SNOW AND FLOODS i6i 



had the London mails been stopped for a whole 

 night within a few miles from London, and never 

 before had the intercourse between the South 

 Coast and the Metropolis been interrupted for 

 two whole days. On Chatham Lines the snow 

 lay from thirty to forty feet deep, and everywhere, 

 except on the hilltops, it Avas higher than the 

 roofs of the coaches. Nay, according to a con- 

 temporary newspaper account, " The snow has 

 drifted to such an extent between Leicester and 

 Northampton as to occasion considerable difficulty 

 and danger. In some parts of the road passages 

 have been cut where the snow had drifted to 

 the depth of thirty, forty, and in some places 

 fifty feet." 



The great difficulty with which the coaches 

 had on this occasion to contend was not merely 

 the getting along the roads, but, as with these 

 extraordinary depths of snow the natural features 

 of the country were mostly obscured, of keeping 

 on or anywhere near the road. HedgeroAvs Avere 

 blotted out of existence: many trees had fallen 

 luider their snoAvy Inirdens, and it Avas not 

 unusual, Avhen at last the snowed-up mails Avere 

 recovered, to find them strayed far from their 

 course, and in the middle of pastures and 

 jiloughlands. 



SnoAvstorms produced curious travelling ex- 

 periences. It Avas this great occasion that 

 effectually Ijlocked all the up night coaches for 

 tAvo days at Dunchurch, on the Holyhead Road, 

 and so succeeded in bringing together a party 

 VOL. II. 11 



