112 The East Anglian Earthquake.
a great crashing noise, apparently from above, and on
looking up saw the wall shaking and the gaselier swinging
(direction not recorded). The clock on the mantelpiece was
stopped, pendulum swinging E. and W., and this was found
to be the case with all the clocks swinging in the same
direction, with the exception of a more powerful hall clock ;
those in which the oscillation of the pendulum was N. and S.
were not affected. Bells in this house were rung, and the
water in a moat in the grounds was reported to have been
agitated, although Mr. Page himself did not witness this
occurrence. No structural damage.
Springfield.—See Chelmsford. Mr. Henry Corder, of Great
Baddow, informs me that slight structural damage was
sustained at Belstead Hall, in this parish.
Stanford-le-Hope, near E. Tilbury.—Shock felt by several
persons; an invalid felt oscillation of bed ; in another house
water in a washing-basin was agitated, and the table with its
fittings rocked.
Stanway, 11/2 miles W.S.W. of Lexden.—Mr. Henry Laver,
of Colchester, informs me that in a house near the Union a
mangle which was standing nearly N.E. and S.W. was tilted
backwards and forwards in its frame three times, and then
shook considerably; the first movement was from S.W. to
N.E.
Stebbing, 3 miles N.E. of Dunmow.—The Rev. A. B.
Bingham Wright, writing from the Vicarage, states:—
" This place stands on unconformable beds of gravel, sand
and boulder clay ; plastic clay occurs. We felt the shock at
9.18 a.m., Greenwich time. Shock lasted, I should say, 15 to
30 seconds. There was time for expressions of surprise and
remarks that it must be either an earthquake or dynamite.
The floor of the room was felt to rise and sink as the deck of
a ship which meets a wave. There was a rumbling sound.
Everything in the room moved; the curtains waved to and
fro. A lady sitting in a chair was moved up and down, one
leg of the chair rapping the floor as long as the shock lasted.
The room stands N.W.—S.E. The pictures swayed on the
wall between these points. The whole house, which is
crazily built, shook and rattled. The shock was not felt at
all by the gardener, who was in the coach-house at the time,