The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

LONDON, Aug. 23. A letter from Hawick, in the shire of Roxburg, gives the following particulars relating to the terrible inundation: The 5th inst. the water of the river Slitterick, which runs through that town, and divides it on the west, was observed to rise to an uncommon height. It was first observed about four o'clock in the afternoon, and continued increasing till after six, when the water was twenty-two feet higher than usual. Fifteen dwelling houses, besides shops and offices, and the large corn mill at the end of the town, have been entirely swept away, and the very rock on which they were founded, washed so clean, that not a bit of rubbish or vestige of a building is left. As no human assistance could avail, the Minister of the place called the inhabitants to the Church, to supplicate Heaven to avert the judgment that seemed to threaten them. One particular incidence ought not to be omitted: At the height of the flood, when the houses in that quarter were entirely deserted, a Servant maid belonging to a Merchant of the town, recollected that her master had in the house,(which was one of those now surrounded by the water) about 300l. in gold: Her master being from home, she acquainted the neighbours, and begging their assistance to recover it: but none of them could be found to venture: upon which the girl herself boldly made her way into the house, and got hold of the bag with the cash: but in coming out, she was carried down by the stream, without a possibility of assistance being given her. Providence, however, interposed for her safety. She was cast on shore, by the force of the water, on a green a little below the town, just alive, and the money grasped in both her hands so fast, that with some difficulty it was got removed. A little way above the town, three houses were quite covered with water, except the chimney tops; they were in an eddy which saved them. What formed an odd figure was, several packs of wool, which, by the eddy, were whirled round and round these chimney tops during the continuance of the deluge.--The day this accident happened, there was a good deal of thunder and lightning in the hills with some rain, but nothing to cause so prodigious a torrent; which is conjectured to have been occasioned by the break of a water-spout at the source of these rivers.