In the beginning of the week, the high winds were
productive of a great deal of mischief to the vessels in the Thames. In Limehouse Reach many vessels were blown.from their moorings and damaged.
Letters from Whitby state, that one of the greatest storms in the memory of man was experienced there on Saturday. Four houses and the Customhouse were washed away by an extremely high tide, and at a neighbouring fishing town twenty houses were destroyed.
The coast of Yorkshire was visited by a tremendous storm on Monday. About a hundred and fifty vessels were riding in Bridlington Bay. Many were driven out to sea. None of the boatmen dfirst venture out to offer relief or ascertain the extent of the damage. The pier has been nearly destroyed, and some adjoining buildings blown down.
The storms interrupted our communication with the Continent for several days On Tuesday, sixty vessels took shelter in Dover Harbour.
In the Singapore Chronicle of February last, there is an account of a melan- choly shipwreck, by which the last of the Rienzis, about whose ancestor so much has been said and sung, lost all his property. He is a literary man, and has been a traveller and collector of curiosities. He has communicated some valuable information to Mr. Buckingham.
A fire broke oat on 'Wednesday, at the country residence of Mr. Goldsmidt, at Herne Hill. It was occasioned by one of those large German stoves which extend through several floors, and convey heat, by means of iron tubes, to different apartments, having become red-hot. A number of engines and a strong posse of the police, immediately upon the alarm being given, proceeded from town to Herne Hill to protect the property. Considerable damage was, however, incurred. A carpenter's house in Blenheim Street, Chelsea Common, was burned on Sa- turday last. A labourer who lodged in the house has lost fifteen sovereigns, his 'whole savings.
A fire broke outon Saturday morning at a shopkeeper's in the town of Sheer- siess, which destroyed fifty-four houses, besides outbuildings. The loss is esti- mated at 30,000/., one-half of which is insured in the Sun, County, Kent, and Norwich offices. Only two or three years ago, a fire of similar extent occurred, the houses being almost wholly built of fir and weather-boarding, and being fre- quently covered with tmpaulin. Major Taylor, of the Royal Artillery, was found dead near the Barracks, Wool- wich, at two o'clock on Sunday morning. He had dined at the mess on Satur- day, and as he was returning to his house, had died of apoplexy. The wife of a shopkeeper in Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, who had been regaling her customers and herself on New Year's Day with spirits, applied her- self at last to whatshe deemed a bottle of rum, but which proved to be a bottle of oil of vitriol. She died shortly afterwards.
While Messrs. Erickson and Braithwaite's steam-carriage, the Novelty, was ex- ercised last week at Rainhill, one of the overseers of the Rail-road works attempted, while it was turning, to leap into the waggon attached to it : his foot slipped, he fell, and his head was crushed to pieces.
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