THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
yi i 
 
The Record of 
 an Aeronaut 
 
 Being the Life of John M. Bacon 
 
 By his Daughter 
 
 Gertrude Bacon 
 
 With Photogravure Portrait and Sixty-two Illustrations 
 
 London 
 
 John Long 
 
 Norris Street, Haymarket 
 MCMVII 
 
First Published in 1907 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 I. FAMILY HISTORY . . . .11 
 
 II. CHILDHOOD MEMORIES . . -27 
 
 III. ANECDOTES AND REMINISCENCES . . 38 
 
 IV. A BERKSHIRE VILLAGE FIFTY YEARS AGO . 57 
 V. "THE CHILD is FATHER OF THE MAN" . 74 
 
 VI. ALMA MATER . . . . .91 
 
 VII. SORROW AND DISAPPOINTMENT . .no 
 
 VIII. THE HOME AT COLD ASH . . .124 
 
 IX. A FIRST BALLOON ASCENT . . . 144 
 
 X. AN UNCONVENTIONAL CLERIC. . . 166 
 
 XI. IN SEARCH OF THE CORONA . . . 190 
 
 XII. "THE SCIENTIFIC AERONAUT" . . 215 
 
 XIII. OBSERVATIONS AND ADVENTURES . . 234 
 
 XIV. A PERILOUS VOYAGE .... 254 
 
 XV. THE AMERICAN ECLIPSE SOME NARROW 
 
 ESCAPES . . . . .270 
 
 XVI. ACOUSTIC MYSTERIES AN EXCITING DESCENT 286 
 
 XVII. ACROSS THE IRISH SEA . . . 300 
 
 XVIII. THE BALLOON IN WARFARE . . , 324 
 
 XIX. THE LAST . . , . . 337 
 
 5 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Portrait ..... Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 John Bacon, R.A. . . . ... 14 
 
 The Nassau Balloon Party . . ... 72 
 
 John M. Bacon, aged 5 . . ... 78 
 
 Lord Francis Douglas . . . 91 
 
 Old Court, Trinity . . . ... 98 
 
 The Home at Coldash . . ... 125 
 
 Rising above the Crystal Palace Grounds . . .159 
 
 Cricket from Aloft . . . . . 159 
 
 Bacon at the Norway Eclipse . . ... 208 
 
 Bacon at the Indian Eclipse . . ... 208 
 
 Bacon's first Scientific Balloon Ascent . . . .215 
 
 Over the Town . . . ... 223 
 
 Descent on Telegraph Wires . . ... 223 
 
 Leaving the Crowd . . . ... 224 
 
 Above the Suburbs . . . ... 224 
 
 Over Kent Shadow of the Balloon on the ground . . 228 
 
 Over Kent Swanley Junction . . ... 228 
 
 Leaving Clifton College Grounds . ... 229 
 
 Above Bristol . . . ... 229 
 
 The Maplin Lighthouse . . ... 239 
 
 Observations on the Maplin . . ... 239 
 
 Above the Clouds . . . ... 246 
 
 Descending in the Sea . . ... 249 
 
 Newbury from a Balloon . . . . 251 
 
 Balloon filling at Newbury Gasworks . . . . 263 
 
 A mile above the Cloud-Floor . . ... 263 
 
 Distress Messages thrown from Balloon . ... 268 
 
 The Descent at Neath . . . . 268 
 
 After the " Leonid " Voyage , > . . 269 
 
 The English Eclipse Expedition at Wadesborough . . 276 
 
 7 
 
List of Illustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Yerkes Observatory . . . . . 277 
 
 The Great Refractor, Yerkes Observatory . . 277 
 
 Bacon and Admiral Fremantle about to ascend from Newbury 
 
 Gasworks . . . ... 278 
 
 Entering the Thunder-cloud . *, . . . 279 
 
 A Calm Descent . . . . . . 284 
 
 A Rough Descent . . . ... 284 
 
 Sound Experiments on Norfolk Broads . . . . 292 
 
 View, two thousand feet above Trafalgar Square . . . 293 
 
 Dawn over the Medway . . ... 294 
 
 Descent at Dawn . . . ... 294 
 
 Descent near Hertford . . ... 296 
 
 London by Night Ludgate Hill . . . 300 
 
 Looking up the River . . . 300 
 
 Balloon versus Cycle Race Mustering . ... 302 
 
 Rising above Fulham . . 303 
 
 Capturing the Despatches . . 303 
 
 Leaving Douglas . . . . . . 318 
 
 Derby Castle, Isle of Man . . ... 318 
 
 First Glimpse of Scotland Sundown ., . . 3 2 
 
 Photograph of the Sea-bottom . . . . . 320 
 
 Maskelyne and Bacon experimenting with Burner of Hot-air 
 
 Balloon - . . . . . 328 
 
 The Hot-air Balloon Aloft . . . ' . . 329 
 
 " General Jacqueminot " . . . 334 
 
 The Fall of the "General" V . ' . 334 
 
 Above a London Fog . . 337 
 
 Cycle Track Crystal Palace Grounds . . * , -339 
 
 Leaflets thrown from a Balloon . , * . 339 
 
 The Last Voyage. Descent at Kidlington . . . 346 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IT was the intention of my father, during the last years 
 of his life, to write and publish his own personal 
 reminiscences of a varied and eventful career, in which 
 he had met many noteworthy people, accomplished many 
 things, and taken part in unusual, often perilous and 
 exciting, experiences such as fall to the lot of compara- 
 tively few. 
 
 This plan he put so far into execution as to commit to 
 paper the first portion of the book he contemplated, that 
 which dealt, in anecdotal fashion, with his boyhood scenes 
 and recollections. The present volume perforce is largely 
 my own attempt perhaps an over-bold one to finish 
 that which my father began. The original matter by 
 his own pen is contained in Chapters II, III, and IV. 
 
 It is no easy task to complete what another has com- 
 menced, and, as in this case, to tell the tale which the hero 
 himself would have unfolded. More especially is this 
 the case with those events which occurred before my own 
 personal recollection. For the many shortcomings thence 
 arising I would beg the reader's lenient judgment. 
 
 In relating the story of my father's brave life I have 
 laid no undue stress upon his aeronautical experiences, 
 by which his name is most widely known ; holding that 
 a man should be judged by his whole existence, not 
 merely by one portion of it, no matter how remarkable 
 that may be. 
 
 9 
 
Preface 
 
 Besides recording his aerial adventures, it has also been 
 my endeavour to represent him as the broad-minded, 
 many-sided, lovable personality he was, and paint him 
 as he appeared to those who knew him best. 
 
 Neither have I, in this volume, enlarged on Bacon's 
 strictly scientific work, or attempted any epitome or 
 r6sum of the results he obtained. For such a task I 
 am not competent, nor if I were is this the place for it. 
 
 In conclusion, I would beg to tender my most grateful 
 thanks to the many friends who have helped me in my 
 task by the loan of letters, photographs, etc., among whom 
 must be especially mentioned Mr. Stephen arding 
 Terry, Mr. Thomas Webb, Mr. E. J. Forster, Dr. R. 
 Lachlan, Mr. G. Dixon, and Mr. T. C. Beynon. 
 
