SNOW 55 



the pavement could not be touched by the wheels or 

 the horses' feet, so that the carriages ran about 

 without the least noise.' I was at a Surveyors' 

 meeting at Malvern, and did but hear rumours of 

 serious stoppages of the mails. Had there been 

 mail-coaches on the road, they must have given in 

 altogether. Tewkesbury, I recollect, was blocked 

 with snow, except where, in the town, a roadway had 

 been cut. 



The winter of 189-1-5 compares in duration and 

 severity — if not in amount of snow-fall, at least in 

 respect of frost — with many of the trying winters 

 already referred to. Even snow made itself felt in no 

 small degree. The beginning of February found the 

 whole of Great Britain wrapt in a white shroud. The 

 appearance of the land recalled the January of 1881 

 I have just referred to. The North of Scotland, 

 however, from a postal point of view, was the chief 

 sufferer. 



Sutherland and Caithness were practically sealed 

 up. Near Wick, the mail -train, on the way to 

 Georgemas, became embedded in a snow-drift twenty 

 feet deep and half a mile long. The snow on Blair 

 Atholl Station platform was up to the knee ; in the 

 cuttings it was over a man's head. Three engines 

 braced together, with a steam-plough in front and a 

 carriage full of workmen behind, prepared to charge a 

 block in Struan cutting. But the attempt was re- 

 linquished as hopeless. 



As in 1887, so in 1895, the Dava cutting filled up 



