Linear Wood Sorrel. _Oxalis linearis._
Dedicated to _St. Conrad_.
~November 27.~
_St. Maximus_, Bp. of Riez, A. D. 460. _St. James_, surnamed
_Intercisus_, A. D. 421. _St. Maharsapor_, A. D. 421. _St. Virgil_,
Bp. of Saltzburg, A. D. 784. _St. Secundin_, or _Seachnal_, Bp. of
Dunsaghlin, in Meath, A. D. 447.
ANNIVERSARY OF
~The Great Storm~
IN ENGLAND.
In _Little Wild-street_ chapel, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, a sermon is
annually preached on this day in commemoration of the “GREAT STORM” in
1703.
This fearful tempest was preceded by a strong west wind, which set in
about the middle of the month; and every day, and almost every hour,
increased in force until the 24th, when it blew furiously, occasioned
much alarm, and some damage was sustained. On the 25th, and through the
night following, it continued with unusual violence. On the morning of
Friday, the 26th, it raged so fearfully that only few people had courage
to venture abroad. Towards evening it rose still higher; the night
setting in with excessive darkness added general horror to the scene,
and prevented any from seeking security abroad from their homes, had
that been possible. The extraordinary power of the wind created a noise,
hoarse and dreadful, like thunder, which carried terror to every ear,
and appalled every heart. There were also appearances in the heavens
that resembled lightning. “The air,” says a writer at the time, “was
full of meteors and fiery vapours; yet,” he adds, “I am of opinion, that
there was really no lightning, in the common acceptation of the term;
for the clouds, that flew with such violence through the air, were not
to my observation such as are usually freighted with thunder and
lightning; the hurries nature was then in do not consist with the system
of thunder.” Some imagined the tempest was accompanied with an
earthquake. “Horror and confusion seized upon all, whether on shore or
at sea; no pen can describe it, no tongue can express it, no thought can
conceive it, unless theirs who were in the extremity of it; and who
being touched with a due sense of the sparing mercy of their Maker,
retain the deep impressions of his goodness upon their minds though the
danger be past. To venture abroad was to rush into instant death, and to
stay within afforded no other prospect than that of being buried under
the ruins of a falling habitation. Some in their distraction did the
former, and met death in the streets; others the latter, and in their
own houses received their final doom.” One hundred and twenty-three
persons were killed by the falling of dwellings; amongst these were the
bishop of Bath and Wells (Dr. Richard Kidder) and his lady, by the fall
of part of the episcopal palace of Wells; and lady Penelope Nicholas,
sister to the bishop of London, at Horsley, in Sussex. Those who
perished in the waters, in the floods of the Severn and the Thames, on
the coast of Holland, and in ships blown away and never heard of
afterwards, are computed to have amounted to eight thousand.
All ranks and degrees were affected by this amazing tempest, for every
family that had any thing to lose lost something: land, houses,
churches, corn, trees, rivers, all were disturbed or damaged by its
fury; small buildings were for the most part wholly swept away, “as
chaff before the wind.” Above eight hundred dwelling-houses were laid in
ruins. Few of those that resisted escaped from being unroofed, which is
clear from the prodigious increase in the price of tiles, which rose
from twenty-one shillings to six pounds the thousand. About two thousand
stacks of chimnies were blown down in and about London. When the day
broke the houses were mostly stripped, and appeared like so many
skeletons. The consternation was so great that trade and business were
suspended, for the first occupation of the mind was so to repair the
houses that families might be preserved from the inclemency of the
weather in the rigorous season. The streets were covered with brickbats,
broken tiles, signs, bulks, and penthouses.
The lead which covered one hundred churches, and many public buildings,
was rolled up, and hurled in prodigious quantities to distances almost
incredible; spires and turrets of many others were thrown down.
Innumerable stacks of corn and hay were blown away, or so torn and
scattered as to receive great damage.
Multitudes of cattle were lost. In one level in Gloucestershire, on the
banks of the Severn, fifteen thousand sheep were drowned. Innumerable
trees were torn up by the roots; one writer says, that he himself
numbered seventeen thousand in part of the county of Kent alone, and
that, tired with counting, he left off reckoning.
The damage in the city of London, only, was computed at near two
millions sterling. At Bristol, it was about two hundred thousand pounds.
In the whole, it was supposed that the loss was greater than that
produced by the great fire of London, 1666, which was estimated at four
millions.
The greater part of the navy was at sea, and if the storm had not been
at its height at full flood, and in a spring-tide, the loss might have
been nearly fatal to the nation. It was so considerable, that fifteen or
sixteen men of war were cast away, and more than two thousand seamen
perished. Few merchantmen were lost; for most of those that were driven
to sea were safe. Rear-admiral Beaumont with a squadron then lying in
the Downs, perished with his own and several other ships on the Goodwin
Sands.
