The Maryport Advertiser May 5, 1882 Worst Gale in Twenty Years

Worst Gale in Twenty Years

The Maryport Advertiser - May 5, 1882

WORST GALE IN TWENTY YEARS. ______  Visitors from the country and abroad who reached London on Saturday afternoon, writes a correspondent, found the metropolis suffering from the worst gale which I remember during the last twenty years.    The rain was pouring down in torrents, and the streets were one vast yellow sheet of mud. But it was the furious wind which was blowing, seemingly from all of the points of the compass at once, that caused the greatest discomfort to the foot passengers, and even to those who were riding in cabs or carriages. In all directions hats were being whirled about, and the hatless were to be seen every where in frantic pursuit of objects, the real nature of which was scarcely possible to recognise, so greatly were they damaged by their flight through the air or along the muddy pavement. Ladies found it impossible to manage their skirts with a due regard for appearances, and in some instances the poor cab horses positively refused to face the blast.    Hyde Park at the fashionable hour for the evening drive was absolutely deserted, and Piccadilly was converted into a howling wilderness. It was difficult to understand how such a freak of nature as this hurricane should have been inflicted upon us, at the close of the mildest winter upon record, and on the very eve of the shining month of May.    I hear the unfortunate persons who had to cross the Channel on Saturday afternoon had a terrible time of it; and unhappily among them must have been many who were returning to England for the summer after spending the winter in the South.

 

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