66 



not abated as it did, nothing could have ■withstood its ^^olence 

 much longer. 



It was just at this time that the greatest part of the damage was 

 done. Shortly afterwards, about sunrise, the storm abated for 

 awhile; but in the afternoon it increased again, "-^nth sudden 

 gusts as violent as at any time of the night." Then followed a 

 storm of rain Avhich reduced the force of the gale for another 

 interval. " Ere long however the huracane recommenced vnth 

 gi'eat fury, and in the course of the Sunday and Monday attained 

 such a height, that on Tuesday night few persons dared go to bed. 

 Continuing till noon on Wednesday the storm then gradually 

 decreased till four in the afternoon, when it terminated in a dead 

 calm, at the very hour of its commencement on the same day of 

 the preceding week." 



This terrible storm, it is said, " shook all Europe ;" — our island 

 being the first to receive the shock, whence it continued its course 

 over France, Germany and other parts of the continent. When 

 at its greatest height on the morning of the 27th, " many thought 

 that the end of the world had arrived : horror and confusion had 

 seized upon all ; no pen can describe it, no tongue can express, no 

 thought conceive it, except some of those who were in the 

 extremity of it." 



And a strange spectacle presented itself when, about eight 

 o'clock in the morning, on the lull of the storm, the affrighted 

 inhabitants of London first ventured "to peep out of doors." 

 " The streets lay so covered with tiles and slates, stones, lead, 

 timber and all kinds of rubbish, that the c[uantity was incredible. 

 The houses looked like skeletons, and were so universally stript, 

 that all the tiles in fifty miles round would be able to repair but a 

 small part of it." All business was laid aside for a time. Horror 

 sat on the countenances of the people. " Everybody's first work 

 was to visit and inquire after friends and relations." " The next 

 day or two was almost entirely spent in the curiosity of the 

 people, in viewing the havoc the storm had made. When this 



