244 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



kitchens began to heave and part ; and that the walls seemed to 

 open, and the roofs to crack ; but they all agree that no tremor of 

 the ground, indicating an earthquake, was ever felt ; only that the 

 wind continued to make a most tremendous roaring in the woods 

 and hangers. The miserable inhabitants, not daring to go to bed, 

 remained in the utmost solicitude and confusion, expecting every 

 moment to be buried under the ruins of their shattered edifices. 

 When daylight came they were at leisure 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 suffered 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 perpendicular, 

 some thrown down, and some fallen into the heads of neigh- 

 bouring trees ; and that a gate was thrust forward, with its hedge, 

 full six feet, so as to require a new track to be made to it. 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 direc- 

 tion, as well towards 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 side, which was strangely torn and disordered. The second 

 pasture-field, being more soft and springy, was protruded forward 

 without many fissures in the turf, which was raised in long ridges 

 resembling graves, lying at right angles to the motion. At the 

 bottom of this enclosure the soil and turf rose many feet against 

 the bodies of some oaks that obstructed their farther course, and 

 terminated this awful commotion. 



The perpendicular height of the precipice in general is twenty- 

 three yards ; the length of the lapse or slip as seen from the fields 

 below, one hundred and eighty-one ; and a partial fall, concealed 

 in the coppice, extends seventy yards more ; so that the total 

 length of this fragment that fell was two hundred and fifty- one 

 yards. About fifty acres of land suffered from this violent con- 



