The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-02-01 00:00:00

TREMENDOUS GALE IN SCOTLAND.

(From
.the Seotsman of January 25.)

Edinburgh, and indeed a great part of Scotland, was
visited yesterday (Friday) by a hurricane that has resulted
in melancholy loss of life, in the destruction of much pro-
perty, and ins series of accidents which rarely, if ever, have
accompanied a gale of wind in this country. The gale came
on suddenly, and almost the only sign that told of the
approach of the tempestuous weather was a gradual falling
of the barometer during Thursday night and Friday morning.
The storm began to grow serious by eleven o'clock yesterday
morning; by one o'clock it had culminated, and caused the
chief of the deplorable a xidents we have to chronicle ; by
six o'clock it had passed over ; and the weather has since
been only boisterous and inclement.

After noon, hail and rain began to fall in pelting showers
Never, perhaps, were the streets of Edinburgh swept by a
more extraordinary gale. The worst experience of it was
between the hours of twelve arid three. During that time
business was almost entirely suspended a great number of
the shops were closed altogether and street traffic could
only be conducted with very great danger both to life and
property. The fall of chimney cans and other materials
from roofs was so constant and dangerous in all parts of the
city, that pedestrians were in constant terror of being
crushed to death Scenes the most extraordinary were
witnessed at the south end of the North Bridge, and during
the whole of the gale a host of persons were clinging to
the palisarling in front of the Tron Church, in order
to witness the occurrences. One of the most painful of
the events that transpired on the streets was witnessed
here early in the afternoon. A hearse, containing a body,
was passmg along towards the New Town, followed by
some half-dozen mourriers on foot, when a howling gust of
wind threw it bodily over, and the horse was knocked down
also. The coffin was removed into one of the neighbouring
house., where the mourners also got shelter, until the
hearse was raised and the funeral procession could proceed.
Much sympathy was expressed with the afflicted mourners.
Numerous cabs were blown over in various parts of the city,
and many of them were in consequence greatly damaged.
The occurrence that was more than all others disastrous
mull that which betel the unfortutiate inflator of the house
No. 10, Duke,atreet, four Of whom met with a violent arid
tearfully sudden death. The house is one of the row form-
ing the want side of the street.
The upper portion of the back part of the house was very
much exposed to the storm indeed, the wind, sweeping
across a large open space, had free course to beat against
it ill all its fury. A hroad, tall chininey-stalk rose from
a gable at the top of the six-storey wall with its broad
side facing the south. It was the fall of this stalk
and gable that caused the melancholy sacrifice of
tile we have now to record. Six rooms rose one above
the other within the breadth of wall spanned by the gable.
The two upper of these were part of the premises occupied
by Mrs. Scott ; the third-storey room was used by Miss
Keegan as her bed-room; and she clerk's room was on the
ground storey, over a cellar. Shortly after one o'clock the
storm rose high and furious, the wind roared louder and
beat with greater pressure each moment, the strongest
buildings shook, and minor catastrophes were occurring
almmt ever y where. It was about this hour of the day when,
without a moment's warning and with the most direful
results, the gable and chinniey-stalk over the back part of
the house fell with a terrific crash upon the roof, breaking
through it in one Oman, and hurling down with it within
the four narrow walls of the single-room storeys every
floor with which it canie in contact, until the whole mass,
in which six human beiogrs were buried, dropped with
ponderous bulk into the cellar, which it choked up to a level
with the street floor. An impenetrable cloud of dust rose
from the ruim, and it was some momenta before the
true nature of the catastrophe could be discerned. 'the first
to discover it were Mr. John Keegan arid his two servants,
all of wham happened by good livk to be in the front arid
uninjured part of the house at the time of the accident.
Mr. 'Thomas Keegan was not at home. The three innrates
who have escaped were all in different parts of the house
when the di,aster occurred. Margaret Flounders, one of the
servants, was in an upstairs room in the front of the house ;
and when she ran downstairs in terror, anal in ignorance of
what had really happened, Mr. Keegan, who had been in a
front rooni on the ground floor, appeared in the lobby in a
state of equal bewilderment anal alarm. Rachael Riddel,
the other servant, was in the lower part of the premises, and
she made her escape by the front area, anti entered the
house again by the front door. A search was instantly
begun ; cries that proceeded from the rubbish indicated the
strong oecessity for this.
. . . . . .

from the description already given, it will be clear that
six persons were buried in the nuns—two servants, who were
in the fourth storey, in Mrs. Scott'. kitchen ; Miss Keegan,
who was in her bedroom on the third Boer ; and the three
clerks, who were engaged in their office itities, on the roam
landing. Of this number four were killed, and two were
most miraculously rescued. Through the singular and
happy escape sof Mr. Peter Bald, one of the three clerks in
Mr Keegan's service, we are enabled to describe how
terribly sudden was the and fate that betel the other
unfortunate occupants of the Mike. Mr. Tinker sat at
a desk apart, in one of the corners of the room farthest
away from the door ; and Bald and poor Spence occu-
pied desks opposite each other. They had been speaking
about the storm in the course of the forenoon. Bald had
occasion to leave the office for a short time during the gale,
and on his return he told his friends of the state of affairs
in Frederick-street, where the footways were strewn with
broken chinniey-cans and slates. Spence, who had also been
out, said he had not seen anything extraordinary ; but Mr. ,
Tanker seemed to get somewhat alarmed at the state of the
weather. They had not the slightest warning of what was
coming upon them; escape, therefore, was impossible. A
gust of wind first of all came rushing down the chimney,
and at once extinguished the fire. The sweep of wind
roared into the room, driving before it a cloud of soot and
smoke, and Taster, startled, jumped round, exclaiming,
"Good, God, what is that?" Before a syllable could be uttered
in reply, the ruins crashed upon them with a clap like
thunder. Of the three men, Bald only escaped, and his
good fortune was owing to a very simple circumstance.
Against the wall immediately behind him a large bookcase
was placed, Soil in the fall this article came down upon his
desk, and so held up over him the weight of the rubbish,
while he was safely penned up in the space below. Amid
such a cloud of dust he had, however, great difficulty in
getting breath, and a few minutes elapsed before he was
drawn from his perils,rss position, lle cried out for help,
and had he not retained consciousness and the power of
speech, it is not at all likely that he would have been saved,
as he could not for some time be seen. During the few
anxious moments he waited he heard a low moan from the
pour old clerk, whose twenty years of service on the premises
had met with this cruel end. Beyond this nothing ...heard
to indicate that any of the poor creatures lived longer than
the briefest possible period after their entombment in the
ruins. The sharp ruinous crash was followed by a painfully
significant silence.