The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-02 00:00:00

HIGH WINDS AND FLOODS.

The high wind on Monday night was productive of
much mischief westward of the metropolis. Hyde Park
and Kensington-gardens were on Tuesday morning
strewed with massive limbs and branches of trees, while
numerous were the shrubs levelled to the ground.
Nearly opposite the Kensington-gate of Hyde Park a
house newly erected by a builder named Paine had the
roof completely carried away by the wind. In the Duke
of Devonshire's park at Chiswick much damage was
done ; and also at Sion Park, the seat of the Duke of
Northumberland, Osterley Park, the seat of the Earl of
Jersey, and in Hanworth Park, the scat of Mr. H.
Perkins, several valuable trees have been torn up by the
roots.

The heavy rains during the last few days have occa-
sioned large floods throughout the neighbourhood of the
metropolis, which have been productive of much loss
and damage, and in many places have occasioned great
alarm amongst the inhabitants. About Hanwell all the
low lands are under water, while in the neighbourhood
of Greenford, Northolt, Perivale, and the surrounding
p Ins below Harrow, the roads are in many places dan-
gerous, and in some impassable, some of the sergeants
of police reporting on Tuesday morning that, owing to
the height of the water, they had been unable to visit
the whole of the constables in their sections. About
Uxbridge, and the lower parts of East Bucks, the coun-
try is greatly inundated, and much damage has been
done both to crops and cattle. At Brentford, on Mon-
day night, the inhabitants were greatly alarmed by the
continued rise of the waters of the. Grand Junction
Canal, which were swolien and increased to an alarming
extent.
On Tuesday morning the wharfs of Mr. Sims and
others on the banks of the canal were flooded, but the
considAerfebnldea.y
night a new shop-
front in Church-street, Borough, was blown with great
violence into the street, the panes of glass flying about
in all directions, and the whole being completely smashed
to pieces. A female who was assing by
rn
wasthe csheeveekrely
wounded by a piece of glass striking her
About nine o'clock on Tuesday morning a high
chimney, belonging to an unoccupied house in Ber-
mondsey-street, fell, and did considerable damage to the
roof of the house.
In St. George's-road, Lambeth, a stack of chimneys,
on the house of Mr. Wheelton, fruiterer, fell with a tre-
mendous crash, driving in a large portion of the roof
with it ; fortunately no person was in the attic at the
with
time, or the occurrence would have beeh attended
fatal results.
At Greenwich several fields, as well as public tho-
roughfares, adjaceutto the river Ravensbourne, were
completely covered with water. An extent of nearly
thirty acres of meadow land, at the back of Blackheath-
road, during Monday and Tuesday, presented the ap-
pearance of a large lake. At Lewisham the high road
was overflown for several hundred yards, and foot pas-
sengers were conveyed over in carts. At Lee, South-
end, Mottingham, and various other places, the same
result from the almost unprecedented rains of Monday
ensued. At Lee Green the main road was covered
from a small stream which in dry weather a person can
step across, but in which, during a heavy fall of rain
some time since, a farmer, residing in Kent, was unfor-
tunately drowned. He was returning home one night,
and, not being aware that the water had risen, drove
his horse into the stream. At Southend several fields
belonging to Mr. Edgerton, farmer, were quite inun-
dated. At Brockley, Peckbam, some fields near the
Grand Surrey Canal, and again in places nearer the
metropolis, patches of land arc overflowed, some of them
to a great extent.

The river onTuesday morning was a terrible scene
of confusion, the craft were adrift and sinking in all di-
rections, and not fewer than one hundred barges laden
with coals got loose from their moorings and sunk
during the night. The shipping has not sustained much
damage, but many tiers got adrift, and a few vessels
received irijury,by the barges going athwart them. The

hurricane on Sunday and Monday nights has been se-
verely felt in the Channel, and at Plymouth, Falmouth,
the Downs, end other places there are more than two
hundred sail of vessels outward and homeward bound
waiting for a fair wind to get under weigh. Ramsgate
harbour is crowded with vessels of all nations which have
taken refuge there. The Nelson steam-tug towed a
schooner off the sands near Margate at five o'clock on
Monday afternoon, and reached St. Katherine Docks
with her yesterday at twelve at noon. The captain of
the steamer reports that several vessels had gone ashore
or were on the sands, and that the gale was one of the
most severe he ever experienced.
A very fatal and distressing accident happened on
the river, between Wandsworth and Putney. Two
lads, of the names of Moor and Vincent, whose
parents live at Putney, were out in a skiff. When the
weather became very boisterous, they endeavoured to
reach the Surrey shore, about half a mile above
Wandsworth meadows ; but from bad management,
with the high wind and strong tide, the boat unhap-
pily swamped. Vincent almost immediately disap-
peared ; but Moor, being a good swimmer, succeeded
in reaching the shore, although in a very exhausted
state. The accident was seen from a sailing-barge, but
those on board were unable to render any assistance.
The body of the poor youth who perished bas not yet
been found. Owing to the very high wind on Tues-
day, many other accidents, in addition to the above
melancholy one, happened on the river. Three men
were upset in a boat off Rotherhithe, but providen-
tially they were all saved. Near Greenwich a man was
blown from the yard-arm of a coasting vessel, but for-
tunately falling into the river, he sustained no injury,
and was picked up by a waterman's boat.