HERTFORDSHIRE EARTHQUAKES. 151 



22nd April, 1884. 



The great Essex earthquake of the 22ncl of April, 1884, spread 

 from Colchester as its centre to Leeds on the north, Exeter on 

 the west, and Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, on the south ; 

 and on the south-east across the English Channel to Boulogne 

 and Osteud. Hertfordshire was therefore well within its area, 

 and it was felt throughout the county, almost to its extreme 

 north at Barley and Ashwell, west at Tring, and south-east at 

 Cheshunt. The time of its occurrence was 9.20 a.m. A full 

 investigation of the shock and its effects was made by Messrs. 

 Meldola and White, and published by the Essex Field Club, and 

 Professor Meldola gave to our Society an account in which are 

 included all Hertfordshire records, these being in great part the 

 result of enquiries which I made for him. The effect of the 

 shock in Essex was disastrous, over 1,200 houses and several 

 churches having to be repaired, but in our county there was no 

 structural damage. This earthc{uake, as the authors of the 

 Essex Field Club ' Report- ' say, " although happily attended 

 without loss of life, for destructiveness and wide distribution " 

 was " without a parallel in Britain for at least foia* centuries." 

 The shock was pi-opagated over an area of about 50,000 square 

 miles. 



20^/i January, 1886. 



An earthquake occurred in the West of England on the 

 20th of January, 1886. At St. Austell in Coi'nwall, as stated in 

 ' The Times ' of the following day, about 7 a.m. " it appeared as 

 if an explosion had taken place, so great was the noise, and the 

 sound was immediately followed by the shaking of the ground." 

 At St. Blayzey, four miles distant, about 7.15 a loud rumbling 

 noise was heard and the ground shook. The vibration lasted 

 four or five seconds. A few minutes before 11 a.m.. Dr. C. E. 

 Shelly observed at Hertford a gasalier to be in slight but 

 continually-tremulous vibration, in which state it continued 

 until nearly the end of the afternoon. He contributed a brief 

 note of the occurrence to our Society. 



20tli November, 1887. 



A shock, at first ascribed to an earthquake, was felt on the 

 20th of November, 1887, in Hertfordshire and in other parts of 

 central England, from Suffolk on the north-east to Berkshire on 

 the south-west. On commencing an investigation of the 

 phenomena observed to lay before our Society, Mr. H. Gr. 

 Fordham determined that the shock, with its accompanying 

 sound, " came from the air rather than from the earth," and 

 when he heard that a luminous meteor had been seen from 

 Hertford, he felt no doubt " that what had been attributed to 

 an earthquake had in reality resulted from the passage, across 

 the district affected, of a meteorite, and one probably of 

 some magnitude." Mr. Fordliam gave a full account of his 



