19 . 
Mr Dunn’s Description afthe Whirlwind 
grand ; the lightning, however, did no mischief, and the rain 
was soon over. After the expiration of ten or fifteen minutes, 
and during the calm which supervened, some persons sitting on 
the lofts of a manufactory on the sands were struck with the 
singular appearance of the clouds. They remarked a heavy 
cloud, descending from the SW., and a lower one. scudding 
from the NE., attract and strike each other with great energy, — ■ 
the surrounding clouds rushing in a whirl to the same centre, 
and then rebounding. This scene of elementary confusion instant- 
ly arrested the notice of all the workmen. The whole mass of 
clouds was observed to be in violent agitation ; an upper dense 
and dark stratum seemed to be pressing a lighter one down to 
the earth. They were then blended in one dense column, which 
descended to the ground, passed from the field of Mr Tindall 
in a direction from the W.NW., over the hedge which forms 
one of the boundaries of the plantation walk. Its force was 
here so great, that it levelled two very fine elms of about four 
feet in girth, one being torn up by the roots, and the other 
broken off at the surface of the ground. The thorns and some 
intervening trees escaped unhurt, although a considerable fissure 
was observed in the ground, which must have been occasioned 
by the disturbance of the roots from the impetuosity of the 
wind. The space between the two fallen trees, according to my 
measurement, was 98 paces, which, I conceive, will give some 
idea of the extent at that time of the lower portion of the whirl- 
wind ; for the trees having fallen across the walk, it must have 
struck parallel with the fence. It now passed across the young 
plantation on the other side, shook the trees most violently, but 
did no farther mischief than breaking off the summit of one of 
them, which I attribute to the great elastic power of these young 
trees, and the less surface of resistance which their branches 
would present. The cloud continued its march in majestic 
grandeur across the road, passed some labourers at the water- 
fall below the terrace, tore up some cabbage-plants in a garden 
on the left, went over Ramsdale height to the sands, drove a 
machine containing a camera obscura into the sea, and dashed 
it into a hundred pieces. It now made a direct course to the 
east, scattering the sand to the height of 60 feet, which almost 
blinded a person who was running from the precarious shelter 
