II. 
THE GREAT ESSEX EARTHQUAKE OF THE 22nd OF APRIL, 1884. 
By Professor R. Meldola, F.R.A.S., E.I.C., F.C.S. 
A Lecture delivered at Hertford , 11 th December , 1885. 
Abstract communicated by J. Hopkinson, F.L.S., F.G.S. 
PLATE I. 
It will be in the recollection of the members of the Hertfordshire 
Natural History Society that on the 22nd of April, 1884, we had 
what for this country may be considered a very serious earthquake. 
The centre of that disturbance happened to be in the county of 
Essex, and it being highly desirable that such a visitation should 
not be allowed to pass without being thoroughly investigated by the 
chief if not the only scientific society in Essex (the Essex Field 
Club), I undertook, in conjunction with Mr. William White, one 
of the members, to draw up a report upon it. The result of our 
investigations is contained in a book of 230 pages, with 4 plates 
and numerous other illustrations, which is on the eve of being 
published; * and my lecture this evening will consist of the pith of 
that report. 
Our reason for undertaking the work was because we considered 
it just the kind of work which ought to be done by local societies, 
and not because we possessed any special knowledge of the im¬ 
perfectly-understood science of seismology, and the first thing 
we found it necessary to do was to find what records existed 
of previous British earthquakes which would at all compare with 
this one. At first we contemplated giving a complete chronological 
catalogue of all the earthquakes that have been recorded in Britain; 
but, for reasons which I need not now stop to explain, after drawing 
up a list as the result of a considerable amount of literary research, 
we had to abandon our iutention and to limit our catalogue to such 
earthquakes as have caused structural damage in this country. 
It is very difficult to say whether the early earthquakes were as 
serious as they are reported to have been; for, with all respect to 
the early chroniclers, there can be no doubt but that they were 
inclined to “draw the long bow.” For instance, I may quote the 
record published by Dr. Short of an earthquake in Somersetshire 
in a.d. 103, which says that “ a city was swallowed up name and 
all,” and if that were true it must have been a very serious earthquake 
indeed. Again, in a.d. 132, there is said to have been one in the 
West of Scotland, when “men and cattle were swallowed up” ; 
another in 204, when “ a city in Brecknockshire was swallowed 
up”; and in 261 “a terrible one in Cumberland.”. But such ac¬ 
counts as these have to be taken cum grano ; and, after fairly con¬ 
sidering all the records we have got together, I think it can be said 
* This work, entitled ‘ Report on the East Anglian Earthquake of April 22nd, 
1884,’ has recently been published by Macmillan and Co.—E d. 
