THE CITY FLOOD. A TALE, AS NARRATED BY A SEXAGENARIAN. When the Nile backward to its channel turns For Marah's waters bitterer were not, The Croisade. IT was on the 18th of November, 1795, that the fearful rise in the waters of the river Clyde carried away the stone bridge which crossed it at the foot of the now immortalized Saltmarket-street of Glasgow. It is a day memorable in the annals of that city, but still more so in my private history, and the records of my recollection, and of my love ;-for, old and dull and cold as I now am, I have loved. There is, far up on the wall of a building at a great distance from the usual channel of the stream, an indentation cut to show the height to which its waters rose, and an inscription to tell the tale. The tablets of my heart have a deeper engraven line-a more enduring impress and record of that day of desolation, The waves passed not the limit there defined, and they left every thing beneath it as it was before. From me, all that preceded that tide-mark of my fate is reft away, or left shattered and broken; and still, it would appear, as if the gloomy waters rose above and passed beyond even that boundary-for, welling out from the fountains of a melancholy memory, the flood yet seems to sweep along the heart it left a desert, but which must drag its loneliness till the last spring-tide of fate shall bear me away in its ebb to peace-and Isabella. She was the first-the only woman I ever loved. Dark-haired, bright-eyed, and nineteen, it was little to be wondered at that I doted on her. Yet it was her heart that secured the love her charms excited-her mind that fixed into esteem what had else been but fleeting admiration. But I cannot go on to describe her. Suffice it, that in all her girlish beauty she seems still before me. Her father was a respectable tradesman, who resided-fatally for me-in the lower part of the city. Modern improvements have swept away the last relics of a building where Cromwell resided for a time, and Prince Charles is said to have lodged when in Glasgow. Its historical associations and venerable exterior long made it an object of interest to the antiquarian and the stranger: its having been the dwelling of Isabella Arthur made me weep its fall. We never had a cross in our love till-but let me not anticipate. My mistress was too artless and candid to seek to conceal that our passion was reciprocal, and her NO. XXXVIII.-VOL. IV. [VOL. 4. widowed father too indulgent to his only child to throw any obstacle in the way of her happiness. The day was fixed which was to see her mine, and the wedding garments already waited for the wearers. A trivial circumstance deferred my happiness and her union for a whole-month, as we then thought, for the corresponding day of the succeeding one was determined upon as that fittest for the festivity, which could not be celebrated on the 18th of November; but we could then see nothing to prevent its being so on the 18th of December. Isabella's father was married on this day of the kalendar, and he had been so peculiarly happy as a husband, that he seemed almost to think that no man could be equally fortunate unless he were wedded on that identical day. Alas! this month was to beeternity I had almost said—yet, yet, surely I shall meet with my Isabella, and be again united with her in the bonds of enduring affection! It was fated to be lengthened, however, into all the weary years which have since crept along, and those which have yet to elapse before it be the will of the Giver of my life to resume it to himself. The early part of the winter had been very open, and the great quantities of rain which fell around Glasgow, a and in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, had repeatedly swollen the river Clyde to an uncominon height. But the house in which Mr. Arthur resided was so far from its banks, that none of the successive spates ever reached, nor even nearly approached it. At length, however, the frost set in with sudden and keen severity. In a day or two after, a temporary thaw followed, and was speedily succeeded by a considerable fall of snow, which lay on the hills above the county town, and around the mountain of Tinto, to a great depth. The frost again became intense, but was of brief duration; for, returning from a wedding party at an early hour on the morning of Saturday, it seemed to me to be increasing in bitterness; but, on rising from bed after a short rest, I found torrents of rain pouring down, the wind blowing a gale from the westward, and the air unnaturally warm. In the city the thaw was instantaneous, and almost magical in its operation, sweeping in a few hours the streets of their accumulated ice. The gale increased as the day wore on, and the rain descended without intermission till evening; when the fury of the elements seemed to abate. About nine o'clock on Saturday evening, there was almost what the sailors call a " lull," and every one thought that the storm had entirely ceased. Although dwelling in a quarter of the city remote from Isabella's home, many of my evenings, as might have been expected, were passed there in the delightful anticipation of the approaching time when all our hours of leisure should be spent together. The business Anglice-Inundations. C of the week