THE PARACHUTE.-AN ode.

(BEING INTENDED AS Α SUPPLEMENT TO THE AIRBALLOON, A PIC-NIC ode, PUBLISHED IN THE MORNING POST, 31ST OF JULY LAST *.)

BY BARDD CLOFF.

AGAIN, my Mufe, prepare to fing,
Again prepare thy wings for flight;
Soar and bedim a mortal's fight-
Trace Garnerin's ftupendous wing!
His praise to all the world declare,
And crown him Empror of the Air!
On pleafing London gazers bent,
At last he made his bold descent;
Plung'd downward from the lofty sky,
The curious world to gratify,

And fet our beaux and ladies fwooning &
Yea-bent on giving Johnny Bull,
At laft, his honeft belly full

Of air-ballooning!

On ev'ry fide were steadfast eyes
Devoutly turn'd towards the kies:
I mean not folks their fins repenting,
Or weeping widows, quite forlorn,
The lofs of hufbands dear lamenting,
Or children, from their bofoms torn ;→
But num'rous gazing eyes uplifted
From crowds, like rapid torrents, drifted,
To have a fight of Garnerin

Defcending in the grand machine,

That would fo elevate his fame,

Or break his neck-'t were all the fame!
For thousands, in fweet duft beclouded,
Fill'd all the fpacious ftreets around:
Nor did a fingle spot of ground

(Excepting only the Parade,

Where none could peep, unless they paid +).
Remain uncrowded!

See page 275..

See M. Garnerin's account of his descent.

The

The cobwebb'd trapdoors open flew,
And foon each roof was well beftrode,
Til! cracking underneath its load;
And fome were happy to have got
Well feated on a chimney pot;—

All ranks were eager for a view.
Prim ladies-miffes-jolly dames-
As if they flew from spreading flames !*
Like foldiers ftorming a redoubt,
Clinib'd the fteep ladders to behold the show,
Regardless of all peeping eyes below;

And thus the houses were turn'd infide out !

Anon the great balloon up pops!

And like a monstrous globe appears ;

Or like the beads of modern crops,

Robb'd of their ears!

Beneath it hung the parachute,

Shap'd like a hugeous Bond-freet boot ;
And Monfieur Garnerin below,

Quite at his eafe, peep'd through the toe!
Thus he advanc'd, light as a feather,
Through tracts immenfe of limpid æther,
Ufurping, on yon airy plains,
The royal eagle's wide domains,
And his fam'd winged pow'rs defying,
Not much unlike his Gallic master;
Whofe grand exploits fly rather fafter
Than Fame herfelf-though always flying.
At length, the fam'd aërial lord,
With keen knife, cut the hanging cord!
Down fwiftly dropp'd the pendent car,
Like Lucifer, the morning ftar!
At once, ten thousand fhrieks were heard

From the sweet throats of British belles;
Who, pleas'd, had on the houfetops star'd,
But, then, would fain be hid in cells.
Some dropp'd as quick the pearly tear,
For the brave man they held fo dear;
Grieving to see the air's great king
Within his own dominions fwing!

And thought his fame and glory ended,
When thus 'twixt heaven and earth fufpended.
But he, with wreaths of glory crown'd,
Soon reach'd, unhurt, our dirty ground,
Refembling fome old demi-god!
Alas! what has poor earth to fpare
For the brave heroes of the air?

She's fcarcely worthy to be trod :
Yet, fince they deign to light upon her,
Let us be grateful for the honour.

LINES,

WRITTEN UPON A PERSON DESCENDING NEAR HARROW, IN AN AIR BALLOON.

BY WILLIAM SPENCER.

SHOULD the whim take to ride in air-ftuff'd pillions,
'Twill ruin quite our coachmen and postillions,
Who, if men travel in these strange sky-rockets,
Will quickly find their lofs in empty pockets;
And most of them, I fear, muft quite despair,
Like new philofophers, to live on air.

