The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1877-02-01
A MEMORABLE STORM.

Not far from Drury Lane, London. is
a street called Wild street, in which
| there has long stood a Baptist chapel.
This institution has for one hundred and
seventy-three years been remarkable for
sermon annually preached there in
commemoration Of the greatest storm
that has occurred in England in modern
times. Robert Taylor, who survived
this fearful vista tion, after having been
exposed to awful peril, placed u small
sum OF money in the public funds to pay
for an annual sermon, which never
fails to excite extraordinary inter-
est. This storm-for several years aft
erward mentioned not as storm, but the
storm-Was comparable, says Lord STAN
hope, in his history OF Queen Anne's
reign, to the worst in tropical climes.
Its chief force was spent in the south
and southwest of England. The Queen
was aroused from her bed in St. James,
Palace by part OF that venerable struct-
urs being blown down, and the Bishop
OF Bath and Wells and his wife were
killed by the fall of chimney stack,
The Register of Eton College was blown
from the room into the street near Lud-
gate Hill, London.
Inc damage done to Bristol was COM
puLed al &l5O,O00. "POrtsmouth," says
writer OF the time, "looks like a city
bombarded." The Eddystone light
house was swept into the sea. The
whole country was strewn with giant
trees, torn from the roots by a wind
such as had never been known before.
Curiosity led DeIoe to count them in a
ride around London. He counted seven
teen thousand, and then got tired.
But the most terrible disasters were
at sea. Fifteen sail Of the line, including
Admiral Bowater and the whole OF his
crew, together with several huHdred
merchantmen and sixty-four gun shin.
with Admiral Beaumont on board, per-
ished, the latter In full view OF Deal. or
two hundred and sixty.nine men, but
one was saved-cast by wave to the
shore. 1t has been computed that eight
thousand people were lost.
The House OF Commons presented an
address to the Queen deploring the loss
to the navy, anu suggesting tne build
ing of new shops, this being, SAYS LORD
Macauley, the only occasion in England
when a tempest evoked a public ad-
dress, or the national fast which fol-
lowed 1t. During Queen Anne's reign
the day of the storm continued, in oDe-
dience to her proclamation, to be SOL
EMMY observed. The worst year in En-
gland since then was 1914. In its au-
tumn and winter the sea was covered
with wrecks and the coast with corpses.
On November 70 fearful tempest
swept up from the tumultuous Atlantic,
The wind ragged for three days with ap-
palting fury. The year closed with a
long-remembered snow-storm, which alb
solutely paralyzed locomotiou through.
out the kingdom tor nearly week.
The foreign mails were sent by sea
from London to the continent, because
the road through Kent, despite the
efforts OF the immense crowd set to clear
it, continued impossible. "Perhaps,n
observes writer, referring to it some
years later, emo act OF nature gives so
high a conception Of more than mortal
hand-the rapidly OF its effect, the sub
tie but resistless chemistry by which
the lmpalpable element was turned into
a material of totally different form aud
qualities sufficient to sheet millions of
miles" What myriad OF human hopes
must have been suddenly thwarted or
defeated by this visitation, which proba-
bly,, in some indirect manaer, affected
the course Of as many careers.