Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1858-12-23
Jntnestinp Storg,
THE OAK F LUXF0RD;
a GALE OF 17O3.

HE GALE OF 1908.
1t was the afternoon of the 26th day 0
November, in the year Of grace 1903
During the preceding week wild storm
had swept over different parts of England
the weather was unnaturally warm tn
faded leaves hung silent upon the trees
the late autumn flowers fingered on il
their sad beauty men who could recoI
lect so far back, said that it was Just sucl
a November as that before the Plague
year.
But IN this afternoon the Gun shon,
out with a faint watery smile from be
tween thick, dark clouds light anC
shadow chased each other merrily owe
the hills of Sussex, and across the grea
expanse of Ashdown Fores-then a fores
indeed. The tower of St. Swithin's, a
East Grinsted, sometimes glared out in {
strong, fierce gleam-and then stood up
a huge, black mass, in ink likegloom
the gray old walls of Sackville College
gray and old ever then-were check
cred with the sunshine and the clouds, il
alternate seconds. So far, everything
was like what many an autumn had otter
been before, and will be again.
But there were not wanting signs to
an observing eye that all was not so ouiel
as 1T appeared to be. The oxen seemed
Wild In the fields !; sometimes securing
round and round in a body, as if seized
with the stampede, of which we read in
the huge American prairies-sometimes
tearing up the grass with their hoofs and
horns ; sometimes dashing recklessly
against the gate or the hedge. The fowls
went to roost shortly after midday
Horses reared and kicked, and refused
to obey bit or rein dogs bayed loud and
~mournfully. Toward four o'clock in the
afternoon, a cloud of very peculiar tinge
and shape, pink, edged with purple, ano
like a doubled fist, rose in the southwest
Right over Saifeld Mill it hung, te
those who looked from East Grinsted
and people gathered at the doors of theil
houses to gaze at-so they called 1.-THE
Bloody Cloud. On the upland moors
there was that strange, low sound, like
the buzz of insects, that sometimes goes
before a storm. Then the wind began te
sink to a perfect hush, and in a moment
burst forth in a furious blast the calm
lull and the fierce gale succeeding eact
other more and more rapidly.
In the little valley that nestles at the
foot of the Luxford rocks, a mile and g
half from East Grinsted, there then stooc
an old gray picturesque cottage its ROO
heavy and shaggy with Horsham slate
its windows thickly mullioned !; its sides
shaded by a grape vine that, in Summer
whispered pleasantly to the sand stones
which gave it support, and now speckled
the brown walls with blood-red leaves
An ellinge place indeed-as we say in
Sussex-that cottage was ; shut in to the
east by a little ampbitheatre of woods
and rocks. and approachable only by 9
down path. Westward it looked on the
church and the town, "a city set upon q
hill" on blue Coneyhurst and Holmes
bury, and Leithill, and SO beyond, to ut
termost Hindhead. But a pretty situa
ton for all that-and SO you would have
said, could you have looked in on thai
afternoon, and seen the nicely swept floor
the trim little wood fire built up on the
Sussex dogs, Sussex, you know, was Their
the iron mart of England and, above all
the pleasant and cheerful face of its mis-.
tress7the very picture of what a young
laborer's wife ought to be--as she vel
coined John Lawrence THAT was her hus,
bands name) back from the days work.
Well" quoth he, as he hung up his
knife, and put up his darnocks, (for he
had been hedging) II never saw such
a strange afternoon. One while it az
still as a night in July, and then the
wind comes a roaring and ramping along,
fit to blow down a.church tower"
So it does 2" said Mary. 81 declare
| felt quite lonely like, it seems so IN.
natural-frst like a death room, and then
like a ship at sea. There it is again.
Hark to it'll
We shall have rain, this time" said
John, looking out at the door. Come
I'll shut it up, wife, and then we'll be
comfortable. Why, what in the name O
wonder is the matter with the cat ~
And as he spoke, she flew this way and
that, like q mad creature tearing against
the walls, scrambling up the door, leap
ing on and off the windowsill.
@She has been like that all day. an.
swered his wife, except when she has
been trying to hide herself in every hole
and corne she could get into. | hope
she's not going mad"
cts the wind, | SUPPOSE" said Johr
Lawrence. Down at Luxford's they
could hardly get the oxen out, to-day
they were so Wild
Darkness wax now gathering in over
the earth but still the Bloody Clouc
glared and glowed ; the duskier tn,
landscape grew, the more fercely tina
seemed to blaze.
The wind rose considerably, the lulli
grew shorter /; the blasts longer ant