VOL. XXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 97 



tons of the neighbours, and afterwards by accounts of the same from many 

 other places; in some of which it seems to have been more violent than at 

 Havant. Several persons in this place say, that they not only perceived the 

 shaking of their beds, but also the rocking of their houses, with a rumbling 

 noise of drawers, and the like moveable goods, in their chambers, and other 

 rooms. A learned and ingenious gentleman in that town affirmed, that the 

 motion of his bed appeared to him like the tossing of a vessel when it crosses 

 over a wave, the head and feet rising and falling alternately several times ; 

 whereas the Dr.'s seemed rather to rock from side to side : but these contrary 

 motions of the two beds are easily accounted for, by considering their dif- 

 ferent positions, the former standing directly east and west, and the Dr.'s 

 north and south : for supposing the undulatory motion, which the earth might 

 have at that time, was propagated from east to west, the same kind of motion 

 which caused the former bed to rise up and down lengthwise, must make the 

 latter rock from side to side; as may be observed in two vessels sailing in con- 

 trary directions on the same waves of the sea, that which crosses the waves at 

 right angles being tossed up and down endwise, while the other moving in a 

 line parallel with the waves, is rocked from side to side. What makes the Dr. 

 more inclined to think the progressive motion of this earthquake was from east 

 to west, is, because it appears from the best accounts, that it was observed 

 sooner east than westward, and likewise extended farther from east to west, 

 than north and south. 



The Dr. thinks it may not be amiss to take notice of some remarkable phae- 

 nomena, which happened before and after, as well as some other circumstances 

 which immediately attended this earthquake, most of them agreeing with those 

 signs which have been observed by the learned to precede or accompany former 

 earthquakes, in these and other parts of the world. It was observable, that 

 there had been of late more rain and wind for several months successively, than 

 for many years past ; especially from the beginning to the middle of this month ; 

 about which time it cleared up, and the weather became suddenly very cold, 

 with frosty mornings, the wind blowing generally pretty hard from n. w. On 

 the 23d, the cold abated considerably ; it was cloudy, but no rain. The 24th 

 was very calm all day ; it rained most part of the afternoon, though the mer- 

 cury stood at ?>0-iV- It continued very calm all night, and rained hard for 

 some time before and after the earthquake happened ; but it soon cleared up, 

 and a strong gale of wind rose within half an hour, or, as some say, within a 

 quarter afterwards : it continued blowing hard all the forenoon. 



Philip Boisdaune, Esq. of the parish of Funtington in the county of Sussex, 

 and many other persons, all agree, that there was a manifest shock of an 



VOL. VIII. O 



