THE SNOW STORM.
The severity of the weather still continues, with every appearance of a much heavier fall of snow. The storm, though everywhere heavy, seemed to have been rather heavier to the south of the metropolis than in the other directions, and has laid a complete embargo on all news from abroad, and on almost all from the interior. Never before, within our recollection, was the London mail stopped for a whole night at a few miles from London ; and never before have we seen the intercourse between the Southern shires of England and the metropolis interrupted for three whole days.
The guards represent the night as one of the severest they ever experienced, and bring reports, which we trust are exaggerated, of great loss of property, and, in some instances,
One of the Wisbeach coaches, which left town on Monday evening, was unable to proceed further on its journey than Wade's-mill, 23 miles from London ; and yesterday morning it returned to the Swan-with-two-Necks, the coachman being convinced that it would be impracticable to attempt to proceed further downwards.
The proprietors of the Swan-with-Two-Necks, Lad-lane, and the other large coach-offices, have determined not to allow any more coaches to leave for the country until intelligence is received as to the state of the roads, a determination which is considered very prudent and necessary. It is impossible to convey even a slight idea of the anxiety displayed for the safety of those who are known to be on the road ; the inconvenience in commercial transactions is great indeed, and, should the severity of the weather continue much longer, it is apprehended in some cases it will prove ruinous to individuals.
The Brighton up-mail of Sunday had travelled about eight miles from that town, when it fell into a drift of snow, from which it was impossible to extricate it without further assistance. After much difficulty, the coach had been found, but could not be extricated from the hollow into which it had got. The guard did not reach town till 7 o'clock last night, having been obliged to travel with the bags on horseback, and in many instances to leave the main road and proceed across fields in order to avoid the deep drifts of snow. The passengers, coachman, and guard slept at Clayton, seven miles from Brighton. The road below Handcross was quite impassable.
The non-arrival of the mail at Crawley induced the postmaster there to send a man in a gig to ascertain the cause on Monday afternoon. No tidings being heard of man, gig. or horse, for several hours, another man was dispatched on horseback, and after a long search, he found the horse and gig completely built up in the snow. The man was in an exhausted state. After considerable difficulty the horse and gig were extricated and the party returned to Crawley. The man had learned no tidings of the mail, and refused to go out again on any such exploring mission.
BRIGHTON, MONDAY, DEC. 26, One o'Clock, P.M.—All this part of the country is at the present momen buried in snow. We were visited with a heavy fall early on Saturday morning, and it continued falling at intervals throughout the day ;it was renewed with increased violence on Saturday night, and has been coming down without intermission ever since, accompanied by a cold and very strong wind from the north. A stable-man was picked up in Black Lion-street last night by the police, frozen to death ; another, an old man named Freeman, dropped dead in the street this morning from sheer cold. The Times coach, which leaves London at four o'clock, and generally arrives here a little before nine, did not get in till twenty minutes past eleven, being for the last fifteen miles of the journey clogged up by the snow. The Gloucester mail, which ought to have been in by five o'clock yesterday afternoon, was obliged to stop on the road, and the guard and coachmen reached this town only at one o'clock this morning, having brought the bags in a cart along the beach ; they were, however, so affected by the cold, that the guard now lies, it is feared, in a dying state. The mail started, as usual, for London last night, but had not got three miles before it was obliged to return. A King's messenger, who had important dispatches with him, attempted, with the assistance of a guide, to travel on horseback, but could not get on. The messenger is now about to start again in a postchaise, and the mail-bags will go with him, but no passengers. Not a coach besides has left this town or come into it to-day, and none arc expected to start for a week ; business of every sort is suspended, as the roads are impassable, the snow being in some places five and six feet deep. A meeting of the parochial authorities will be held this afternoon, and a town meeting to-morrow, to take measures for the assistance and comfort of the poor.
(FURTHER PARTICULARS.)
The continuance of the storm, with its accompaniment of a stiff northern breeze, has generally suspended all intercourse between the metropolis and the provinces. Scarcely a stage-coach left London either yesterday or the day before, and the arrivals from the country have been as few. The Regulator Bristol coach, which ought to have been in on Monday evening, had not arrived, or been heard of, last night.
The Manchester down mail reached St. Alban's, and getting off the road into the hollow, was upset. The guard returned to London yesterday in a post-chaise and four horses with the bags and passengers.
Between Slough and Maidenhead the roads are reported to be most dreadful, and a great number of malls and coaches remain weather-bound between those places.
