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Then we lose sight of the dauntless, light-hearted Italian for one-and-twenty years, when in the Gentleman's Magazine of July 31, 1806, appears the brief line, "Died in the convent of Barbadinas, of a decline, Mr. Vincent Lunardi, the celebrated aeronaut."
Before passing on to later annals, however, we must duly chronicle certain exceptional achievements and endeavours as yet unmentioned, which stand out prominently in the period we have been regarding as also in the advancing years of the new century Among these must in justice be included those which come into the remarkable, if somewhat pathetic subsequent career of the brilliant, intrepid Lunardi.
'Micat inter omnes Julium sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores. 'And like the Moon, the feebler fires among, Conspicuous shines the Julian star. FRANCIS. Horace, Odes, i. 12. 46. See ante, iii. 209. 'The little blood that creeps within his veins Is but just warmed in a hot fever's pains. DRYDEN. Juvenal, Satires, x. 217. Lunardi had made, on Sept. 15, the first balloon ascent in England. Gent.
There is a rather rare book which gives a very detailed account of this first ascent in England, one copy of which is in the library of the Royal Aeronautical Society; the venturesome Lunardi won a greater measure of fame through his exploit than did Cody for his infinitely more courageous and from a scientific point of view valuable first aeroplane ascent in this country.
"Let posterity know, and knowing be astonished, that on the fifteenth day of September, 1784, Vincent Lunardi of Lucca, in Tuscany, the first aerial traveller in Britain, mounting from the Artillery Ground in London, and traversing the regions of the air for two hours and fifteen minutes, on this spot revisited the earth.
He remained out all night, saw the sun set and rise, and finally alighted near the village of Campremi, about sixty-three miles from Paris. The credit of the first aerial voyage made in Great Britain has usually been given to Vincenzo Lunardi, an Italian. "It is generally supposed that Lunardi was the first person who ascended by means of a balloon in Great Britain, but he certainly was not.
I might even, Mr. , I might even, I say, term it the passion of my life." His mild eyes shone behind their glasses. "I remember Vincent Lunardi, sir. I was present in Heriot's Gardens when he made an ascension there in October '85. He came down at Cupar. A thin-faced man, sir. He wore a peculiar bonnet, if I may use the expression, very much cocked up behind. The shape became fashionable.
He was told that while he hovered over London the King was in conference with his principal Ministers, and his Majesty, learning that he was in the sky, is reported to have said to his councillors, "We may resume our own deliberations at pleasure, but we may never see poor Lunardi again!" On this, it is further stated that the conference broke up, and the King, attended by Mr.
As I squeezed to the front, his underlings were shifting the pipe which conveyed the hydrogen gas, and the Lunardi strained gently at its ropes. Somebody with a playful thrust sent me staggering into the clear space beneath. And here a voice hailed and fetched me up with a round turn. "Ducie, by all that's friendly! Playmate of my youth and prop of my declining years, how goes it?"
'Is it possible that you have never heard the name of Byfield? 'Possible and true, said I. 'And is fame so small a thing? cried he. 'Byfield, sir, is an aeronaut. He apes the fame of a Lunardi, and is on the point of offering to the inhabitants I beg your pardon, to the nobility and gentry of our neighbourhood the spectacle of an ascension.
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