OF THE 17tIT of DECEMBER, 1896. 



191 



BusnEY. — The earthfiuako was felt hero. — Watford Observer ^ 

 19 Dec, 1896. 



Aldfxii.vm. — The carth(piake was felt here. There was no noise 

 accompanyiug it. Beds seiaued to be lifted up and then to fall gently 

 down again. My manservant told me about it when he called me 

 at 7.30, before any of the household had seen anyone outside. The 

 time by my man's watch was 5.35 ; both he and his wife were 

 greatly alarmed. I did not wake at all, and none of my cottagers 

 felt anything. This house is about three-quarters of a mile from 

 any other; it is on the bank of the lliver Oolne, upon the Chalk 

 just outside the edge of the London Clay. — S. Taprell Holland^ 

 Otterspool, Aldenliam. 



This place is between Radlett and Aldenham, and on the morning 

 of Dec. 17, at 5.30, I was awakened by my door being burst open, 

 and it seemed as if some heavy person had come into the room and 

 was raising the bed, which seemed to be rocking. I called out 

 "Who is there?", lit a candle and shut the door, and it again 

 burst open and the walls cracked all round the room. Such was 

 my impression. I should say the rocking was certainly on the 

 W. side of the room, and I should think the second opening of 



Plan No. 4.— The Folly, Aldenham. 



the door was within (say) three minutes. The time was 5.30. — 

 [Miss] Emily Brunner, The Folly, Aldenham. 



Redbouen. — Our Redbourn correspondent writes : — " Many of 

 the inhabitants here were considerably alarmed on Thursday early 

 mom (about 5.30) by a shock of ' earthquake,' which was felt all 

 over the village. Some maintain that their beds swayed, others 

 that the bedi'ooms and house shook and trembled, while crockery 

 jingled together in uneartlily fashion. The heavier sleepers were 

 inclined to be sceptical, but the general experience was conv-incing. 

 It is thirty-four years ago last October that a similar shock was 

 felt, so asserts an old inhabitant." * — Herts Advertiser, 19 Dec., 1896, 



* This refers, probably, to the earthquake of 6 Oct., 1863, about 3.22 a m., 

 ■which was felt in the Midlanil and Southern Counties of England and in Walea 

 and Ireland. If so, the interval is 13 anl not 34 years. 



