156 J. HOPKINSON 



one and two of the clocke, beganne a terrible earth-quake, with 

 lightning and thunder, which continued the space of two houres, 

 and was vniuersal through the worlde, so that men hadde 

 thought the worlde as then should haue ended, and the generell 

 doome to haue followed." (Stow's ' Annales,' 1615, p. 368.) 

 Mallet records this as occurring throughout the whole of Great 

 Britain, not as universal throughout the world. 



So far our quaint old English chroniclers. For the next 

 three centuries or so (up to 1750) few British earthquakes are 

 recorded, and only two with any remarkable meteorological 

 occurrence. One was on the 8th of January, 1704; a sudden 

 shock in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, preceded by a violent 

 tempest (Mallet). The other was on the 19th of October, 1731. 

 Of this, the Rev. J. Wasse, E-ector of Aynho in Northampton- 

 shire, says : " About a Minute after, some of the Town of Aynho 

 saw a great Flash of Lightning. In the Morning the Sky 

 looked of a Land-colour. It was said that there was a former 

 Shock felt upon Oct. 8 [17 n.s.] about Three in the Morning; & 

 that the latter was preceded by a Noise like distant Thunder." 

 (' Phil. Trans.,' vol. xxxix, p. 367.) 



We now come to a period of seismic activity unparalleled in 

 Britain within historic times, commencing in the year 1750 and 

 culminating with the great Lisl)on earthquake of 1755, which as 

 we have seen affected England, and Hertfordshire. 



Considering shocks with an interval between them of at least 

 an hour as separate earthquakes, there were fourteen in England 

 in the year 1750, occurring on nine days. One was immediately 

 preceded by continual lightning from a black cloud ; another 

 was preceded by a few hours by a thunderstorm, and at the 

 moment of the shock a black cloud was seen ; and the Aiirora 

 borealis was seen about the time of three of the earthquakes. 

 The most severe was the one felt in London and the Home 

 Counties on the 19th of March. There were slight shocks at 

 midnight (18th), 2 a.m., and 3, and at 5.40 (19th) the great 

 shock occurred in London. John Noorthouck, in his ' New 

 History of London' (1772), says: "In St. James's Park, and 

 all the open places, the ground moved very perceptibly, and it 

 was observed, about 5 o'clock, that there was a continual though 

 confused lightning, till within a minute or two of the shock, 

 which darted very low" (p. 368). I. presume he refers to the 

 lightning as coming very near the ground. Another account, 

 already quoted, says : " The soldiers who were upon duty in 

 St. James Park, and others who were then up, saw a blackish 

 cloud, with considerable lightning, just before the earthquake 

 began." (' Hist, and Philos. of Earthquakes,' 1757, p. 243.) 

 And another : " A little before the Earthquake, a large and 

 black Cloud suddenly cover'd the Hemisphere." (' Phil. Trans.,' 

 vol. xlvi, p. 644.) 



On the 29th of March there was an earthquake in the South 

 of England and the Channel Islands which is thus recorded 



