[List-Cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 22 Jun 1816 - Solway Moss

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 22 Jun 1816   (p. 4, col. 1)

 

SOLWAY MOSS. 

  

To the Editor of the CARLISLE PATRIOT. 

 

SIR,-Having a few observations to communicate to the public through the medium of your paper, on the cause of the memorable
disruption of the Solway Moss into the beautiful plain at the South, it will be necessary to premise with a brief account of that
occurrence; though well known to a portion of your readers, there may be still a great number who have heard little or nothing of
the particulars, and this will be a sufficient apology for the extracts which I shall make. 

 

"On the 13th of November 1771, (says Mr. GILPIN) in a dark tempestuous night, the inhabitants of the plain were alarmed with a
dreadful crash, which they could in no way account for; many of them were then abroad in the fields watching their cattle, lest the
Esk, which was then rising violently in the storm, should carry them off. None of these miserable people could conceive the noise
they had heard, to proceed from any cause, but from the overflowing of the river in some shape, though to them unaccountable. Such
indeed, as lived near the source of the eruption, were sensible that the noise came in a different direction; but were equally at a
loss for the cause. In the mean time the enormous mass of fluid substance, which had burst from the moss, moved slowly on, spreading
itself more and more as it got possession of the plain. Some of the inhabitants, through the terror of the night, could plainly
discover it advancing like a moving hill. This was in fact the case; for the gush of mud carried before it, through the first two or
three hundred yards of its course, a part of the breast work; which was several feet in height; but it soon deposited this solid
mass and became a heavy fluid. One house after another, it spread around, filled, and crushed into ruin; just giving time to the
terrified inhabitants to escape. Scarcely anything was saved except their lives-nothing of their furniture, few of their cattle.
Some people were surprised in their beds, and had the additional distress of flying naked from the ruin.-The morning light explained
the scene of this amazing terror, and shewed the calamity in its fullest extent; and yet among all the conjectures of that dreadful
night the mischief which really happened had never been supposed.-This dreadful inundation continued still spreading for many weeks
till it covered the whole plain, an area of 500 acres; and, like molten lead, poured into a mould, filled all the hollows of it,
lying in some parts 30 or 40 feet deep, reducing the whole to one level surface. The overplus found its way into the Esk, where its
quantity was such as to annoy the fish; no salmon during that season venturing into the river.-On this well-cultivated plain 28
families had their dwellings and little farms, every one of which, except a few who lived near the skirts of it, had the world
totally to begin again." 

 

Mr. PENANT, in his detail of this singular occurrence, thus endeavours to account for it- 

 

"The shell, or crust, which kept this liquid within bounds nearest to the valley, was at first of sufficient strength to contain it;
but by the imprudence of the peat diggers, who were continually working on that side, at length became so weakened as not longer to
be able to resist the weight pressing on it. To this may be added, that the fluidity of the moss was greatly increased by three
days' rain of unusual violence, which preceded the eruption. After the black deluge had burst its confines, many cattle were
suffocated; but the case of a cow that escaped deserves mention from its singularity. She was the only one out of eight in the same
cow-house that was saved, after having stood 60 hours up to the neck in mud and water: when she was relieved she did not refuse to
eat, but would not taste water, nor could even look at it without manifest signs of horror." 

 

The following account of the cause of this catastrophe (of the truth of which I have no doubt) I had from a man who constantly
travelled into Scotland; he was well acquainted with the place, and was on the spot while the moss was flowing.- 

 

"Some time before the eruption of this morass, Mr. GRAHAM had built a Corn Mill on a beck which runs near the moss. This mill was
erected for the use and convenience of his tenants; but some time after it was built, the stream which gave motion to the machinery,
became less and less, without any apparent cause-this was considered as a miracle at that time by the wise men of the border. In the
course of time the mill and ground about it, were observed to sink gradually, as it were, into the earth. This appeared very evident
to the people on the opposite side of the moss; for when the building was first erected, the whole of it, from the foundation to the
top, was in view; but first the lower parts disappeared, and at length the whole fabric sank out of sight." 

 

It seems evident from this account, that the water from the rivulet found a passage under the moss, hence the dessication [sic] of
the stream, and the apparent sinking of the mill; the bog swelled by the continual accession of water, burst its banks and disgorged
its contents on the plain below. 

 

If a reservoir was made to contain a supply of water for a dry season, which is common where mills are supplied by small streams,
this might be the original cause of the desertion of the water. 

 

Solway Moss, perhaps, floats upon a lake, as many other morasses do, and when overcharged with water, burst; I have read of such in
Ireland. Many of the mosses in the mountainous parts of this country, which are situate in hollow places, have lakes beneath them.
Some lakes (as that of Derwent) have islands floating upon them. The vast plains at the mouths of some rivers were formerly bays; by
the continual accession of vegetable matter, these bays become bogs, which in process of time became vegetable earth by being
covered with mud;-such are the deltas at the mouths of the Nile, the Ganges, the Rhine, &c. The whole of the Low Countries were
formerly bog. The city of Amsterdam is seated on peat moss, some 20 or 30 feet deep, which the Dutch consolidated by driving piles
through it, to keep their buildings from sinking. 

 

About 400 years ago, the place where the Zuderzee is now situated was thickly covered with habitations; 72 towns and 100,000 people
with all their property so overloaded the plain, that it sunk to the bottom of the sea beneath it. But one man and his family
escaped the submersion of his country, being forewarned of the calamity, as the miracle-mongers of that time say; but the truth was,
he saw a herring swimming in one of his canals which made him suspect that the country was seated on the sea; he took all his
property from the place, and like Lot, escaped the catastrophe. 

 

     Near Kendal.                                                                                                             C. 

 

 

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