of Selborne 21 1 



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 vet'sa ; 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 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 con- 

 vulsion ; 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 



