THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 207 
suffered 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 into 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 considerable labor and expense 
had been bestowed in levelling the surface and filling up 
gaping fissures. 
LETTER XLI. 
SELBORNE. 
“The groves resound.” 
ViRGIL, £c/. ii. 
There is a steep abrupt pasture-field and interspersed with 
furze close to the back of this village, well known by the name 
of Short Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to 
the afternoon sun. ‘This spot abounds with the field-cricket ; 
which, though frequent in these parts, is by no means a com- 
mon insect in many other counties. 
As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention 
of a naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy 
of these grylli, and study their mode of life; but they are so 
shy and cautious that it is no easy matter to get a sight of 
them; for feeling a person’s footsteps as he advances, they 
stop short in the midst of their song, and retire backward 
nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of 
danger is over. 
At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but 
without any great success; for either we could not get to the 
bottom of the hole, which often terminated under a great 
stone; or else in breaking up the ground we inadvertently 
