14 NOVEMBER 1952, Page 15

Whe Spectator, Pobenaber 131h, 1852. AN earthquake was distinctly felt

at different points of the North- western counties before daybreak on Tuesday morning. The weather had been wet and sultry for some days. On both banks of the Mersey, especially in the suburbs of Liverpool, persons were awakened out of their sleep by the rocking of their beds like a cradle. One says that "the bed shook so I grasped it, quite startled " ; and he heard a "subdued rumbling." Another was roused by "a loud noise and a tremulous motion of the house." A third "heard five or six vibrations" of sound, gradually decreasing. To a fourth it seemed as if a "very heavy person were walking across the room-floor." "The wooden rings" on the bed of a fifth "rattled as if some one had violently pushed them." Captain Grieg, head constable, woke up thinking burglars were in the house. The earthquake was heard and felt by the police officers on duty. The shock was distinct at Chester, and along the Birkenhead and Chester line; at Holyhead, Bangor, Conway, and Congleton, "accompanied by a loud noise." At Manchester, and various towns lying round Manchester, it was most distinctly felt: "something like the vibration felt in a badly-built house when a heavily-laden carriage rattles past " ; crockery rattled ; a young lady saw her dressing-table vibrate.