The ships lost by the storm were estimated at three hundred. In the
river Thames, only four ships remained between London-bridge and
Limehouse, the rest being driven below, and lying there miserably
beating against one another. Five hundred wherries, three hundred
ship-boats, and one hundred lighters and barges were entirely lost; and
a much greater number received considerable damage. The wind blew from
the western seas, which preventing many ships from putting to sea, and
driving others into harbour, occasioned great numbers to escape
destruction.
The Eddystone lighthouse near Plymouth was precipitated in the
surrounding ocean, and with it Mr. Winstanley, the ingenious architect,
by whom it was contrived, and the people who were with him.--“Having
been frequently told that the edifice was too slight to withstand the
fury of the winds and waves, he was accustomed to reply contemptuously,
that he only wished to be in it when a storm should happen.
Unfortunately his desire was gratified. Signals of distress were made,
but in so tremendous a sea no vessel could live, or would venture to put
off for their relief.”[394]
The amazing strength and rapidity of the wind, are evidenced by the
following well authenticated circumstances. Near Shaftesbury a stone of
near four hundred pounds weight, which had lain for some years fixed in
the ground, fenced by a bank with a low stone wall upon it, was lifted
up by the wind, and carried into a hollow way, distant at least seven
yards from the place. This is mentioned in a sermon preached by Dr.
Samuel Stennett, in 1788. Dr. Andrew Gifford in a sermon preached at
Little Wylde-street, on the 27th of November, 1734, says that “in a
country town, a large stable was at once removed off its foundation and
instantly carried quite across the highway, over the heads of five
horses and the man that was then feeding them, without hurting any one
of them, or removing the rack and manger, both of which remained for a
considerable time to the admiration of every beholder.” Dr. Gifford in
the same sermon, gives an account of “several remarkable deliverances.”
One of the most remarkable instances of this kind occurred at a house in
the Strand, in which were no less than fourteen persons: “Four of them
fell with a great part of the house, &c. three stories, and several two;
and though buried in the ruins, were taken out unhurt: of these, three
were children; one that lay by itself, in a little bed near its nurse;
another in a cradle; and the third was found hanging (as it were wrap’d
up) in some curtains that hitch’d by the way; neither of whom received
the least damage. In another place, as a minister was crossing a court
near his house, a stone from the top of a chimney upwards of one hundred
and forty pounds weight, fell close to his heels, and cut between his
footsteps four inches deep into the ground. Soon after, upon drawing in
his arm, which he had held out on some occasion, another stone of near
the same weight and size, brush’d by his elbow, and fell close to his
foot, which must necessarily, in the eye of reason, have killed him, had
it fallen while it was extended.” In the Poultry, where two boys were
lying in a garret, a huge stack of chimnies fell in, which making its
way through that and all the other floors to the cellar, it was followed
by the bed with the boys asleep in it, who first awaked in that gloomy
place of confusion without the least hurt.
So awful a visitation produced serious impressions on the government,
and a day of fasting and humiliation was appointed by authority. The
introductory part of the proclamation, issued by queen Anne for that
purpose, claims attention from its solemn import.
“WHEREAS, by the late most terrible and dreadful Storms of Wind, with
which it hath pleased Almighty God to afflict the greatest part of this
our Kingdom, on Friday and Saturday, the Twenty-Sixth and Twenty-Seventh
days of November last, some of our Ships of War, and many Ships of our
loving Subjects have been destroyed and lost at Sea, and great numbers
of our subjects, serving on board the same have perished, and many
houses and other buildings of our good Subjects have been either wholly
thrown down and demolished, or very much damnified and defaced, and
thereby several persons have been killed, and many Stacks of Corn and
Hay thrown down and scattered abroad, to the great damage and
impoverishment of many others, especially the poorer sort, and great
numbers of Timber and other Trees have by the said Storm been torn up by
the roots in many parts of this our Kingdom: a Calamity of this sort so
dreadful and astonishing, that the like hath not been seen or felt in
the memory of any person living in this our Kingdom, and which loudly
calls for the deepest and most solemn humiliation of us and our people:
therefore out of a deep and pious sense of what we and all our people
have suffered by the said dreadful Wind and Storms, (which we most
humbly acknowledge to be a token of the divine displeasure, and that it
was the infinite Mercy of God that we and our people were not thereby
wholly destroyed,) We have Resolved, and do hereby command, that a
General Public Fast be observed,” &c.
This public fast was accordingly observed, throughout England, on the
nineteenth of January following, with great seriousness and devotion by
all orders and denominations. The protestant dissenters, notwithstanding
their objections to the interference of the civil magistrate in matters
of religion, deeming this to be an occasion wherein they might unite
with their countrymen in openly bewailing the general calamity, rendered
the supplication universal, by opening their places of worship, and
every church and meeting-house was crowded.