

 252 FALL OF A CLIFF. 



gone 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 neighbouring 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 direction, 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 further 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 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 com- 

 posed them ; a hanging coppice was changed to a naked 

 rock ; and some grass grounds and an arable field so broken 

 and rifted by the chasms, as to be rendered for a time, 

 neither fit for the plough, nor safe for pasturage, till con- 

 siderable labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling 

 the surface, and filling in the gaping fissures. 



