Earthquakes and Meteors: England

Excerpts (various sources see cite at the end of each excerpt)

 An Earthquake in London

       On the 8th of March, 1750, an earthquake shook London. The shock was at half past five in the morning. It awoke people from their sleep and frightened them out of their houses. A servant maid in Charterhouse-square, was thrown from her bed, and had her arm broken; bells in several steeples were struck by the chime hammers; great stones were thrown from the new spire of Westminster Abbey; dogs howled in uncommon tones; and fish jumped half a yard above the water.

      London had experienced a shock only a month before, namely, on the 8th of February 1750, between 12 and 1 o'clock in the day. At Westminster, the barristers were so alarmed that they imagined the hall was falling."--William Hone, The Everyday Book. Vol.. 1 (1827) at 175.

 Remarkable Earthquake.

       The following communication was received too late for insertion on the fifteenth of the month (July 15). . . .

      On the fifteenth of July, 1757, a violent shock of an earthquake was felt on the western part of Cornwall. Its operations extended from the island of Scilly, as far east as Leskeard, and as far as Camelford north. The noise exceeded that of thunder; the tremours of the earth were heard and seen in different mines, particularly the following:--In Carnoth Adit in St. Just, the shock was felt eighteen fathoms deep; and in Boseadzhil Downs mine, thirty fathoms. At Huel-rith mine in the parish of Lelant, the earth moved under the miners, quick, and with a trembling motion. In Herland mine, in the parish of Gwinear, the noise was heard sixty fathoms deep. In Chace-water mine, near Redruth, at seventy fathoms deep, a dull and rumbling sound. The effect on the miners may easily be conceived; they are generally a very superstitious race of men.

      The Gentleman's Magazine had this to say: "Friday, July 15, 1757, about seven in the evening, a smart shock of an earthquake was felt at Falmouth, attended with great noise, which almost every one heard, and saw the windows and things in the houses in motion. As the shock did not last above half a minute, the people were not sensible what it was till afterwards. It was thought to come from the south-west and go eastward."--William Hone, The Everyday Book, Vol. II (1827) at 1008.

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 Supposed Earthquake.

       On the 27th of January, 1814, the Public Ledger had the following paragraph 'A convulsion of the earth, exactly similar in effect and appearance to an earthquake, was sensibly perceived about ten minutes before eight o'clock, on Thursday night last, at Knill Court, Harpton, Norton, and Old Radnor, Radnorshire; at Knil Court the oscillation of the house was plainly perceptible, and felt by all the family, and that too in several apartments, and was accompanied with a peculiar rumbling noise. At Harpton, a severe storm of thunder and lightning was experienced on the same night, and at the same time.' Upon this statement Mr. Luke Howard observes, 'I do not apprehend that these local tremors of the ground, in the time of thunder storms, are to be classed with real earthquakes. I have stood at the distance of six or seven miles from the extremity of a most extensive and violent thunderstorm, visible from Plaistow, and have sensibly felt the ground shake under my feet at the time of the nearer discharges, owing, as I conclude, to the circumstance of the electrical action taking place between the clouds, and the thick substratum of indurated clay on which the country hereabouts reposes. Such strokes as penetrate but a little below the surface I suppose to excite a lateral tremor proportionally less extensive.' --William Hone, The Year Book (1841 edition, originally published 1832) at 118.

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       8th December 1824. A letter of this date in the Times newspaper mentions, that on the Monday preceding, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the shock of an earthquake was very sensibly felt at Chilchester, and many of the inhabitants ran into the streets in the greatest consternation, under the impression that their dwellings were actually falling. Bells in the houses were set a ringing, and the window-blinds unrolled; and in the market-places apples rolled off the stalls. One individual states, that he was sitting in a small room, and distinctly saw the walls move from south to north out of their perpendicular, and as instantaneously resume their position. The shock lasted from three to five seconds. It was felt at Arundel, Aldwick, Bognor, Emsworth, Havant, and places adjacent.

      At Portsmouth, both light and heavy articles of furniture were in a tremor for about four seconds of time. the floors seemed to heave up a little, and the windows shook as they do by means of heavy gusts of wind; bird-cages and other suspended articles, oscillated some seconds after the shock had subsided. There was no report, nor any unusual appearance in the sky, or about the sun, at the time; but during the morning the sky had been filing with light clouds, and soon after the shock, a stratum of low electric clouds sprung up with a wind from the S.W.; and the upper stratum changed from grey to red and lake colours, some time before the sun had set." --William Hone, The Year Book at 1444.

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 Surprising Meteor.

       1719. A surprising meteor was seen about eight o'clock in the evening, from all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. To an observer in St. Paul's church-yard, it appeared a ball of fire as large as the moon, of a pale bluish light, and with little motion, till in a moment it assumed the shape of a common meteor with a stream of light, double the diameter of its first appearance, emitting a splendour by which the smallest print might have been read. Its duration was not above half a minute, and its greatest light about the tenth part of a minute. At Exeter its light exceeded that of the sun at noonday, and there it seemed to break like a skyrocket, into sparks of red fire, which reflected that colour on the houses and shortly after a report, loud as a cannon, shook the windows, succeeded at the interval of a minute by about thirty others; 'they sounded just as the tower guns did in Mincing-lane, but shook the houses and windows much more.' Mr. Whiston calculated the greatest height of this extraordinary meteor to have been forty-three or fifty-one statute miles; it gradually descended lower till it came to Devonshire, where it was about thirty-nine miles high, and broke over the sea, near the coast of Brittany; its altitude then being about thirty miles." --William Hone, The Everyday Book Vol. 1 (1827) at 191-92.