Descriptive Report. 129
Cheshunt.—Mr. W. C. Boyd, F.L.S, informs me that the
shock was felt and a bell rung at " Arlesdene " (Mr. H. G.
Wales).
Hertford.—Shock felt slightly in some buildings.
Kings Langley.—Mr. William Jones Loyd, J.P., reports
that the shock was distinctly felt at " Langleybury " ; in a
bed-room, china and movable articles were rattled, the bed
curtains shaken, and the oscillation of the chair felt by a
person seated ; time 9.20.
St. Albans.—Mr. A. E. Gibbs, writing from the office of
the ' Herts Advertiser,' informs me that the shock was felt in
this town but slightly, and chiefly by persons in bed; no
pictures, furniture, or other objects were displaced.
Tring.—The Rev. F. W. Ragg, writing from Masworth
Vicarage, Bucks, two miles north of Tring, has published the
following valuable letter in ' Nature,' (May 8th, 1884,
p. 32):-
" This village lies partly on the lowest beds of the Chalk,
and partly on the Gault; it is between N. lat. 51° 49' and
51° 50', and W. long. 0o 40' and 0° 41'. The shock was felt
at the church, and at two cottages where invalids were in
bed. The church is on rising ground at the edge of the
chalk platform which lies between the Chilterns, some two
miles away from them. I was on the scaffolding erected for
repairs to the church. At a little past nine—it could hardly
have been later, I think, than 9.15, if so late—I felt the
church give what seemed like a fierce shudder. This seemed
to begin on the east, rather to north, and travelled westwards
nearly. By shudder, I mean that a sort of vibration began
which almost instantly increased in intensity, reached a
climax, and then rapidly decreased and died away. It
seemed to me to begin slightly north of east, because I
remember feeling (for what reason I can hardly say) that the
cause was hidden from me behind the east end of the church.
I was on the south side, some eighteen feet from the south-
east corner. A moment after a whirlwind followed, which
began, as I find, near the top of the slope north-east of the
church, and followed the churchyard wall which bends
round the churchyard to south-west. In a cottage on the
junction of the Chalk and Gault (or very near the junction),
according to the result of inquiries I have made of an invalid
there, the pictures on a wall lying north-west and south-