The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-25 00:00:00

Yesterday the Prince, accompanied by his Excellency the
Danish Minister, paid visits to the members of the Royal
Family.
Last evening his Highness dined with her Majesty and the
Duchess of Kent, at the new Palace. The Prussian Minister,
the Archbishop of Canterbury and Mrs. Howley, the Duke of
Devonshire, the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, the Earl
of lichester, Viscount Combermere, Viscount and Viscountess
Sydney, Lord Foley, Count Hangwitz, Count Waldstein,
Count and Countess Szechenyi, the Marchioness of Tavistock,
the 1-lon. the Misses Pitt and Spring Rice, Baroness Lehzen,
Lord Gardner, Sir Henry Seton, and Colonel Cavendish also
dined with her Majesty yesterday.
The Queen gave an audience yesterday to Viscount Mel-
bourne.

In the afternoon her Majesty and the Duchess of Kent took
a carriage drive.
The Queen will hold a Privy Council to-morrow afternoon,
at the new Palace.

FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE.

ARRIVALS.

Mr. Farnham, in Upper Belgrave-street, from Quorndou
House, Leicestershire ; Monsieur and Madame Moiana and
family, at Thomas's Hotel, from Paris; Sir George Talbot and
Miss Talbot, from ditto, for Paris.

DEPARTURES.
Lord and Lady Sondes, from St. James's-place, for Elm-
ham Hall, Norfolk ; the lion. Champion Dymoke and Mrs.
Dymoke, from Portman-square, for Scrivelsby Court, Lin-
colnshire; Sir John and Lady Catherine Wrottesley for Wrot-
tesley Hall, near Vtrolverhampton, Staffordshire ; Lord Crewe
for Crewe Hall, in Cheshire ; Lord Ebrington for the seat of
his father, the Earl Fortescue ; Count de Grammont for Kent;
Mr. and Mrs. Talbot for Lay cock Abbey, near Chippenham,
Wilts ; Viscount Chabot on a tour ; Baron Fagel for the
Court of Holland ; Mr. York for Bishopthorpe Palace, in
Yorkshire ; Sir Charles and Lady Bagot on a tour; Mr.
Mr. Ward for St. James's, Gilston Park, Essex ; Lord Ar-
den for York House, in Surrey ; Sir John and Lady John-
stone for Hackness Hall, York ; Earl Jermyn and Lady Kathe-
rine Jermyn on a tour; Earl and Countess Manvers for
Thoresby Park, 011erton, Hants; tha Hon. Granville Vernon
Harcourt for Yorkshire; Mr. Charles and Lady Georgiana
Neville for Neville-row, near Market Harborough, in Leices-
tershire; the Marquis and Marchioness of Ailsa for Culzean
Castle, in Ayrshire ; Mr. Watts Russell for Ham Hall, Ash-
bourne, Staffordshire ; Colonel and Madame de la Croix for
Paris; the Earl Fingal for Killeen Castle, in the county of
Meath; Mr. John Usborne for Holden Hall, Kent; Lady
Stepney for Tunbridge Wells ; the Countess of Essex for
Norwood ; Captain Hamlyn Williams for Carmarthenshire ;
Mr. R. H. Beaumont for Whitby Hall, Huddersfield, York ;
Mr. J. Wentworth Beaumont for Briton Hall, Yorkshire; Mr.
Saville Hallifax for Essex ; Mr. and Lady Louisa Pole and
family, for The Grange, Bucks ; Arthur Champagne, Esq.,
from Harley-street, for the Continent ; Lord and Ludy Bel-
haven, front Thomas's Hotel, for Scotland ; Sir Edmund and
Lady Hartopp, from ditto, for Richmond; Mrs. Hanbury
Leigh, from ditto, for Richmond, on her way to Pontypool
Park, Monmouthshire; J. M. Parrett, Esq., and Lady, from
the Hanover Hotel, for Effingham, Surrey ; M. D. Magens,
Esq., from ditto, for East Grinstead, Sussex ; Col. Williams
and Lady, from ditto, for Bath.

CHANGES.
The Prince and Princess Hohenlohe Langenburg, from
Frankfort, for Keilbrom ; Viscount Prudhoe and the Hon.
Mr. Herbert, from Vienna, for Milan.

FATAL RESULT of the PARACHUTE

DESCENT.

