206 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 
inhabitants, not daring to go to bed, remained in the utmost 
solicitude and confusion, expecting every moment to be buried 
under the ruins of their shattered edifices. When daylight 
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 neigh- 
boring trees; and that a gate was thrust forward, 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 small 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 building, 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 spongy, 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 
inclosure the soil and turf rose many feet against the bodies 
of some oaks that obstructed their farther course, and termi- 
nated 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 