concluded, I hastened to seat myself beside my untiring betrothed, who would hardly cease to ply her needle, or lay aside her work, even when my arm, hanging over her chair, and perhaps even intruding upon her waist, interfered with the swift but ever graceful motion of her hand in sewing. My request itself, that she would be idle for a time, was but half conceded. But then-it was with preparations for her new station-household comforts for her future husband-becoming garments for a young wife-that she was occupied ! And she could speak and look-oh! speak by snatches, and look in glances, as she raised her eyes from her task-when so employed-more beautifully as it seemed to me, than any other who had nothing else to do, and whose only object was to attain admiration. Thus seated, we perceived not that the wind had again risen, and the rain begun to pelt against the casement, until I made my first threatening motion for departure. This of course preceded my actually effecting it about an hour; but during that time it was evident that the storm had resumed all its violence. Besides this, we were told that the river was rising, and that those who lived near it were deserting their houses; but the thought of danger to the place where we sat, never once occurred to us. Eleven o'clock arrived, and, with a reluctance I was loath to exhibit, and could not then account for-but which was the same sensation the very brutes feel at impending calamity I bade my Isabella good night, and proceeded to my distant home. It was in vain that I sought by occupation to weary myself into sleepiness, when I had arrived there. The tempest increased, and with it my restlessness and agitation. To bed, however, I went; but certainly not to rest-for as the watches of night wore on, the gale became a hurricane, and came in such terrific gusts of violence as, at each of them, to threaten the destruction of every thing that opposed its fury. In the midst of these, and even louder than its voice, was heard, ever and anon, the crash of some chimney that had given way, or the brattle of slates and shingles torn up from the roofs of tenements, and precipitated into the street. The scream of human voices, and the yelling of dogs, followed these, and added to their horror; and, sabbath morning as it was, the roll of the wheels of carts, hastily summoned to bear away household furniture from dwellings that the affrighted tenants deemed insecure, on account of their exposure to the tempest, to places of greater strength or better sheltered, had a peculiar effect in heightening the impression of sudden danger and well-grounded fear. It was as if another element--that of fire---had been ravaging the neighbourhood. And it occurred to almost every one, that if that were to break out, with such a wind to foster it, the consequences would be terrible beyond even apprehension. Twice or thrice the terror led to the anticipation, and the alarm was actually but erroneously given.---It was impossible to remain in bed. The frightful thought flashed across my brain, that the gale, setting so from the westward, and the snow melting with such unprecedented rapidity---the one swelling, and the other stemning the river---might bring its stormy waters even to the dwelling of my Isabella. I then hastily grasped at my clothes, that I might personally ascertain whether there was a chance of her suffering inconvenience. Danger I could not dream of from the stream; and the lowness of the site of her residence, while it might expose it to the flood, protected it from the gale. I dressed and made for the door. It was impossible for me, however, to pass through it. Beset by an agitated mother, and screaming sisters, and younger brethren. I was taunted alternately with caring for my own safety above theirs, or for that of another individual rather than my " born relations," and reasoned with and assured that there could be no possible danger elsewhere, as the Clyde had never been known to rise to the height of Mr. Arthur's dwelling-house. This I was aware of; and hope and entreaty prevailed. I returned to my pillow; but, it is needless to say, I could not sleep. After having, however, obtained the promise, that, with the first light of the morning, a messenger would be sent to ascertain if our friends in the lower part of the city were in safety; and, on hearing the wind gradually abate, and the rain cease, I fell into a slumber which continued---agitated, indeed, with dreams of alternate vague delight, and dim and dreary horror, but unbroken-until far in the morning of the day, whose rays had been religiously excluded from my pillow. Once awake, however, it was but the work of a moment to ascertain that no messenger had been sent, and to prepare personally to ascertain the welfare of my future wife. By this time the day was shining as unclouded and bright as if it had been a forenoon in spring, and the wind now blew with no more violence then served to dry up almost every vestige of last night's deluge, in the higher streets of Glasgow. The bells were ringing for church service, and the well-dressed crowds passed calmly along as I apparelled myself---with something like deliberation! It seemed impossible that any thing could have happened to Isabella's home, since not one vestige