LXXXVII.] OF SELBORNE. 239 



go to bed, remained in the utmost solicitude and confusion 

 expecting every moment to be buried under the ruins of their 

 shattered edifices. When day-light 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 neighbouring trees ; and that a gate was thrust for- 

 ward, 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 inclosure the soil and turf rose many feet against 

 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 suf- 

 fered 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 chasms 



