England's Greatest Storm

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 16, 31 October 1930, Page 4

England's Greatest Storm

HOSE who are inclined to blame wireléss for the rough weather experienced’ at times, might be interested to learn ‘that long before wireless was thought. of, there was a. great storm in England that lasted three weeks. In 1703, according to the "Sunday Times,’ many persons were drowned in the raging waters of the Thames and Severn, and thousands

of cattle perished. Rear-Admiral Beaumont perished in his ship on the , Goodwin Sands, and hundreds of other" ships were wrecked. The Mddystone Lighthouse was swallowed up by the sea, together with its architect, Winstanley, and the Bishop of Bath and Wellss‘and his wifé, with many others, were killed by falling buildings. This storm so tertified the whole nation that they regarded it as a token of Divine displeasure, and Queen Anne ordered a general fast. In the proclamation which she issued, she said that such a dreadful and astonishing calamity called for the "deepest and most solemn humiliation of us and our people," and a general public fast was held as an acknowledgment of the mercy of God "that we and our people were not thereby wholly destroyed. "