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It seems to me now almost incredibly wonderful that , with that swift fate hanging over us , men could go about their petty concerns as they did . I remember how jubilant Markham was at securing a new photograph of the planet for the illustrated paper he edited in those days . People in these latter times scarcely realise the abundance and enterprise of our nineteenth - century papers . For my own part , I was much occupied in learning to ride the bicycle , and busy upon a series of papers discussing the probable developments of moral ideas as civilisation progressed . One night ( the first missile then could scarcely have been 10 , 000 , 000 miles away ) I went for a walk with my wife . It was starlight and I explained the Signs of the Zodiac to her , and pointed out Mars , a bright dot of light creeping zenithward , towards which so many telescopes were pointed . It was a warm night . Coming home , a party of excursionists from Chertsey or Isleworth passed us singing and playing music . There were lights in the upper windows of the houses as the people went to bed . From the railway station in the distance came the sound of shunting trains , ringing and rumbling , softened almost into melody by the distance . My wife pointed out to me the brightness of the red , green , and yellow signal lights hanging in a framework against the sky . It seemed so safe and tranquil . II . THE FALLING STAR . Then came the night of the first falling star . It was seen early in the morning , rushing over Winchester eastward , a line of flame high in the atmosphere . Hundreds must have seen it , and taken it for an ordinary falling star . Albin described it as leaving a greenish streak behind it that glowed for some seconds . Denning , our greatest authority on meteorites , stated that the height of its first appearance was about ninety or one hundred miles . It seemed to him that it fell to earth about one hundred miles east of him . I was at home at that hour and writing in my study ; and although my French windows face towards Ottershaw and the blind was up ( for I loved in those days to look up at the night sky ) , I saw nothing of it . Yet this strangest of all things that ever came to earth from outer space must have fallen while I was sitting there , visible to me had I only looked up as it passed . Some of those who saw its flight say it travelled with a hissing sound . I myself heard nothing of that . Many people in Berkshire , Surrey , and Middlesex must have seen the fall of it , and , at most , have thought that another meteorite had descended . No one seems to have troubled to look for the fallen mass that night .
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