 GERTRUDE BACON 
 
 , LONDON, July, 1907 
 
THE RECORD 
 OF AN AERONAUT 
 
 FAMILY HISTORY 
 
 THE origin of the name Bacon is said to be, on highest 
 authority, in this wise. 
 
 " Bucon," corrupted later into " Bacon," was the 
 ancient name for the beech-mast the shiny, three-angled 
 seeds of the beech tree, pleasant to sight and taste, 
 which lie thickly in autumn beneath the shade of the beech 
 woods. Upon the " bucon " of the once extensive beech 
 forests of England our ancestors' herds of swine especially 
 throve and fattened, so much so that a bucon-fed pig (in 
 process of time a " bacon " pig) was most highly esteemed, 
 and as such carefully designated. From ' ' bucon " the beech- 
 mast, then, to "bacon" the hog's flesh, is but an easy step. 
 Equally simple is the evolution of the family name. 
 Grimbaldus the Norman, kinsman of the Earl of Surrey, 
 from whom and his forefathers the whole Bacon clan 
 claim origin, was granted lands by the Conqueror in the 
 north of Norfolk. Among these lands was Baconthorp, 
 called so, doubtless, on account of its beech trees, and 
 from their estate the family took their sylvan surname, 
 adopting, moreover, a bough of the beech tree by way of 
 cognizance. 
 
 ii 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Be this as it may, the family record since those distant 
 days has been such as to leave its descendants small cause 
 for dissatisfaction with their unromantic patronymic. 
 Least of all the subject of these pages, who gloried ex- 
 ceedingly in his illustrious kinsfolk and the family tra- 
 dition which the punning motto, "ProBa conScientia," 
 beneath his own crest so aptly expressed. Pedigree 
 hunting was at one time a hobby with him, and he 
 laboured long and laboriously to trace the branches of 
 a family tree which bears more than a usual share of 
 famous names. Highest of all among his namesakes he 
 held in reverence and esteem Roger, the " Learned Monk 
 of Ilchester," called by his wondering, if scandalized 
 and persecuting contemporaries, " Doctor Mirabilis " a 
 mighty mind, hundreds of years ahead of the cramping 
 thirteenth century in which he lived ; a light burning 
 brightly amid the densest shadows of the Dark Ages. 
 
 Many Bacons, from the days of Lord Verulam onward, 
 had tried vainly to establish Roger's connection with 
 the family, but the mists of obscurity too closely hang 
 about him. No proof is forthcoming, though there is 
 strong inherent probability on several grounds that he 
 holds kinship with men on whom, surely, there fell a 
 portion of his mantle. 
 
 With the great Francis the case is different. Here 
 the relationship is well attested, though remote. The 
 Bacon family with whom this book is concerned are an 
 offshoot from the main stem whence sprang the wise 
 Lord Verulam and his famous father, Sir Nicholas the 
 Lord Keeper, and from which comes the present line of 
 baronets premier baronets of England. The two 
 families, though long distinct, are yet collateral, boast- 
 ing the same origin, and with remote ancestors in 
 common. 
 
 12 
 
Family History 
 
 But many generations ago, probably some time in the 
 sixteenth century, a scion of the old stock left the family 
 home in East Anglia and wandered down into Somerset. 
 Here he settled and prospered, and, his descendants making 
 wealthy marriages, we soon have the Bacons of Somerset 
 well established and in possession of a fair estate, Maunsell, 
 near North Petherton, which they held for generations. 
 But at length, after many years, there came a day when 
 the family seemed on the point of extinction. Only 
 childless female relatives apparently remained. The 
 heir at law was advertised for, but no response was forth- 
 coming, and finally Maunsell was sold and passed from 
 henceforth into other hands. 
 
 Yet all this while the rightful heir was in existence, 
 and not so far away. In the first half of the eighteenth 
 century there lived in Southwark a certain Thomas 
 Bacon, a clothworker. He was a man of strictest in- 
 tegrity and religious spirit. Of considerable learning 
 also, for it is related that his Greek and Hebrew Bible 
 lay constantly by his side. But pinching, grinding 
 poverty was always with him. In vain he tried trade 
 after trade in hopes of bettering his fortune. His lack 
 of capital was ever against him, and his lifelong, unre- 
 mitting labours sufficed with difficulty to keep the wolf 
 from the door. 
 
 His poverty was the more galling to him because he 
 was convinced of the fact that he was the descendant of 
 a rich and famous family, and (as he believed) direct and 
 legal heir (through a younger son of a bygone generation) 
 to a fine house and estate in Somerset. His lack of 
 means very effectually prevented his making efforts to 
 prove his claim and regain his rights ; but he carefully 
 transmitted the family story to his son, and drew for him 
 the family coat of arms ; arms which it was left for a 
 
 13 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 later generation to discover were those of the Bacons of 
 Maunsell. 
 
 But if the loss of his paternal acres was a deeply rank- 
 ling thorn in the flesh (as we are told it was) to old 
 Thomas Bacon the clothworker, it has long ceased to 
 trouble his disinherited descendants. In truth, they 
 presently found ample reason to congratulate themselves 
 on the fact, for may it not be presumed that if Thomas 
 Bacon had succeeded quietly to his rightful estate, his 
 only son John would not have been compelled to earn 
 his living by his own exertions ? Most assuredly he 
 would not have been apprenticed (as he was) at four- 
 teen to a china manufacturer at Lambeth. His special 
 genius might never have been discovered (since why 
 should a country gentleman concern himself with model- 
 ling in clay ?) and John Bacon, R.A., the Sculptor, would 
 never have raised the drooping family fortunes and shed 
 an additional fame upon the name. 
 
 Bacon the sculptor was an untaught genius and a self- 
 made man. His master instructed him in the making 
 of the conventional designs turned out by the factory, 
 and he himself paid careful attention to the clay models 
 which sculptors in those days were accustomed to send 
 to be burned in the factory furnace. This was all ; yet 
 at seventeen the Society of Arts awarded the humble 
 apprentice 10 for the first work sent to them, and eight 
 times afterwards in the years that immediately followed 
 gave him other prizes, amounting altogether to over '200. 
 In 1768 the Royal Academy was founded. Bacon entered 
 as a student, and the year after received from the hand 
 of Sir Joshua Reynolds himself the first gold medal 
 awarded for sculpture. For a statue of Mars he ob- 
 tained the gold medal of the Society of Arts, and also 
 his election, in 1770, as an Associate of the Royal Academy. 
 
Ritssell,R.A 
 
 JOHN BACON, R.A. 
 
 Page 14 
 
Family History 
 
 Nor was this all, for a bust of his august Majesty King 
 George the Third being desired for Christ Church College, 
 Oxford, the young and rising artist was fortunate enough 
 to secure the commission to execute it. 
 
 Then came his chance. Clad in plain and sober clothes, 
 armed with his best modelling tools, and with a silver 
 syringe which did away with the ungraceful necessity 
 of squirting the water on his model from his mouth, 
 Bacon repaired to the palace to execute his task. The 
 sculptor, as was inevitable with so successful a man, had 
 many detractors as well as admirers of his own and sub- 
 sequent days ; but on one point they all agreed. He 
 possessed the most perfect tact and manners, especially 
 in his dealings with the mighty. Royalty was pleased, 
 and smiled upon the! aspirant. Where Royalty smiled 
 in those days the rest of the world proved mighty agree- 
 able. More copies of the Royal bust were commissioned. 
 Orders poured in on all sides from the great and wealthy ; 
 and the young artist was soon established in Newman 
 Street as a fashionable sculptor, with more work to his 
 skilful hands than he could well accomplish, and a 
 rising fortune which at his death in 1799 amounted 
 to 60,000. 
 
