The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-05-18 00:00:00

DESTRUCTION C.4USED BY THE RAIN.

Owing to the late heavy rain that this metropolis was visited with
on Friday and Saturday last, we regret to state the effects have teen
severely experienced at the outskirts of town. At Battersea the
inundation was dreadful : all those beautiful meadow-grounds, corn
fields, &c. for miles in extent, which only a fcw days previous bore
such a promising aspertiof the:season. are now completely laid waste,
so that scarcely anything was perceptible to the spectator's eye on
Sunday last, but a flowing stream of water. The embankments of
numerous enclosed gardens and fences have all been washed away
and totally destroyed, and the rural walks from Long Edge Farm,
on the Wandsworth-road, across the corn and wheat fields, leading
to the Red House, at Battersea, is totally impassable, and a number
of houses let out in tenements, which lay low in the streets from the
main road of Wandsworth, are so completely surrounded by the
flood that the inmates are confined within their dwellin the
water having entered the houses several feet deep. Thegs, road
from Kennington Common to Brixton Washway, where a rivulet
or running stream leads into Brixton, was so overflowed by the in-
cessant torrents of rain, that • brick wall, from 5 to 6 feet in height,
and between 15 and 20 in length, which inclosed a gentleman's
garden, was forced down, and carried away some distance by the
current. Across this rivulet, or ditch, it appears were erected seve-
ral wooden bridges, for:the inhabitants to pass over to reach their
dwellings ; these, however, shared a similar fate, by being
pletely destroyed and washed away, and it was not until temporary
erections were made, and properly secured, that the individual,
could return to their habitations, and then it was accomplished with
some difficulty. So severe was the hurricane on Saturday evening,
that the deluge extended itself across the main road, and gradually
continued to rise for some time, so that the coaches, carts, iwc. were
compelled to wade through the deep to the nave of the wheels.
The immense mass of gardeners' grounds that are situated on the
Milbank side of B'estminster, and which extend up to Pimlico,
have suffered to an alarming degree . • the plantations have been
torn up by the roots, and the hoshedsbereaved of their coverings,
conveyed down the stream, and broken to pieces. At Deptford, a
large range of buildings, occupied by Mr. Brown, a respectable
currier, in which a quantity of leather had been recently deposited,
was washed down, and carried, with the whole of its contents, along
the stream into the river ; a house, also, occupied by a poor widow
woman, and her four children, near 31M-stream, on the same spot,
was also removed and forced down the current, with the whole of
the furniture, the family fortunately, but narrowly, escaping with
their lives. A subscription was set on foot on Sunday last, by
several humane persons, to relieve this poor distressed and house-
less family. It is stated that the rain fell without intermission for
upwsrda of 30 hours, and the damage done is calculated to be very
considerable.

UNIIMIDGE, SUNDAY NIGIIT.—The flood from the late rains
is increasing every hour. The millers are now at work removing
meal, wheat, &c. to the upper apartments of their mills, and the
inmates of the houses near the flood are also removing, apprehen-
sive of a still further increase of the inundation. Forty lambs were
lost in a field of Mr. Elton's, at Denham, this morning. The via.
ter has not been so high here for the last twenty years.
There was a greater flood on the river Coe, near Rickmers.
worth, than has been witnessed for the last 29 years. The waters
rose yesterday morning so rapidly as to undermine and blow up
the highway bridge over the river, near the church, and to endan-
ger the premises and lives of the inhabitants residing in the neigh.
bourhood. .

At Lee and Lewisham, the waters were very high, and we fear
great damage was sustained : in some houses the flood was five feet
deep. A brewer's drayman was precipitated into the flood, and
would inevitably have been lost, but for the intrepidity of another
' person who plunged in after him, and with difficulty brought him
to land. . _ . .

~At Welling,
in Kent, we are informed, a poor woman Post her
, life late Saturday night. She was en a return post-chaise, the driver
lof which coining to a part where a bridge had been blown up by
I the waters, was unaware if the circumstance, and the whole was
carried away by the flood. The driver escaped, but the poor wo:
man and the horses were drowned.
The ancient water-course named Turnmill.bacik, communica:.
ing with the Tnaines from the vicinity of Highgate and Hampstead,
in that part between St. Pancras and the House of Correetion, over-
' flowed the banks, inundated the gardens, and did considerable in-
jury to the inhabitants and their dwellings. The liagnigge Wells
Tavern, being Immediately contiguous to the brook, experienced
injury and inconvenience to such a degree, that on Saturday after-
noon all was bustle and confusion to pump and clear the water front
the premises. About nine o'clock, a report reached that place, that
one man by accident, and another in endeavouring to rescue him,
had been washed from the open part of the gardens in the Hagnigge
Wells road, clown to the enclosed part at the back of Pearl Crescent.
Every endeavour was made by the inhabitants of the Tavern to im.
pede their further progress, and render assistance ; and in a
short time they succeeded in rescuing one person almost exhausted,
who had grappled the stem of an alder tree. The person thus saved
from a watery grave was soon recognised to be Mr. King of Drury_
lane Theatre.

In the pariah of Llanymynech, Wales, there has not
been a funeral (luring ten months. The inhabitants are
about 1,000, exclusive of Pant Trustan (Vale of Troubles),
which is a very populous place near Llanymynech (though
in Oswestry parish), and the inhabitants generally attend
' Llanymynech church. The old sexton and parish clerk
arc almost ruined fur want of business ; clergymen they
have none at present, and are often in the same prelica-
ment.. One inhabitant is now dead, viz. an at.ortiq's
bailiff or catclipole.—Shreserhury Chronicle.
Yesterday morning, a man who was cleaning windows at
a house in Hatton-garden, fell from the first floor window
and bloke his thigh. He was carried to St. Bartholomew's
Hospital.

-- -
Another dreadful accident, from cleaning windows,
occurred about five o'clock yesterday afternoon, at the National
School, in Baldwin'ti-ganiens, Gray's Inn-lane. William Batting,
one of the boys educated in that establishment, and whose parents
lire in Leather-lane, whilst In she act of cleansing the upper win-
down, missed his hold, and falling iu the street on his head, he as
killed on the spot,

Printed et THE BRITISH PRESS Dees, in J. W. Cana ox.
181, Strand, and Published by R. Eskimos, setts plea.