64 



It is observable that nearly all the storms above alluded to 

 took place in the winter half of the year, in one of the last three 

 or one of the first thi-ee months ; more rarely such gales occur 

 in September and April, and still more rarely in August. One 

 destructive "hurricane" in this last month is dated at 1853. 

 And I may mention another that came under my own observation 

 on the last two days of August, 1833, when a storm of wind and 

 rain took place, almost unparalleled, at that period of the year, 

 for its ^Hiolence and the length of time it lasted. It was a furious 

 gale from the N.N.W., with a continued rain for forty-eight hours, 

 doing immense damage to trees and buildings. Birds were beaten 

 down in numbers where they could not obtain shelter, and in some 

 cases the cattle in the fens were actually blown into the dykes 

 and killed. " The accounts from the coast were appalling, fifty- 

 nine vessels were reported at Lloyd's : in this fearful gale the 

 Aniphitrife, convict-ship, Avas lost, and all on board perished." 



But, after all, none of the storms hitherto noticed can be 

 compared for a moment -with " The Great Storm," as it has been 

 emphatically called, which occurred on the night of the 26tli-27th 

 of November, 1703, a stoi-m never exceeded in its destmctive 

 eff'ects, and which calls for a much longer account to be given of 

 it. We may form some idea of the violence of this storm from 

 the cu'cumstance of several books having been •written about it at 

 the time, one of the earlier volumes of the " Philosophical Tran- 

 sactions " being also full of it. The best known of these books 

 is that by Daniel De Foe, the author of " Robinson Crusoe," 

 published in London in 1704, the year after the storm. A copy 

 of this book, which is rather scarce, is in the Jenyns Library in 

 the Bath Literary Institution.* In it De Foe, who was himself in 

 London during the whole time the storm lasted, has brought 

 together all the particulars he could collect from difi"erent parts of 

 the country, as well as from abroad, to add to what fell under his 



* It is from De Foe's book that I have chiefly borrowed, in the account here 

 . given uf this storm. 



