HERTFORDSHIRE EARTHQUAKES. 153 



Two days later, Mr. John G. Scott, of Crabgurth, Hadley 

 Wood, wrote to ' The Times ' : " Referring to Canon Trotter's 

 letter in ' The Times ' of to-day, I distinctly heard a loud 

 report like a powerful explosion, accompanied by vibration, on 

 Wednesday last here. I looked at the clock and noted the time 

 to be 1.58 [p.m.]. It would be interesting to know whether the 

 cause of the disturbance was seismic, and whether it was recorded 

 at G-reenwich or elsewhere." This letter appeared in ' The 

 Times' of 18th March. 



I have recently written to Canon Trotter enquiring whether he 

 could give me any further information about this shock, and 

 extracts from his reply, dated 30th Dec, 1906, follow. 



" We were at lunch . . . and suddenly there was a noise 

 as of a motor- van passing close to the house, and at the same 

 time the windows rattled and the house shook. I looked at my 

 watch, and then, while saying ' that is an earthquake,' I carefully 

 examined the road to see if it could have been a motor. In the 

 afternoon I went to the Sebright Road, a quarter of a mile to 

 the west of the Vicarage, to call on a lady. I asked her if she 

 had noticed anything about that time, and she said, ' Oh yes, 

 indeed ! ', and described almost word for word what I had 

 experienced, the noise and the shaking. Then later in ' The 

 Times ' appeared the account of a neighbour unknown to me at 

 Hadley Wood. This is almost due N.E. from the Vicarage, and 

 a mile and a quarter distant. These are the facts which make 

 me believe that it could be nothing else but an earthquake." 

 Canon Trotter then states that there was no traflfic on either road 

 or rail (the Great Northern) which could have given rise to the 

 noise or the shaking, and concludes : " This shock seems to have 

 been somewhat local, but if its course were N.E., the country in 

 that direction being very sparsely inhabited, it may easily have 

 escaped notice." 



The morning of this shock was very stormy over a great part 

 of England, chiefly in the south. Although the area of 

 atmospheric disturbance was wide, hurricanes and thunder- 

 storms were local, one place here and there suffering damage, 

 while the cyclone was but little felt in the country around. 

 St. Albans sviffered somewhat severely, while the storm was 

 scarcely felt at Watford or at Berkhamsted, and Barnet seems 

 to have escaped it altogether. At St. Albans, as stated in the 

 ' Herts Advertiser ' of 18th March, in the morning there had 

 been intermittent gales, with occasional thunder and lightning ; 

 between one and two in the afternoon the sky became overspread 

 with ominously dark clouds; and about 1.45 (within two or 

 three minutes of that time, as I have ascertained from Mr. H. 0. 

 Carrington, who wrote the account of the storm) , in the district 

 known as Priory Park, " following a loud peal of thunder which 

 momentarily hushed the sound of the pelting hail, a terrific 

 crash was heard," and " fragments of wood and tiles " were seen 

 to be " flying before the fury of the wind in all directions." The 