 Those were the days when sculpture, of the large and 
 imposing description, was in high demand, and classical 
 allegory ran riot, in white sepulchral marble, over un- 
 romantic themes. Benevolence and Commerce, con- 
 siderably larger than life, wept inconsolably over the 
 quite insignificant medallion of the departed city mer- 
 chant ; and the Olympian deities did extravagant homage 
 to plain and heavy Hanoverian kings in Roman togas. 
 Had Bacon lived in later times his works would have 
 been judged by other standards. In any case they can 
 afford to stand on their own merits. Most famous 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 among them are the large statues of Johnson and Howard 
 in St. Paul's Cathedral, and the great allegorical group 
 in Westminster Abbey where, in the words of his personal 
 friend Cowper the poet 
 
 Bacon there 
 
 Gives more than female beauty to a stone, 
 And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips. 
 
 The sculptor has ever been held in high esteem among 
 his descendants, and his own children looked up to him 
 as an altogether superior being. There is a bulky note- 
 book yet in existence, on the title-page of which is written 
 in the handwriting of his eldest son 
 
 " Wise Sayings of my honoured and revered Father." 
 The bitter irony of the fact that the rest of the book is 
 absolutely blank is wholly unintentional. The starting 
 of note books which are never completed is a family 
 failing which extends even to the present generation. 
 " Reminiscences of my Father and other persons of his 
 Time," by the same hand, fortunately has advanced 
 further towards (though it never attained) comple- 
 tion, and its pages throw some curious sidelights upon 
 certain celebrities of a hundred and thirty years 
 ago. 
 
 First in order, as was fitting, came the sculptor's 
 greatest patron, King George the Third. Most emphati- 
 cally did Bacon oppose the too prevalent notion that this 
 monarch did not possess superior intellectual quali- 
 fications. In support of his eager contention to the exact 
 contrary he quotes Dr. Johnson, and also Lord Erskine, 
 who once remarked to him (Bacon), " The King is a 
 damned clever fellow ! He has as much sense in his 
 little finger as is contained in the heads of all his Cabinet 
 put together ! " 
 
 As to the King's moral qualities and high religious 
 
 16 
 
Family History 
 
 principles no doubt ever existed. He was fond of religious 
 discussion, and as Bacon's bent also lay decidedly in 
 this direction it is probable that in the hours they spent 
 together during the progress of the sculpture much edi- 
 fying argument took place. On one occasion at least 
 His Majesty was put to inconvenience by his love of moral 
 discourse. At Windsor Castle was a certain gardener, 
 with whom the King, somewhat imprudently, in the 
 course of his private walks would sometimes condescend 
 to converse on Bible subjects. As was natural, the man 
 soon began to presume on his privilege, and unduly 
 prolonged the conversations, His Majesty not liking to 
 silence him out of respect for the sacredness of the topic 
 of discourse. The sequel was related to Bacon (who 
 recorded it) by a gentleman who held a position at the 
 Castle. From his window, one morning, he beheld the 
 King strolling quietly enough in the gardens, until, 
 unexpectedly, he caught sight of the gardener, when he 
 immediately turned and hastily walked away too late, 
 however, for the gardener followed him. The King 
 quickened his pace, the gardener did likewise. The 
 harassed monarch began to run, so did the implacable 
 gardener ; and it was with the utmost satisfaction that 
 the interested spectator saw his panting Majesty win 
 the arduous race, arrive first at the steps which led up 
 to his library, and, entering, slam the door in the face 
 of his terrible pursuer. 
 
 As indisputable and flattering proof of King George's 
 extraordinary memory, the memoirs cite how, having on 
 one occasion inquired of the sculptor the number and 
 names of his children, he never failed on subsequent 
 occasions to ask after them all separately by name, 
 never making a mistake, though the little Bacons were a 
 numerous progeny. 
 
 B 17 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Royal affability went even further. It was not only 
 in his professional capacity that the King received his 
 sculptor ; and on a certain occasion Bacon went to Court 
 in full dress, with blue satin waistcoat edged with gold 
 lace, ruffles, knee buckles, sword, and powdered wig tied 
 at the end with a black silk ribbon. This unwonted 
 garb was perhaps hastily assumed. Certain it is that 
 the black ribbon aforesaid came undone, and King 
 George, who had an eye for detail, noticed it. " Bacon," 
 he said, " your wig is untied. Here, I'll tie it up for you." 
 With his own august fingers he performed this simple 
 act, and thus it came about that somewhere among 
 the family archives there yet reposes (or did until 
 some time back) a dusty black fragment that once 
 was touched by the sacred hand of the reigning 
 monarch. 
 
 More interesting are the sculptor's stories of his brother 
 Royal Academicians, with many of whom he was on 
 terms of great intimacy. At his house, 17 Newman 
 Street, he was in the centre of a perfect little colony of 
 distinguished artists, and nearly a dozen of his most 
 celebrated contemporaries lived within a stone's throw. 
 To his studio would come the great Sir Joshua himself, 
 a small and thin figure with a rubicund face, holding his 
 silver ear-trumpet to his ear, and vexing Bacon's 
 Methodistical heart by his persistence in the evil habit of 
 painting on a Sunday. Sir Joshua (says the gossiping 
 " Reminiscences ") was a great snuff taker, and one day at 
 the Council of the Royal Academy offered his snuff-box 
 to his neighbour Cosway the portrait painter. Cosway 
 excused himself on the ground that snuff always made 
 him sneeze. " A single pinch," he repeated dogmatic- 
 ally, " will make me sneeze for an hour." "I'll lay you 
 a guinea that it does no such thing," said the President. 
 
 18 
 
Family History 
 
 So the wager was struck, and Cosway, to make sure of 
 his money, snuffed up pinch after pinch. But all to no 
 purpose. Not a single sneeze could he evoke, and the 
 triumphant Sir Joshua pocketed his guinea. 
 
 Four doors off in Newman Street lived West, next 
 President after Reynolds, under whose reign the Royal 
 Academicians went by the name of the Tribe of Benjamin. 
 He was a rapid worker, and when Bacon asked him how 
 he contrived to get through his pictures so quickly, replied : 
 " Because I do not, as so many other painters do, enter 
 my study to consider what I shall paint, but to paint 
 what I have considered." 
 
 Then there was Thomas Lawrence, young, handsome, 
 and of polished manners ; Barry, quarrelsome and 
 penurious, who lived in a house, filthily dirty, without 
 a servant, and, to save himself the trouble of making his 
 bed every day, nailed down the bed-clothes at the sides 
 and wedged himself in and out between them; Banks, 
 whose face wore so grave and solemn a look that when 
 he once began a speech, " Gentlemen, I come to you with 
 a cheerful countenance," his audience shrieked with 
 delighted laughter ; Nollekens and Flaxman, Copley, 
 Opie and Stothard ; Russell, who painted the sculptor's 
 portrait and the members of his family ; Fuseli, who ate 
 raw meat to give him nightmare inspiration for his fan- 
 tastic works, and because of the fearful nature of his 
 subjects was known as " Painter in Ordinary to the 
 Devil " ; Angelica Kaufmann, the lady Academician, who 
 was so lovely that, though twice invited to her house, 
 the prudent Bacon refused to go the second time, lest 
 her dangerous fascinations should prove too many for 
 him. All these and many others were among his 
 friends and associates, and bulk more or less largely in the 
 " Reminiscences " aforesaid. 
 
