The fact (of the truth of which any who will be at the pains of enquiring, may soon be satisfied) is this. On _Tuesday, March 25th_ last, being the week before _Easter_, many persons heard a great noise near a ridge of mountains called _Black Hamilton_ in _Yorkshire_. It was observed chiefly on the south west side of the mountain, about a mile from the course where the _Hamilton_ races are run, near a ledge of rocks, commonly called _♦Whitson Cliffs_, two miles from _Sutton_, and about five from _Thirsk_.
The same noise was heard on _Wednesday_ by all who went that way. On _Thursday_, about seven in the morning, _Edward Abbot_, weaver, and _Adam Bosomworth_, bleacher, both of _Sutton_, riding under _♦Whitson Cliffs_, heard a _roaring_ (so they termed it) like many cannons, or loud and rolling thunder. It seemed to come from the cliffs: looking up to which, they saw a large body of stone, four or five yards broad, split and fly off from the very top of the rock. They thought it strange, but rode on. Between ten and eleven, a larger piece of the rock, about fifteen yards thick, thirty high, and between sixty and seventy broad, was torn off and thrown into the valley.
About seven in the evening, one who was riding by, observed the ground to shake exceedingly, and soon after several large stones or rocks of some tons weight each, rose out of the ground. Others were thrown on one side, others turned upside down, and many rolled over and over. Being a little surprized, and not very curious, he hasted on his way.
On _Friday_ and _Saturday_ the ground continued to shake, and the rocks to roll over one another. The earth also clave asunder in very many places, and continued so to do till _Sunday_ morning.
Being at _Osmotherly_, seven miles from the cliffs, on _Monday, June 1_, and finding _Edward Abbot_ there, I desired him the next morning to shew me the way thither. I walked, crept and climbed round and over great part of the ruins. I could not perceive by any sign, that there was ever any cavity in the rock at all; but one part of the solid stone is cleft from the rest, in a perpendicular line, and as smooth as if cut with instruments. Nor is it barely thrown down, but split into many hundred pieces, some of which lie four or five hundred yards from the main rock.
The ground nearest the cliff, is not raised, but sunk considerably beneath the level. But at some distance it is raised in a ridge of eight or ten yards high, twelve or fifteen broad, and near an hundred long. Adjoining to this lies an oval piece of ground thirty or forty yards in diameter, which has been removed whole as it is, from beneath the cliff, without the least fissure, with all its load of rocks, some of which were as large as the hull of a small ship. At a little distance is a second piece of ground, forty or fifty yards across, which has been also transplanted intire, with rocks of various sizes upon it, and a tree growing out of one of them. By the removal of one or both of these, I suppose the hollow near the cliff was made.
All round them lay stones and rocks, great and small, some on the surface of the earth, some half sunk into it, some almost covered, in variety of positions. Between these the ground was cleft asunder, in a thousand places. Some of the apertures were nearly closed again, some gaping as at first. Between thirty and forty acres of land, as is commonly supposed, (tho’ some reckon above sixty) are in this condition.
On the skirts of these, I observed in abundance of places, the green turf (for it was pasture land) as it were pared off, two or three inches thick, and wrapt round like sheets of lead. A little farther it was not cleft or broken at all, but raised in ridges, five or six foot long, exactly resembling the graves in a church-yard. Of these there is a vast number.
That part of the cliff from which the rest is torn, lies so high and is now of so bright a colour, that it is plainly visible to all the country round, even at the distance of several miles. We saw it distinctly not only from the street in _Thirsk_, but for five or six miles after, as we rode toward _York_. So we did likewise, in the great North road, between _Sandhutton_ and _Northallerton_.
But how may we account for this phenomenon? Was it effected by a merely natural cause? If so, that cause must either have been fire, water, or air. It could not be fire; for then some mark of it must have appeared, either at the time, or after it. But no such mark does appear, nor ever did: not so much as the least smoke, either when the first or second rock was removed, or in the whole space between _Tuesday_ and _Sunday_.