ON LANDSLIPS. 311 



level meadow at the bottom of the valley, where it has 

 formed a large, rounded mound, perhaps 60 feet high. 

 There it appeared to have stopped, the bottom resistance 

 having balanced the down-thrust. This mound must have 

 been a remarkable object in the narrow valley, and must 

 have afforded, from its top, a pretty view up and down the 

 valley. 



Now this valley was, early in this century, the seat of a 

 great industry in the manufacture of cloth. It was filled 

 with cloth mills and the workmen's houses. The masters of 

 the mills also (then called "Clothiers") had built themselves, 

 here and there, handsome houses. One of these men had 

 selected as a site this little rounded knoll, and had built his 

 house upon it — a very nice, well-built house, with all con- 

 veniences, and, amongst others, a strongly built well, whence 

 he had a good supply of excellent water. 



At the time the railway was made, this cloth trade had 

 greatly declined, and many of the mills had been closed. 

 The railway j^assed so near to this house that the fence-line 

 cut off one corner of it; so the Company had to buy the 

 whole of the premises, and in that house I lived during the 

 construction of the works. 



I soon observed that the house had been built upon an old 

 landslip, and I shortly after had unmistakable evidence of 

 the still constant though slight advance of the slip. The 

 first intimation I had of this was during the night, when I 

 was sound asleep in bed. There was a sudden report, much 

 like a pistol-shot, in my room. This I afterwards found was 

 caused by the breaking of a nail in the floor, as the slip 

 drew one corner of the house faster than the other parts. 

 Another time, a prominent moulding from the very handsome 

 and projecting cornice to the ceiling fell with a startling 

 crash upon the boarded floor. 



