The Sun.
London, England, 1821-08-02 00:00:00

AIR BALLOON.

SECOND ASCENT OF MR. GREEN.—This Gen-
tleman, who, it will be recollected, made his
first aeronautic excursion from the Green-park
on the day of his Majesty's Coronation, gratified
the public with a second ascent yesterday. The
place chosen for the departure of the balloon on
this occasion was the Belvidere Tea-gardens,
Pentonville. These gardens were fitted up in
good style for the accommodation of such as
wished to see the inflation of the balloon, and
who chose to pay five shillings for the gratifica-
tion of their curiosity. The numbers in attend-
ance within the gardens were considerable.—
The crowd in the adjacent grounds, streets, and
avenues, from which a view could be commanded,
was one of the greatest which we have witnessed
for some time. One o'clock was generally un-
derstood as the hour at which the balloon would
be let off ; and long before that hour every
avenue and eminence in the vicinity of the gar-
dens were quite thronged with spectators of all
classes and descriptions. The road in front of
the garden was literally choaked up with ha-
rouches, glass and hackney-coaches, waggons,
and carts of all sorts, whose owners profited
very considerably by the anxious desire of hun-
dreds to witness the ascent, without danger of
pressure from the crowd. Sums from 6d. to 2s.
were paid for seats in and upon these vehicles,
according to their proximity to, or distance from,
the scene of action. The_ filling of the balloon
began at an early hour, and it was (as it appear-
ed to us) sufficiently inflated by a little after two.
The gas used on this occasion was the common
carburetted hydrogen (that used in lighting the
streets). Before the filling was complete, a small
pilot balloon was let off: it took a direction east
by north, and was soon out of sight. Soon after
this, two carrier pigeons were thrown up, each
with a paper fastened to it. They went off in
nearly the same direction as the pilot balloon ;
but their particular destination, or the object of
their mission, we did not learn. About half an
hour before Mr. Green got into the car, a second
pilot balloon was sent up. It took a direction a
little more to the east than the former. At
about half past 3 the car having been fixed, and
every thing ready, Mr. Green stepped into it,
apparently in excellent spirits, and with the
manifest confidence of a man who perfectly un-
derstood the management of the precarious ve-
hicle to which it was appended. It was an-
nounced in the bills that Mr. Green was to be ac-
companied in his aerial voyage by his friend Mr.
Handy ; that gentleman, however, did not go up.
The cause, as we were informed, was a kind of
nervous affection, with which he was seized yes-
terday morning, and which induced him to decline
the daring attempt. As soon as Mr. Green had
arranged himself in the car, the cords were cut
away, and the balloon rose in a grand and ma-
jestic manner, amidst the shouts of the almost
countless multitude. The ascent was not so
rapid, nor accompanied with such a swinging
motion of the car, as we noticed on the last oc-
casion. Mr. Green stood in the car as it rose,
and kept waving his flag for a very considerable
time. The direction of the balloon was more
easterly (as it appeared to us) than either of the
pilot balloons. The rapidity of its motion in-
creased considerably as it rose, until it came to
a height in which its apparent size was dimi-
nished about two thirds. It then appeared quite
stationary for some seconds. The intrepid aero-
naut, however, soon accelerated its motion by
throwing out two bags of sand. The descent
of the sand was quite visible, and appeared
in the rays of the sun like white smoke. The
balloon continued to ascend rapidly for a few
seconds longer,- when its motion became sud-
denly altered, and it seemed as if it had got into
a current of air, driving from east to west. We
were prevented from ascertaining correctly whe-
ther this was the fact, by the entrance of time bal-
loon into a dense cloud ,which completely obscured
it from our view, nor was it again seen by any who
remained in the vicinity from which it ascended.
IVe were told that it was the intention of Mr.
Green to descend, if circumstances permitted, at
some place iu Essex ; and that he expected to be
able to return to town last night, in sufficient

time to join a party of friends at supper.—The
balloon descended at Barking, within half an
hour after its ascent. No accident happened
either to Mr. Green or his aerial vehicle.—
(Morning Paper.)

FATAL ACCIDENT.--Yesterday an accident, which was
likely to have been attended with the loss of several lives, oc-
curred near the Belvidere, Pentonville. A number of persons
of both sexes, who had assembled to witness the ascension of
the balloon, climed on a low wall topped with iron railing, sur-
rounding the lawn in front of a gentleman's house, for the
purpose of elevating themselves above those on the ground,
when the railing not being sufficient to resist the heavy weight
of those attached to it, about twenty yards of it gave way, toge-
ther with part of the wall, bearing all before it into the street.—
Several were severely hurt, and many had either a leg or arm
broken ; but the most serious case of all was that of a fine boy
about eight years of age, who was killed on the spot by a large
portion of the stone pillar of the gate falling on his head, which
crushed it to a mummy.