Descriptive Report.
123
Christchurch Park (Mr. T. N. Fonnereau), also the shock is
reported to have been severe ; bells were rung and the house
swayed perceptibly. Mr. Cl. A. Biddell, writing from Bishop's
Hill, states that the movement of the floor rocked the chair
in which he was seated, the walls and ceiling oscillated
alarmingly, and the glass pendants, suspended from a glass
cone surrounding the gas burner and attached rigidly to the
ceiling, were violently shaken and made to jingle. Ten bells
on a wall running N. and S. were all rung and moved for
some minutes after the shock. Time 9.18; barometer 30 in.;
therm. 40°. The gardener in the lower ground felt nothing.
No damage to house.
Mr. J. E. Taylor, F.G.S., in a letter to 'Nature' (April
24th, 1884, p. 602), written the day of the occurrence,
states:—
"I was sitting down at 9.18 a.m. when the first shock
occurred, and it nearly overbalanced me. I felt it must be
an earthquake oscillation, although I had never experienced
anything like it before, and accordingly waited and watched
for the next. The oscillations followed each other for about
three seconds, and apparently travelled in a north-north-
easterly direction. I underwent quite a new experience, so
vivid that I am not likely to forget it. The sensation
approached that of nausea."
In surveying the widespread effects of the shock as felt at
Ipswich, and comparing the numerous records from this town
with the scanty details from the smaller villages to the south,
which are in reality nearer the centre of disturbance, it is
evident that here, as at Colchester, the large number of
reports, and the varied experiences narrated, must be, as
already explained, in a great measure ascribed to the larger
accumulation of buildings and observers within a given area.
At Kesgrave Hall, 5 miles E.N.E. of Ipswich, a clock
stopped about 9.20 ; pendulum swinging E. and W.
Kettleburgh.— Shock felt.
Kirkley, near Lowestoft.—Shock felt.
Layham, near Hadleigh.—Shock felt strongly throughout
parish about 9.20; house-bells rung and clocks stopped.