The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-28 00:00:00

THE SNOW STORM.

The severity of the weather still continues, with every ap-
pearance of a much heavier fall of snow. The storm, though
everywhere heavy, seemed to have been rather heavier to
the south of the metropolis than in the other directions, and
has laid a complete embargo on all news from abroad, and
on almost all from the interior. Never before, within our
recollection, was the London mail stopped for a whole night
at a few miles from London ; and never before have we
seen the intercourse between the Southern shires of Eng-
land and the metropolis interrupted for three whole days.
The guards represent the night as one of the severest they
ever experienced, and bring reports, which we trust are ex-
aggerated, of great loss of property, and, in some instances,
o

One of the Wisbeach coaches, which left town on Mon
day evening, was unable to proceed further on its journey
than Wade's-mill, 23 miles from London ; and yesterday
morning it returned to the Swan-with-two-Necks, the coach-
man being convinced that it would be impracticable to at-
tempt to proceed further downwards.
The proprietors of the Swan-with-Two-Necks, Lad-lane,
and the other large coach-offices, have determined not to
allow any more coaches to leave for the country until intelli-
gence is received as to the state of the roads, a determina-
tion which is considered very prudent and necessary. It is
impossible to convey even a slight idea of the anxiety dis-
played for the safety of those who are known to be on the
road ; the inconvenience in commercial transactions is great
indeed, and, should the severity of the weather continue
much longer, it is apprehended in some cases it will prove
ruinous to individuals.
The Brighton up-mail of Sunday had travelled about
eight miles from that town, when it fell into a drift of
snow, from which it was impossible to extricate it without
further assistance. After much difficulty, the coach had
been found, but could not be extricated from the hollow
into which it had got. The guard did not reach town till
7 o'clock last night, having been obliged to travel with the
bags on horseback, and in many instances to leave the
main road and proceed across fields in order to avoid the
deep drifts of snow. The passengers, coachman, and guard
slept at Clayton, seven miles from Brighton. The road
below Handcross was quite impassable.
The non-arrival of the mail at Crawley induced the
postmaster there to send a man in a gig to ascertain the
cause on Monday afternoon. No tidings being heard of
man, gig. or horse, for several hours, another man was dis-
patched on horseback, and after a long search, he found
the horse and gig completely built up in the snow. The
man was in an exhausted state. After considerable diffi-
culty the horse and gig were extricated and the party re-
turned to Crawley. The man had learned no tidings of the
mail, and refused to go out again on any such exploring

