2-913-527 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ruins at Olney, after the recent fire, 1854. Aftermath of a fire in Buckinghamshire. 'The place, as sketched by our Artist, presents a fearful picture of desolation; solitary chimneys and gables, charred roofs and window-frames being all that remain of many a rural homestead and abode of smiling content...the distress and ruin of the poorer tenants, many of whom lost every article they possessed, except the clothes they escaped in, is truly afflicting...Many of the poor, highly to their credit, opened their little abodes to their destitute neighbours; but there still remain a large number of persons homeless, it being reckoned that 300 persons have been driven out by this fearful desolation. It is a consolation to know that no lives were lost...The number of houses destroyed is 55, and 25 others damaged - altogether, 80'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.