OF SELBORNE 211 



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 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, becom- 

 ing 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 neigh- 

 bouring 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 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 



