264 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 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 nor safe for pasturage, till con- 

 siderable labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling 

 the surface and filling in the gaping fissures. 



LETTER XLVI. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE. 



resonant arbusta 



HERE is a steep abrupt pasture field inter- 

 spersed with furze close to the back of this 

 village, well known by the name of tho Short 

 Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and 

 inclining to the afternoon sun. This spot 

 abounds with the Gryllus campestris, or field cricket, which, 

 though frequent in these parts, is by no means a common 

 insect in many other counties. 



