pieces that were affixed to it; that in Cheapside, which represented the Church, suffered very much by the fury of the storm; and a great part of that in Fleet-street (which represented Plenty) was blown down: but, blessed be God, none as we hear of were either killed or hurt by the fall of it.
The wind was so strong, that it blew down several carts loaded with hay in the road between Barnet and London; and in other roads leading to the city of London.
Norwich coach, with four or six horses, was not able to come towards London, but stayed by the way till the storm was somewhat abated.
It is also credibly reported, that all, or some of the heads which were set up upon Westminster hall, were that day blown down.
There was a very dreadful lightning which did at first accompany the storm, and by it some of his Majesty’s household conceive that the fire which happened at Whitehall that morning, was kindled; as also that at Greenwich, by which (as we are informed) seven or eight houses were burnt down.
Thus far the Author of Mirabilis Annis.
It is very observable, that this storm blew from the same quarter as the last, and that they had less of it northward than here; in which they were much alike.
Now as these storms were perhaps very furious in some places, yet they neither came up to the violence of this, nor any way to be compared for the extent, and when ruinous in one country, were hardly heard of in the next.
But this terrible night shook all Europe; and how much further it extended, he only knows who has “his way in the whirlwind, and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”
As this storm was first felt from the west, some have conjectured that the first generation or rather collection of materials, was from the continent of America, possibly from that part of Florida and Virginia, where, if we respect natural causes, the confluence of vapours raised by the sun from the vast and unknown lakes and inland seas of water, which as some relate are incredibly large as well as numerous, might afford sufficient matter for the exhalation; and where time, adding to the preparation, God, who has generally confined his Providence to the chain of natural causes, might muster together those troops of combustion till they made a sufficient army duly proportioned to the expedition designed.
I am the rather inclined to this opinion, because we are told, they felt upon that coast an unusual tempest a few days before the fatal 27th of November.
Course of the wind.
I confess, I have never studied the motion of the clouds so nicely, as to calculate how long time this army of terror might take up in its furious march; possibly the velocity of its motion might not be so great at its first setting out as it was afterward, as a horse that is to run a race does not immediately put himself into the height of his speed: and though it may be true, that by the length of the way the force of the wind spends itself, and so by degrees ceases as the vapour finds more room for dilation; besides, yet we may suppose a conjunction of some confederate matter which might fall in with it by the way, or which meeting it at its arrival here, might join forces in executing the commission received from above, all natural causes being allowed a subserviency to the direction of the great supreme cause; yet where the vast collection of matter had its first motion, as it did not all take motion at one and the same moment, so when all the parts had felt the influence, as they advanced and pressed those before them, the violence must increase in proportion: and thus we may conceive that the motion might not have arrived at its meridian violence till it reached our island; and even then it blew some days with more than common fury, yet much less than that last night of its force; and even that night the violence was not at its extremity till about an hour before sunrise, and then it continued declining, though it blew a full storm for four days after it.
Thus providence by whose special direction the quantity and conduct of this judgment was managed, seemed to proportion things so, as that by the course of things the proportion of matter being suited to distance of place, the motion should arrive at its full force just at the place where its execution was to begin.
As then our island was the first this way, to receive the impressions of the violent motion, it had the terriblest effects here; and continuing its steady course, we find it carried a true line clear over the continent of Europe, traversed England, France, Germany, the Baltic sea, and passing the Northern Continent of Sweedland, Finland, Muscovy, and part of Tartary, must at last lose itself in the vast northern ocean, where man never came, and ship never sailed; and its violence could have no effect, but upon the vast mountains of ice and the huge drifts of snow, in which abyss of moisture and cold it is very probable the force of it was checked, and the world restored to calmness and quiet: and in this cicle of fury it might find its end not far off from where it had its beginning, the fierceness of the motion perhaps not arriving to a period, till having passed the pole, it reached again the northern parts of America.
The effects of this impetuous course, are the proper subjects of this book; and what they might be before our island felt its fury, who can tell? Those unhappy wretches who had the misfortune to meet it in its first approach, can tell us little, having been hurried by its irresistible force directly into eternity: how many they are, we cannot pretend to give an account; we are told of about seventeen ships, which having been out at sea are never heard of: which is the common way of discourse of ships foundered in the ocean: and indeed all we can say of them is, the fearful exit they have made among the mountains of waters, can only be duly reflected on by those who have seen those wonders of God in the deep.
Yet I cannot omit here to observe, that this loss was in all probability much less than it would otherwise have been; because the winds having blown with very great fury, at the same point, for near fourteen days before the violence grew to its more uncommon height, all those ships which were newly gone to sea were forced back, of which some were driven into Plymouth and Falmouth, who had been above a hundred and fifty leagues at sea; others, which had been farther, took sanctuary in Ireland.
On the other hand, all those ships which were homeward bound, and were within 500 leagues of the English shore, had been hurried so furiously on afore it (as the seamen say) that they had reached their port before the extremity of the storm came on; so that the sea was as it were swept clean of all shipping, those which were coming home were blown home before their time; those that had attempted to put to sea, were driven back again in spite of all their skill and courage: for the wind had blown so very hard, directly into the channel, that there was no possibility of their keeping the sea whose course was not right afore the wind.
On the other hand, these two circumstances had filled all our ports with unusual fleets of ships, either just come home or outward bound, and consequently the loss among them was very terrible; and the havock it made among them, though it was not so much as everybody expected, was such as no age or circumstance can ever parallel, and we hope will never feel again.
Situation of the Shipping.
Nay, so high the winds blew, even before that we call the storm, that had not that intolerable tempest followed so soon after, we should have counted those winds extraordinary high: and any one may judge of the truth of this from these few particulars; that the Russia fleet, composed of near a hundred sail, which happened to be then upon the coast, was absolutely dispersed and scattered, some got into Newcastle, some into Hull, and some into Yarmouth roads; two foundered in the sea; one or two more run ashore, and were lost; and the reserve frigate, their convoy, foundered in Yarmouth roads, all her men being lost, and no boat from the shore durst go off to relieve her, though it was in the day time, but all her men perished.
In the same previous storms the —— man-of-war was lost off of Harwich; but by the help of smaller vessels
