About six in the evening
About three o'clock there began the thud of a gun at measured intervals from Chertsey or Addlestone . I learned that the smouldering pine wood into which the second cylinder had fallen was being shelled , in the hope of destroying that object before it opened . It was only about five , however , that a field gun reached Chobham for use against the first body of Martians . About six in the evening , as I sat at tea with my wife in the summerhouse talking vigorously about the battle that was lowering upon us , I heard a muffled detonation from the common , and immediately after a gust of firing . Close on the heels of that came a violent rattling crash , quite close to us , that shook the ground ; and , starting out upon the lawn , I saw the tops of the trees about the Oriental College burst into smoky red flame , and the tower of the little church beside it slide down into ruin . The pinnacle of the mosque had vanished , and the roof line of the college itself looked as if a hundred-ton gun had been at work upon it . One of our chimneys cracked as if a shot had hit it , flew , and a piece of it came clattering down the tiles and made a heap of broken red fragments upon the flower bed by my study window .