The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-01-12
NUMBER 20.
Autumn s4U......5.

Net far from Drury Lane, London, is
street called Wild street, in which there
has long stood Baptist chapel. This in
stitutiou has Cor 173 years been remarkable
for a sermon annually preached there i'm
cummemoratlon of the greatest storm that
has occurred i'm England in modern times.
Robert Taylor. who survived this fearful
visitation after having been exposed To aw-
ful peril. placed a small sum of morey i'm
the public funds tn pay for an annual ser
mon which never fails 10 excite extIaordi-
nary interest. This storm, for several years
afterwaTd mentioned not as a storm. but as
The storm, was comparable, says Lord Stan
Eope. ia his history of Queen. Anne'S reigr,
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 10y part or that
venerable structure being blown down, aud
the Bishop of Bath aud Wells and his wife
were killed by the fall of chimney stack
The Registrar of Eton College was blown
from his room into the street near Ludgate
Hill, London. The damage done at Bris-
t"l vas computed at GlJ0,000. Ports
mouth" saws writer OF lie time. s'looks
like city bombarded." The Eddystoue
Lighthouse was swept into the sea. The
whole country was strewn with giant trees.
torn from the roots by wind such as had
never been known before. Curiosity led
Defoe 10 count them in a ride around Lon
don. He counted 1900. 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 hundred mer-
chantmen and a sixty-four gnn ship, with
Admiral Beaumont on boald, perished. the
latter in full view Of Deal. OF 269 men but
one was saved-cast by wave to shore.
1t has been computed that 8, 600 people were
lost. The House of Commons presented
an address to the Queen deploring the loss
To the navy, and suggesting the building Of
new ships, this being. SAYS Lord Macauiay
the only occasion in England when a tenn
pest evoked a public address, or the na-
tional fast which followed it. During
Queen Anne's reign the day OF the storm
continued, i'm obedience to her prOclama-
tjon, to be solemnly observed. The worst
year in England since then was 1914 Iu
its autumn and winter the sea was covered
with wrecks and the coast with corpses.
On Nov. 29th a fearful tempest swept up
from the tumultuous Atlantic. The wind
ragged for three DAYS with appalling fury.
The year closed with a long remembered
snow stotm which paraiyzcd locomotion
throughout the kingdom for nearly week.
Tie foreign mails were sent by sea from
London to the Continent, because the road
through Kent, despite the efforts of tho
immense crowd set to clear it, continued
impossible. Perhaps" observes n writer.
referring TO il some years later, mo act Of
nature gives so high a conception of a more
than mortal hand-the rapidity of its effect,
the subtle but Tesistless chemistry by which
the irnpalpable element was turned into q
material of Il totally different form and quail
tiles sufficient to sheet millions of miles. -
1 What myriad OF human hopes must have
been suddenly thwarted oI defeated by this
visitation, which probably in some indirect
manner affected the course of as many Ca
Ieers IN. \. Sun.