mission.
BRIGHTON, MONDAY, DEC. 26, One o'Clock, P.M.
All this part of the country is at the present momen
buried in snow. We were visited with a heavy fall early
on Saturday morning, and it continued falling at intervals
throughout the day ;it was renewed with increased vio-
lence on Saturday night, and has been coming down with-
out intermission ever since, accompanied by a cold and very
strong wind from the north. A stable-man was picked up
in Black Lion-street last night by the police, frozen to
death ; another, an old man named Freeman, dropped dead
in the street this morning from sheer cold. The Times
coach, which leaves London at four o'clock, and generally
arrives here a little before nine, did not get in till twenty
minutes past eleven, being for the last fifteen miles of the
journey clogged up by the snow. The Gloucester mail,
which ought to have been in by five o'clock yesterday af-
ternoon, was obliged to stop on the road, and the guard
and coachmen reached this town only at one o'clock this
morning, having brought the bags in a cart along
the beach ; they were, however, so affected by the
cold, that the guard now lies, it is feared, in a
dying state. The mail started, as usual, for London
last night, but had not got three miles before it was
obliged to return. A King's messenger, who had im-
portant dispatches with him, attempted, with the assist-
ance of a guide, to travel on horseback, but could not get
on. The messenger is now about to start again in a post-
chaise, and the mail-bags will go with him, but no passen-
gers. Not a coach besides has left this town or come into
it to-day, and none arc expected to start for a week ; bu-
siness of every sort is suspended, as the roads are impas-
sable, the snow being in some places five and six feet deep.
A meeting of the parochial authorities will be held this af-
ternoon, and a town meeting to-morrow, to take measures
for the assistance and comfort of the poor.
(FURTHER PARTICULARS.)
The continuance of the storm, with its accompaniment
of a stiff northern breeze, has generally suspended all in-
tercourse between the metropolis and the provinces.
Scarcely a stage-coach left London either yesterday or the
day before, and the arrivals from the country have been as
few. The Regulator Bristol coach, which ought to have
been in on Monday evening, had not arrived, or been heard
of, last night.
The Manchester down mail reached St. Alban's, and
getting off the road into the hollow, was upset. The guard
returned to London yesterday in a post-chaise and four
horses with the bags and passengers.
Between Slough and Maidenhead the roads are reported
to be most dreadful, and a great number of malls and
coaches remain weather-bound between those places.
The Liverpool coach, from the Swan with Two Necks,
started on Monday night, but turned back. At two o'clock
yesterday afternoon a post-chaise and four arrived at Lad-
lane with some travellers, who had left Northampton by
that, the only means of conveyance, at four o'clock on Mon-
day morning.
The north road is declared to be excessively heavy, par-
ticularly about Barnet, St. Alban's, Chalk-hill, and Mims.
The few of the guards and coachmen who have reached
London state, that it is not the quantity of snow fallen
which creates the difficulty so much as the strong wind
which drives all the snow from the high lands into the hol-
lows. A sharp frost would make the roads more passable ;
for at present the snow is so shifting and unattached, that
as soon as a passage is cut through, it is driven back, and
the road in a few hours becomes as much choked as at first.
The following notices were yesterday evening exhibited
at the General Post-office :
" All the mails will be despatched to-night-5 p.m.
" All letters which arrive by the late mails will be deli-
vered by the Twopenny Post.-3i p.m."
Instead of all, only five mails left at half-past eight o'clock
at night, viz., the Holyhead and the Halifax, each drawn by
four horses, with a post-boy to each pair ; the Edinburgh
with six horses, a postilion on the foremost pair ; the
Brighton with two pair of horses, being a pair more than
usual ; and the Bristol. The Dover was to leave at mid-
night, with the foreign mails. Most of the horses harnessed
on this occasion were unused to coach work, and hence
post-boys were employed. It was so doubtful whether any
of the mails would start that at the principal coach inns the
proprietors refused to book passengers. The mails that left
last night carry bags for the absent mails on the same main
line of road.
The following mail-bags had been received by five o'clock
last night :
" Ryde, Hopley, Cobham, Esher, Kingston, Petworth,
Midhurst, Gosport, Emsworth, Portsmouth, Swansea,
Chichester, Dorking, Arundel, Petersfield, Haslemere,
Liphook, Godalming, Guildford Leatherhead, Epsom,
Waltham Cross, Royston, Hoddesdon, Ware, St. Ive's,
Wisbeach, March, Chatteris, Rochester, Gravesend,
Maidstone, Dartford, Chathem, Godston, Croydon, Craw-
ley, East Grinstead, Horsham, Reigate, Footscray, Farn-
ham, Bagshot, Windsor, Alton, Ringwood, Willingham,
Staines, Bracknell, Stockbridge, Christchurch, Romsey,
Lymington, Winchester, Wimbourne, Lyndhurst, Bishop's
Waltham, Alresford, Farnham, Pool, Wareham, New-
port, with letters of Isle of Wight of Monday, Isle of
Wight with letters of same date, Harwich, Manningtree,
Brentwood, Billericay, Rochford, Ipswich, Ongar, Kel-
vedon, Witham, Ingatestone, Romford, Colchester, Mal-
don, Chelmsford, Hadleigh, Cambridge, Downham, Wells,
Ely, Buntingford, Bromley, Stowmarket, Colnbrook, Mar-
low, Hounslow, Henley, Barnet, Bishop Stortford, Har-
low, and Epping."
The Birmingham, via Banbury, bags of Monday were
got in by half-past 11 o'clock on Monday night. The
mail-coach had been left seventy miles from London, and
the guard had brought the bags the distance on horseback.
He rode one horse himself, ha a led horse with the Lon-
don bags on it, and two other horses with the small bags
upon them. The two horses with the small bags were
ridden the latter part of the distance by postboys, but the
horse with the London bag was throughout led by the
guard. They were constantly deviating from the road, and
nothing but a general knowledge of localities, with good
nerve, enabled the guard to accomplish the journey.
The guard, on reaching London, was in a most distressing
state of exhaustion. Hedges, gates, and ditches, had been
cleared in many instances.
The bags of the Manchester and Halifax mails of Mon-
day were brought up late the night of the morning they
became due in post-chaises, the mails being left on the road.
The Monday's Manchester mail-coach arrived yesterday
afternoon. It was dragged out of a drift at Chalk-hill by
eight horses, the fore part giving way.
Cooper's Bristol coach arrived yesterday at noon, instead
of at half-past seven o'clock a. m. The Brighton mail, a
pair-horse mail, left town last night with four horses ; the
Edinburgh with six horses, and the Holyhead and Halifax
mails were drawn by four horses, with postilions. The day
mail from Falmouth arrived a little before nine at night.
The Dover was to leave at midnight with the foreign
mails.
The Edinburgh mail of Monday arrived about nine
o'clock last night. The Devonport and Old Eset.,r came
in within half an hour afterwards.
The town of St. Alban's is completely full of mails and
coaches, which can neither get up nor down.