652 
agency behind them, although they often have been 
connected with permanent changes of the earth's surface 
of a great and extraordinary character. Again, even some 
natives of Lincolnshire may say " But when had we 
earthquakes?" I will therefore instance a few. In 1048 
there was a serious convulsion in that county,* also another 
in 1117, that particularly affected the division of Holland, 
greatly endangering and injuring Croyland Abbey, portions 
of which, then just built, were with difficulty stayed up by 
vast timber props.t In 1185 Lincoln was much damaged 
by an earthquake.J In 1448 a violent shock was again felt 
in the southern parts of the county. || In 1750 a shock 
occurred throughout its whole extent, and in parts of 
Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, attended by a rumbling 
noise. It happened on a Sunday and the people ran out 
of churches from their devotions in great alarm ; chimneys 
fell, houses tottered, and plates, &c, fell from shelves § 
And so late as 1792, Bourne and the neighbouring towns 
experienced another shock of an earthquake. It is not 
necessary to point to any instances of elevation of land 
in Lincolnshire as a counterpoise to the subsidence of others 
* 1048. Quo anno terrsemotus factus est magnus Cal. Martii die Dominica. — 
Historia Ingulphi, (Oxford edition, 1684) p. 64. 
t Hoc terrsemotu cum etiam Anglia in mullis provinciis gravissime vexaretur, 
verum Ecclesise Croylandensis opus recens, et adhuc sine constabiliente nave 
tenerum, proh dolor ! in australi muro corpori& sui horribilibus orificiis dehiscens, 
proximam ruinam minabatur acturum, nisi Carpentariorum industria longissimis 
trabibus and tignis transversis stabili concordia, usque ad navis impositae confoe- 
deratioriem deinceps solida constantia fulciretur. — Ibid, p. 129. Petri Blesensis 
continuatio. 
J: A.D. 1185. Terra? motus magnus audirus est fere per totam Angliam, qualis 
ab initio mundi in terra ilia non erat auditus. Petrse enim scissae sunt, domus 
lapidese ceciderunt, Ecclesia Lincolniensis metropolitana scissa est a summo 
deorsum. Contigit autem terra? motus iste in crastino diei dominicse in ramis 
palmarum, viz. xvii Kal. Mail — Roger Hoveden, 359. 
|| Historia Croylandensi continuatio, p. 526. 
§ Collections for a Topographical History of the Hundred of Aveland, by 
John Moore. 
