CHRISTY : THE MID-ESSEX WIND-RUSH AND WHIRL-WIND. 1 37 
garetting Woods, at the extreme southern end of the parish of 
Writtle. Here, in Parkfield Wood, just at the back of Coptford 
Hall, I found, in a line through the wood, several young oaks 
with smashed branches, though no open way had been cleared. 
Some men who were at work in the fields near at hand claim to 
have seen the actual start of the storm. They say that two black 
clouds came together and coalesced high in the air, whirling 
COURSE (ABOUT 5 MILES) OF THE MID-ESSEX WIND-RUSH OF 
27 OCTOBER 1916. 
round rapidly, to the accompaniment of very violent thunder 
and lightning. 
From this point, the track of the storm was clearly apparent. 
It ran first across some arable fields ; then down a row of meadows ; 
next along the eastern end of Nathan’s Lane to Bumpstead’s 
Farm, a steady descent of rather over a mile. All this way, 
many trees, mostly oaks, standing in the narrow track of the 
whirl-wind, were smashed and deprived of many of their branches. 
K 
