T*he Natural History of Selborne 335 



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 kitchen 

 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 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 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 



