160 J. E. LITTLEEOT THE FLOOD 



two feet deep rushed without let or hindrance through the rooms 

 and passages on the ground-jfloor. The Lower Mill has been in the 

 occupancy of my relations, until recently, for nearly a hundi'cd 

 years, and I can state with certainty that no such flood has ever 

 occurred during that time. The flood gained volume as it proceeded 

 onwards ; a large portion of Boxmoor was under water ; at 

 Frogiiiore End the turnpike-road was flooded, and all the low 

 meadows were in like condition. Along the Hempstead valley the 

 pretty little Gade behaved itself in an equally unseemly fashion. 

 I am informed by the Rev. W. T. Tyrwhitt Drake that, at Great 

 Gaddesden, floods of water poured down the hills in such 

 extraordinary volume that " the road was knee-deep," and that the 

 " church-pool," through which the river passes, overflowed on both 

 sides, a thing which no one ever remembered to have seen before. 

 " Before noon the river had resumed its ordinary level," but on the 

 hill-side "a gully 2 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. deep, and 2 ft. to 3 ft. wide, 

 ■was ci;t by the force of the water into the solid chalk." At Bury 

 Mill End the flood washed away large portions of a long wall, and 

 many cottages were flooded. A torrent of water rushed down the 

 lane leading from the Hempstead Workhouse with such extreme 

 violence that two gentlemen, who attempted to cross the Bury 

 road, lost their footing ; and a woman, who left her house in Queen 

 Street, was carried by the flood down the surface-drain. The 

 'Hempstead Gazette' states that "she was rescued with con- 

 siderable difficulty." At Nash Mills the water in the mill-tail 

 rose about three feet, and flooded the lower rooms at the paper- 

 mills. At Abbot's Hill water poured, literally in torrents, down 

 the grass-meadows that slope towards Bunker's Lane ; the farm- 

 buildings were flooded, and a number of valuable Berkshire pigs 

 only saved themselves by swimming. 



By noon on Sunday the flood had fairly reached King's Langiey, 

 and the whole of the low meadows above Hunton Bridge were 

 covered with water. At Hunton Bridge several cottages were in- 

 vaded by the current, and exit could only be effected from some of 

 them by ladders. The meadow immediately above the mill may be 

 described as a species of c^d de sac, drained only by a culvert that 

 runs at the back of two cottages and thence at right angles under 

 the mill-head. This culvert was quickly over-powered by the 

 immense volume of water that pressed upon it; the meadows filled 

 very rapidly ; water rose to the height of 5 ft. in the sitting-rooms 

 of the two cottages, and in some places the meadow was fully 8 ft. 

 under water. The current next forced its way into the road, and 

 a torrent, about two feet deep, continued to rush down it, between 

 the mill and the farm-house opposite, until Monday morning. At 

 about 4.40 p.m., a loud rolling noise, almost resembling thunder, 

 announced the disagreeable fact that the culvert under the mill- 

 head, to which I have before alluded, had been burst by the 

 enormous power of the water, and it became more than probable 

 that the embankment, under which the culvert passes, would 

 shortly give way. Workmen were immediately sent for j a dam 



