From Tunbridge, a Letter to the Post Master, giving the following Account.
SIR,
I cannot give you any great account of the particular damage the late great Winds has done, but at Penchurst Park there was above 500 Trees blown down, and the Grove at Southborough is almost blown down; and there is scarce a House in Town, but hath received some damage, and particularly the School-House. A Stack of Chimnies blown down, but no body, God be thanked, have lost their Lives, a great many Houses have suffered very much, and several Barns have been blown down: At East Peckam, hard by us, the Spire of the Steeple was blown down: And at Sir Thomas Twisden's in the same Parish, there was a Stable blown down, and 2 Horses killed: And at Brenchly the Spire of the Steeple was blown down; and at Summer Hill Park there were several Trees blown down; which is all at present from,
Your Servant to Command,
Elizabeth Luck.
At Laneloe in the County of Brecon in Wales, a Poor Woman with a Child, was blown away by the Wind, and the Child being about 10 years old, was taken up in the Air two or three yards, and very much Wounded and Bruised in the fall.
At Ledbury in Herefordshire, we have an Account of two Wind Mills blown down, and four Stacks of Chimneys in a new built House at a Village near Ledbury, which Wounded a Maid Servant; and at another Gentleman's House near Ledbury, the Coachman fearing the Stable would fall, got his Master's Coach Horses out to save them, but leading them by a great Stack of Hay, the Wind blew down the Stack upon the Horses, killed one, and Maimed the other.
From Medhurst in Sussex, the following Letter is a short account of the loss of the Lord Montacute, in his Seat there, which is extraordinary great, tho' Abridg'd in the Letter.
SIR,
I received a Letter from you, wherein you desire me to give you an account of what damage was done in and about our Town, I praise God we came off indifferent well; the greatest damage we received, was the untiling of Houses, and 3 Chimneys blown down, but 4 or 5 Stacks of Chimneys are blown down at my Lord Montacute's House, within a quarter of a mile of us, one of them fell on part of the Great Hall, which did considerable damage; and the Church Steeple of Osborn, half a mile from us, was blown down at the same time; and my Lord had above 500 Trees torn up by the Roots, and near us several Barns blown down, one of Sir John Mill's, a very large Tiled Barn.
Your humble Servant John Prinke.
Medhurst,
Jan. 18. 1703/4.
From Rigate the particulars cannot be better related, than in the following Letter
SIR,
In answer to the Letter you sent me, relating to the late great Wind, the Calamity was universal about us, great numbers of vast tall Trees were blown down, and some broken quite asunder in the middle, tho' of a very considerable bigness. Two Wind-mills were blown down, and in one there happened a remarkable Providence, and the Story thereof may perhaps be worth your observation, which is, viz. That the Miller of Charlewood Mill, not far from Rigate hearing in the night time the Wind blew very hard, arose from his Bed, and went to his Mill, resolving to turn it toward the Wind, and set it to work, as the only means to preserve it standing; but on the way feeling for the Key of the Mill, he found he had left it at his Dwelling House, and therefore returned thither to fetch it, and coming back again to the Mill, found it blown quite down, and by his lucky forgetfulness saved his Life, which otherwise he most inevitably had lost. Several Stacks of Corn and Hay were blown down and shattered a very great distance from the places where they stood. Many Barns were also blown down, and many Stacks of Chimnies; and in the Town and Parish of Rigate, scarce a House but suffered considerable damage, either in the Tyling or otherwise. In the Parish of Capel by Darking lived one Charles Man, who was in Bed with his Wife and two Children, and by a fall of part of his House, he and one Child were killed, and his Wife, and the other Child, miraculously preserved, I am
Sir, Your humble Servant, Tho. Foster.
Rigate,
Jan. 13. 1703/4.
From the City of Hereford, this short Letter is very explicit.
SIR,
The best account I can give of the Storm, is as follows; a Man and his Son was killed with the fall of his House, in the Parish of Wormsle, 2 miles off Webly in Herefordshire. My Lord Skudamoor had several great Oaks blown down in the Parish of Hom, 4 miles from Hereford; there were several great Elms blown down at a place called Hinton, on Wye side, half a mile off Hereford, and some hundreds of Fruit Trees in other Parts of this County, and two Stacks of Chimnies in this City, and abundance of Tiles off the old Houses,
Yours, &c. Anne Watts.
Hereford,
Jan. 2. 1703.