Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/349

 :

,

S. III. MAY 6, '99.

NOTES AND QUEEIES.

343

a count in the parish, sitting in his seat by the c lancel, had his head suddenly smitten against the v all ; through the violence whereof he died that n ght, no other hurt being found about his body : I it his son, sitting in the same seat, had no harm.

"There was also one man more at the same instant, o whom it is particularly related, who was warrener u ito Sir Richard Reynolds,* his head was cloven, h 3 skull rent into three pieces, and his brains tl rown upon the ground, whole, and the hair of his h ;ad, through the violence of the blow at first given him, did stick fast to the pillar or wall of the church, and in the place a deep bruise into the will, as if it were shot against with a cannon bullet,

"Some other persons were then blasted and burnt, and so grievously scalded and wounded, tl at since that time they have died thereof; and many others not likely to recover, notwithstanding all the means that can be procured to help them. Some had their clothes burnt, and their bodies had no hurt; and some, on the contrary, had their bodies burnt and their clothes not touched ; and some their stockings and legs burnt and scalded, and their outward buskins not one thread sindged. But it pleased God, yet, in the midst of judgement, to remember mercy ; sparing some, and not destroy- ing all ; yet very many were sorely scalded in divers parts of their bodies : and as all this hurt was done upon the bodies of men and women, so the hurt also that was then done unto the church was remarkable.

"There were some seats in the body of the church turned upside down, and yet they which sat therein had little or no hurt ; also a boy, sitting on his seat, had his hat on, and near the one half thereof was cut off, and he had no hurt. And one man, going out at the chancel door ; a dog, running out before him, was whirled about towards the door, and fell down stark dead ; at sight whereof he stepped back within the door, and God pre- served him alive ! Also, the church itself was jTnuch torn and defaced by the thunder and light- Ining ; and thereby, also, a beam was burst in the imiclst, and fell down between the minister and

jclark, and hurt neither; where the church was

most rent, there was least harm done to the people,

and not any one was hurt, but a maid of Mana-

ton, which came thither, that afternoon, to see some friends, whom master Frynd, the coroner (by circumstances), supposed she was killed by a stone

"The terrible lightning being past, all the people being in wonderful amaze, so that they spake not iDne word, by and bye one master Ralph Rouse, rintner in the town, stood up, saying these words : Neighbours, in the name of God, shall we venture ut of the Church ? ' To which, Mr. Lyde, answer - ng, said ' It is best to make an end of prayers, for t were better to die here than in another place.' 3ut they looking about them, and seeing the church o terribly rent and torn, durst not proceed in heir publick devotions, but went forth out of the ihurch

The Addition to the former Rdation. "This Church of Wydecombe, being a large and air church newly trimmed, there belonging to it a rery fair steeple or tower, with great and small

Kbbot. Ed."
 * "Sir Richd. Reynell, of Ford, near Newton

pinnacles thereon, it being one of the famousest towers in all those western parts ; and there being gathered a great congregation, to the number, as is verily believed, of at least three hundred persons.

"Master Lyde, with many persons in the church, did see, presently after the darkness, as it were, a great ball of fire, and most terrible lightning come in at the window, and therewithal the roof of the church, in the lower part against the tower to rend and gape wide open ; whereat he was so much amazed, that he fell down into his seat ;

"There it [the force of the lightning. E. G. C.] broke through into the chancel, and, about the number oi eight boys sitting about the rails of the communion-table, it took them up from the seats, and threw them all on heaps within the rails, and not one of them hurt ;

"Also, many of those pews and seats rent quite from the bottom, as if there had been no seats there, and those that sat in them, when they came to themselves, found that they were thrown out of their own into other seats, three or four seats higher, and yet had no harm

"And, when the lightning was past, the people being still in a maze, not one could speak a word to another; but, by and bye, master Rouse came a little to himself, standing up, and spake as in the former relation ; and speaking to master Lyde, he also thereupon began to recover himself, and answered as well as he could, trembling, as is expressed before, not knowing of any hurt that was done, either to his wife or any else : but they, look- ing about them, saw a very thick mist with smother and smoke and smell, insomuch that they nor any there saw the danger over their heads. But they two going forth together at the chancel door, they saw a dog whirled up some height from the ground, taken up and let down again three times together, and at last fell down stone dead, the lightning being past, neither could they see anything at all near the dog.

" Then, presently, the rest of the people scrabled

forth the church as well as they could; And,

being come forth, they saw their danger, which before they knew not; for the tower and church were grievously cracked and shattered, and some of the stones on the church and tower torn off and thrown every way round about, and huge weighty stones split all to pieces, some thrown distant from the church an hundred yards

"Then, awhile after, before night, they adven- tured into the church to fetch out the dead bodies, some whereof, being brought forth, and laid in the churchyard : there was then present a woman, being till that time much astonished, coming better to herself, upon sight of the dead bodies, remembered that she brought her child to church with her ; they then, going in to seek for it, found her child going hand in hand with another little child, being met coming down one of the isles, and had no hurt, nor seemed to be anything frighted by their countenances ; neither were there any children in the church hurt at all, but the other child's mother was gone home, never remembering that she had a child, till it was brought to her.

" But as strange a thing as any of these was that concerning Robert Mead the warrener, he not being missed all this while; immediately, master Rouse, his dear acquaintance, remembering him and seeing him not, nor none knowing what was become of him, master Rouse, stepping to the window, looked into the church where the war-