We regret to have to state that the experiment of the de-
scent of the parachute has terminated fatally to Mr. Cocking.
In consequence of the announcement that he was to ascend in
his parachute suspended to the great Nassau Balloon, a great
number of persons, amongst whom were many of the first
Nobility of the country, assembled in the Gardens to witness ,
the experiment. Without the Gardens, upon Vauxhall-bridge,
and upon Millbank, the crowd was immense. The shape,
dimensions, and construction of the parachute have been
already described ; it may therefore be sufficient to say, that it
was in shape an inverted cone, not very unlike an umbrella
turned upside down. It was in circumference 107 feet four
inches. From the bottom of this machine, which was constructed
of fine Irish linen, a basket of wicker was suspended, in which
Mr. Cocking placed himself. The distance between this
basket and the car, in which were Mr. Green and Mr. Spen-
cer, was between forty and fifty feet. The ascent of the
balloon took place about twenty minutes before eight o'clock.
When Mr. Cocking entered the basket of the parachute he
was perfectly collected, and exhibited no appearance of want
of nerve, or indecision.
Mr. F. Gye, who was particularly anxious in his attention
to all the arrangements of the experiment, and who is entitled
to every praise for the manner in which he exerted himself to
prevent the possibility of accident, continually in the course of
the day, and up to the very moment of the ascent of the bal-
loon, advised Mr. Cocking, if he felt the least timidity, to
relinquish his attempt, and undertook to allay any ill-feeling
that might arise amongst the public at the disappointment.
Mr. Cocking, however, professed himself most anxious to
carry his announcement into execution ; and after thanking
Mr. F. Gye for his kindness and solicitude, professed himself
most eager to ascend. At twenty minutes to eight o'clock,
every thing being in readiness and the parachute attached to
the car of the balloon, the ascent took place. Nothing could
be more majestic. The weight and great extent of the para-
chute apparently rendered the motion of the balloon more steady
than on any former ascent, and the almost total absence of wind
assisted in keeping the balloon in a perfectly perpendicular
position. There was not the slightest oscillation ; the balloon
and parachute sailed through the air with a grandeur which ex-
ceeded anything of the kind ever before witnessed, and continued
in sight for about ten minutes. A good deal of ballast was dis-
charged almost immediately over the enclosure, after which
the huge machine rose rapidly, but not so suddenly as to break
the even current of its course. It was expected by those in
the gardens that Mr. Cocking would have descended so near
Vauxhall as to afford them a view of his descent. This was
not the case. Ile was lost in the clouds, and the company
were for some time left in conjecture, but certainly not in an-
ticipation of the result of the experiment. A son of Mr. Gye
was the first person who announced to our informant the fatal
catastrophe. This gentleman followed on horseback, and ar-
rived in a field, near Lee, in Kent, just in time to learn that
the parachute had descended with such violence that Mr.
Cocking had lost his life in his experiment. The intelligence
was not suffered to transpire for some time in hopes that the
account might be incorrect, and that Mr. Cocking might have
only been stunned, or have fainted, it being remembered that
something of this sort occurred on the descent of M. Garnerin
some years ago. It was, however, very shortly ascertained that
the intelligence was too true. It appears that the descent of
the parachute was made over a field close to Lee, that on ap-
proaching the ground the parachute, from some cause or
other, most probably from the hoop which distended the
external circumference being composed of a hollow tube of
tin collapsed, and consequently opposed no resistance what-
ever to the atmosphere, but turned over and over in the air,
and came down with a frightful velocity. Mr. Cocking was
not, as we are informed at present, thrown out of the basket,
but lie received a dreadful wound on the right temple, and
had his ancle dislocated. lie moved his hand once after his
fall, but exhibited no other signs of life. Several country-
people, who were close by, procured a wattled hurdle, placed
him upon it, and conveyed him without delay to the Tiger's
lyadttiecnadl edassbiystaDnere.
was immediately
m;
mbuediatatlel me
connected
Headh o w e Inn,,
endeavoured,
with ato was Lu Vauxhall ee
in.o x 0
nI tailHhltlee
, or
to with
was unavailable. The. arteries of his arms were opened, but
it was to no purpose, life had fled. It is but justice to say,
aviapersuade the balNloiro
have
this fatal result is attributable in no manner to any person
. Cocking to
the hoop
n. Mr. F.
of the parachute of ash, but that unfortunate gentle-
man,GlaYvee
from a notion that tin would be sufficiently strong and
much lighter, refused to listen to his suvestion. This is all
that is yet known authentically of the melancholy termination
of the experiment.

(From a Correspondent.)
LEE, to O'CLOCK, MONDAY EVENING.
As much public anxiety must be produced by the deplorable
accident which happened near this place an hour or two ago, I
beg leave to state a few particulars which I witnessed con-
cerning, it.
I was looking at the balloon with the parachute as it drifted
steadily before a gentle wind and rose very slowly. After it
was first pointed out to me, the parachute seemed to float
without any oscillation, and to hung perpendicularly under the
balloon. Shortly afterwards the balloon itself was slightly
agitated, and was inclined considerably more to one side than
when I first saw it, and the parachute did not appear to hang
so perpendicularly as at first. While I was referring this to
the balloon rising perhaps into a stratum of air with a some-
what greater velocity than the one it was leaving, the balloon
and parachute adjusted themselves into their first position, and
floated with as steady and as gentle a motion as before.
In an instant afterwards, I observed the balloon shooting
upwards with gre.it velocity, and the parachute, which had been
suddenly separated from it, falling with great rapidity. I
lost sight of the balloon, and my eye was fixed on the parachute.
Knowing the use and object of a parachute, I was struck
with the great velocity of its descent, from the instant of its
liberation.
The sky was serene ; the beams of the setting sun fell on
the parachute, and every part was distinctly visible ; the breeze
in th• region hi which it was descending, was so gentle as
scarcely to exert any perceptible influence in turning it from
►ts perpendicular direction, and where I stood, about Ox bun-