In that same storm a young shepherd, within sight of his own father,
fell over a precipice near Birkhill, and, with spine hopelessly injured,
lay helpless amongst the snow-covered boulders in a place inaccessible
to the distracted father. A party succeeded in rescuing him, but rescue
availed him little; he lay afterwards at home for several weeks unable
to stir hand or foot, and in great pain, till death mercifully released
him.
In 1825 came an on-fall so sudden and violent that scores of people who
happened to be on journeys were compelled to remain for weeks wherever
they had chanced to be when the storm broke. There was no possibility of
getting away; except those in the immediate vicinity of large towns, all
roads were completely blocked, and communication was absolutely cut off.
The mails had ceased to run, and of course in those days the electric
telegraph was unknown. Thus, many a man, the father of a family, was
parted indefinitely from wife and children without possibility of
allaying their anxiety for his welfare; many a commercial traveller
passed week after week in some roadside inn, waiting vainly for the
long-delayed thaw to enable him to communicate with his employer. And
had country people in those days depended for their supplies on
tradesmen's carts, as is the custom now, many a family must have found
itself in the direst straits ere the storm was half over.
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