A Relation of Two Considerable Hurricans, Happened in Northampton-Shire, not above Four Miles Distance from One Another, within tho Compass of Less then Twelve Calendar-Months: Communicated by Mr. John Templer of Braybrook to a Friend of His in London

A Relation of two considerable Hurricanes, happened in Northamptonshire, not above four miles distance from one another, within the compass of less than twelve Calendar-Months: Communicated by Mr. John Templer of Braybrook to a Friend of his in London. Octob. 30, 1669. Betwixt five and six of the Clock in the evening, the wind Westerly, at Ashley in Northamptonshire happen'd a formidable Hurricane, scarce bearing sixty yards in its breadth, and spending itself in about seven minutes of time. Its first discern'd assault was upon a Milk-maid, taking her pail and hat from off her head, and carrying her pail many scores of yards from her, where it lay undiscover'd some days. Next, it storm'd the Yard of one Sprigge, dwelling in Westthorp (a name of one part of the Town,) where it blew a Waggon-body off of the axle-trees, breaking the wheels and axle-trees in pieces, and blowing three of the wheels so shatter'd over a wall. This waggon stood somewhat cross to the passage of the wind. Another waggon of Mr. Salisburies marched with great speed upon its wheels against the side of his house to the astonishment of the inhabitants. A branch of an Ash-tree of that bigness that two lusty men could scarce lift it, blew over Mr. Salisburies house without hurting it, and yet this branch was torn from a Tree, an hundred yards distant from that house. A Slate was forced upon a window of the house of Samuel Templer Esq; which very much bent an Iron-bar in it; and yet 'tis certain, that the nearest place, the Slate was at first forc'd from, was near two hundred yards. Not to take notice of its stripping of several houses; one thing is remarkable, which is, that at Mr. Maidwells Senior it forced open a door, breaking the latch, and thence marching through the entry, and forcing open the Dairy-door, it overturn'd the milk-vessels, and blew out three panes or lights in the window; next it mounted the Chambers, and blew out nine lights more. From thence it proceeded to the Parsonage, whose roof it more than decimated; thence cross'd the narrow street, and forcibly drives a man headlong into the doors of Thomas Briggs. Then it passed with a cursory salute at Thomas Marstons, down to Mr. George Wignils, at least a furlongs distance from Marstons, and two furlongs from Sprigg's, where it plaid notorious exploits, blowing a large hovel of pease from its supporters, and setting it cleverly upon the ground, without any considerable damage to the thatch. Here it blew a gate post, fixed two foot and an half in the ground, out of the earth, and carried it into the fields many yards from its first abode. In this case, the Scite of that part of Ashley, molested by this wind, is considerable with the Position of the field to the then point of the compass, wherein the wind stood. About ½ a mile distant from the Town is a small Wood on the top of an Hill, and partly descending into a Vale encompassed by Northerly and Southerly Hills; so that the wind may seem confined to the Vale as a channel before it assaulted the Town, and thereby enforced to spend itself only in that glaad. But I am not unapt to think, that some flatus from the descending Wood-ground might contribute to this accident, because the wind continued, so far as men could judge, as high in the field afterwards, and the scite of the Town did expose (by reason of those Valleys) a far greater part of the Town to this damage than was troubled, the Valley being above four or five times the breadth of that part of the Town concerned in it. The other Instance was Octob. 13. 1670, at Braybrook, likewise in Northamptonshire, about eleven a Clock; when the wind, in a strange storm assaulted a Pease-reek in the field, uncovering the thatch of it, and leaving another within twenty yards unconcerned. Thence it proceeded also to the Parsonage, where it carried not twelve, scarce eight yards in breadth, blowing up the end of a Barley-reek and therewith some stakes in it of near five foot long: In the mean while it left a Wheat-hovel, within six yards of the Barley-reek, and being without all shelter, untouched, no part of the thatch of the hovel being so much as furled. Nevertheless it beat down a Jack-daw from the reek with that violence as forced the guts out of the body, and made it bleed plentifully at the mouth. This I saw, and took up in some company, the Daw very warm. Thence it went went in a right line to the Parsonage-house, took off the cover of all the house in its compass. From hence it passed over the Town without any damage, the rest of the Town being low in situation, and went on to a place called Fort-hill, where it unclothed so much of a Mault-house as lay within its line and breadth, so as to expose the Mault upon the floor to the open air. Here may be noted, that Braybrook stands in a Valley environ'd by hills on three sides at three quarter of a miles distance from it. But (what I would chiefly observe,) there is an Hill, called by the name of Clack-bill, within a mile of it, and exactly in that point of the compass in which the wind then stood; no hill in its way till the wind had passed over all the places it endamaged: And, which is remarkable, there have been two Earth-quakes in this Town within these ten years, when the then gentle Air (or Wind shall I call it) only vibrated upon that point of the Compass. A Narrative of two Petrifications in Humane Bodies, communicated by Mr. Christoph. Kirkby in a Letter from Dantzick, dated April 8. 1671. The following Observations (which to me seem uncommon,) were communicated to me by an Ingenious Doctor, my acquaintance, concerning Petrification in Humane Bodies; and although you may perhaps have others of the like nature, yet I doubt not but these may have their use, at least they confirm others. A woman of 56 years of age, unmarried, whose whole course of life had been extremely sedentary, was troubled, some years before her death, with great pains in her back, especially towards the right side, and a continual inclination to and effective vomiting; whose urine, for some time before, was turbid, and as 'twere mingled with blood; yet totally void of salsuginous matter. She was under the hands of the best Doctors in this place, who adjudged that Symptom of Bloody water to have proceeded ex praematura cessatione mensium (which