22 The East Anglian Earthquake.
the smaller villages and hamlets given in the succeeding
pages. Regarded merely from a numerical point of view
undue prominence would appear to be assigned to the notices
from such towns as London and Ipswich, but this must be
ascribed to the larger number of observers most likely to
notice such an occurrence, as well as to the accumulation in
these areas of a greater amount of what may be called
" seismic material," in the form of high and shakeable
buildings.
Extent of the Shock.—Taking as the centre the village of
Abberton, which was certainly very near the epicentrum, the
extreme distances to which the disturbance made itself felt
were:—
E. Ostend. Long. 2° 58' E.
W. Street, Somersetshire. Long. 2° 45' W.
S. Freshwater, Isle of Wight. Lat. 50° 40' N.
N. Brigg, Lincolnshire. Lat. 53° 33' N.
The greatest distances measured from the centre are :—
N.N.W. Brigg. 135 miles.
N.W. Altrincham. 180 miles.
W.S.W. Street. 170 miles.
S.W. Freshwater. 135 miles.
S.S.E. Boulogne. 90 miles.
S.E. Ostend. 100 miles.
The mean radius is thus 135 miles, and, assuming the
area shaken to be circular, we have for this area of country
π 1352 = 57,256 square miles.
A parallelogram described through the above-mentioned
extreme stations would be about 242 miles from E. to W.,
and 200 miles from N. to S., giving an area of 48,400 square
miles. The mean of the areas thus found is 52,828 square
miles.
It appears therefore that the sensible shock extended over
fully 50,000 square miles.'
7 A record has since been published, stating that the shock was
probably felt as far west as Exeter, long. W. 3° 32'; lat. N. 50° 43', but
this does not materially affect the calculation.