>> Maybe they just got out of England cos they were too miserable to stay, or cos they were hounded out.
>
>It was the rain, they couldn't stand it.

I don't know what the weather was like back then but we've just had our dryest October on record (trad. a time when the winds howl and rain dashes). We're still under a hosepipe ban and water restrictions, in the South, after the longest, dryest summer on record, our reservoirs and sub-terranean aquefers were at a record low.

Now then, I understand Vancouver is one of those "4 seasons in one day" type of places. From all TV clips I've seen it often seems to be windy, overcast or rainy, a lot like a similar conception of SF.