struction of property to the
extent of half a million, the interruption of the employment of 7000
people, and the loss of 100 lives, has been the consequence. Surely
there never was a more striking illustration of the Old Richard
proverb: 'For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the
horse was lost,' &c.

The night between the 4th and 5th of February was one of calm
moonlight; but heavy rains had fallen for a fortnight before, and an
uncommon mass of water had been accumulated behind the Bilberry
embankment. The vague apprehensions of bypast years reviving at this
crisis, some neighbours had been on the outlook for a catastrophe.
They gathered at midnight round the spot, speculating on what would be
the consequence if that huge embankment should burst. There were
already three leaks in it, and the water was beginning to pour over
the upper edge. A member of the 'sluice-committee' was heard to say,
that before two o'clock there would be such a scene as no one had ever
seen the like of, and not a mill would be left in the valley. Two
persons were then _understood_ to be sent off, to give warning to the
people down the valley; but no good account of the proceedings of
these two messengers has ever been given. It appears as if the very
singularity of the dreaded event created a confidence in its not
taking place. By and by, a breach was made in the casing of the
embankment just below the top; the water then got in between the
casing further down, and the puddle or clay which invested the
internal mass, composed of mere rubbish. In half an hour, a great
extent of this case was heaved off by the water, and immediately after
a tremendous breach was made through the embankment, and an aqueous
avalanche poured through. Men then began to run down the valley, to
waken the sleepers, but the water ran faster. In a few minutes, it had
reached the village, two miles and a half distant, carrying with it
nearly everything which came directly in its way. It is said to have
taken nearly twenty minutes to pass that village--a fact which gives a
striking idea of the enormous mass of water concerned.

About a mile and a half above the village, we came to a modern church,
which had been set down in the bottom of the valley, close to the
river-side. Entering, we found some curious memorials of the operation
of water, in the upbreak of the whole system of flooring and seating,
which now lay in irregular distorted masses, mingl