OF SELBORNE. 275 
inhabited by an old woman, her son, and his wife. 
These people, in the evening, which was very dark 
and tempestuous, observed that the brick floors of 
their kitchen began to heave and part, and that the 
walls seemed to open and the roofs to crack ; but 
they all agree that no tremour of the ground indi- 
cating an earthquake was ever felt, only that the 
wind continued to make a most tremendous roaring 
in the woods and hangers. ‘The miserable inhab. 
itants, not daring to go to bed, remained in the ut- 
most solicitude and confusion, expecting every mo- 
ment to be buried under the ruins of their shattered 
edifices. When daylight came, they were at lei- 
sure to contemplate the devastations of the night. 
They then found that a deep rift or chasm had 
opened under their houses, and torn them, as it 
were, in two, and that one end of the barn had suf. 
fered in a similar manner; that a pond near the 
cottage had undergone a strange reverse, becoming 
deep at the shallow end, and so vice versa; that 
many large oaks were removed out of their perpen- 
dicular, some thrown down, and some fallen into 
the heads of neighbouring trees ; and that a gate 
was thrust forward, with its hedge, full six feet, so 
as to require a new track to be madetoit. From 
the foot of the cliff the general course of the ground, 
which is pasture, inclines in a moderate descent for 
half a mile, and is interspersed with some hillocks, 
which were rifted in every direction, as well to- 
wards the great woody hanger as from it. In the 
first pasture the deep clefts began, and, running 
across the lane and under the buildings, made such 
vast shelves that the road was impassable for some 
time , and so over to an arable field on the other 
