VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTION*. 117 



pillars cracked ; many, that the beams of the roof were disjointed ; and all, that 

 the whole was falling ; and happy were they that could get out first. A few 

 slates, tiles, and parts of chimneys, fell from some houses ; pewter, glasses, and 

 brass, fell from shelves ; a clock-bell sometimes struck ; windows universally 

 rattled ; and the like circumstances of tremor. 



The same extended itself to Coventry, Derby, Nottingham, Newark ; then 

 came eastward to Harborough, Towcester, Northampton, Rowell, Kettering, 

 Wellingborough, Oundle in Northamptonshire, Uppingham, Oakham in Rut- 

 land, Stamford, Bourn, Grantham, Spalding, Boston, and to Lincoln, in Lin- 

 colnshire; Holbech, and All-Holland, in that county; Peterborough, Wisbech 

 in the Isle of Ely, together with all the intermediate and adjacent places. Then 

 it passed over the whole breadth of Ely-Fen, and reached to Bury in Suffolk, and 

 the country thereabouts ; of which we had notice from Lady Cornwallis : an ex- 

 tent from Warwick to Bury of about 100 miles in length ; and, generally speak- 

 ing, 40 miles in breadth. And this vast space was pervaded by this amazing 

 motion, as far as we can get any satisfaction, in the same instant of time. 



In regard to circumstances, they were pretty similar throughout. At North- 

 ampton, a gentlewoman, sitting in her chair, relates, that she and her chair 

 were twice sensibly lifted up, and set down again. A stack of chimneys were 

 thrown down in College-lane ; a place retaining the memory of a sort of univer- 

 sity once beginning at Northampton. The windows of houses rattled throughout 

 the whole town ; but no mischief done. 



They fancied there the motion of it, as they express it, to be eastward. In 

 streets that run north and south, the houses on the east side of the way were 

 most affected : and Dr. Stonehouse's dwelling, the strongest in the town, was 

 most sensibly shaken. So it was likewise observed, that churches were most 

 subject to its violence. They thought too that the motion seemed rather hori- 

 zontal, or lateral, than upward. Some counted the pulses distinctly, to the 

 number of 4. That the second and third pulse were stronger than the first and 

 fourth. From all these various accounts, there was no sulphureous smell, or 

 eruption ; no fissures in the ground perceived ; yet several people were sick 

 upon it. 



It was more evidently perceived by people standing ; most, by those that were 

 sitting ; least, by such as were walking ; and in upper stories of houses more 

 than in lower, or in cellars. Some, coming down stairs, were in danger of being 

 thrown forwards ; several sitting in chairs, and hearing the hollow thundering 

 noise, and thinking it was a coach passing by, when they attempted to get up, 

 to see what it was, they were thrown back again into their chair. Some heard 

 the wainscot crackle. A lady, sitting by the fire, with her chair leaning for- 

 wards, was thrown down on her hands and knees. 



