OF THE IYtU 01' DECEMBER, 1896. 195 



*NoKTn MiMMS. — I i'l'lt it very distiuctly where I live, which 

 is sixteen miles north of London, and four miles from Hatfield. 

 I occupy a room at the top of the house (third floor) faeinp^ N.E. 

 I was awake at the time, but was so startled that I did not look 

 at my clock at once; when I looked it was 5.35. No tremulous 

 motion was felt. I cannot say for how many seconds the vibration 

 lasted. It was quickly over. I only felt one vibration. I did not 

 notice any tremulous motion after the vibration. The movement 

 gradually increased in intensity, then died away. The shock was 

 not strong enough to cause doors, etc., to rattle, but the bed was 

 perceptibly moved, neither was it strong enough to stop clocks, etc. 

 The shock was accompanied by an unusual rumbling sound, and it 

 seemed as though everything in the house was falling down. The 

 beginning of the sound preceded the shock. — A. M. Bales, Hawks- 

 head House, Hatfield. 



Lillet. — I was at Putteridge Bury, about half awake, and 

 thought there was a big dog in the room scratching himself hard 

 and shaking the floor rhythmically, and making the washhand-stand 

 clatter. As I knew the dogs in the house, and did not mind their 

 being in the room, I paid no further attention, but at daybreak 

 I found there was no dog and the door was shut. — M. R. Pryor 

 [M.A., F.Z.S.], Weston, Stevenage. 



PiRTOX. — A lady friend of mine tells me she was awoke by 

 feeling her bed rock, and herself rocked or thrown or jerked from 

 side to side, E. to W., and that she heard a noise directly after 

 that appeared to be a long way off ; that would be about the 

 time [of the earthquake] as reported in the ' [Herts] Express.' 

 Her father and mother did not feel it, although they sleep in the 

 same house, but her room and the kitchen under her form a kind of 

 lean-to to the house, which may account for it. The person referred 

 to was awake (instead of being awoke) when the shock was felt, and 

 had been for some time previous to its being felt, I have learned 

 since that in a cottage erected three or four years ago, about thirty 

 yards from the place where the other house stands, the timepiece 

 on the mantelpiece was found to have been stopped — time half -past 

 five or twenty-five minutes past five (I forget now exactly which), 

 and a vase was found leaning against the said timepiece. The 

 timepiece stood on the mantelpiece facing nearly due N., and the 

 vase stood on the "W. side of and fell to the timepiece ; thus it fell 

 'E.— William Hare, Pirton, Hitclmi. 



*HiTCHiN. — Was in bed on the second floor of house. Shock 

 recognized, and time taken at once — 5.34 a m. No tremulous 

 motion. Three main vibrations lasting two or three seconds. Self 

 and wife happened to be awake. We were lying heads W., feet 

 E. (nearly) ; we were moved in bed with three distinct movements, 

 the first rolling us very gently to the N., the second to the S., and 

 the third back to N. The movements were very distinct and 

 easy, nothing jerky or violent. There was no perceptible vertical 

 motion. The windows shook and the bed-hangings moved dis- 

 tinctly. No other movement noticed. No damage to buildings 



