The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-13 00:00:00

GREEN'S ACCOUNT OF HIS

ASCENT ON MONDAY.

The afternoon was not the most favourable for my
purpose, there having been a fall of rain, and the
evening atmosphere was considerably impregnated with
damp, which in some degree affected my preparations ;
but, nevertheless, I had completed my arrangements,
and was ready to ascend at a quarter to twelve. It
being. one of my smaller balloons, I of course could not
avail myself of the company of a companion ; and I may
here add, that with the Nassau balloon to ascend at night,
considering the obstacles which I might have to encoun-
ter in securing a landing, and, consequently, the pro-
bable damage that the vast machine might sustain,
have prevented me hitherto from attempting a voyage
by night with it. I struck the trigger of liberation from
terra firma at a quarter to twelve, and mounted at a
rapid but steady rate, clearing the gardens with scarcely
time to .overlook my festive friends. ; my instinctive
conveyance shaped its course east by north. I had
suspended a beacon lamp about twenty feet beneath
the car, which made my progress easily marked
throughout my whole career, but the balloon itself, as
a matter of course, was soon lost to the observation of my
brother bipeds below. The direction of the wind carried
me over Deptford, and on crossing the river by the Isle'of
Dogs, I fired a blue light; during the combustion of which
the effect was to my own fancy most magnificent ; the
light was strong enough to display the entire of the bal-
loon and appendages, and the peculiar reflection from the
bell was so beautiful to my eye that I regretted when
the exhausted composition left me once more in darkness.
I am convinced that the balloon, while the light was
burning, musthave been an exceedingly interesting object,
when viewed from the river or the river's banks, to those
who might have been fortunate enough to witness it.
I now had time to gaze, for a brief snatch, upon the only
visible feature left me to contemplate of the vast metro-
polis and its vast adjuncts, its outlets and suburbs,
namely, to gaze with admiration upon its countless
thousand lights, between which individually distance had,
as
uyalsitiut ear with °°l;i gems itr one mt*
rsnprrlr-ingl7:::a
and as my position rapidly changed, fancy might have
pictured it as an enormous centipede► using its many
legs a escape my view ; as if distrUstful of one who
enviedigot*thad a design upon the glaring wealth of which
it was poS4e4sed. The splendour, the grandeur of the
scene, in fact;rtlia-s-far beyond my power of description.
After crossing the river, I found the wind tacked round
to east by south, but I was still on the ascent, and at
the elevation of 2,000 feet from the earth I found the
upper current was carrying me in a north-westerly
direction, and which, by its rapidity, I calculated that
in half an hour I should be carried out to sea, or at
all events to a space of water wide enough to prevent
me having choice of a point of descent. I conse-
quently, without delay, lowered the balloon until I
had diminished the elevation to within 400 feet, and I
then found the lower current of air moderately wafting
me towards the direction of a part of Essex, where I
thought it would be convenient to cast anchor. It be-
comes a matter of great consideration at this season of
the year, the description of country in which a land-
ing- can be effected, and particularly at night, because,
should there be full crops on the fields, there is the risk
of doing damage to the property of the people who
are the owners, and who of • course have a right
to expect remuneration. I then lowered my guide-
line till it touched the earth, and, as on every occa
sion that I have used it, I found its immense utility in
enabling me to form an opinion of the country I was
immediately passing over, as well as that which I was
nearly approaching, and also its enabling the to deter-
mine more certainly my distance from the earth. From
experience I knew by the noise indicated by the line
as it dragged over the roads and the lands that a stormy
wind prevailed on the surface, and that I must ex-
pect and be prepared for' a rude reception on my
return to terra firma, and therefore 1 determined
to make the descent on the first favourable opportunity
that the country presented. By the light of the moon I
could see with tolerable distinctness a distance of about
two hundred feet in advance. I accomplished my ob-
ject shortly, in a spot quite befitting, in a large marsh,
in the parish of Barking, Essex. When I threw out the
grappling-iron, and as soon as it had taken firm hold
of the ground, the balloon was instantaneously brought
up with a tremendous shock ; occasioned by the bois-
terousness of the wind which at the moment raged so
violently that I feared there might be a chance of the
grappling-iron being forced from its holding. Not being
able to obtain any immediate assistance, I exhausted the
gas by the valve as speedily as I could ; but the balloon'
still retained sufficient buoyancy to be beaten about
roughly on the ground by the force of the wind, and
single-handed I could not prevent its then sustaining
considerable damage. I was within 100 yards of the
highway, and my hallooing at length brought to my as-
sistance a young man, whom I dispatched for more help,
and we soon secured my trusty vehicle, after a voyage of
a quarter of an hour. Had the wind been in an inland
direction, it was my intention to have kept up during the
night ; as the wind was, I deemed that imprudence to
risk. Among my earliest assistance were some of the
police, who had observed the beacon lamp on its first as-
cension, and who had followed it with their eye in won-
der. At first they conceived it was a shooting star, but
its extraordinary sphere of travelling, and its oscillating
motion, had baffled all their philosophical knowledge ;
but keeping in the direction of its progress, and coming
to satisfy their curiosity, they were.the more ready to
render me early help. Without personatinconvenience I
returned to Vauxhall a little past three o'clock, and spent
a pleasant hour with some of the friends with whom I
had parted, and who had waited there to welcome my
return.

NEW WORK EDITED BY Boz.--We under-
stand
that the entire first impression of this work was
taken by the London booksellers on the day of publica-
tion, and that another is already preparing.
AN UNREDEEMED PLEDGE.--About nine
o'clock on Tnesday night a fine female child, about three
weeks ohl, was left in the side slip of the shop of Mr.
Cottle, pawnbroker, Borough-road, Southwark, dressed
in a white calico bed-gown, white checked muslin
night-cap, with three borders, and the skirt of a brown
merino gown. The inhuman mother had put a piece of
muslin, with
erynisgu,gaanrdinit il,t,,aisnotonlythebychbieldin'sg
kicked against mouth, to pre-
by a girl coming with a pledge that it was found. The
parochial authorities were made acquainted with the
circumstance of the finding of the infant, which, after a
little delay, was taken into St. George's workhouse.
THE • SIMPLON.—A correspondent, just re-
turned from Italy by the Simplon, informs us that although
that magnificent route received much damage, between
the years 1834 and 1839 from torrents and other
, although in parts
be. There is only
causes on the Italian side, yet it has been sufficiently
also on the Italian side, where carriages
rather
cis,rrterdenaaamrn,rdo
w ise
rin t
hlgaeno d
it euosnedai itoon
have to be ferried over. We mentioned some time
ago (from the Swiss papers) that the Sardinian Govern-
ment, with that spirit of public improvement by which
the King and his councillors are so much distinguished,
had determined on again applying a portion of the large
sumsna noaal utility,nnuall) expended in that country on works' of
ti to the further repair of the Simplon ;
and the operations will, we have no doubt, be carried
on with activity.— Gedignani.