THE EAST ANGLIAN EARTHQUAKE
APRIL 22nd, 1884.
I. Historical Introduction.
Soon after nine on the morning of Tuesday, April 22nd
of last year, the eastern parts of this country were shaken
by a seismic disturbance, which, although happily unattended
by loss of life, for destructiveness and wide distribution has
been without a parallel in Britain for at least four centuries.
The county of Essex, in which the shock originated, appears
in fact, during the historical period, to have been ex-
ceptionally free from such visitations. The last serious
earthquake in East Anglia takes us back to the year 1480,
when buildings were thrown down and much damage caused
in Norfolk, the shock having extended widely throughout the
country.
A glance through any catalogue of British earthquakes
will show that our country has from the earliest periods
of history been subject to frequent shocks, for the most
part slight, and even in the worst cases fortunately falling
far below the average of those terrible disturbances which
have wrought such havoc in other European and in tropical
countries. In connection with the present report, it
appeared to be of interest to prepare a list of all those
shocks by which structural damage had been caused in
former times in Britain ; and in offering this catalogue
of nearly 60 records, which may be considered fairly
exhaustive as far as it goes, it must be pointed out that the
list by no means comprises the whole number of our most
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