In this Manner, our Weekly Bills gave us an Account of Twenty One Persons kill'd in the City of London, and Parts adjacent.
Some of our printed Accounts give us larger and plainer Accounts of the Loss of Lives, than I will venture to affirm for Truth; as of several Houses near Moor-Fields levell'd with the Ground: Fourteen People drowned in a Wherry going to Gravesend, and Five in a Wherry from Chelsey. Not that it is not very probable to be true; but as I resolve not to hand any thing to Posterity, but what comes very well attested, I omit such Relations as I have not extraordinary Assurance as to the Fact.
The Fall of Brick-Walls, by the Fury of this Tempest, in and about London, would make a little Book of it self; and as this affects the Out-Parts chiefly, where the Gardens and Yards are wall'd in, so few such have escap'd; at St. James's a considerable part of the Garden Wall; at Greenwich Park there are several pieces of the Wall down for an Hundred Rods in a Place; and some much more, at Battersey, Chelsey, Putney, at Clapham, at Deptford, at Hackney, Islington, Hogsden, Wood's Close by St. John's Street, and on every side the City, the Walls of the Gardens have generally felt the Shock, and lie flat on the Ground twenty, thirty Rod of walling in a Place.
The publick Edifices of the City come next under our Consideration; and these have had their Share in the Fury of this terrible Night.
A part of her Majesty's Palace, as is before observ'd, with a Stack of Chimneys in the Centre of the new Buildings, then not quite finished, fell with such a terrible Noise as very much alarm'd the whole Houshold.
The Roof of the Guard-house at Whitehall, as is also observ'd before, was quite blown off; and the great Vane, or Weather-Cock at Whitehall blown down.
The Lead, on the Tops of the Churches and other Buildings, was in many Places roll'd up like a Roll of Parchment, and blown in some Places clear off from the Buildings; as at Westminster Abby, St. Andrews Holbourn, Christ-Church Hospital, and abundance of other Places.
Two of the new built Turrets, on the Top of St. Mary Aldermary Church, were blown off, whereof One fell upon the Roof of the Church; of Eight Pinnacles on the Top of St. Albans Woodstreet, Five of them were blown down; Part of One of the Spires of St. Mary Overies blown off; Four Pinnacles on the Steeple of St. Michael Crooked Lane blown quite off: The Vanes and Spindles of the Weather-Cocks, in many places, bent quite down; as on St. Michael Cornhil, St. Sepulchres, the Tower, and divers other Places.
It was very remarkable, that the Bridge over the Thames received but little Damage, and not in Proportion to what in common Reason might be expected; since the Buildings there stand high, and are not sheltered, as they are in the Streets, one by another.
If I may be allow'd to give this Philosophical Account of it, I hope it may not be absurd; that the Indraft of the Arches underneath the Houses giving Vent to the Air, it past there with a more than common Current; and consequently relieved the Buildings, by diverting the Force of the Storm: I ask Pardon of the ingenious Reader for this Opinion, if it be not regular, and only present it to the World for Want of a better; if those better furnished that Way will supply us with a truer Account, I shall withdraw mine, and submit to theirs. The Fact however is certain, that the Houses on the Bridge did not suffer in Proportion to the other Places; though all must allow, they do not seem to be stronger built, than other Streets of the same sort.