264 
NATURAL HISTUMY 
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 sufiered 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 XLYI. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Selbokne. 
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 the 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. 
