296 The Earthquake of October, 18G3. 



to have been thrown down, and a clock was stopped at the 

 Royal Hotel, Waterloo. The noise from the shaking of doors 

 and furniture caused many persons, in various districts, to 

 fancy that burglars were violently breaking into their premises, 

 and notwithstanding the doubts that certain incredulous persons 

 have thrown upon the statements that alarming sounds were 

 heard, besides the rattling of domestic apparatus, we are satis- 

 fied that some at least of these stories are true. 



Noises of undoubted loudness often pass by with little notice 

 if attention is' otherwise directed. Their effect upon the ear 

 will also depend greatly on the nervous condition of those who 

 hear them. Thus, a few weeks before the earthquake, a loud 

 peal of thunder rolled over London between nine and ten one 

 evening. It caused great alarm to the spectators at one of the 

 theatres, who may have been worked up by a sensation story ; 

 and in one house we know it induced the cook to rush into the 

 scullery, expecting to witness a tragic catastrophe amongst her 

 plates and pots, while in an adjacent house the sound was 

 scarcely heeded by any member of the family. 



We must, in the face of such facts, which every one's ex- 

 perience can easily multiply, not place too much stress upon 

 negative evidence, and fancy that no noise existed because some 

 persons did not attend to it. Fortunately, we are able to give 

 some reliable information on this point, and shall first cite 

 a very interesting letter with which we have been favoured 

 by the Rev. Henry Cooper Key, whose scientific attainments 

 give great value to his testimony. 



Stretton Rectory (Mr. Key's abode) is about three miles 

 west of Hereford, and he tells us that " the impression of all 

 those in this neighbourhood qualified to judge is that the shock 

 was more severe here than elsewhere. The magnitude of the 

 .sound is undoubted. My house is a new one, and very strongly 

 built, and I certainly did not confound the noise caused by the 

 shaking of articles in the house with that of the earthquake. I 

 distinctly heard the noise approaching for some seconds, until 

 the house was violently jarred, as if a train had run against it, 

 and then the solemn sound died away in the distance : it was 

 much deeper than thunder, and almost my first words were, 

 ' Surely no one could have slept through such a noise as that.' 

 The jar that went through my frame was horrible, and such as 

 I shall never forget. I am so sound a sleeper that mere thun- 

 der hardly ever wakes me." 



Mr. Key considers the shock was propagated in a straight 

 line nearly N.E. and S.W., but also " diverging in two direc- 

 tions, say from Macclesfield towards Pembroke, and also from 

 Sheffield towards London." 



Our valued astronomical contributor, the Rev. T. W. Webb, 