of all the crashing havoc we had heard appeared in the broad and sunny light of day, the few chimney-tops and slates which had accidentally been overthrown, with a noise so disproportionate to the real danger and destruction, having been decorously removed from the sabbath path of the church-going crowds. I began to feel at noonday almost ashamed of my midnight apprehensions, and, however rapid my pace might be as I proceeded down the High-street, I did no more than walk. I even paused for a moment to answer an interrogatory from a passing friend---so assured, was I willing to think myself, that my fears had been visionary. The city cross was at length passed---but I ran as I approached that bend in the Saltmarket, beyond which, when turned, I could see the building that held all I loved on earth. A crowd hid its lower part from me, but a glance told that all was secure near its roof. The throng extended, as it seemed, so far above her residence, as to block up the street at the point where it opens towards St. Andrew'ssquare. I was but a moment in penetrating the outer rank---and finding myself, a few steps farther on, on the verge of a vast body of sullen and muddy water, which stretched thus far up, and onwards beyond the place where had stood the opposite end of the distant bridge, that now, in vain, I looked for! It had been swept away in the rapid and mighty current, which threw its superabundant streams thus far into the city streets. All was desolation below where I stood. I was horrorstruck at the sight before me, of houses whose first-floor windows, from the declivity of the descent towards the river, were almost under water, and hence the thought that Isabella and her father might have perished in seeking to escape in terror from the flood. But it occurred to me, that though it could not reach their own apartments it might yet endanger the safety of the whole tenement, and, at the worst, imprison them, and seperate her from me until it had subsided. The inhabitants who had not escaped from the shops and lower floors of the houses between the place where I was and the river, were all crowded in the upper flats of these tenements, whose windows, crammed with a terrified population, contrasted strangely with the utter solitude nearer the street, where every opening was closed, and not a living thing was visible. The carcasses of drowned domestic animals, filth, and fragments of furniture, floated around; but, beneath the second story of the houses, vestige of animated being there was none. Boats could not be procured from the harbour, and carts did not then, as now, in similar emergencies, ply through the stream, indeed, the water was much too deep for them, even if they had had a dry spot to resort to after passing through it. The wailing of women and children, driven from their houses, and the chattering inquiries of idlers asking for particulars, which those who knew were too deeply affected to communicate, prevented my eager questions as to Mr. Arthur's and his family's safety being answered. At length I found one who said blessed words!--that he could assure me that they were still in their own house-and in a security their elevated position ensured them. But then, he told me also, that it was but three or four hours since it became impossible to reach them, by the increase of the flood; so that my delay-my confidencemy hope-had exiled me, during her danger, from my sweetheart's side! Had I hastened at an earlier hour to assure myself of her safety, I should have shared her imprisonment, and been with her in case of peril! This was indeed a bitter reflection. After as careful a survey of the position and depth of the water, as my perturbation and self-reproach would permit, and being assured that a boat was hourly expected from some quarter or other, I judged that if I could procure a horse I might ride so far down as to obtain a glimpse of Mr. Arthur's windows, and perhaps see Isabella at one of them. A proffer of about as much as the value of the brute, procured me the loan of a miserable creature from a carter, who unharnessed the animal; aud on its naked back I rode into the water, till it reached my knees and the girths of the hack who then would go no farther. I, however, attained my purpose. The jeers ef the crowd, and the awkward splattering of the animal, unaccustomed equally to water and to being rode upon, attracted to the windows all who could spare a thought from their own fears. Isabella opened the casement of her own room and looked out. A glance showed me that she was safe, and her that I was an object of, not uncalledfor, merriment to the gazers, I perceived this myself— but not till the wave of her 'kerchief told me that all was well, and the arch nod of her head showed she was sufficiently at her ease to smile. I returned to the shore, as I may call it, happy-yet shall I confess it? almost angry too. The waters continued to rise and, as the wind had abated, it was obvious that the melting of the snow was NO. XXXVIII.