66 NATURAL HISTORY 



below, is plain also from the inclining 

 ground at the bottom of the hill, which is 

 free and unincumbered ; but would have 

 been buried in heaps of rubbish, had the 

 fragment parted and fallen forward. About 

 an hundred yards from the foot of this 

 hanging coppice stood a cottage by the side 

 of a lane ; and two hundred yards lower, 

 on the other side of the lane, was a farm- 

 house, in which lived a labourer and his 

 family; and, just by, a stout new barn. 

 The cottage was inhabited by an old 

 woman and her son, and his wife. These 

 people in the evening, which was very dark 

 and tempestuous, observed that the brick 

 floors of their 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 



