196 THE NATUEAL HISTOEY 



it's 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 pro- 

 truded 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 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 as to be rendered, 

 for a time, neither fit for the plough or safe for pasturage, till 

 considerable labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling 

 the surface and filling in the gaping fissures. 



LETTER XLVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selbornc. 

 " resonant arbusta " 



THERE is a steep abrupt pasture field interspersed with furze 

 close to the back of this village, well known by the name of the 

 Short Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the 

 afternoon sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus campestris, or 



