19 JULY 1946, Page 14

COUNTRY LIFE

THE evening preceding the night of that abnormal storm on July 3rd which swept the south-east coast like a tornado was extraordinarily calm. A newish moon was sinking westward ; but just before darkness fell I noticed that a slight haze, sulphurous in tint, was drifting not in the valleys but below the hill-tops. It smelt, too ; an ashy, gunpowaery smell.