186 H. G. FOEDHAM THE EARTHQUAKE 



like to draw attention to tlie Report on the East Anglian Earth- 

 quake Oi 1884, published by the Essex Field Club,"^ as a model of 

 what may be achieved in this branch of scientific investigation by 

 a local scientific society. It is perhaps the only monograph extant 

 of a modern British earthquake. Complete and exhaustive as it is, 

 and highly valuable as a record, it is also well worth study as an 

 example of an inquiry, and as a guide to systematic observation and 

 to the collection of facts in an investigation of great extent and 

 difficulty. 



I cannot pass from this general and introductory portion of my 

 work without thanking the Editors and Proprietors of the various 

 local newspapers for the assistance they have so readily given to 

 me in obtaining information ; and I must also record my thanks to 

 all those who have taken the trouble to communicate to me their 

 impressions and experiences, as well as to Dr. Davison, who has 

 been good enough to let me look through his letters from Hertford- 

 shire. The information I have taken fi'om the communications 

 made to Dr. Davison I have distinguished by an asterisk {'^'). 



The geographical order of the observations and notices given 

 below is generally from west to east. The plans in the text are 

 drawn, as nearly as the information given me allows, on a scale of 

 about xio") or 10 feet to an inch. 



Observations and Notes. 



Tring. — I was awoke on the morning in question by a shaking 

 or rocking of my bed. I was alone at the time, and my impression 

 was that something or somebody was under the bed. I got up, and 

 the impression was so strong that I looked under the bed and then 

 at the time, which was about 5.30. — J. G. Williams, Pendley 

 Manor, Tring. 



* I distinctly felt my bed, a large heavy iron one, tremble and 

 shake beneath me. I was sound asleep, when I awoke suddenly 

 and felt wide awake. Then 1 felt a strange but distinct shaking ; 

 but shaking is not quite the word, it [the bed] seemed to move to 

 and fro under me. In the High Street, two sisters living together 

 say that their house shook, windows rattled, and they thought 

 someone was trying to wake them by violently shaking their front 

 door. One friend felt as if someone was shaking the bed violently. 

 — Wilhelmina [Mrs. S. G.] FouUces, Grove Lodge, Tring. 



Berkhamsted. — At Berkhamsted many people thought that 

 the foundations of their houses had given way. — Herts Mercury, 

 19 Bee, 1896. 



I was from home at the time of the earthquake, but on my 

 return the next day, could not find the slightest sign of the 

 disturbance of the pencils or pen of any of my self-recording 

 meteorological instruments, not even on the trace of the self- 

 recording rain-gauge, which is sunk more than a foot deep in the 



* 'Report on the East Anajlian Earthquake of April 22iid, 1884,' by Professor 

 R. Meldola and William White ('Essex Field Club Special Memoirs,' vol. i, 

 8vo, pp. 224. London: Macmillan, 1885). See also 'Trans. Herts Nat. 

 Hist. Soc.,' Vol. IV, p. 23. 



