A TRUE RELATION Of the many sad and Lamentable ACCIDENTS that have HAPPENED BY THE Fearfull-floods Occasioned  
By the Late unusual rains in several Counties of England, for several days passed by which many People, Cattle, Houses, Barns much Corn and the like have been destroyed, together with the Dismal effects of the prodigious Thunder and Lightning very amazing and dreadful, attended with many fearful circumstances well worthy the perusal of all Christians.  
SUch of late have been the imoderate Rains accompanied with Prodigious Thunders and Lightnings, that considering the Season of the year it has proved Extraordinary for frustrating the labours of the Husbandman in many places, by the fearful Inundations occasioned thereby; & proved destructive to Men, Women and Children, House, Cattle, Stacks of Corn, and Hay, and the like, plainly demonstrating that when the Almighty pleases, he can Command the Elements to fight against us. But leaving a General Demonstration, I shall come to particulars.  
On Saturday the 19th. of May, 1683. A young man formerly living at Walworth in Surry, riding the Country to buy Horses at divers Fairs, and returning somewhat late in the Evening, thinking that Night to have reached Dunstable, having six or seven Horses tied tail to tail, and that day the Impeteous Rains having fallen without intermission for the space of 8 hours, he found that the Land-floods and rising of the Ri●ers thereby occasioned, had raised the Waters, to such a height, that all the Road seemed one great River, but yet thinking it not deep, nor the Stream so fierce, as he afterwards found it, be adventured to pass through, but soon found his rashness when it admitted of no retreat, for coming to a place where the Water fell from the higher ground disgorged itself into a low Meadow full of dangerous Ditches, which at that time seemed all a Sea, the Horses who a long time had swum with him on their backs, were droven down by the Impetuosity of the Torrent and he together with them lost, being carried the space of 700. yards, and there sunk in an Osier D●tch.  
A Coach, with several persons of either Sex, coming from a Village near Market-Harborough in Leicester-Shire, about the beginning of the last week the Coachman warranting a safe passage in a deep Road, the Horses plunging out of their depth, the Coach over-set and was notwithstanding draged by the Horses, swimming for the space of 100 yards, during which space those that were in it could not get out, yet 3. of them, there being 4 in also kept their heads above Water, that they came safe to a shallow, the fourth being drowned as lying under the rest, yet such was their Miserable Condition that when come to the shallow, they could see no Land, neither before nor behind them for near a furlong, and the waters still increased on them, so that they were forced to cut the Horses Harneses' and tie them by the Rains to one of the wheels to keep them from plunging into a deeper water, than they had with so much danger passed; and so sitting together with the Coachman, who had saved himself by keeping his Box for the space of 4. hours in that Melancholy posture at the end thereof the Rain having sometime before ceased it so pleased God that the waters abated, & then getting upon the Horses they left the Coach and their dead Friend, and returned from whence they came, and to the amazement of the Country people made this Lamentable Relation.  
A Gentleman coming from Oxford on the 29. of May between Wickham and Beckonsfield was together with his Horse carried away with the Stream, that came out of a Meadow on the right hand into a Meadow on the left, and there plunged into a River that drives the Paper Mills where his Horse was lost, and himself had followed the same fate had not Providence so ordered it that he caught hold on a Wislow that grew on the Bank, and so by scrambling up into it saved his life, being forced there to continue for the space of four hours, at what time a Miller's Boat came to his relief: and we since hear, that in the bottom of Chalk-Hill near Stoken Church a Coach was over-set, and two passengers drowned, and that 300 Sheep, and several Cows, and Horses, perished the last week by overflowing of the River Isis.  
At Craford in Kent, a fearful Deluge happened on Whitsun-munday which entering several houses put the people into a great consternation causing all the wooden Lumber below-stairs, to swim up and down, as also several Stacks of Hay and Corn, laying many Cornfields under water, to the great amazement of the Inhabitants. At what time, likewise a person looking out at his Window near that place was struck with a flash of Lightning, that if he be not since dead, 'tis conjectured he cannot live long.  
A Wagon coming towards London, was near Rumford, on Thursday last, over-set by the Violence of the Flood that had rendered the ways exceeding deep, the manner thus; the Horses plunging into the water the Thill horse fell down, and in struggling overthrew the Wagon, which pressed down by the Lading, and people that were therein stood almost to the middle bar in water, & having cast the Lading, most of which was lost and spoiled by the Violence of the Stream driven down, it turning over and over, at length it was forced with such fury against a Bank or rather Sluice, through which the water rushed; that it beat in pieces e'er the Horses could be Disengaged, and the most of them drowned, the Wagoner hardly Escaping.  
From B●ston, in Lincoln-Shire. We have a Relation that 100 head of Cattle have been lost in the Fens and Low Grounds thereabouts. As likewise some Houses Demolished, and many people killed and hurt, with the prodigious Thunder and Lightning, that has, for a Month past, happened in those parts, nor has the Sea by the Exceeding great Land-floods, that have of late rolled into it, failed to overflow its Banks, especially on the Coasts of Holland, and Zealand, where the Dikes, being broken through with Violence of the Waves and their softness, by reason of the continual Rain, that for the space of 13 days, continued there above 6000. Acres lie under water: and amongst other things a Village in Zealand is quite carried away, wherein perished several sick and seeble people who could not fly before the Torrent had stopped all passages, so that their Friends, who in the Consternation fled, could not return to relieve them without the Eminent hazard of their own lives.  
In Cambridge on wendnesday last a Gentleman and his man attempting to pass abirdg covered by the water it unhappyly fortuned that a part of it was carried away by the violenc of the Torrent; so that the man venturing for most fell with his horse where both perished in the floods; his Master not being able to render him any relief.  
At a Place called Clapham in Surry on this Side Putney on Tuesday the 29 of May in the Evening as several People were Sitting in a house discoursing, a flash of Lightning of which that night there were many dismal ones, entering amongst them struck a girl and a man down upon the flore and sorely rend the house: and afterwards another Clap of thunder attended with lightning struck another Person down as he was travelling by the said house so that he lay in the street for dead, all over him being as black as a hat and the house for that night and part of the next day was so strong Scented with Sulphur that few people could long Endure it, though many as well the Gentry as the poorer sort hearing of this sad accident, came to take a view of the lamentable people by the said disaster now rendered misereable spectacles.  
Our Letters from the North, continue to give us a Melancholy account of great Damages sustained in many places, whole Fields of Corn and Grass lying under water, all the Meadows, Fens, and Low Grounds standing like a Sea covered with water, in many places a pikes length in depth, and by the Violence of the rushing Floods many upland Cornfields are torn, as if it had been new Ploughed or Harrowed, the rills being such that they seem deep Trenches rather than water cuts.  
And thus we may see what frail things we mortals are; and Sudden and unexpected fate overtakes us when we least expect it: therefore ever to be prepared for our latter end, come when if will, should be the greatest busyness of our lives: then let us ever revere & admire that God who at a words speaking can render us breathless and by weak means bring the proudest to the dust; for as holy-writ affirms if his wrath do but a little kindled in his breast, Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.  
FINIS.   

LONDON Printed by E. Mallet, 1683.