 19 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 John Bacon, R.A., was a man of a deeply religious 
 turn of mind ; and it is small wonder that in days when 
 the Church of England had reached its lowest depths of 
 somnolence and apathy the teachings of the great Metho- 
 dist Revivalists should have specially appealed to him. 
 He became an ardent follower of Whitefield, and in his 
 Tabernacle in the Tottenham Court Road was buried, 
 on his sudden death in 1799. 
 
 Cut short in the midst of full activity, he left behind 
 him a quantity of half-finished works. These were com- 
 pleted by his son John, the compiler of the memoirs, 
 himself a sculptor of scarcely less merit, who at seventeen 
 had gained the silver and gold medals of the Royal Aca- 
 demy, and who proved a worthy successor to his father. 
 Six of his monuments are in Westminster Abbey. In 
 St. Paul's the best-known example of his skill is referred 
 to in the Ingoldsby Legends as 
 
 Where the man and the angel have got Sir John Moore, 
 And are quietly letting him down through the floor. 
 
 In this large group a cherub boy in the background 
 stands holding a flag half furled. When he came to this 
 part of his work the artist found himself suddenly at a 
 loss for a model for his cherub. But not for long. In 
 the nursery above, his infant son was at that moment 
 making his presence known by vociferous yells. The 
 sculptor was quick to take the hint. Sending for his 
 enraged offspring, he waited until his features had sub- 
 sided again into cherubic beauty, and then immortalized 
 them in marble. This cherub who smiles down upon 
 the dying warrior in St. Paul's Cathedral was the 
 father of the John Mackenzie Bacon of the present 
 pages. 
 
 John Bacon the younger sculptor was a gentle, re- 
 
 20 
 
Family History 
 
 tiring man of pronounced evangelical views. He lacked 
 ambition, and retired comparatively early from his pro- 
 fession and took up residence at Sidmouth, in Devon, 
 then a rising watering-place. Here he devoted himself 
 entirely to Bible meetings and religious exercises, and to 
 the bringing up of his numerous family. In his later 
 years he suffered pecuniary losses. As was but natural, 
 so guileless an old gentleman proved an easy prey for the 
 unscrupulous. A designing lawyer obtained control 
 over his property and disposed of it to his own advantage. 
 Unknown to his client, he invested it in all sorts of un- 
 authorized ways. Exposure came at last, and Bacon 
 found himself much the loser by the transactions. What 
 vexed his puritanical soul, however, more than the loss 
 of his money, was the agonizing discovery that he was 
 now the owner of all sorts of undesirable securities ; of 
 several public-houses in London, and, worst of all, of a 
 theatre, to which he could only bring himself, in pious 
 horror, to refer to as " that House of Belial ! " 
 
 The younger sculptor had many children, all of them 
 clever and all of them handsome. One beautiful but 
 short-lived daughter married John Medley, who became 
 Lord Bishop of Frederickton. (In his youth a great 
 friend of John Keble, with whom the Bacons therefore 
 became acquainted.) The second son, Thomas, in turn 
 a soldier, barrister, and parson, was an artist of consider- 
 able talent. Cleverest and best-looking of them all, 
 however, was John, the eldest, erstwhile the cherub. 
 This son, born in 1809, in due course was sent to Corpus 
 Christ i College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he was known 
 as the handsomest man of his year. He was a good 
 mathematician, became a Wrangler, and entered the 
 Church ; but before the latter event he had met, 
 at Sidmouth, and become engaged to, Mary Luosada, 
 
 21 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 whom he married in 1834, the week before his ordi- 
 nation. 
 
 It is a fact so well established that to repeat it is only 
 to state a truism, that remarkable men are bred of re- 
 markable mothers. John Mackenzie Bacon was no ex- 
 ception to the rule. His mother was, and still is (for 
 at the moment of writing she yet survives at an extremely 
 advanced age but in fullest possession of all her powers), an 
 exceedingly clever woman. Her singularly handsome 
 features, her keen bright eyes, her lively, nervous tempera- 
 ment, she passed on to her fourth son, together with her 
 quick intelligence, her love of learning, her strength of 
 will. She gave him more than this also. A certain 
 famous modern writer, drawing the portrait of the hero 
 of one of his novels, describes him as possessing Jewish 
 blood : " Just a tinge of that strong, sturdy, irrepressi- 
 ble blood which is of such priceless value in diluted 
 homoeopathic doses like the famous bulldog strain which 
 is not beautiful in itself, and yet just for lacking a little 
 of the same no greyhound can ever hope to be a cham- 
 pion." From his mother the subject of these pages in- 
 herited some small portion of this precious fluid, for the 
 remote ancestors of the Lousadas were Spanish or Portu- 
 guese Jews, of high rank and proud descent among their 
 people. From this race sprang the D' Israelis, and there 
 is, in fact, some slight connecting link between the two 
 families.* 
 
 John Mackenzie Bacon's parents were a strikingly 
 handsome couple. He, tall, fair, blue-eyed, and in later 
 
 * Mary Lousada's great-grandfather was a certain Baron D'Aguilar, 
 a man of great wealth, financier, and confidant of the Empress Maria 
 Theresa, who ennobled him. Coming to England, he married a Da Costa, 
 and had two daughters. One became a Lousada, and the other, who 
 married a Mr. Stewart, was great-grandmother to the present Lady 
 St. Helier. 
 
 22 
 
Family History 
 
 life with a magnificent beard and noble forehead. She, 
 small, dark, dainty and vivacious, with the brightest of 
 eyes, the keenest of wits, and the most infectious rippling 
 laugh. In talents and attainments also they were well 
 matched. My grandfather was one of those rarely fav- 
 oured mortals, sometimes to be met with, to whom all 
 things come easily. In whatsoever he set himself to do 
 he could, at once and without apparent effort, excel. 
 He possessed moreover to the full that irresistible charm 
 of manner which was his by inheritance. As artist, 
 scholar, mechanician, sportsman, he was rarely gifted, 
 but he lacked ambition, his means were limited, and his 
 calling, as country, parson in remote districts, afforded 
 him little scope for his splendid talents. Under different 
 circumstances and with more congenial surroundings he 
 would surely have achieved renown. 
 
 As it was, after a few years spent in different curacies 
 in the West of England he was, in 1837, appointed first 
 Vicar of Lambourn Woodlands, in the Diocese of Oxford, 
 a scattered village of some three hundred inhabitants, 
 on the edge of the lonely Berkshire downs ; and here, for 
 twenty-five years, he lived, and his children were born 
 and spent their early years. 
 
