human
Owing to a sudden rise in the waters near Newport Pagnel, two mails, six coaches, and a van were unable to proceed on their journeys, and, but for the hospitality of Mr. R. Walker, brick-maker, the passengers, amounting to upwards of sixty persons, would have been exposed during the tempestuous night to all the severities of the season. He most kindly opened his doors, and generously offered to the passengers and horses every assistance and comfort in his power; turning his own horses out of the stables to afford shelter to those of the mails.
gpt
About two o'clock in the morning, when crossing a small bridge near the river Towy, about six miles from Caermarthen, on the London road between Caermarthen and Llandilo, owing to the heavy falls of snow and rain on the mountains and a rapid thaw afterwards, which caused the river to overflow the bridge and high road, the morning also being very dark, and the rain falling heavily, the coach was overtaken by the flood, and before the coachman was aware of it, the water rose to such a height in a few minutes that the four horses were unfortunately drowned, and all on the coach would undoubtedly have shared the same fate but for the meritorious conduct of a passenger named John Cressy (a servant in the employ of Sir Richard Phillips), who swam through the flood for about one hundred yards, and secured some boats, which he brought to their assistance, just as the water had reached the top of the coach, and by this means all the passengers, together with coachman, guard, and mails, were saved. John Cressy was awarded fifteen pounds by the Postmaster-General for his gallant conduct.