The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-26 00:00:00

COACH ACCIDENTS.

A most alarming accident happened, on Tuesday
evening, to the Birmingham and Leicester mail, on
its Hay to Stamford. In ascending the hill on the
eastern side of the village of Whitwell, near Oak-
ham, the coach was met in a very narrow part of
the road by two carriers' carts from Stamford ; and
owing to the darkness of the night, and to the mail's
not having the lamps lighted, so violent a collision
took place between the coach and one of the carts
that the leaders of the mail broke away, and the
coachman (Rowland Berkeley) was thrown from
the box. The wheel horses were frightened, and
pursued their route at full speed, to the great terror
of three outside passengers (a lady and two gentle-
men), who successively jumped from the coach, and
(strange to say) were not seriously hurt. The guard
(Collis) dismounted as well as he was able, and, in
a short time, succeeded in catching the two leaders,
upon which he and one of the passengers pursued

coach ; they were not, however, able to overtake

it before it got to Stamford, a distance of seven
miles, over the most dangerous road in this part of
the country. There were only two inside passen-
gers, ladies, the wife and the sister of one of the
gentlemen who had jumped from the roof of the
coach : they were for some time unconscious of their
situation, and passed through the town of Emping-
ham (where there are two bad turnings) and down
the deep declivity of Shacklewell-ford, before
they were aware that the horses had no driver.
At length the coach approached the tremendous
steep descent of the road into Stamford; and just
as it rushed down the hill, the Express Leeds
coach, from London, which had changed horses in
St. Martin's, reached the top of Scotgate, and the
coachman (Rushby) was astonished at the rate at
which the Leicester mail was approaching the point
where the Oakham road diverges from the Great
North Road. He loudly called out to Berkeley, as he
supposed, to avoid running over him ; but in the
next instant, with all the violent impetus acquired
from the steep descent, the mail came on the broad-
side of the Express, and the pole of the former coach
was forced through the boot of the latter, and pene-
trating upwards struck the cushion on which Rushby
was sitting on the box, and precipitated him vio-
lently to the ground. The shock of the two coaches
was tremendous—one valuable horse of the mail,
belonging to Mr. Whincup, was killed on the spot,
its head being dashed to pieces, and one of the Ex-
press horses, belong to Mr. Betts, had a thigh frac-
tured, and was killed in consevence as soon as at-
tentian could be given to the situation of the poor
animals. The first call for relief was the two ladies
in the mail, who were almost dead from alarm—it
was some time before they could be sufficiently
composed to be induced to alight, and to get into a
carriage which was promptly provided, for taking
them to the George Inn. They were Mrs. Harrison,
the wife of A. Harrisson, Esq., of Holbeach, and her
sister, Miss Ullett. Happily they had sustained no
personal injury; and in a few minutes Mr. Harris-
son came up, also unhurt, on one of the horses
which had broken away from the coach. There
were then tidings of all the persons except the
coachman (Berkeley); and as on the first shock he
had been thrown amongst the horses, great fears
were entertained that he was seriously hurt. In as

short a-time as possible, Mr. Jackson, surgeon, ac-
companied by Mr. Whincup and Mr. Harper, set
off in a post-chaise on the Oakham road to find
him : unfortunately, to add to the calamities of the
night, on approaching the White Horse Inn at
Empingham the chaise was overturned, and Mr.
Jackson was very severely cut about the head ; the
other gentlemen also were a good deal injured. At
the White Horse, Berkeley was found : he had
been stunned by the fall from the coach, but had
been able to make his way on foot from Whitwell
to Empingham, where he is now confined from the
effects of the accident. Providentially none of the
passengers by the Express coach were injured by
the collision of the mail, and after about half an
hour's delay the Express proceeded on its route for
Leeds. Mr. and Mrs. Harrisson and Miss Ullett,
who were returning from a tour, and had travelled
from Leicester on Tuesday, remained in Stamford
till Wednesday afternoon, and then set out on their
way home to Holbeach.

The Mediterranean packet has brought us the
following account of a recent survey made of the Volcanic
Island, which, in 1831, rose from the sea between the
islands of Pantalaria and Sicily :—" The Vole inic Island,
which has ceased to appear in the canal of Malta, has left
in the same place a dangerous shoal of an oval figure,
about three-fifths of a mile in extent, having its longest
diameter in the direction from S.S.E. to N.N.W, and
being something Ice,. in size than the base of the island
itself when visible. The upper surface is composed prin-
cipally of black stones, and some of a darkish yellow,
exactly like those observed round the crater of the volcano,
with a sprinkl ng of sand here and there. In the centre
is a black rock of the diameter of about 26 fathoms, over
which there are 11 feet of water, with the exception of
two points in the line from N.E. to S.W., which have a
depth of only nine feet. At the distance of 60 fathoms
from the central mass, there are two and a half, three,
four, five, and six fathoms water, the depth of which
increases with the distance. At 75 fathoms from the
S.W. of the central rock, there is a small detached rock
vith 15 feet water over it. In every direction around
this (linger the depth is great. Neither the barrel placed
there by Captain Swinburne, in 1832, and which could
scarcely make any resistance, nor the discoloured water
observed by him, are any longer to be seen. By mean,
(uponoc compass,
bearingm
tlplea s
wps ,Nohi
i.tnchtshe
u4apvdobe
ensogs
of a tolerably correct survey, made with an exact azimuth
mWoo.retiThwealsistitindde
of the island of Pantalarii, these two points were seen
to be 37 deg. 10 ruin. N.; and with the assistance of a
el
at
chronometer, whose daily progression was precisely known,
whichtEv being
a. s
a ntshdt
eai ntsibo.tonhsavet:
stationed),
eagas.n d direction
the o
highest
g theht
ts
partho a l
the longitude was fixed at 12 deg. 44 min. 59 sec. E. of
Greenwich. The latitude of the volcano, taken by Com
wander W. Smith, of the English brig of war Philomel,
when in a state of eruption, was 37 deg. 11 min. N., and
he longitude 12 deg. 44 min, E,"