Carlisle Patriot, 08 Oct 1825 - Mr. GREEN, the Æronaut

[petra.mi...@doctors.org.uk]

Saturday 08 Oct 1825   (p. 3, col. 3)

 

MR. GREEN, THE ÆRONAUT.

(From the Dumfries Courier.)

 

Mr. GREEN's Balloon, which ascended at Carlisle on Thursday last, was distinctly seen from this town, at about 3 o'clock, P. M. From the way the wind sat, the direction it would take was pretty well ascertained, and a few of our townsmen, who had been anxious to gain a peep of so rare an object in this part of the country, were at length gratified to their heart's content, considering the distance that intervened. To the naked eye it appeared at first to be a mere speck stationary in the heavens,—like the Eagle leaning on the breast of the sky, at the greatest altitude to which he aspires,—but by degrees it waxed larger in appearance, and one individual, with the aid of a good glass, could distinguish the different colours of the silk of which the balloon was composed. At this time it must have been travelling at a prodigious rate, for though the sky was clear, the wind was strong; and what is not a little curious, the rays of the sun communicated to the silk a sheeny brightness, which to persons stationed in some parts of Annandale, made the balloon appear like a globe of light. In the course of the forenoon, some of our waggish townsmen slily instructed the bellman to announce "that Mr. GREEN would reach Dumfries by 4 o'clock, and would be happy to see his friends to dinner in Mr. CLARK's Dumfries & Galloway Hotel." Many laughed at this joke, while others, who thought there might be something in it, kept perambulating the fields in the neighbourhood, ready to help Mr. GREEN out of his basket, the moment he should be seen hovering over the burgh roads.

 

Had the wind been due east, the balloon must have either descended near to, or passed right over the town of Dumfries; but as the breeze inclined a point or two to the south, it was seen steering for the higher parts of Annandale, with nearly all the speed of the carey that is driven by the winter blast. At Lochmaben, Lockerby, Ecclefechan, &c., the natives were all on the out-look, and must have been favoured with a fine view of the aerial machine as it ploughed so majestically the midway air. For an account of the ascent, &c., the reader is referred to the Extracts we have given from the Carlisle Patriot; and we may here add a few particulars which have been communicated to us by a correspondent in the neighbourhood of Moffat.

 

On Thursday the 29th September, a balloon descended in a field on the farm of Kilbrook, in the parish of Wamphray. On touching the ground, the car rebounded to some distance, and pitched out, with considerable violence, the intrepid gentleman who was seated within it. A number of persons, who were raising potatoes in an adjoining field, very promptly hastened to the spot, by whose exertions the balloon was secured, and every assistance rendered to Mr. GREEN—for that, it appeared, was the name of the stranger. From the effects of the fall he was unable at first to answer any questions, but in a little time he recovered so far as to walk to the house of Alexander SCOTT, Esq. of Stenrieshill. Here he received the kindest attentions, and after resting a brief space, very willingly communicated the particulars of his rapid voyage from Carlisle to Moffat. At a quarter past two he ascended from Carlisle, in company with a gentleman, who had either leapt out of, or been pitched from the car sometime previous to the final descent, when when [sic] Mr. G. himself was so much stunned, that he had no recollection of what occurred afterwards. Indeed, when first discovered, he enquired anxiously for his companion, whom he appeared to miss for the first time; and before he reached Wamphray, his hat had been lost, and some of his philosophical instruments broken. The balloon, however, had sustained no material damage, and Mr. GREEN departed at 8 o'clock the same evening, in a chaise procured from Beattock Bridge Inn, with the balloon safely packed on the top. He was then perfectly sensible and collected, though he still complained of considerable pain in his back and sides.

 

The good people of Wamphray were, of course, much puzzled as to the real nature and character of the visitant who had thus come, as it were, to take their sequestered parish by storm.—Though they were all aware of the existence of balloons, few of them knew what a balloon was like, and we need not wonder if they felt as much surprise as the South-Sea Indians did on seeing a stately bark bearing down with every sail set on their own remote isles of the ocean. The Exquimaux mistook a Whaler for a great sea serpent—the Otaheiteans, when they saw a sailor mounted on horse-back, devoutly believed that he was part and parcel of the same animal; and the children in particular, residing at Wamphray, were equally at a loss to know what to make of Mr. GREEN's balloon. A knot of urchins, who first beheld it ran calling out, "Mither, Mither, oh Mither! there's a great muckle thing fa'in frae the sky; it's no an angel, but it's a' glitterin'" (the sun was then shining on the air-ship). A boy, who had been herding the swine belonging to Mr. CARRUTHERS of Hillhouse, came running home might and main, and seemed so terribly agaited [sic] that his friends actually thought he had gone mad. Some minutes elapsed before he was able to speak, and then he gravely informed the by-standers that "a great muckle dragon had come ower the hill, and lighted near the back of the stackyard; that it wad tak' a hunder soldiers and mair to kill it, and that its sides were a' red like bluid." By this time the "hale country side was asteer," and strangers flocked so fast from all quarters that the farm of Kilbrook had all the appearance of a great hiring fair. Even after the aeronaut must have been a good way on his road to Carlisle, and quiet persons had retired to rest, a post chaise filled with servant lasses, and drawn by two clumsy work horses, came routing and roaring; and the company was so anxious to see the show, that they could scarcely be persuaded to retrace their steps, although they were told that they were at least four hours too late. Altogether the people of Moffat-dale seem to have been as much dum-foundered at Mr. GREEN's unexpected appearance amongst them, as the old wives of Fife were when the great LUNARDI crossed the Frith, and fell from the lift, and when some wag made a humorous stave, of which we only recollect,

 

                    "They thought it was the last day,

                    And went to their houses to pray;

                    But lo! when the angel came down,

                    'Twas only LUNARDI's balloon."