The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-09-09 00:00:00

Mitt sbirt.

SALLSBURY.—A. precentorship in Salisbury
Cathedral, value .£BOO, bas become vacant by the
death of the Rev. W. B. Heathcote.

SALISBURY CORN MARKRT, Tuesday, September
2. —Business in wheat was slack at a decline of 2s.
to 3e. per quarter. Flour down Is. to 2s. Barley '
trade dull, at ls. decline. Malt Is. to 2s. cheaper.
In beans and oats little doing, with a downward
tendency, Best new wheat offering at 545. to 565.
without buyers.
WEST LAVlNGTOlC—Taasucinoos THUNDER
STORM.- Never within the memory of man has •
latch a storm been known in this neighbourhood as.
visited Market and West Lavinglion and Easterton
on Tuesday morning—a storm at once overwhelming.
in its consequences as to find a pare/led only in the -
disastrous Shrewton flood which took place about
23 years ago. The- Shreerton flood, however, was a
flood of water, occasioned by the sudden thaw dam
accumulation of snow on the adjacent hills; where-
as the storm of Tuesday was not alone a flood of
water or rain, but a fall of hail the like of which, we.
will venture to say, has never before been seen in
this country. Indeed, bed we not been eye witnesses
of the fact, we copld hardly have believed that in
lees than half an hour hailstones would have stood
upon the ground seven feet deep I Yet so it was
at Lavington on Tuesday morning, and the scene
which the country presented will never be forgotten
by those who witnessed it. There had been distant
rumblings of thunder and occasional flashes of
lightning soon after the day began to dawn, and the
sky for miles around wore a heavy, leaden hue • but
men, nevertheless, ventured upon their out-door
work, little dreaming of what was about to burst
upon them. About half-past 5 s roar, as of a roll of
musketry, was heard, the lightning and thunder
incre., and, as if the bolts of heaven had suddenly
been withdrawn, there fell such a deluge of hail and
rain as fairly frightened all who beheld
it. In less than half an hour thej-whole
_ . .

line of country, . from Emetteton elt7l-111be---o-tee

side to West lifrington on the other, was com-
pletely covered. .Not a blade of grass, or corn, or
crop of any kind was visible; the wholesurface of
the earth was one mane of hailstones, the houses
were from two to three feet deep in water, the
cellars frill up to the very gratings, while the streets
and roads throughout the whole length from Faster.
ton to West Lsvington were converted into a deep,
roaring, rushing torrent, which carried everything
before it. As to the damage done to the crops, by
hail, thousands of pomade will not repay it, acres
upon acrea of barley being left without a single grain
on the stalk. But disastrous as the visitation was,
it was extremely partial in its wane and In. its
extent. Its violence seems to have been limited to
about half-smile in breadth and two miles in length.
extending (haw/nail, from Gore-Cross, along a
portion of the bill and the valley of the two Lemeg-
tons, se far as Rastcott. At Eastifott the first scene
of disinter protested itself, and a scene, indeed, it
was—every house with its loner moms under water,
and people looking out from the upper window of
the cottages in momentary expectation of being
swept away In the torrent. The water in Mr.
Jacob Newilsan's farmyard was tied deep, and the
barrels in kis cellar fleeted about as though they bad
been in a pond. By Mr. Benjamin Harvard's at
Rasterton. the water rushed along like a mill stream,
•carryingwith' it his 281411 Mn William's garde!), wall,
the boundary fence at Fiddington-house, and,th_tna,
everything that came in its way—bricks, timber,
and even, the Mad inielf, which is goraa ?p
in many places is thong it bad been lifted frqm its
foundations by some subterranean force. Thergreatest
wonder is that the cottages were not swept away aim.
One man, wholad been milking, in his endeavour
to drive through the village after the storm had in
some degree embeided, had his milk kettle carried
out of lea cart and floated rapidly away along' the
current, and a Piece of timber lfift, long was carried
40 yards down the middle of the road; and we
beard of one cottage, situated in the lower jihrt of
Eastethon, where the water rose to the ceiling in the
lower room and drowned a cat; and of another,
where a little girl who was left in the room on the
ground floor got upon the table to Mrs herself, and
was floated about the room on it, saving herself
eventually by clinging to the . sill of the window.
I In Fidclton Hollow, near Dr. Hitchcock's, the
I water made a clean breach over the hedge, and in
its rush down to the adjoining fields reeembled
boiling cataract which nothing Could withstand.
But at Market Lavin matters were worse even
than at Eaaterion. The street from end to end was
I like a mighty river, and the roaring of the hail,
I accompanied with vivid lightning and loud peals of
thunder, made the scene truly awful, and filled all
hearth with fear. As to the hail, never was such a
sight es= before in this or any ether part of the
=sultry. In one place, celled " Bitedwell," near
Mr. Fowle's house, it covered the entire space seven
feet dose; and the yeah of water from the
this pais' $ wee tremendous. Everything that Mil
in the way went with it, and, as an instance of tbli
velocity with which it ran, we may state that eight.
loads of flint by the side of the road near .
Fowles house were entirely. carried away. .
Fewle was in his yard giving directions to his men
when -the atom m find bard, and, ran for shelter
under a shilling; but he had not been there long
before the water rose between three and four feet
in the yard and cat off all communication between
him and the home, and but for the greatest
promptitude the young live stock that were upon
the premises would have been lost. The lower pert
of Mr. Fowle's house was entirely inundated, and
such mastery had the storm obtained inside that
Miss Fowl* was unable to get to her mother's room
for the water that ran through the plunge Bet
the scene at Broads-ell best everything else • and
that the cottages there stood through the storm
perfectly marvellous. In one of them no less than
two feet of mud and sand covered the ground floor,
and the water was up so high that the inmates dorsi
not, venture downstairs at the peril of their lives.
Hundreds of wagon loada of hail lay about at this
apot during the day • and in the evening, notwith-
standing the extra's.; heat of the weather, it was
four feet deep in Meow The loos hi the
trope can hardly at present be estimated. i
A strong Brick will, which formed the boundary of the',
terra yard,- near the obureb, smite down en muse, and
" Northbrook^ the flooring of the home neeapiest by
,Azford, the dog-breaker, was thrust up by the water,
and the dogs in the kennels were obliged to swim to
save their lives. £2O, it is said, will not pay the
damage done to Axfoni's premise& In mother pert
of the parish, a carpenter named Rimer had nearly
everything washed out of his house, and narrowly
saved the life of his pig by taking it bodily out el the
stye Tbe disasters among the feathered tribe 11/41M,
innumerable. Ducks ware drowned in their favou-
rite ylemeet f. fowls Aired the 84826 tat.;-, sad--
sparrows, thrushes, and blackbirds were picked up by •
hundreds after the eorm' was over, Invoked down by
:the hail, and buried beneath it. No less than 78
sparrows were picked up dead in the church (which is
at present unroofed); and as a proof of the destruction
which was carried on among them birds, • baker in
Phe plane informed tut that although hundreds of them
had been in the habit of congregating in Ma yard daily
when his agates' were being fed, sot one was to be
seen daring the whole of Tuesday, and hardly • asna/1
hird was seen in Market Laviugton up to
'Wednesday morning. But the amount of destruc-
tion at other places was small in comparieon -
to what took place on -Mr. Thomas Boatels farm at
West Lavington, Mr. Neate bad on the side of the
hill 127 acres of barley—one of the finest mops that Iss
has ever grown iwn Op farm, containing , at has/ 5,
quarters to the iiPe le was proved by some which h
bad cut and threshed out. The swop was fast fit to
harvest; in lest, 30 acres of it were already lying in
swath ; and we speak within_bounds when we of thee

