OF THE ITxn OF DECEMBER, 1896. 187 



ground. — Edward Mawley [Pros. R. Met. Soc, F.R.H.S.], Rosehank, 

 Berkhamsted. 



* Little Gadbesden. — The shock was rather sliglit, of two 

 distinct parts, iirst a rumbling noise, then a rattling, the interval 

 between being only a second or two. My cupboard doors were 

 thrown open, although locked for certain at night; my bed was 

 slightly lifted, my windows rattled very much. The sound 

 resembled that of a traction-engine moving heavily along. It 

 followed the shock by about a few seconds. Time, 5.30. — [Fraulein] 

 M. A. Haftslein, Little Gaddesden House, Berkhamsted. 



Kensworth. — 5.35 a.m. iSharp shock of earthquake. Furniture 

 and crockery, etc., shaken and rattled. — [Missj S. Grace Jones, 

 The Grove, Kensworth. 



*IlEiiEi, Hempstead. — In bed on first floor. Awakened by the 

 noise, as of the fall of some heavy body, or of an explosion at 

 some little distance. A slight rocking of the bed felt. Time, 

 about 5.45. — [8ir] John Evans [K.C.B., D.C.L., Treas.R.S., etc.], 

 j^ash Mills, Uemel Hempstead. 



RiCKMANSwoRTH. — I was staying in Rickmansworth in a house 

 near the cemetery. I was awake early and had just put out 

 my candle, when I felt a very gentle trembling of the bed ; there 

 was no wind, no one moving in the house. The trembling was 

 repeated — then a third time— and immediately it seemed as if 

 someone raised the bed and tried to twist it. It made me feel 

 giddy, although it was soon over, and I knew then what it was. 

 The whole room seemed to be twisted, and to resist and creak. 

 I looked at my watch and found it 5.30. My maid, sleeping 

 in a room opposite, was greatly alarmed, and she, too, felt the 

 bed and room twisted. It was a very different movement from 

 any I had felt before, in some far stronger and longer shocks, in 

 the extreme north of Scotland. It did not, however, wake another 

 person in the same house. — Sophie D. [Mrs. Clarence] Fry, Rough 

 Down. North wood, Middlesex. 



*The observer was indoors, in bed, on first floor. Time, 5.25. 

 The duration of the shock one or two seconds ; it was strong enough 

 to make windows, doors, fire-irons, etc., rattle. Several persons 

 in the town say that it caused beds to be perceptibly moved. 

 In several houses crockery was thrown down. There was no 

 particular sound, except that of a concussion, just as if some huge 

 van or traction-engine had been overturned in the street close 

 by. The shock was felt with more or less intensity in nearly 

 all the towns and villages near. — A. E. Northey [Vicar of 

 Rickmansworth], The Vicarage, Rickmansivorth. 



King's Laxgley ; Abbots Langley ; Bedmoxd ; Leavesden 

 Asylum. — Oscillations of beds and jarring of ornaments ex- 

 perienced. — Watford Observer, 19 Dec, 1896. 



Leavesdex. — The earthquake was felt at this cottage by three 

 old people, about half-past five in the morning, two feeling as 

 though the bed was lifted up, the other was shaken. — [Mrs.] K, 

 Kentish, Rose Cottage, Woodside, Leavesden. 



