You
could not do it, sir. Why, I hear there are half a dozen houses,
within a dozen yards of this, that have been altogether unroofed,
and it is getting worse instead of better. If it goes on like this,
I doubt if there will be a steeple standing in London tomorrow.
"Listen to that!"
There was a tremendous crash, and, running out into the street,
they saw a mass of beams and tiles lying in the roadway--a house
two doors away had been completely unroofed. They felt that, in
such a storm, it was really impossible to proceed, and accordingly
returned to their lodgings, performing the distance in a fraction
of the time it had before taken them.
For some hours the gale continued to increase in fury. Not a soul
was to be seen in the streets. Occasional heavy crashes told of the
damage that was being wrought, and, at times, the house shook so
that it seemed as if it would fall.
Never was such a storm known in England. The damage done was
enormous. The shores were strewn with wrecks. Twelve ships of the
royal navy, with fifteen hundred men, were lost; and an enormous
number of merchant vessels. Many steeples, houses, and buildings of
all kinds were overthrown, and the damage, in London alone, was
estimated at a million pounds.
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