Woods and copses were undermined, and trees and soil together swept into the wash: sometimes the very place was hardly there to say it knew its children no more.

Houses were torn to pieces, and their contents, as from broken boxes, sent wandering on the brown waste, through the grey air, to the discoloured sea, whose saltness for a long way out had vanished with its hue.

Haymows were buried to the very top in sand; others went sailing bodily down the mighty stream--some of them followed or surrounded, like big ducks, by a great brood of ricks for their ducklings.

Huge trees went past as if shot down an Alpine slide, cottages, and bridges of stone, giving way before them.

Wooden mills, thatched roofs, great mill-wheels, went dipping and swaying and hobbling down.