-VOL. IV. now the cause. Of course, it was impossible to guess at what hour there was a chance of their subsiding. I hesitated for a time whether to exhibit any further violence of anxiety to reach Mr. Arthur's, or to wait for the expected boat which was to be employed in carrying provisions to the besieged, who might need a supply. As I paced to and fro upon the margin, on which the rising waters still seemed to encroach, the delay of its arrival at length became intolerable. The day wore on--the churches emptied their crowds, to throng to the scene and return again to sermon with a tranquillity which I envied. At length, chafed into contempt for even the titter of a hundred gazers, or the deprecatory smile of my mistress herself, I retraced my steps to the Trongate, and pursued its westward course towards the Broomielaw, anticipating the possibility of procuring there a boat and a couple of rowers from one of the vessels in that harbour. In my anxious haste, I had forgotten that the same river which leapt over its bounds at a higher part of its course, was not likely to confine itself within them, so much farther down its channel. As I might have anticipated, I found the scene at the Jamaica-street bridge---which the elevation of its roadway enabled me to reach---one of wider desolation, and far more awful grandeur than the circumscribed one I had left. Placed on its centre arch, and looking upward, it seemed as if some mighty transatlantic stream, and not an island river, rolled along in terrible depth and irresistible might, between banks whose edges were steep and abrupt, indeed, for, defined only by the fronts of the far-separated lines of houses which stood many hundred feet distant from its usual channel, but close beside, which it now rushed furiously by in boiling eddies or clay-coloured waves, fearful in their silent, unfoamy turbulence, which no wind stirred up-as in the angry malice of a man, for whose fury we perceive no present cause. Beneath the bridge, the water roared with thundering turmoil, and, all of it that could not escape through the roomy arches, curled up into yeast by the resistance of the abutments, raged noiselessly and fearlessly through the ornamental circular openings placed above them. Looking down the stream, where, if there was less turbulence, because there was a greater room for expansion, the prospect was not less terrible and uncommon. Between the houses far remote from the breast-work of the harbour and those on the opposite shore, still more widely separated from the broad and level bank of the river, by a pasture park and road, there was but one vast channel for the sea-like stream that fillsd it---brimmingly. The water was seen even to extend far up the streets, which, on either hand, open latterly from what seemed now but the stone edging of this gigantic canal, or vast basin; and the long line of vessels, secured to their usual rings and fastenings on the quay, and riding either close to its front, or over its top, as their cables gave them space, looked but a large fleet at anchor in the middle of the stream. At the moment I turned my face westward, a little sloop had broken from its fastenings with apparently but an old man and a boy on board, and was reeling down the eddying current in drunken-like whirls, while the ear shrunk from the screams of the helpless extremes of existence on board of it, as did the eye from their peril-a peril from which they could escape only by the miracle of their bark c 2 being speedily driven on the level shore, or running foul of some larger vessel which could stand the shock. Of yawl or pinnace, there was not a vestige in sight. Every thing without a mast that was not swamped, had been hoisted up into snug security on the deck of the larger vessels they attended; and to my hurried, and, I fear, incoherent inquiries whether I could hire a boat and some rowers, to proceed to the Saltmarket and carry me to a building insulated by the water, I only procured, in answer, the stare of vacant astonishment, or heard vulgar jesting and the slang of freshwatersailors. It soon became obvious, even to myself, that it was altogether hopeless to expect to effect a communication with Mr. Arthur's family by such means, and there was obviously nothing for me but patience-a sufficient punishment for my morning procrastination. I strained my eyes to watch if there was any perceptible fall in the height of the water, and almost blessed aloud a person who assured me that he thought it had begun to ebb, although even my eagerness could not perceive any mark of its recession. I returned again to my station, in the street where Isabella lived. The waters had not subsided; but the wind had again risen, and at six o'clock-it was now four-the tide would be full, and, consequently, the flood greater. In my absence, I learned with regret, but without self-reproach, that the expected boat had arrived from the Forth and Clyde canal basin; but, after carrying assistance to many sufferers, had swamped upon a bulk, hidden under water, and it was not thought worth while to cart another from such a distance. For some hours, then, even under the most favourable circumstances, it was evident that no exertion on my part could enable me to overcome the obstacles which separated me from my beloved; and, exhausted with anxiety and fatigue, and cold and hunger, I was prevailed upon by some friends who had now joined me, to retire to a neighbouring tavern for some refreshment. Night was now closing in, but it was in the unclouded