loncs, a lino drawn from tlio Caspinn Sea through Asia Minor and the Archipelago, to/Etna,
Slroinlioli, niid ^'esiivius, and tlience prolonged eastwards through Spain and Portugal to the
Aiores, will inciicatc the principal foci of all disturbances of this kinil which have convulsed the
gi-eat continent of Europe-. As these coneiiisions, liotvevcir, often extend o»er thousands of
square miles, their extreme and expiring undulations (but these alone) have often been propagated
lis fur as our own islands. These, however, tiave hy the uniform attestation of history, never
possessed sulKcivnt strengtli even to throw down ii single elmreh tower; tbeir utmost elTorls have,
iis in the London earthquakes of l/Bl, scarcely sufficed to subvert a few decayed and tottering
cliimneys. To siippse then tbat a cause Icuovvn. with all tlie evidence of history, to be in these
counuies ao extremely feeble, could producc not only the subsidence of Bendon and Whitlauds,
but the extensive ruin of the whole line of underelilf, (for the phicnomena throughout are strictly
identical,) is an hypothesis which no mind trained in the principles of |.biiosophical reasoning
could readily admit. The causc sought for, in order to aSbr<l a satisftictory solution of the problem,
must ncccssarily be one, which, although powerful in Its immediate seat, sbould yet he
superficial, local, and limited. Such a cause, however, within its own sphere of operation, is
cajablc, as wc sec, to produce effects of a grand and almost awful character, which rather surpass
than yield to the effects even of volcanic agency, and realise to our eyes the conceptions of our
minds of the sublimest images of poetrj-, such as those in which the Psalmist so forcibly describes
the firm confidence of the religious soul: "Thc-refure will we not feai-, thougli the earth be moved
and though the hills be carried into the midst of the seo: though the waves thereof rage and
swell, and the eartli shake at the tempests of tlic same."
A P P E N D I X .
ACCOUNT OF THE SONSIDENCE OR FOUNDER AT IIAWKLEY HANGER.
begim tc
(EitpiclcJ froa White'» N«6,nJ Histwy of Stlborae.)
THE months of January and February in tbe year l " i were remarkable for great melting
is of rain , so that by tbe end of the latter month the land-springs, or lavmU,
id to be neai- as high as in the memorable winter of 1764, The beginning of
""" '«""""i "^hen, in the night between the 8tl. and 9th of that
month, a considerable part of tbe great woody hanger at Huwkiey was torn from its place, and
fell down, leaving a higl, freestone cliff naked and bai^e, and resembling the steep side of acbalkpit.
It appears tbat this huge fragment, being perhaps sapped and u)idermined by waters,
foimdcrcd, and was ingulfed, going down in a perpendicular direction ; for a gate «-liich stood in
the field, on the top of the hill, after sinking with iu posts for thirty or forty feet, remained in
so true and upright a position as to open and shut with great exactness, just as in its first situation.
Several oaks also are still standing, and in a state of vegetation, after taking the same
desperate leap. That gieat part of this prodipous mass \vas absorbed in some gulf below, is
plain also from the inclining ground at the bottom of the hill, whieli is free and unincumbered,
l>nt would liave been buried in heaps of rubbish l.ad the fragment parted and fallen forward.
About an hundred yards from the foot of this hanging coppice stood a cottage by tbe side of a
lane; and two hundred yards lower, on the other side of tlie lane, was a fnrm-bouse, in which
lived a labourer and liis family; and just by a stout new barn. The cottage was inhabited by
an old woman and her son and his wife. These people in the evening, which was very dark and
tempestuous, observed that the bi'Ick floors of their kitebens began to heave and part; and that
the walls seemed to open, and tlie roofs to crack i but they all agree that no tremor of the ground,
indicating an earthquake, was ever felt; only that tbe wind continued to make a most tremendous
roaring in the woods and hangers. The miserable 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 edificcs- 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 asimiiar
manner; that a pond near the cottage bad undergone a strange rcveise, becoming deep at the
shallow end, and so vies ver^d -, tbat many large oaks were removed out of tlielr perpendicular,
some thrown down, and some fallen into the heads of neighbouring trees i aud that a gate was
thrnst forward, with its bedge, full six feet, so as to require a new track to be made to It. From
the foot of tbe cliff the general course of the ground, which is pastui-e, inclines in a moderate
descent for half a mile, and Is interspersed with some 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 buildings, made such vast shelves that the