LXXXVII.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
239 
go to bed, remained in the utmost solicitude and confusion 
expecting every moment to be buried under the ruins of their 
shattered edifices. When day -light came they were at leisure 
to contemplate the devastations of the night : they then found 
that a deep rift, or chasm, had opened under their houses, and 
torn them, as it were, in two ; and that one end of the barn had 
suffered in a similar manner ; that a pond near the cottage had 
undergone a strange reverse, becoming deep at the shallow end, 
and so vice versa ; that many large oaks were removed out of 
their perpendicular, some thrown down, and some fallen into the 
heads of neighbouring trees ; and that a gate was thrust for- 
ward, with its hedge, full six feet, so as to require a new track 
to be made to it. From the foot of the cliff the general course 
of the ground, which is pasture, inclines in a moderate descent 
for half a mile, and is interspersed with some hillocks, which 
were rifted, in every direction, as well towards the great 
woody hanger as from it. In the first pasture the deep clefts 
began : and running across the lane, and under the buildings, 
made such vast shelves that the road was impassable for some 
time ; and so over to an arable field on the other side, which 
was strangely torn and disordered. The second pasture field, 
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 inclosiire the soil and turf rose many feet against 
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 suf- 
fered 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 
