KiNAHAN — Oil the Earthquake in Essex. 319 



seem to have assisted in their destruction, beginning with the 

 materials, which may be generally divided up as follows: — 1st) 

 brick ; 2nd, stone ; 3rd, lath and plaster ; and 4th, shelling or 

 wood. 



1. Brick Buildings. — Some of these are what are called " frame 

 houses," being bricks in wooden frames ; but they are not common 

 in the affected area, and none of those remarked appeared to be 

 damaged. The other brick structures suffered severely, especially 

 chimneys. The old houses in general have more traces of the 

 quake than the new, but not always, as in North Wivenhoe both 

 were nearly equally injured. The styles of the brick buildings 

 seem to facilitate their coming down. Low structures have often 

 long thin, chimneys plastered against higher ones, without any 

 binding or clamps, many of which fell down, doing considerable 

 damage. In other places the tall houses are without gables, the 

 chimneys coming up through a high, sloped roof , which necessitated 

 their being of a greater or less height, and many of these came down, 

 if square, or if their greatest width was transverse to the direction of 

 the shock ; if we may judge by what can be seen outside the limits 

 of the affected areas, many of the mouths of the chimneys, which 

 were built of single bricks, were cracked and belled at their mouths 

 from the heat in the flues, and consequently easily came down. 

 Many of the walls that came down were two bricks in thickness, 

 they having been run up without binding the outside ones to those 

 inside ; while the regularly built and bonded walls stood in all 

 cases ; also the mortar used in building seems to have been of a 

 very poor quality. Many of the cracks in these structures are in 

 connexion with opes, such as windows and doorways : some, how- 

 ever, are quite independent of them. The most interesting cracks 

 are those in the chimneys, especially where the tops of the latter 

 are partially turned round. 



2. 8tone Structures. — The major portion of these only occur in 

 the church towers, and in some cases are much older than the asso- 

 ciated churches. Some of these old towers suffered severely, which 

 cannot be much wondered at. Take as an example the Langenhoe 

 tower, which was old, rotten, and cobbled ; and here the major por- 

 tion of the damage was due mostly to its fall, but not solely, as the 

 cracks through the wall of the nave and porches are due to the 

 earthquake. At Peldon, however, the damage was mostly due 



