The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-01-31
Great snOiU Storms in England.


The winter of 1884 appears to
have been the seyerest ever recorded
in England This was one of the oc-
Gasions when the Thames was frozen
over and q fair held thereon. The
river was frozen from December to
February. Trees were split in the for
est by the violence of the cold, nearly
all tie birds perished, and the heavy
SHOWS made the roads in some parts
of the country absolutely impossible.
The winter of 1T0S-9 was notable
for its three months continuous frost
and snow. Ten years later a snow
storm on the bCrderlan1s of Sweden
and Norway caused terrible disaster.
The Swedish army was marching on
prontheim. They were overtaken on
the mountains by a snow storm so
severe that 1000 of them perished, and
the expedition had to be abandoned.
The Norwegians have the credit of
the introduction OF soldiers trained to
manRnvre on the snow, with a kind
of snow-skate; but under such circum-
stances as these they would have strug-
gled against the warning elements in
vain. The snow storms of that season
reached TO England, and in the south
and west snow fell for several days in
succession early in January, and as
one of the sufferers remarks, there was /
very hard frost for long thyme, be- /
sides snow very often, and all things .
very deare. so that half-penny rowle +
weighed just a crowne piece, 1.-two
turneps sold for peny. and Goals sold /.
for 4Os. a quarter, and all theis things,
notwithstanding soc deare, was very
bad in kinde"
Nearly half century passed, before
there was any snowfall in England at
all approaching this, but in February,
1852, it showed eighteen days without
Ceasing. The eighteenth century clos
I'd as it began, with q succession of
hard winters" Looking through the
records.of these.times, we can we'll un-
derstand the oft-quoted remark of the
oldest inhabitants" that since they
were boys the seasons have changed J
The winter OF 1874 was one of the
most severe of the series Snow fell
first on October I, and from that date
until April ., I7s5-I77 davs-there
we're only twelve days on which it did
not either freeze or snow, or both.
The,Yinter Of 1914 was long remenis,
bered in many parts of England as
that Of the Great Frost" All over
the country the mail coaches had to
cease running, and in many instances
were abandoned in the snow, the letters
being sent on py tne guards on horse
back And even this means Of convey
ance proved dnavailing in some locali-
ties, for when the snow lay four feet
deep in the streets of great towns, it
may be fairly presumed that it proved
3 more serious obstacle in the country.
Another remarkable Snow yGar was
1920. in this year, as IN 1914, the
quantity Of snow thai fell on the
1noors and fells of the North, and the
great plateau of DartmOOr, vas enor-
nous, and several lives were lost
So far as Great Britain is concerned,
no snow storm for the past hundred
years has annroached in violence and
extent that of December, 1886. After
it had been showing heavily for two
days, by the evening of the 2Gth the
wind Increased 20 q hurricane The
fall Of snow that night was four to nine
feet, and some Of the snow-drifts were
twenty, thirty, even fifty feet in depth.
THE mails, all business and cores
pondence were stopped nearly a week,
until the multitudes employed had cut
a way in the snow Several lives were
ost in the snow, which was equally
great all the island over"
Since then England has had sevela!
winters in which there have been
heavy falls of snow, and some in which
,he mail coaches in various parts Of
The country had to be dug out Of the
drifts, as happened to the once famous
Quicksilver" mail so recently as 1912
One nights snowfall was sufficient to z
bury the coach, and it took seventy
men, working all night, 10 cut a way
through the drift, and allow it to pro-
ID.