GREAT SNOW-STORM OF 1836. 87 



In consequence of the blocking up of the Thames 

 in ahiiost all the navigable parts, coals rose to an 

 enormous price, and the metropolis was threatened 

 with total darkness, owing to the inability of the 

 gas companies to procure a supply. All this goes 

 to prove, that with the advent of railroads we had 

 not conquered the elements. 



In the winter of 1836 there was a very severe 

 snow-storm, of which a West Country newspaper gives 

 a very interesting account, which appears in Mr. 

 Harris's book on coaching as follows : 



" The heavy fall of snow experienced in and 

 around the metropolis during Christmas night appears 

 to have extended over every part of the kingdom. 

 On Sunday morning scarcely any of the mail-coaches 

 arrived in London before half-past eight o'clock, owing 

 to the heavy state of the roads ; but as on that day 

 they bring no bags, no great exertions were made for 

 keeping time. The guard of the Glasgow mail, which 

 arrived on Sunday morning, said that at one place the 

 mail was two hours getting over four miles of ground. 

 Never before, within recollection, were the London 

 mails stopped for a whole night at a few miles from 

 London, and never before has the intercourse between 

 the southern shires of England and the metropolis 

 been interrupted for two whole days. None of the 

 regular coaches due on Monday from any part of the 

 country had arrived during the night. The Dover, 

 Hastings, Brighton, Chester, Edinburgh, also the 

 Liverpool and Leeds evening mails, had not reached 

 London at twelve o'clock. The only mails that 

 arrived up to that hour were the Poole, Portsmouth, 

 and Ipswich, the latter of which did not reach the 

 Post Office until a quarter to twelve. Fourteen 



