A view of the chasm, the ruined cottages, the sunk orchard, ... ([1840])

Pulman, George P.R. The book of the Axe; containing a piscatorial description of that stream and historical sketches of all the parishes and remarkable places upon its banks, …(etc.). London: Longman and Co.; Crewkerne and Axminster: Pulman's Weekly News and Advertiser, 1875. pp. 883 - 884.The line of coast […] includes […], the famous Landslip which occurred on Christmas Day, 1839, and created immense interest throughout the district. People flocked to see it for months, and it is still one of the most attractive features of the locality. A fortnight prior to the final catastrophe, the inhabitants of some cottages on the Dowlands undercliff noticed a slight settlement of the undercliff from the upper land, and on the 23rd December William Critchard, one of the cottagers, noticed that his front door was opened and shut with difficulty, and that cracks were showing themselves in the plastering of the walls. Christmas Eve was celebrated in old jovial style at Bindon Farm, with the burning of an ashen faggot and its accompanying merry-making, in which the laborers [sic] participated - Critchard and his wife included. They had locked up their cottage, leaving their children in bed, and remained at the farm till nearly one o'clock in the morning. Returning home, they discovered the path down the side of the cliff had sunk a foot. They went to bed, however, but were much alarmed during the night by the cracking of the walls. Getting up at five o'clock, great force was required to open the door, and large fissures were discovered in the garden. Critchard alarmed the other cottagers, the household goods were got out without delay, and at seven o'clock Critchard set out to inform his master, Mr. Chappell, of what was taking place. The path had by that time gone down from one foot to seven feet, up which Critchard had to climb. Meanwhile, those who remained at the cottages were horrified to witness the mysterious heavings and sinkings of their abodes, which they were only too happy to leave as soon as their master has assisted in removing themselves and their goods to a place of safety. All Christmas Day the movement proceeded. A rabbit-shooting party escaped with difficulty from being swallowed up in the numerous fissures which continually opened in their path. The climax was reached on Christmas night. The coast-guard on duty heard noises resembling the rending of cloth, felt the ground quake beneath their feet, and more than once found their legs in the fissures which surrounded them, and soon afterwards a large tract sunk into an immense cavern, pushing forward towards the sea the land immediately in front of it. Critchard's cottage was found to have gone down entire, but the other cottages were heaps of ruins. […].[Text may be taken from a different source or edition than that listed as the source by Somers Cocks.]

Lithograph

227x340mm