 Woodlands at the time the Bacons came to it was but 
 newly separated from the parish of Lambourn, of which 
 it had until then been an outlying hamlet. Some charit- 
 able ladies of the neighbourhood, struck by the forlorn 
 and utterly neglected condition of a spot three miles 
 from the nearest church and school, had endowed a living 
 there, and built a vicarage and church, the latter a small 
 and barn-like structure which happily before many years 
 collapsed, and was entirely replaced by an infinitely 
 superior edifice. The wildness and remoteness of 
 this place can now, in these latter days, be scarcely pic- 
 
 23 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 tured. In 1837, f course, railways were scarcely in 
 existence. The Great Western was not opened until 
 years later, and even then a long while elapsed before 
 Swindon, fourteen miles across the bleak downs, be- 
 came the nearest station ; and a longer period yet 
 before the line reached Hungerford, five miles distant 
 the nearest place with even a pretence (and that of the 
 very slightest) to the dignity of a town. Newbury was 
 nine miles away and Reading twenty-five. Letters 
 from London cost elevenpence. The nearest doctor 
 was three miles distant, the nearest tradesman five. All 
 around stretched the dreary desolation of the empty 
 downs. The place was high and windswept, bleak, up- 
 land common, and in the severe winters the snow would 
 lie in the unfrequented lanes to the very tops of the 
 hedges, and the mail-van be buried for a week and more 
 in the drift. 
 
 As was but natural in so isolated a spot, the people 
 of the soil were utterly uncouth and uncivilized. 
 Even at the present day the Berkshire peasant, especi- 
 ally in the more remote country districts, is not a par- 
 ticularly bright or intelligent member of society. Seventy 
 years ago the neglected natives of Lambourn Wood- 
 lands were totally without education, without know- 
 ledge, without manners, without law or order. The 
 farmers were but little more enlightened than their hinds. 
 The few gentlemen's houses of the neighbourhood were, 
 with scarcely an exception, remote and widely scattered. 
 It was to such a place, with such surroundings, that the 
 polished scholar came and brought with him his pretty 
 and accomplished young wife, whose youth had been 
 spent largely in London, and hi the enjoyment of highly 
 cultivated and congenial society. The change to both 
 of them must have proved terrific, especially to my 
 
 24 
 
Family History 
 
 grandmother ; but she quickly and pluckiry adapted 
 herself to the new conditions, and set herself energetically 
 to aid her husband in the Herculean task of amelioration. 
 Soon there was a Sunday school established, a church 
 choir, and other village institutions. Mary Bacon proved 
 herself a model parson's wife, and before long other cares 
 and interests were added to her busy existence. Her 
 eldest son, Maunsell (named after the long-lost family 
 estate), was born in 1839 ; Francis, her second, two years 
 later; Harry Vivian in 1844; and on June igth, 1846, 
 John Mackenzie (the second name from his godparent, 
 Sir James Mackenzie, a college friend of his father's), 
 fourth and youngest son ; for a fifth boy born eleven 
 months after survived but a few weeks. 
 
 Thus appears on the scene his entry perhaps unduly 
 delayed the hero of these pages. If it be urged (as it 
 well may be) that too much space has been devoted to 
 the description of his parentage and ancestry, the writer 
 would plead in extenuation that, since a man's disposition 
 and natural bent are largely settled for him before ever 
 he comes into the world, a study of the causes which 
 predispose them is necessary to the true understanding 
 of his character. Moreover my father himself took a 
 most lively interest in the story of his forefathers. As 
 has been stated, pedigree hunting and the tracing of his 
 intricate family tree to very remote forbears, was at 
 one time an especial hobby with him. In pursuit of it 
 he mastered the mysteries of " Court Hand," and spent 
 long hours among the dusty archives of the Record Office 
 and British Museum. Partly through his own efforts, there- 
 fore, there is probably a larger mass of material to hand 
 concerning his family history than is usually available. 
 
 Early scenes and associations have ever the strongest 
 influence upon our minds, nor can later years and widen- 
 
 25 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 ing knowledge ever wholly efface the stamp of first im- 
 pressions. It is fortunate that my father has left behind 
 him his own record of his early childhood days, a record 
 it would otherwise have been impossible to supply. The 
 following three chapters are in his own words, and were 
 written during the last couple of years of his life. 
 
 26 
 
II 
 
 CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 
 
 WITH a small effort of memory there will come into 
 my mind the far-off recollection of the evening of 
 a long warm summer day, the sun already set, and a 
 vaguely oppressive stillness in the air, broken only by 
 the dull drone of insect life. I had strayed alone to the 
 limit of our home grounds, thinking proudly for the 
 fiftieth time of how I had that day attained the dignified 
 age of five years ; and I stood listening for the sound of 
 wheels which tarried. With the exception of a few 
 sparse homesteads there was nothing but wild, wide 
 country, largely woodland, all around, and I recall how 
 with ears intent, and with a certain uneasy wonder, I 
 now and again caught the wholly unwonted sound of 
 some soft music floating in the air as if from a vast dis- 
 tance. It was impossible to locate or explain the sound, 
 the source of which remains to this day a mystery, but 
 on returning to the house and conferring with a brother 
 two years my senior, it was agreed between us that these 
 subtle strains might somehow be connected with the 
 Great Exhibition, an explanation which, preposterous 
 enough, considering that London was sixty miles away, 
 was not beyond the stretch of my own imagination, 
 while it doubtless had its origin in the fact that our 
 parents and others of the family were absent that day 
 on an excursion to the world's wonder in Hyde Park. 
 
 27 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 We ourselves were eagerly waiting to hear of the marvels 
 they had seen, and they were already more than an hour 
 late. 
 
 Whether childish excitement and fatigue had had 
 some unwonted effect upon the nerves I know not, but 
 my brain must have been set a-thinking in a way that 
 has through all my subsequent life fastened that day 
 with a strange vividness upon my memory, and what 
 may be better worth recounting, often in the years but 
 lately past, when, engaged in physical investigation, I 
 have been listening at night for far or faint sounds, I 
 have irresistibly been carried back fifty years to the 
 night of which I have spoken. 
 
 Yet earlier recollections of course have some discon- 
 nected abiding-places in my memory ; but from this 
 period onwards the more striking incidents and events 
 that made up the years of childhood seem to be recorded 
 in my mind in something like a well-ordered sequence. 
 I can never forget my distress, short-lived but intense, 
 when fifteen months later I was made to know the occa- 
 sion of England's national sorrow. The Great Duke 
 was dead, and I was under the impression to be gathered 
 that day from all lips that the land could never know 
 his like again. But in the meantime a matter of extra- 
 ordinary moment and interest had occurred in our un- 
 eventful and unimaginative little parish. The church, 
 a masterpiece of jerry-building, which had been erected 
 for my father, the first incumbent, just thirteen years 
 before, began to tumble down, and this beyond all power 
 of restoration. So big balks of timber were planted 
 against the walls to prevent their falling outwards, and 
 a new church of Gothic design and fair proportions was 
 forthwith commenced on a neighbouring site. This 
 through many months converted the parsonage grounds 
 
 28 
 
Childhood Memories 
 
 into a busy scene, and gathered workmen of various 
 crafts from all the district round. 
 