- •
the damage which the hall did to this crop will not be
covered for less than £BOO. Seventy mires of It ate LI
Cptt2r threshed and washed away at if the arr 4 had
through a threshing machine, the ears being
stripped completely off, leaving the bare straw denuded
of its heed. It is estimated that atleest 800 quarters
are lost out of the 127 acres; and the only satisfaction
which Mr. Neste has is, that he is fully Moved in the
Farmer'soffice—a precaution which he was very nearly
foregoing at the commencement of the seaum. having
(as he thought) paid a deal of money uselessly in
Previous years to secure himself against losses which did
itot seem likely to recur. At Mrs. Lush's; hoes!,
situated at the foot of the hill leaving West Isivington
?Rime ffor Tilahead, the stream made a cleaq breach
I from the back to the front door—inundation, all the
I lower room, and setting the tables, chairs, and the
I furniture of the drawing and dining rooms two feet deep
lin water. From this point towards Tilabeed the storm
pursued its course, but on reaching Gore Cross it seems
to have expended its fury,- ita offset upon the C•01:4
there being confined to levelling the barley with the
ground, but without thrething it out, and to drenching
the crops, without cutting them to shivers.—For
hours however, afterwards, the eenatry around ma.
Related a most extraordinary appearance. Not a sign, of
vegetation was to be seen in the fields. Instead of
standing barley, which had given so rich and golden
an appearance to the hill-aide the evening before,
nought met the eye but he'd, hail, bail! burying .very•
thing beneath it ; while the allotments and gardens,
the roads, and even the houses, looked as if they had
just emerged from • deluge. As to the poor cottager*,
their WM in indeed pitiable. Many of them who
held allotments have loot their entire crop, and the
mischief which has been occasioned in their dwellings
is sad indeed. Throughout the whole day after wards
they were engaged in wheeling the mud and filth
from their rooms, and the dampness and the smell
which the inundation left behind it made them in many
cares almost iminbabitable.—Mr. Fowls and Mr. Neste
were, we believe, the only persons immred against
damage by had; and they will, we have no doubt, be
liberally dealt with by the office with which their
policies are effected. For the poor, who have so greatly
suffered—in many inatenses lacing the whole of their
crop, on which their entire dependence was staked—
we have no doubt &subscription will be sat on foot.—
Wilts Gazette.
TROWBRIDGE.—AN Eisriairr AT
In Trowbridge, on Saturday, the elephant "Ajax,"
belonging to Sanger's Circus, and his keeper, were
quartered at the Home and Groom publichouse,
and during the night " Ajax," like a Moe Grecian,
-delled-locks, bolts, and bars, and played " Magg'si
diversions." in the first place he was tied by I
strong rope to an iron bar driven eight inches into
' the earth. This he•easily pulled up, and then took
down the heavy stable door which oonened him,
neither binges, locks, nor bolts offering the slightest
impediment " Ajax" next performed • similar
operation on the cellar-door, but did no damage.
Leaving that place he went into the garden, where
he demolished everything, and trampled the ground
flat The Conigree Chapel abate into this garden,
and the animal smashed the windows, framework
and all, and also those in the cellar, doing damage
to the amount of shoat 30s. At this point of the
promedings the keeper appeared, and led "Ajax"
back to his dormitory, where he administered a
sound castigation to him. The proprietor of the
circus, on being apprised of the damage, imme.
distely made reparation for the same.
COMPTON BASSETT.—The rectory of Compton
Emmett, Wilts, in the diocese of &Rebury, hag
become vacant by the decease of the Rev. W. B.
Ileathcote. The living, which is worth £640 per
annum, with residence, is in the gilt of W.V.
. Awdry, Esq.