274 FIELD-CRICKETS. 



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 gene- 

 ral, 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 hun- 

 dred and fifty-one yards. About fifty acres of land 

 suffered from this violent convulsion ; two houses 

 were entirely destroyed ; one end of a new barn was 

 left in ruins, the walls being cracked through the very 

 stones that composed them ; a hanging coppice was 

 changed to a naked rock ; and some grass grounds 

 and an arable field so broken and rifted by the chasm*, 

 as to be rendered, for a time, neither fit for the plough, 

 nor safe for pasturage, till considerable labour and 

 expense had been bestowed in levelling the surface, 

 and filling in the gaping fissures. 



LETTER LXXXVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE. 

 " Resonant arbusta." 

 The groves resound. 



THERE is a steep abrupt pasture field, inter- 

 spersed with furze, close to the back of this village, 

 well known by the name of the Short Lithe, consist- 

 ing of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the afternoon 

 sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus campestris, 



