LONDON IN A FOG.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 104, 1 May 1880, Page 2

LONDON IN A FOG.

In the early part of this year London was visited by a series of fogs of unprecedented density and persietenoy. A London correspondent writes :< — " What we Londoners , have had in our minds all last week has been the fog. There have been great historical fogs in my tim^ One was twenty years ago, At nigat, when it was impossible, standing in Portland-street by a lamppost to see the lamp over bead. Another was about three or .four years ago, when the cattle died at the Cattle show. But none of tfiot'e approached iog one . morninft last week! Waiting acrpsis Si James V Perk, a pjaoejf thought I knew 'as well as my bearopcn. I cWd only find my way by Bt'ooping down at intervals to make sure, my fget. were on tne asp bait c path. The, traffic was nearly all ■topped forjß^,time^. and ousiness was at a stand-still. TikQ consequencee were much mofe serious than inconvenience. ( Tne air was overloaded' with smoke, which .produced sickness and headache. The mortality at . the hoipitals rose remarkably, and the dead houses became cJyer full. The accidents, too, as miga|be expeotedv were largely increased. It was impossible, to avoid thinking about the future,. If London is to grow at its present alarm' ing rate, and if coals are still to be burnt as they are now, without, consumption o£ smoke/ scipnoe will. have to provide posterity with some means of self-defence, as TynaWa respirator will become as necessary as a great coat." • _.._. _ ._'_, -. A few cjayp ago we recorded how the Duke ofTeck lost himself in the ,fog; near St. James", and actuary, had to pass the night in n cab. A similar experience, it will be seen. from, tbe following paragraph in the World, befell another nobleman j- — "Pa the last nighl of January, 1880, when the metropolis was wrapped in the>!ackeeS fog ever remembered, Lord Dunmore found himself benighted in Belgravesquare. Groping bis way round and round, he at last stumbled upon a forlorn four-wheeler. Honest cabby would undertake' rib voyage' of discovery ; bo together they spent the night, and towards six in the; morning Lord Dunmore made bis way home, none the worse, lam glad to say, for his unpleasant experience." Another amusing episode of, the fog Is related in the same paper • Who was tbe eminent journalist (says the writer) who returning, or rather trying to return, home in toe marvellous black fog on the' opening night of the new Haymarket Theatre, offered himself to a policeman in Trafalgar-square, as "positively tbe man who committed the Burton-crescent, murder ; do mistake this time ? ' Ha was a nervous creature, and had conceived this happy thought as yielding a last chance of finding bis" way somewhere, and being taken care of till Monday morning. No luck, however. "Won't do!" replied the intelligent officer. " You're the fifteenth to-night."