 To watch the feats of handicraft and engineering skill 
 that come within the builder's task was a source of un- 
 ending delight to me, and doubtless also had its in- 
 structive side. Moreover among the hands themselves 
 there were many strange and maybe a few lawless char- 
 acters, with whom, partly in awe and partly in childish 
 admiration, I sought occasional intercourse, not without 
 gaining impressions which, whether for good or ill, were at 
 least abiding. And let it be confessed that ours was but 
 a semi-civilized neighbourhood at best, where poaching 
 and theft were rife and where the policeman as yet was 
 undreamed of. In the hour off work, as, leaning against 
 a shed, clasp knife in hand, he demolished his dinner, 
 it was not difficult to coax some one among the men to 
 tell some tales of adventure in the woods or on the downs, 
 and though these may have been largely drawn from the 
 imagination they doubtless possessed a substratum of 
 truth and reality. 
 
 Not more than two or three parishes intervened be- 
 tween our neighbourhood and that of which Richard 
 Jefferies wrote, and the ruder element as well as the more 
 untutored and superstitious which he has portrayed 
 were not far to seek. Away on the heath was surely 
 the very fortune-teller whom he described. The self- 
 same gipsies encamped in the hollow. I could point 
 to the very cross-road trysting-place where loafers con- 
 gregated when " there was any mischief in the wind." 
 There was the uncanny spot where the ground sounded 
 hollow, and more than one other place haunted by 
 apparitions beyond all possibility of doubt, if there was 
 any sort of reliance on tradition. 
 
 The Wise Woman of our parts was wise too in that 
 
 29 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 matter of curative herbs of which Jefferies tells. I re- 
 member a carter who had a " tur'ble bad eye " which 
 no treatment could mend till he applied to the old hag, 
 who for a shilling banished " the evil " with a charm or 
 incantation. But besides this resident enchantress there 
 was an itinerant quack practitioner, who was a very 
 august person indeed, locally known as Doctor Compo ; 
 venerable in appearance, deliberate in speech, and pos- 
 sessing as a principal part of his stock-in-trade a certain 
 sagacious shake of the head which irresistibly forced 
 conviction on anybody. Everywhere the country folk 
 paid him homage and on occasions halfpence and for 
 his greatness my own respect how could it be other- 
 wise ? was profound. I regarded him much as I should 
 a genie of the " Arabian Nights," and whenever I saw a 
 chance of getting an extemporized story out of my father 
 my special request invariably was " Tell about Tompo ! " 
 The gipsies, as may be supposed, were in no way at- 
 tached to the place; living a nomad life, coming for 
 a short sojourn, and again without warning striking their 
 tents and moving on unmolested where they listed 
 throughout a wide district. They were wholly exclusive, 
 keeping to their own race, among which alone they mar- 
 ried, and of which they boasted long descent. In some 
 cases they possessed plate or other heirlooms which 
 would go to prove their tradition ; and their strongly 
 distinguishing complexion and cast of feature marked 
 them as quite apart from the people of the soil. In 
 general they were particular about religious observances, 
 and brought their children to the clergyman for baptism. 
 On one occasion my father was requested to christen 
 twins, which in lieu of better garments were brought 
 simply wrapped up in a cloth. The names chosen and 
 afterwards entered in the register were Angelina and 
 
 30 
 
Childhood Memories 
 
 Delarifie. I myself in after years was called upon to 
 christen a gipsy child in another parish church, and, the 
 parents being absent, the name had been carefully taken 
 down by the clerk as Lemontinie, and this unconscionable 
 name I duly gave and entered ; and it was not till later 
 that I learned its true interpretation. The name of the 
 Vicar, then absent from home, was Clements, and the 
 gipsy mother apparently desired that her babe, born in 
 passing through his parish, should be called in compli- 
 ment Clementina. It is a pity that I was not better 
 informed at the time. 
 
 For certain superstitions about the place there was 
 perhaps no insufficient excuse. As an example : The 
 one public-house stood in a lonesome spot where the 
 main road, little frequented, crossed a mere narrow lane, 
 which same lane running through the parish for a couple 
 of miles did duty for a villageStreet, though nowhere were 
 there more than occasional isolated houses along it. 
 Two or three hundred yards from the public-house to- 
 wards what only by courtesy could be called the village, 
 stood a holly bush just where the lane was narrowest 
 and darkest withal, by reason of high banks and tall 
 hedgerows. This bush, or rather tree, with bare stem 
 and spreading top, marked a spot of ill repute, for beneath 
 its boughs now and again on dark nights a spectre of 
 some sort was to be seen. Accounts varied as to its 
 precise form and appearance, but as to the reality of the 
 apparition there was no dispute, and the terrors it in- 
 spired would suffice to cause the villager, who we pre- 
 sume had just left the inn, to hurry back again and 
 fortify himself with another glass. 
 
 But the day came when the tales of that haunted spot 
 assumed a new significance. Years after, when we had 
 all left that part of the country, tidings reached us that 
 
 31 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 a labourer employed in mending the bank had come upon 
 human bones under the identical holly tree. Here is 
 splendid material certainly for those who would pursue 
 psychical research with the hope of finding evidence of 
 supernormal manifestations. Or if the reader be more 
 prosaic and would prefer a more rational explanation, 
 let me suggest the following : In days forgotten there 
 had been presumably a foul deed committed at that 
 spot, and somehow a whisper of the story had got abroad. 
 It would be quite sufficient in that superstitious age and 
 country that an evil tale should attach itself to any 
 locality, to invest the place with ghostly but imaginary 
 terrors. In the particular instance the story chanced 
 to be true. 
 
 Five miles away along the main road another and not 
 very dissimilar tale was located, which was also divulged 
 in the days I seek to recall. It was another wayside 
 public-house, and cronies would tell of the way in which 
 the landlord and his son would often be at high words, 
 when if sufficiently exasperated the young man would 
 retaliate by bidding his father be careful, as he could 
 tell that against him which would assuredly hang him. 
 Years after, when the inn had changed hands and while 
 alterations were being made in an outhouse, the skeleton 
 of a full-grown man was found beneath the floor. Then 
 it was that a story of bygone days was recalled. A 
 drover stopping the night at that house had incau- 
 tiously boasted of the large sum of money he carried. 
 Mysteriously, and no one at the time could tell how, the 
 drover disappeared that same night. In this case no 
 unquiet spirit, that I ever heard, haunted the spot. 
 
 The drovers and their cattle, be it told, were an occa- 
 sional and very striking feature in our village. The long 
 lane I have spoken of was really part of a main byway 
 
 32 
 
Childhood Memories 
 
 leading across downs and open agricultural country 
 from London far down into the West, in fact away into 
 Wales, and along that unfrequented and fairly direct 
 road, well suited for the purpose, would come at certain 
 seasons enormous droves of Welsh cattle ; fine black 
 beasts with gigantic horns, in the charge of raw-boned, 
 stalwart Welsh drovers, shouting in their barbarous 
 tongue ; all making their way slowly and laboriously 
 up to the London market. Each single drove would 
 often be half a mile long, filling up the highway from 
 hedge to hedge, and as many of these would follow in 
 succession the road would be fairly blocked till the 
 enormous train had passed by. As a boy of twelve, it 
 was part of my daily routine to walk or run half a mile 
 to a private tutor's along this road, and I well remember 
 the slow rate of progression which one had to make if 
 involved in one of these formidable droves and walking 
 with them. On the other hand, if you met them and 
 were afoot the drovers would in no way help you, and 
 progress was absolutely so difficult that the schoolboy 
 found it far the quicker mode to force his way to the 
 other side of the hedge, or make a long detour and reach 
 home that way. 
 
