Descriptive Report. 55
Chapel close hy. It was clearly noticed that the fall of
chimneys to the south-west of them preceded the fall of the
spire, which is to the east of us; in fact, they fell one after
the other; those furthest to the south-west fell first."
As the result of his general experience, which may be con-
veniently mentioned here, Dr. Wallace adds that the duration
of the disturbance appeared to have been over five and under
ten seconds, and that there were more than one, but not more
than three, distinct "waves of shock."
The Church of St. Nicholas had a slight crack in the tower
running down from one of the belfry windows. St. Paul's
Church : small quantities of mortar and plaster shaken down
into chancel. St. Martin's: slight damage to masonry of
tower.
Summerhill, about 11/2 mile N.W. of Colchester.—The
Rev. Thomas Cato states :—" We were sitting at breakfast at
twenty minutes past nine, when suddenly a jingling sound
was heard, which rapidly developed into a deep underground
rolling noise. Our house, which is a large, substantially-
built one, seemed as if it were falling to pieces. All the bells
began to ring." The house stands on a hill about 140 feet
above Ordnance datum, and Mr. Cato expresses the opinion
that the oscillation was E. and W., all clocks (number not
given) with their pendulums swinging in this direction
having remained unaffected, whilst others swinging N. and
S. were stopped. No structural damage reported.
Lexden.—Post-office and one other house damaged by
chimney-stacks falling through roof, and a few chimneys
displaced in other parts of the village. A large vase at the
entrance to Lexden Park overturned. Mr. Charles D.
Keigwin, walking in the park at the time, experienced
nothing of the shock.
To the west of Colchester no structural damage of im-
portance has been reported beyond Lexden. Reed Hall
(Mr. Harvey), about a mile and a quarter S.W. of Colchester,
suffered by the fall of a chimney-stack, which considerably
damaged the roof. At Mile End, about three quarters of a
mile north of Colchester, on the opposite side of the River