6 
Trunk Drainage. 
In some localities tlie houses were completely submerged, only 
the chimneys remaining visible. At Gloucester the dock ware- 
houses, and even one of the churches, were inundated, and the 
city was three nights in darkness, owing to the Hooding of the 
gas-works. At Tewkesbury boats were employed to rescue the 
inhabitants. At Shrewsbury the abbey church, and nearly eight 
hundred liouses, were under water ; and the deluge extended for 
several miles over the surrounding country. 
In December the Severn, hardly subsided, again rose ; the 
houses in Shrewsbury again suffered, and the meadows for many 
miles were flooded to the depth of several feet, so that in many 
places along the Slirewsbury and Chester, and also the Shrop- 
shire Union, and Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railways, as far 
as the eye can reach, the land was completely drowned, to the 
vast damage of seeds and plants then in the ground. 
The almost unprecedented fall of rain during the latter end of 
1852 produced similar disasters in the soutli-western coimties. 
At Bath, the river Avon overflowed, the water reaching 10 feet 
above the ordinary level and inundating a great many houses, 
the inhabitants taking refuge in their upper apartments, and 
receiving supplies of food by boats. In the neighbourhood of 
Bristol an immense amount of property was destroyed. The 
central basin of Somersetshire, or the marshes and moors about 
the rivers Parret, Axe, and Brue, between Bridgewater, Wells^ 
and Glastonbury, were completely under water, rendering all 
traffic wholly impossible. Tlie meadows around Taunton were 
flooded ; and at Langport and upon Sedgemoor the waters accu- 
mulated to a disastrous depth and extent, to the heavy loss of 
the graziers and farmers of that rich pasturing district. In 
Devonshire, tlie rivers Lemon and Teign, at Newton Al)bot and 
other places, and in Cornwall, the river Camel, near Bodmin,, 
flooded their contiguous lands with great damage. 
Few districts are more afflicted by inundations than the valley of 
the Thames. In 1846 all the lowlands for' miles above and below 
Windsor-bridge icere flooded several feet in depth ; and a great 
portion of tlie Home Park of the Castle was completely under 
water. Again, in 1847, and again in 1848, many thousands of 
acres in tlie same neighbourhood were overflowed by the Thames 
and the Kennett. In July, 1852, similar floodings occurred • 
the hayfields between Swindon and Chippenham being indicated 
only by the appearance of scattered haymaking machines and 
other implements. In November and December of the same 
year, the valley from Vauxhall to Windsor was a vast lake. 
Oxford was standing in a sea of water, the Cherwell and Isis being^ 
miles in width, a vast amount of cattle and agricultural produce 
being carried away from the vicinity, and several lives lost. At 