beauty of a rising moon, and with the clear atmosphere of a returning frost, so that I was cheered by the hope, on my part, and certainty on that of others, that ere nine o'clock, the passage to the foot of the Saltmarket would be practicable. Some of my companions even asserted that that street would be almost as soon drained as the bowl in whose brimming contents they pledged my mistress, and the wish, at the same time, that I might never suffer so much from drought as I had done from moisture. Though anxious, I became almost cheerful; but was again at my post by the time of high-water. And there, to and fro, did I pace, marking and measuring the recession of the slimy flood, whose retreat had now obviously, though slowly, begun. At eight o'clock, I conceived it possible to reach the entrance to Mr. Arthur's dwelling, by driving a cart through the water. When the owner of it, however, found that the flood reached above the trams, he refused to proceed. Another hour of feverish watchfulness was mine, and another attempt, although nearer success-because coming closer to the markyet did not reach it. At length, just as the first chimes of the ten o'clock bells were inducing the few uninterested stragglers who lingered upou the spot to turn homewards, a loud cry was heard to proceed from the lower part of the street, near to which we could now advance. Lights were seen at many windows; case ments were hurriedly opened; and, in the tenement for whose security alone I cared, a singular bustle and confusion was observed. Suddenly there ran along the line of gazers that defined the dry street from the water, the broken whisper, whence communicated I have never learned, that the foundations of the houses farthest down had been sapped and were giving away. The flags of the pavement, it was said, were starting up upon their ends, and the screams were accasioned by the inmates observing fearful rents in the walls of the buildings, from the lower flats of which the water was now hastening with rapid and destructive suction. I saw nothing of this, for I waited not to look. It was enough that I had heard. Throwing myself into a cart, I seized the halter of the horse, and, hardly waiting for the driver, forced it onwards through the still deep, though now receding flood. The water was over the flooring of the vehicle before it reached the gateway leading to Isabella's dwelling; and was up to my breast as, at one bound, I leaped over the wheels, regardless of the snorting capers of the affrighted horse. In one minute I was under the archway leading to the house, and in utter darkness; but I half stepped half floated onwards towards where, as I guessed, was the entrance to the stair. In one moment I was up to the eyes-plunged into a hole, occasioned by the breaking up of the pavement; in another, dripping at every lock, I had struggled, I hardly knew how, but instinctively, to the staircase, and was above the water-mark on its steps. A second showed me a frightful rent in the wall of the stair; and, almost with but one bound, I was by the side of Isabella. Less alarmed than I, she was, however, like all the inmates of the building, greatly terrified, and anxiously waiting the assistance for which her father was by this time making signals at the window. A word served to explain that the means of succour and escape were near at hand, in the cart, which I had ordered to wait my return. The old man was grateful; my beloved silently but fondly submitted to be lifted up in my arms; and, followed by the servants carrying papers and other valuables, I proceeded down to the still half-choked up archway. As we went onwards, a loud crack from the timbers of the building, and a visible widening of the rent before noticed, together with the fall of masses of plaster from the roof, increased their terror and quickened our speed. Bearing aloft my precious charge, and exclaiming that I should lead the way, I plunged into the water, which now reached no higher than my middle. Taking care to avoid that side where I stumbled as I entered, I cautiously moved on, pressing my dear burden to my breast, with one arm, while the other served to pilot me along the walls with-I still remember-unhurrying care. The father and domestics hesitated to follow, and the lights they held in their hands threw a dazzling glare upon the dismal waters, as I turned round to inquire the cause of their delay, and encourage their progress-when, in one instant of time, I was plunged into a dark and narrow gulf, which had yawned open for my destruction as I advanced! I felt myself sink in a moment, and graze against the sides of the chasm as I descended; and she was with me-clinging to me— locked in my arms! One dreadful scream from hera gurgling groan from myself-and the feeling of intense pain in my temples for a breath-is all that I remember of this dreadful hour. Dim recollections I have, indeed, of flaming torches-coils of ropes and iron-spiked drags; bleeding temples, and draughts forced down my throat; oaths-exclamations-wailings and tears; but these I dare not think upon; for I was mad, they tell me, for a time-when, weeks after, I inquired where I lay-and for my Isabella. I then learned that it was presumed she-more severely bruised than even I had been, in the