Tuesday 20th November 1810, the floods came to Exeter. There was a high wind and the river ran high. Three vessels of large burden were thrown completely onto the Quay and on their way, from Honiton to Exeter, the Monmouthshire Militia, were obliged to wade through water up to their necks. Up to their necks!? I should have liked to have seen that! But I suspect newspapermen, then even more than now, did not let the truth get in the way of good copy.
The best story though is of what happened to the Clarence coach from Plymouth to Exeter when it reached Alphington:
"the waters being higher than the horses they all swam with the coach against a strong current, but the postilion , losing his seat, clambered up a hedge, the two leading horses immediately began to turn, which the coachman perceiving, descended from his seat and cut off the harness, being up to his chin in the water; four of the horses swam off but the other two were drowned. Six passengers, after struggling with the water, got on a hedge, and from thence reached a neighbouring house, the inhabitants of which immediately gave the distressed passengers an asylum for the night. Another passenger, a stout black man, taking a diferent course, remained under an high hedge nine or ten hours, till he was released the next morning. The empty coach was carried back a considerable distance by the stream, and stuck in a hedge."
The Plymouth road through Alphington must have been no more than a deep Devon lane which had filled to become a veritable river. I hope the stout black man came to no harm.
Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal, 23rd November, 1810
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