 I shall always retain the impression, irresistibly formed, 
 that among the worthies of our little place there were 
 remarkable characters whose equal shall be found no- 
 where. My love for many long since passed by is yet 
 green. It nearly broke my heart when Eli left for the 
 Australian gold-diggings. Eli was the factotum among 
 our household. I was allowed to go and see Eli for five 
 minutes every evening in the kitchen before I went to 
 bed, and maybe he imposed somewhat upon my youthful 
 imagination. But then he could do such wonders. He 
 could put the big ladder up single-handed. He also 
 c 33 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 could put a lighted tallow candle down his throat without 
 injury. It was quite certain in my mind that if any one 
 made a fortune at the " diggings" it would be he. 
 
 But Eli went, and in his place came Henry, a burly, 
 powerful man in robust manhood, and a true hero, if 
 prowess in encounters with a gang of desperate poachers 
 would give him a right to such a title. I think I have 
 never known a man of more dogged courage, of which 
 during his years of service we had many proofs, but I 
 will content myself here with one ; which it must be 
 allowed hardly came in his legitimate way of business. 
 The new church was fast approaching completion, and 
 the time had arrived for throwing down the scaffolding 
 which had long done service on the outside of the spire, 
 and which was thought to be no longer needed. But 
 ere the crazy structure was actually demolished a violent 
 storm one night caught the weathercock, standing too 
 tall and not sufficiently lubricated, broadside on, and the 
 next morning the big brazen fowl was found no longer 
 erect and defiant but lying over on his side, stone finial and 
 all, held only by the lightning rod. It was necessary 
 that some one should go up and, bodily lifting off the heavy 
 stone and vane, carry them down the condemned scaffold. 
 But the builders knew that scaffold too well, and one and 
 all declined for any sum of money to attempt the task. 
 Whether the job was actually offered to Henry I cannot 
 remember, but bribe or reward of any kind did not come 
 into the question. Pure love of adventure solely actuated 
 him ; and promptly climbing alone and unassisted to 
 the top of the spire he brought down the heavy mass 
 before all hands assembled. 
 
 I have told of the poaching in the district, which was 
 practised in a regular businesslike way with method and 
 daring. But there was aVorse crime yet, the committal 
 
 34 
 
Childhood Memories 
 
 of which had not been infrequent. This was burglary, 
 perpetrated beyond a doubt by practised adepts. Many 
 large country houses were in the neighbourhood, a neigh- 
 bourhood which, as we have shown, was singularly quiet 
 and unprotected. Small wonder if it were regarded as 
 the happy hunting-ground of London house-breakers. 
 They were never caught, nor do I remember that they 
 were ever frustrated in any determined attempt. Im- 
 punity made them daring to the verge of recklessness. 
 Sometimes too their methods were not without a touch 
 of humour. 
 
 On one occasion, having effected entrance into the house 
 of a wealthy neighbour, a clergyman, they relieved him 
 of as much of his " portable property " as they desired ; 
 after which they amused themselves by locking the pro- 
 prietor into his bedroom. They also, for mere sport 
 clearly, took away his will but not far. Six months 
 afterwards the gardener found it at the foot of a spreading 
 cedar into which they had evidently tossed it, and where 
 it remained until some rough storm dislodged it. But 
 they had also left a seasonable word of advice with their 
 unwitting clerical benefactor. On his study table they 
 had found his watch, which of course they removed, 
 but left in its place a slip of paper with the words, de- 
 signed to catch his eye, " Watch and Pray." 
 
 In another large house hard by, the master, a wealthy 
 country squire and magistrate, was fully expecting their 
 visit. Indeed it could hardly be otherwise, for the gang 
 were evidently billeted somewhere in the neighbourhood 
 and were making a clean sweep of it. Apparently, too, 
 the squire had got some credible information of the gang's 
 intended movements, and to be fully prepared for them 
 collected his staff of trusty menservants together, gave 
 them such weapons as he thought fit, and further provided 
 
 35 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 for their welfare and his own by repairing to the coach- 
 house at nightfall with the means of making good cheer, 
 and by a warm fire sat the night out happily enough. 
 Then, their vigil over, they with a good conscience returned 
 to the house to find it broken into, the thieves gone, and 
 everything in the larder gone also. 
 
 In the same old countryside since there has been more 
 than one daring burglary even in recent years, but 
 methods have changed. The cart driven up silently on 
 the roadside grass is no longer considered safe, and high- 
 ways generally are shunned. All that is most valuable 
 is reduced to the smallest compass, concealed about the 
 person, and then the rogues will walk through the night 
 towards London along the nearest line of rail. 
 
 One desperately sad termination to a home burglary 
 story I cannot omit. An elder brother conceived an 
 inordinate fancy for poultry-keeping. Indeed this fancy 
 is as keen with him to-day as it was fifty years ago, 
 though the incident I relate nearly broke his heart. Of 
 all his stock he loved one cherished Dorking hen beyond 
 words. I know not why, but he called her " Foozles." 
 And then there came thefts at night among the fowl 
 roosts, and in alarm for his favourite he begged our 
 father to allow his spring gun to be set in the fowl house, 
 where Foozles just then was in a coop covering a dozen 
 chickens. In the morning the well-trusted Henry already 
 mentioned went to see that all was well, as indeed up to 
 that point was the case, except that Foozles had got out 
 of her coop. In this of course there was grave danger 
 danger to Henry's legs, which with a noble courage 
 and devotion to his young master he paid no heed to. 
 He simply desired and resolved to catch and restore the 
 bird to safety ; but alas, herein was the sad mistake. 
 Deftly avoiding the " pounce " made to catch her, Foozles 
 
 36 
 
Childhood Memories 
 
 in alarm retreated madly with flapping wings. She was 
 strong and she was heavy, and she blundered against 
 one of the gun wires the wire that had been set with 
 such pains over-night. The clumsy, cruel weapon swung 
 round truly to the strain, and in spite of antique lock 
 and rusty barrel went off like a blunderbuss. Poor 
 Foozles ! 
 
 37 
 
Ill 
 
 ANECDOTES AND REMINISCENCES. 
 
 SOME notable characters, whose names are yet 
 familiar to all, come into my early home recol- 
 lections. For though my father's name appears in those 
 days probably only in the clergy list, yet he had been 
 associated with many different parts of the country, 
 and well known throughout a large radius not only as a 
 ripe scholar but as an all-round man who could do things, 
 many and various, off his own bat. Grandson of John 
 Bacon, R.A. who in early manhood won the first gold 
 medal offered by the Royal Academy, and to his death 
 remained without a rival in the school of English sculp- 
 ture my father inherited a large share of high artistic 
 talent, while he excelled in every branch of mechanical 
 skill or scientific study which he took up. Being more- 
 over a gifted speaker, he became in much request as a 
 lecturer, and perhaps the proudest moments of my Boy- 
 hood were those when I was called upon to act as assistant 
 with the oxy-hydrogen lanterns. 
 