The scheme 's not novel quite; for, by the by,
I long have thought our gentry meant to fly,
Though hitherto content, instead of wings,
With four ftout horfes, and four eafy fprings;
But now the cafe is alter'd, for, depend on't,
If flying once comes up, there'll be no end on't.
Our grandfathers were pleas'd, poor tender fouls!
To waft a figh from Indus to the poles;
But our enlighten'd age a way difcovers,
Inftead of fighs, to waft fubftantial lovers;
Montgolfier's filk fhall Cupid's wings fupply,
And fwift as thought convey them through the fky.
Nor will their travels be to earth confin'd,
They'll quickly leave this tardy globe behind.
Pofting to Gretna Green, you've lately feen us;
The ton will foon be, to elope to Venus.
Hot-headed rivals now fall fteer their cars,
To fight their defp'rate duels fnug in Mars;

While gentler Damons, in the rhyming fit,
Shall fly to little Mercury for wit.

"John, fill the large balloon," my lady cries,
"I want to take an airing to the fkies!"
Nimbly the mounts her light machine, and in it
To Jupiter's convey'd in half a minute;
Views his broad belt, and steals a pattern from it,
Then stops to warm her fingers at a comet.
The concert of the fpheres the next attends,
Hears half an overture, and then descends.
Trade, too, as well as love and diffipation,
Shall profit by this airy navigation;
Herschel fhall now with telefcopes provide us,
Juft fresh imported from the Georgium Sidus;
Smart milliners fhall crowd the air-balloon,
To bring new fashions weekly from the Moon;
Gard'ners in fhoals from Battersea fhall run,
To raise their kindlier hot-beds in the Sun;
And all our city fruit-fhops in a trice
From Saturn daily be fupplied with ice:
Albion once more her drooping head fhall rear,
And roll her thunders through each diftant sphere;
While, led by future heroes, British tars

Shall pluck new honours from the twinkling stars.

I

AN ALARMIST ON BALLOONS.

[From the Morning Chronicle.]

To the Right Hon. Lord Chief Justice in Eyre.

MY LORD,

ADDRESS your Lordship as the warden of the aërial regions. I never read Blackstone, and I am afhamed to fay, that I have derived very little knowledge of the law from any other fource. But, my Lord, your Lordship's auguft title feems clearly to import, that your Lordship has exclufive cognizance of all "treafons, mifprifions of treafon, infurrections, rebellions, murders, manslaughters, rapes of women, unlawful affemblies, meetings, and conventicles; tref

paffes

paffes, routs, retentions, contempts, champerties, deceipts, and all other evil doings, offences, and injuries whatfoever," whereof any of his Majesty's liege fubjects are guilty in the atmofphere. "Provident antiquity" feems to have anticipated the difcoveries of aerostation in inftituting your Lordthip's office. Our ancestors forefaw, that a time would come, when, if tribunals alone exifted, whofe jurifdiction extended over the land and the fea, there would be wrongs without remedies, and crimes without punishment. But, having a Chief Juftice in Eyre (Eyre I take to be the Saxon or Norman mode of fpelling the modern word air), as well as a Chief Justice of England and a Lord High Admiral, our rights are protected in every element. A mittimus, or indictment, may begin with Eyre to wit; and there is not even any occafion for a fiction to aver, under a videlicet, that the cause of action arofe at Weftminster or in the ward of Cheap.

Where your Lordship fits, or what is the practice of your Lordship's Court, I am altogether ignorant : though I know that the thing is dangerous and unconftitutional, I am thus obliged to apply to you perfonally. My Lord, there are great abufes which demand correction; and I fhould not have thought that I did my duty, if I left any means untried to arouse your Lordship's attention. I am convinced you have, no grand jury, otherwife they would before now have made many prefentments.

I have often heard a neighbouring attorney obferve, that there was a maxim in law, "cujus eft folum, ejus eft ufque ad cælum." How, then, are the rights of every man violated! I am aware that our property in this appurtenance to our freeholds is in fome measure qualified. Befides the prefcriptive right of common enjoyed by the feathered tribes, for time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, the air

has