The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-20 00:00:00

THE LATE STORM.

---
Stories of the mischief, as well as the good wrought by
the thunder and rainstorm continue to flow in. In the Grand
Surrey Canal the water rose three or four inches. At
Whitefriars the sewers overflowed, and filled the base-
ments, and in several instances even the ground floors.
In Lambeth, Rotherhithe, and Bermondsey the cellars of
publicans became overflowed, the barrels of beer, ale. and
casks of spirits were sent rolling about, and a vast amount
of stock-in-trade was destroyed. The market gardens
which all stood in need of rain, soon became flooded,
but the water quickly soaked into the ground. The
lightning set fire to the furze on Clapham-common,
but the rain almost immediately extinguished it. Fires
are also reported by the railway guards to have taken
place from the lightning in Mid-Surrey, Sussex, Cam-
bridge, along the Midland Railway, and at Cookham and
Maidenhead, all caused by the lightning. In the river
the sails of some coasting vessels were burned. The
lightning at one time was so vivid, and the rain fell in
such torrents, that it was impossible to bear against the
wind, especially in the Channel ; and whilst a sailing
barge, termed the Ixion, was bearing up against the tide,
the man in charge, named George Ayres, of Christ Church,
Blackfriars, was struck down by lightning, and, falling
into the river, was carried away by the tide. At a vil-
lage near Feltham, Surrey, as a man and his wife were
returning home, they were overtaken by the storm, and
the woman was killed by lightning. The man was
knocked down, and the money he had in his possess-
sion, as well as his watch, considerably damaged.
Much damage was done by the storm in the Bolton dis-
trict. The lightning struck a dwelling at Dembhill and
set it on fire, but the flames were soon extinguished.
In Bolton the main sewer burst, making a gap in the
street eight yards long and endangering the co-operative
stores. Five farmers' houses in the neighbourheod were
flooded, and the inmates rescued from the bedroom
windows. The Farnworth and Ashley-bridge suffered
considerably. At Theapstone, Northamptonshire, a
man was struck by lightning, and is not expected to re-
cover.

EXTRAORDINARY AC CIDENT.—A serious accident
has happened at Woolwich Arsenal, just as the working
staff of the new Army Service Corps was leaving work.
Some men of the corps were engaged in taking
down the heavy shot from immense piles in a pyramid
form, ranged along the east end of the arsenal,
fronting the river, for the purpose of inspecting and
repairing them, according to the general rule at this time
of the year. The men, instead of commencing to
unpile the shot-68-pounders from the top of
the pyramid, began by removing those in the
lowest tier at the base ; consequently, directly they were
levered out the whole of the shot above them rolled down,
entirely burying one man and crushing the legs of two
others, while several more only just managed to escape in
time. Every effort was made to extricate the sufferers,
when, strange to say, the man entirely covered with the
metal was drawn out almost unhurt—save from a severe
squeezing ; but the other two, named Halpin and Salter,
were very much hurt.