descent to the cellar be. neath the gateway, whose arch was broken-had sunk with me; while her body had not instantaneously risen to the surface of the horrid gap, as had mine; and thus she had perished-half stunned and half drowned-beneath this low-browed vault, and amid these slimy waters! Her father died broken-hearted! It has been award to live so. Lunatics are mad when the moon is at the full; I am so only when again the hateful waves of the spate are in the streets of the city, and, it may be, sapping more foundations-and drowning more earthly hopes of happiness and other Isabellas! It is only then that I can utter her name, or tell her fearful and untimely fate. The Chameleon. BEAUTY OF SHAPE AND CARRIAGE In order to understand the beneficial or the injurious effects of the varied and opposite plans which have been invented for preserving and improving the shape and carriage, it will be necessary to go a little into the science of the subject. But though we should take you ankle deep into the sea of philosophy, we shall be merciful to you, if you should prove indifferent scholars, by making our illustrations plain, as we would rather gain the character of being homely and practical than We shall, therefore, proceed unintelligible and useless. to introduce you to the scientific principles upon which we ground the effects of exercise and rest. Our philosophy, then, is founded on the fact, that the more frequently and vigorously any member of the body is exercised, the more the blood will flow to that member; and as the blood is the chief agent for imparting strength, the greater the stream of blood the more vigorous will the member become. Try the experiment of tying up an arm or a leg to prevent its motion, while the other is exercised, and it will shrink and dwindle away to a skeleton, while the one that is exercised will remain in flesh and be strong. We prove our second by a more familiar example, formerly alluded to. Compare the delicate, soft, silky hand of a fashionable lady, with (pardon the comparison) the hand of a char-woman. The one is pale, bloodless and feeble; the other is purple-red, full of blood, and firmly strung in every sinew. But let the lady and the char-woman change situations for twelve months, and the case of the hand will be in a great degree reversed. The lady, compelled to exercise her hands at all hours, will drive the blood to them in an increased current, and it will give away part of its nourishment to the sinews and muscles every time it passes them in its journey to and from the heart; that is, about every five or ten minutes in the day. The sinews, in consequence of this extra supply of nourishment, will become thick and strong, and the hands red and coarse. The char-woman, on the ather hand, now placed, according to our supposition, in her fine drawingroom, with nothing to do, has the current of blood, which was formerly driven by labour to her hand, interrupted, and stagnating idly about her liver or her brain; and her hands will consequently become pale, delicate and feeble, for lack of their accustomed stream of blood. Sir A. Carlisle has ingeniously remarked, that in birds of prey, or such as remain long on the wing, the wing-muscles are not only larger, but much more florid, in consequence of the increased stream of blood; and it has been well remarked, on the same principle, that the muscles connected with the voice in the sky-lark, which are long exercised, have a similar appearance.† In persons who have undergone amputation of one of the limbs, it is commonly found that the other from the additional exercise imposed on it, becomes larger and more powerful. Dr. Macartney mentions a case no less in point. It frequently happens, that strong and labouring people acquire some lateral inclination of the body, and a projection of the shoulder-blade, from employing only one hand in their work. In these cases, the shoulder which is least exercised is the one that stands out; while the other is, from the exercise, always of a peculiarly fine form. It will now be an easy task to apply these principles to the improvement and preservation of the shape and carriage, bearing in mind that overstretching any of the muscles, without rest or remission, tends to destroy their tone and their natural proportions. We shall accordingly proceed to the examination of the various contrivances now in use in schools and private families, with a reference to the figure and carriage of young ladies. We shall begin with Shoulder Braces. The incessant injunction of mothers and governesses, to keep the head up, and the shoulders back, is founded npon the most erroneous and and dangerous principle; being entirely in opposition to the law of nature, that in order to keep the body healthy, rest must succeed exertion. Man, it has been well remarked, was formed to walk upright, but it was decreed likewise that he should bend his back in tilling the ground; and those who fail to do so, shall not go unpunished for their disobedience, It is the absurd prohibition of this simple motion of the body alone, and the want of the wholesome and indispensible alternation of action and rest of • Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 90. Ward, on the Spine, page 7. Trs. Roy. Irish Academy, for 1817. |