196 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



was one of a series which have occurred at various times 

 during the last 600 years over approximately the same area. 

 The damage done (which is, of course, a rough measure 

 of the intensity of the shocks) seems to have been chiefly 

 confined to a district included within lines drawn through 

 Worcester, Hereford, Ross, Dursley, and Gloucester, a 

 space about 30 miles in length and about half that amount 

 in breadth. This district Dr Davison (in a letter to 

 " Nature " of Dec. 24th, 1896) considers to contain the 

 epicentre, though the exact position of the latter is not 

 yet definitely ascertained. Tlie total area, however, over 

 which the seismic disturbance was felt, was very much 

 greater than the district above mentioned, and includes 

 nearly the whole of Hngland and Wales — a space nearly 

 ten times as great as that of the Essex earthquake of 

 1884, though the intensity of the latter was much greater. 

 Mr Symons, in the article above referred to, estimates the 

 rate of progress of the disturbance at about 30 miles per 

 minute, from Hereford as a centre. 



Perceptible shocks, according to Mr Lowe (Proc. 

 British Meteor. Society, vol. 1863-65, p. 59), are much 

 more frequent than is generally supposed ; and it is 

 believed that a shock occurs on an average every six days 

 somewhere in the British Isles, and that they are more 

 frequent in winter than in summer. 



1 Dtp. 97 