The Liverpool coach, from the Swan with Two Necks, started on Monday night, but turned back. At two o'clock yesterday afternoon a post-chaise and four arrived at Ladlane with some travellers, who had left Northampton by that, the only means of conveyance, at four o'clock on Monday morning.
The north road is declared to be excessively heavy, particularly about Barnet, St. Alban's, Chalk-hill, and Mims.
The few of the guards and coachmen who have reached London state, that it is not the quantity of snow fallen which creates the difficulty so much as the strong wind which drives all the snow from the high lands into the hollows. A sharp frost would make the roads more passable ; for at present the snow is so shifting and unattached, that as soon as a passage is cut through, it is driven back , and the road in a few hours becomes as much choked as at first.
The following notices were yesterday evening exhibited at the General Post-office :—
"All the mails will be despatched to-night-5 p.m."
"All letters which arrive by the late mails will be delivered by the Twopenny Post.-3½ p.m."
Instead of all, only five mails left at half-past eight o'clock at night, viz., the Holyhead and the Halifax, each drawn by four horses, with a post-boy to each pair ; the Edinburgh with six horses, a postilion on the foremost pair ; the Brighton with two pair of horses, being a pair more than usual ; and the Bristol. The Dover was to leave at midnight, with the foreign mails. Most of the horses harnessed on this occasion were unused to coach work, and hence post-boys were employed. It was so doubtful whether any of the mails would start that at the principal coach inns the proprietors refused to book passengers. The mails that left last night carry bags for the absent mails on the same main line of road.
The following mail-bags had been received by five o'clock last night :—
"Ryde, Hopley, Cobham, Esher, Kingston, Petworth, Midhurst, Gosport, Emsworth, Portsmouth, Swansea, Chichester, Dorking, Arundel, Petersfield, Haslemere, Liphook, Godalming, Guildford Leatherhead, Epsom, Waltham Cross, Royston, Hoddesdon, Ware, St. Ive's, Wisbeach, March, Chatteris, Rochester, Gravesend, Maidstone, Dartford, Chathem, Godston, Croydon, Crawley, East Grinstead, Horsham, Reigate, Footscray, Farnham, Bagshot, Windsor, Alton, Ringwood, Willingham, Staines, Bracknell, Stockbridge, Christchurch, Romsey, Lymington, Winchester, Wimbourne, Lyndhurst, Bishop's Waltham, Alresford, Farnham, Pool, Wareham, Newport, with letters of Isle of Wight of Monday, Isle of Wight with letters of same date, Harwich, Manningtree, Brentwood, Billericay, Rochford, Ipswich, Ongar, Kelvedon, Witham, Ingatestone, Romford, Colchester, Maldon, Chelmsford, Hadleigh, Cambridge, Downham, Wells, Ely, Buntingford, Bromley, Stowmarket, Colnbrook, Marlow, Hounslow, Henley, Barnet, Bishop Stortford, Harlow, and Epping."
The Birmingham, via Banbury, bags of Monday were got in by half-past 11 o'clock on Monday night. The mail-coach had been left seventy miles from London, and the guard had brought the bags the distance on horseback. He rode one horse himself, ha a led horse with the London bags on it, and two other horses with the small bags upon them. The two horses with the small bags were ridden the latter part of the distance by postboys, but the horse with the London bag was throughout led by the guard. They were constantly deviating from the road, and nothing but a general knowledge of localities, with good nerve, enabled the guard to accomplish the journey. The guard, on reaching London, was in a most distressing state of exhaustion. Hedges, gates, and ditches, had been cleared in many instances. The bags of the Manchester and Halifax mails of Monday were brought up late the night of the morning they became due in post-chaises, the mails being left on the road. The Monday's Manchester mail-coach arrived yesterday afternoon. It was dragged out of a drift at Chalk-hill by eight horses, the fore part giving way.
Cooper's Bristol coach arrived yesterday at noon, instead of at half-past seven o'clock a. m. The Brighton mail, a pair-horse mail, left town last night with four horses ; the Edinburgh with six horses, and the Holyhead and Halifax mails were drawn by four horses, with postilions. The day mail from Falmouth arrived a little before nine at night.
The Dover was to leave at midnight with the foreign mails.
The Edinburgh mail of Monday arrived about nine o'clock last night. The Devonport and Old Exeter came in within half an hour afterwards.
The town of St. Alban's is completely full of mails and coaches, which can neither get up nor down.
The Portsmouth Regulator on Monday got buried at Horndean-hill in a snow drift, and so continued for three hours and twenty minutes, when by the assistance of numerous labourers and extra horses the coach was released.
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Late last night it was reported that the guard of the Brighton mail of Monday night, out, had been found dead on his seat.
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