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Particular, viz. the Noife or Sound that accompa- 
nied or immediately preceded our Earthquake. This 
indeed was very terrible and amazing ; though I am 
apt to think it was thought more confiderable by 
thofe within doors, than fuch as were without in the 
Air. Some of our People took this Noile to be 
Thunder ; others compared it to the Ratling of 
Coaches and Carts upon Pavements, or frozen 
Ground. One of my Neighbours liken’d it to the 
{hooting out of a Load of Stones from a Cart under 
his Window. For my own Part, being perfectly 
awake, though in Bed, I thought at firlt my Ser- 
vants, who lodged in a Garret over my Chamber, # 
were haling along a Trundle-bed : But, in truth, the 
Noife that accompanies an Earthquake feems to be 
forms fui generis, and there is no delcribing ft. This 
Noife, as amazing as it was, in an Inftant of Time, 
as one may fay, was fucceeded by a Shake much 
more terrible. My Houfe, which is large and well 
built, feemed to be fqueezed or prefs’d up together, 
as though an hundred Screws had been at work to 
throw it down • and fliook not only every thing in 
the Houfe, particularly the Bed under me, but the 
Building itfelf, and every Part of it fo violently for 
the Time, that I was truly in great Fear it would 
have tumbled down, and my Family perifhed in the 
Ruin : But through the great Power and Mercy of 
God, we received no Harm. ’Tis impoflible to de- 
fcribe the Terror and Amazement that an Earth- 
quake carries with it ; and though I had never felt 
one before, yet I was thoroughly convinced what 
it was at the very Time. 
The 
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