270 FALL OF A CLIFF. 



citude 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, run- 

 ning 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 dis- 

 ordered. 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 



