of "isobars" running in ovals one inside another. From another point of
view it was the storm of an hour spread over two days, so that there was
plenty of time to see and remember the normal ways of cyclones, which may
be briefly described as first a flush of heat whether in summer or winter,
then a furious wind, then hurrying clouds and much rain, with changes of
wind, then more clouds and more rain, then a "clearing shower" with most
rain, then a furling and brailing-up of the rain clouds, splashes of blue
in the sky, with nets of scud crossing them, sudden gleams of sun, sudden
cold, and perhaps a hail shower, and then piercing cold and sunlight. All
which things happened, but took a long time about it. The storm began in
the night, and howled through the dark. The rain came with the morning;
but it was the "clearing shower," which lasted ten hours, which caused the
filling of the Thames. The wind still blew in furious gusts, but the rain
was almost too heavy to be moved. The sky was one dark, sombre cloud, and
from this the rain poured in slanting lines like pencils of water. But
across this blanket of cloud came darker, lower, and wetter clouds, even
more surcharged with water, from which the deluge poured till the earth
was white like glass with the spraying drops. Out in the fields it was
impossible to see through the rain; but as the end of the column of cloud
began to break and widen the water could be seen in the act of passing
from the land to the river. On the fallows and under the fences all the
surface earth was beaten down or swept away. All seeds which had sunk
naturally below the surface were laid bare. Hundreds of sprouting horse
chestnuts, of sprouting acorns beneath the trees, thousands of grains of
fallen wheat and barley, of beans, and other seeds of the farm were
uncovered as if by a spade.

Down every furrow, drain, watercourse, ditch, runnel, and watercut, the
turbid waters were hurrying, all with one common flow, all with increasing
speed, to the Thames. The sound of waters filled the air, dropping,