Floods in Oxford: 1852

From the Illustrated London News, December 1852
Below: details from the above picture

Cuthbert Bede, in The Further Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (published in 1854) must have been remembering these floods when he wrote as follows:

In the first week in December [Verdant Green] had an opportunity of pulling over a fresh piece of water. One of those inundations occurred to which Oxford is so liable, and the meadow-land to the south and west of the city was covered by the flood. Boats plied to and from the railway station in place of omnibuses; the Great Western was not to be seen for water; and, at the Abingdon-road bridge, at Cold-harbour, the rails were washed away, and the trains brought to a stand-still. The Isis was amplified to the width of the Christchurch meadows; the Broad Walk had a peep of itself upside down in the glassy mirror; the windings of the Cherwell could only be traced by the trees on its banks. There was "Water, water everywhere;" and a disagreeable quantity of it too, as those Christchurch men whose ground-floor rooms were towards the meadows soon discovered.... Posts and rails, and hay, and a miscellaneous collection of articles, were swept along by the current, together with the bodies of hapless sheep and pigs. But, in spite of these incumbrances, boats of all descriptions were to be seen sailing, pulling, skiffing, and punting, over the flooded meadows. Numerous were the disasters, and many were the boats that were upset.