Descriptive Report.
115
A lady patient of Dr. Weller's, living in a neighbouring
house, also felt the vibration of her bed with sufficient force
to cause her to spring up in a state of alarm. Persons in
the lower parts of buildings or moving about did not ex-
perience the movement.
West Colne, near Halstead.—Mr. C. Page Wood, of Wakes
Hall, reports that his house was violently shaken and a great
noise heard, apparently proceeding from the upper part of the
building; chandeliers and swinging lamps were all thrown
into oscillation (direction not recorded), and all the bells in
the house were violently rung. The drawing-room clock,
plane of vibration of pendulum N. and S., which had been
stopped for weeks, was started into action; another clock,
swinging E. and W., was not stopped. The pictures in an
upper room were all displaced on the walls. Mr. Wood
states that the impression produced upon him was " not that
the house was swaying to and fro, but that it was breaking
up from within." Mr. Wood adds :—
" At the cottages 200 yards eastward a sack of flour is
said to have fallen from a chair or stool, clock weights
oscillated ; at the Rectory near by, the bells rang and a clock
stopped.
" I rode out at ten o'clock; at a woman's cottage about
a mile west of this place, the flower-pots in the window had
been roughly shaken. At Over Hall, two miles westward,
a friend had been shaken in his chair, and considered that an
explosion or earthquake had taken place. A visitor later on,
from Gosfield, knew little about the matter; visitors from
Shalford, some 13 miles distant, fancied something had
taken place of an unusual character."
West Ham.—Mr. Thomas Royle, F.C.S., of the Cedars,
informs me that he was lying in bed and just about to get
up, when the bed and house were shaken violently, the
agitation lasting about five seconds, " this period being
divided into two by a partial cessation of the disturbance.
The bedstead shook violently, the fringe of the head-piece
swinging to and fro." The lustre-pendants of some orna-
ments on the mantelpieces in this and another room, were
thrown into oscillation and continued to swing for some