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A balloon flight in honour of the Prince of Wales, 1811

I remember as a child the feeling of wonderment when the first sputnik was launched and seeing this print entitled “Prime Bang up at Hackney or a Peep at the Balloon” reminds me that the same astonishment would have been felt when balloon flights suddenly captured the public imagination in Paris in the closing months of 1783. Manned flights watched by thousands took place throughout Europe in 1784 and in subsequent years. The papers were full of it. After all, if man could fly, what other wonders might be achieved – the skies were literally endless.

“Among all our circle of friends,” one observer noted, “at all our meals, in the antechambers of our lovely women, as in the academic schools, all one hears is talk of experiments, atmospheric air, inflammable gas, flying cars, journeys in the sky.”

Here a specific event is recorded: to mark the birthday of George, Prince of Wales on 12 August 1811 one James Sadler (1753 – 1828) took off in his balloon with a paying passenger (Lieutenant Paget, R.N.) from the gardens of the Mermaid Tavern in Hackney. Some three thousand spectators watched as the balloon ascended, landing near Tilbury Fort just 73 minutes later. One has to assume that Paget felt that having paid a hundred guineas he had had his money’s worth (shades of Richard Branson’s space flights for paying customers due to start in a few year’s time….).The balloon is shown with two tiny aeronauts aboard, and is swathed in vertical stripes with cross-bands inscribed “GPW” ( George Prince of Wales) and “PR” (Prince Regent).

The artist is described as Wm E-me and was published by Thomas Tegg on 20 August. I am grateful to the Lewis Walpole Library for the image, and for the information about the print and for this description:

“A plebeian crowd, much caricatured, cheers the majestic ascent of a balloon. On the right is part of an old-fashioned gabled building with a large projecting sign, ‘Mermaid’: a mermaid emerges from the sea holding up a comb and a wine-bottle. Two men and a woman sit on the beam of the sign, two other men climb up to it. In the foreground a fat woman has fallen over a sow and her litter. A sailor carries astride his shoulders a stout woman, who waves frantically. The roofs of coaches are crowded with cheering spectators. Others wave from distant roofs and from the square tower of Hackney Church.”

Ah those heady days! Prints like this help bring the excitement back to life.

3 thoughts on “A balloon flight in honour of the Prince of Wales, 1811”

    1. Shhh, don’t give your age away! (Sorry if the quality of the image wasn’t too good – I am currently in the States and only saw the post some time after it went up, and as the Lewis Walpole Library images are usually much sharper I am not sure what I did with it!).

  1. The hubby recalls watching the moon landing at school in a similar vein… for me it was lifting the Mary Rose. At the time there were hydrogen balloons as well as hot air balloons and if I recall correctly, swiftly following flight by balloon was the first parachute…

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