NEWS OF THE WEEK • T HE weather has been horrible
all the week, one long succession of rainfalls, so heavy that the hay still on the ground may be considered lost, that the prospects of the harvest are seriously threatened, and that the papers are full of telegrams announcing inundations. In Monmouthshire a pond burst on Thursday, about ten miles from Newport, swept away the banks of the Monmouthshire Canal, and destroyed a flannel factory, drowning thirteen people. Usk, Hereford, and Carleon have suffered zeverely. In the neighbourhood of Cardiff the fields are all under water, and in one village, Grangetown, the inhabitants were removed in boats. In Bath the Avon rose ten feet above its usual level, and the lands round Melksham and Frome were
heavily inundated." In Bristol, 2.552 inches of rain fell in 48 hours, and the low-lying houses have been submerged by the hundred, while the Severn is reported as rising rapidly. The bad weather extended to the Orkneys, and up to Friday evening no signs Of improvement were visible. In London little damage has been :done, but the annoyance to "society" in the disturbance of gar- den parties, and to everybody in the condition of the streets and the atmosphere, has been excessive. The place has become a sort of huge Glasgow.
