3-071-216 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Rising of the Waters - drawn by A. E. Emslie, 1881. 'A flood, caused by the prolonged heavy rains, has swollen the rivers of a lowland district, and their overflowing waters have covered great part of the meadows, through which are cut several ditches, the banks overgrown with sedge and reeds, while here and there rise the leafless stems of wintry-looking willows, marking the brink of the deeper channel across the fields...she set forth betimes in the afternoon, with the two children, on her way home...It had been only rather muddy, with a few nasty puddles...when she passed in the opposite direction at ten o' clock. But the river, since then, has been rising so rapidly, by the inflow of other streams from the moorland hills, that now, at half-past three, she finds herself in the midst of a broad shallow lake, standing upon a very narrow strip of soft and squashy turf, which will soon be cut off from the firmer ground behind...It will be dark enough in another hour, this late December afternoon; so there is no time to be lost in retracing her steps, and with very wet feet, and with terrible fears and anxieties, more for the children than for her own sake, regaining the safe and solid road'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.