Historical Introduction.
5
Fabyan's Chronicle ; Camden; Gent. Univ. Camb.; Mallet,
&c. Not in Dr. Short's list.)
1247. Feb. 18th. Different parts of England, and
especially London and along banks of Thames. Buildings
thrown down. (Matthew Paris ; ' Collection Aeademique ';
Mallet, &c.)
1248. Dec. 21st. In west of England ; Bath and Wells.
Part of tower of Cathedral at latter place thrown down.
Cathedral of St. David's partially destroyed and many
churches in Somersetshire damaged. Said to have been felt
in Piedmont, Savoy, and Syria. (Matthew Paris; Mallet, &c.)
1275. Sept. 11th, between 1st and 3rd hour of the day.
Many churches thrown down ; amongst them St. Michael's,
Glastonbury. (Matthew of Westminster; Mallet; &c.) This
shock was felt in London. (William Maitland's ' History of
London,' 1739, p. 64.)
1380. May 21st; all over England; "shook and shattered
some buildings in Canterbury." (Chr. W. Thorn, col. 2157,
and Lond. Mag. Catalogue, vol. xix., 1750.)
1382. May 21st and 24th. In England, France, Brabant,
Flanders, &c.; most violent in England, where several
churches are said to have been thrown down in the south-
eastern parts. In Baker's ' Chronicle of the Kings of Eng-
land,' 1655, the date is given as May 24th, in the 6th year
of Richard II.3 (Mallet gives references to Martene et
Durand ; Baronius ; Coll. Acad. &c.)
1480. Dec. 28th. Norwich, and almost the whole of
England. Buildings thrown down and much damage. " A
very great earthquake." (Rev. Francis Blomefield's ' Topo-
graphical History of the County of Norfolk.' 5 vols. 1739
—1775. Quoted by H. B. Woodward in Trans. Norf. and
Norwich Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. iii. Not recorded by Dr. Short
or Mallet.)
1574. Feb. 26th, between 5 and 6 p.m. York, Wor-
cester, Gloucester, Bristol, Herefordshire and neighbouring
counties. Plates and books thrown down at Tewkesbury;
2 This shock happened during the trial of Wycliff, and caused the
meeting at Westminster to disperse in alarm before the termination of the
proceedings, thus gaining for the assembly the designation of " the Council
of the Earthquake." That structural damage was caused appears from
the following lines, written by an eye-witness :—
"Castels, Walles, towers and steples tyll,
Houses and trees and eragges fro the hyll."
(Hardyng's Chron, pp. 339—340.)
See also some line3 in ' Wright's Political Songs, from Edward II. to
Henry VII.,' p. 251. These references are from C. Edmund Maurice's
' Lives of English Popular Leaders in the Middle Ages,' pp. 208, 209.