31 AUGUST 1895, Page 3

A great warehouse for grain on Banbury's Wharf, facing the

Thames, west of Blackfriars, took light last Saturday night, and caused a fearful conflagration, which is said to have destroyed property worth near £100,000. The most remarkable incident in the spectacle was perhaps the flight of the rats from the burning building. A great black mass was seen floating towards the Middlesex side, such as invaded Bishop Hatto's tower on the island in the Rhine ; but instead of effecting their landing on the Middlesex side, they were repulsed by the Embankment, and many thousands of them perished in the river. The Thames water will not be the purer for overwhelming this great colony of rats and mice.