We found a
bridge deprived of its parapets, the boundary-walls of factories
broken down, and court-yards filled with debris and mud. Several large
houses had end or side walls taken away, or were shattered past
remedy. In a narrow street running parallel with the river, and in
some places open to it, many of the houses bore chalk-marks a little
way up the second storey, indicating the height to which the flood had
reached. When we looked across the valley, and mentally scanned the
space below that level, we obtained some idea of the immense stream of
water which had swept through, or rather over the village.
A rustic guide, obtained at the inn, went on with us through the town,
pointing out that in this factory precious machinery had been swept
away--in that house a mother and five children had been drowned in
their beds--here some wonderful escape had taken place--there had
befallen some piteous tragedy. Soon clearing the village, we came to a
factory which stood in the bottom of the valley, with some ruined
buildings beside it. This had been the property of a Mr Sandford, and
he lived close to his mill. Taken completely unprepared by the
inundation, he and his family had been carried off, along with nearly
every fragment of their house. His body was discovered a considerable
time after, at a distance of many miles down the valley.
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