary discomfi- 

 ture. No less strange was the escape of Mr. Eyles's oxen at Monk- 

 ton, the roof of whose shed was blown off, as I have already de- 

 scribed; but when a passage could be effected through the debris, 

 hastened by very reasonable doubts as to the possibility of their 

 existence, they were discovered tied to their respective posts, in 

 no degree injured nor apparently much alarmed. Indeed the only 

 creatures which seem to have lost their lives in the hurricane, were 

 sundry hares and partridges, three or four of the former having 

 been picked up dead, immediately after the storm, and I myself 

 having chanced to ride by some of the latter, which I found almost 

 entirely denuded of feathers, doubtless the effect of their being 

 repeatedly dashed with violence on the earth : but surely with such 

 proofs of its fury before us, it is no wonder that such feeble crea- 

 tures were powerless before the blast: rather would it have been an 

 additional source of astonishment, had they been able to sustain it. 



My next observation refers to the beginning and end of the 

 hurricane, for we all feel inclined to enquire whence did it come, 

 and whither did it go ? And here I will not pretend to affirm 

 what must be matter of pure conjecture; for whether it descended 

 from above at its first point of attack, as some suppose, or whether 

 (as seems more probable) it had been gathering strength farther 

 westward; and again at the other extremity, whether it mounted 

 aloft, or whether it disported itself farther on the open down, ex- 

 pending its fury on the bleak hill side, and so gradually subsiding 

 and at length dying away, there is no direct evidence to show: but 

 to any one visiting the spot, it is clear that it began with compara- 

 tive gentleness, contenting itself at first with tearing off branches 