 It was partly this same lecturing, and still more, I 
 fancy, the chance of fishing in the neighbouring famous 
 trout stream, the Kennet, that formed the bait which 
 brought us as a guest a connection of my mother's, Charles 
 Kingsley. I must have attained some ten years when I 
 learned that Charles Kingsley was coming to pay us a 
 visit, and at that time he was simply the Rector of Evers- 
 ley, and " Two Years Ago " was only in the press ; 
 
 38 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 but " Westward Ho ! " had been before the world for a 
 couple of years, and the author of " Alton Locke " was 
 already distrusted by many, admired by more, and re- 
 garded by some with a genuine hero-worship. Of these 
 there was no lack in our home circle, and thus I knew 
 to expect a man whom I must needs revere. But " West- 
 ward Ho ! " had as yet been denied me, and the only work 
 of Kingsley's that had come my way was the little volume 
 " Glaucus," which always lay on our drawing-room table, 
 and which I confess had at that time failed to interest 
 me at all. Somehow I could not in the least enter into 
 the feelings of paterfamilias at the seaside, a martyr to 
 ennui, and vainly trying to make a sketch or catch a 
 mackerel. Nor did the cure mapped out for him in these 
 pages commend itself to me. Therefore in my own 
 mind I had misgivings that I should not understand the 
 man who was supposed to charm everybody by his talks 
 about natural history and country life. 
 
 But when he came, his mind, if I am not mistaken, was 
 running on another theme. One may gather as much 
 from his " Letters and Memories." He was at this time, 
 if ever, the Muscular Christian. The war had deeply 
 stirred him. "It seems so dreadful," he had written, 
 " to hear of those Alma heights being taken and not be 
 there." He had spoken of the " wolf vein " in him, 
 and one can well fancy the combative attitude ascribed 
 to him when the house-breaking ruffians I have already 
 described were about his own home, when " no house 
 was secure. When a neighbouring clergyman was 
 murdered in his own garden by burglars, and the little 
 Rectory at Eversley which had scarcely a strong lock on 
 its doors, was only just armed with bolts and bars before 
 it too was attacked by the same gang." 
 
 I had the pleasure of knowing his eldest son, my con- 
 
 39 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 temporary at Cambridge, and it was of this son, about 
 the time I am describing, that the Dons of Trinity used 
 to tell a characteristic story. Being asked at the High 
 Table what expectations he entertained about his son, 
 Kingsley is reported to have replied, " I hope he may 
 turn out a healthy fool." 
 
 All in keeping with this was the way in which he first 
 accosted myself. It was one of those moments in life 
 branded on one's memory, and is proof to me of how 
 much may hang on a few words which one is sometimes 
 asked to say to those who are young and impressionable. 
 I remember another home incident, when a bishop and old 
 college don who was staying with us was asked to give 
 me word of counsel on the eve of my going to Cambridge. 
 It occurred to his lordship to warn me against ever 
 "acting a lie," and when I asked for an illustration of 
 his meaning he said, "If you see some one coming along the 
 pavement whom you don't want to meet, and cross over 
 the street to avoid him, that is a practical lie." Of the 
 correctness of this there could be no question, yet I know 
 that I doubted the worldly wisdom of taking that advice 
 too literally. But to return to Charles Kingsley. When 
 his attention was called to me, he did not make it the 
 occasion of instilling moral advice ; he simply said, " Come 
 and let me feel your arm." Clearly his best wish for 
 me at that time was that I should develop muscle. 
 
 Two incidents very characteristic of the man occur to 
 me as happening while he was with us. In the middle 
 of a long day's fishing he repaired to a neighbouring 
 farm-house to beg a glass of milk, and quickly ingratiated 
 himself with the hospitable mistress of the house who 
 supplied his wants. But his attention was drawn to a 
 dog on the chain, and going, as his nature was, to speak 
 to it, he saw that the poor brute had no water in his 
 
 40 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 basin. Whereupon he not only went himself to the well 
 for fresh water, but sternly rated his late friend for her 
 negligence. 
 
 The other incident occurred in Newbury street, where 
 some loutish individual, clumsily backing into him, trod 
 heavily on his foot. On this Charles Kingsley seized the 
 fellow by both shoulders, and turning him about said 
 with characteristic emphasis, " My good man, if the Al- 
 mighty had meant you to walk backwards He would have 
 given you eyes at the back of your head, depend upon it ! " 
 
 I should be wrong if I implied that Kingsley ever 
 omitted to call attention to any noteworthy object in 
 nature, great or small. It was said of him, and I believe 
 with perfect truth, that in a country ramble his keen eye 
 missed nothing, and he loved to point out to others the 
 sounds dear to him which but for his acute ear might 
 escape notice : " The note of the nighthawk ; the call 
 of the pheasant ; the distant bark of the fox." The charm 
 of this or any other theme he liked to talk on was borne 
 home to me in after years when I heard him lecture at 
 Cambridge. Even those who from indolence or inaptitude 
 disliked lectures from their hearts would crowd to hear 
 Kingsley discourse, and never miss a word. And that 
 he appealed to all equally was best proved in the final 
 scene, where every class, from the peer to the gipsy crowded 
 to see the last. Max-Muller, remarking on this and on 
 the man's many-sidedness, pointed out that among the 
 rest that day were huntsmen in pink, for though as good 
 a clergyman as any, Charles Kingsley had been a good 
 sportsman, and had taken in his life many a fence as 
 bravely as he took the last fence of all. 
 
 Kingsley wrote of Bishop Wilberforce, "I am more 
 struck with him than with any man except Bunsen I 
 have seen for a long time." I myself wonder if any one 
 
 41 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 could have seen the Bishop without being extraordinarily 
 struck with him. Shovel hat and gaiters, though they 
 must have counted for something, had little to do with 
 the peculiar admiration which he compelled in those 
 who saw him for the first time, and more particularly 
 heard him speak. His nickname of " Soapy Sam " might 
 have arisen simply from his suave soft speech, but 
 whatever his utterance might have been, that thought- 
 ful look and marvellously intellectual brow would 
 ensure everybody's listening to him with entire at- 
 tention. Probably had he been of less striking pres- 
 ence he might have been less remarked upon, and in any 
 case one may be safe in rejecting a full half of the stories 
 told about him. But one or two (which as far as I know 
 have remained untold) may be worth recounting as 
 having happened while he was our own Bishop in our 
 own neighbourhood, place and circumstance being alike 
 well known to me. 
 
 The Bishop was staying the night with a certain fox- 
 hunting squire, who certainly would not fail to entertain 
 his guest with the utmost cordiality and the best of good 
 cheer, and it seems that the visit went off right well till 
 it came to the matter of family prayer, when there ap- 
 peared some slight lack of organization. Still the host 
 in due compliment and with well-bred politeness asked 
 his lordship to officiate, in which the latter acquiesced. 
 But the Bishop had not failed to note the ill-rehearsed 
 scene, and grasping the situation said quietly, " Will you 
 tell me the last chapter you read at family prayer ? " 
 Now the old squire was not ready in such a fix as this, and 
 mutely appealed to a sporting friend beside him, in which 
 however he made sad mistake, for his friend, loving a 
 joke too well, whispered in his ear, " Say the thirtieth 
 chapter of St. Mark." 
 
 42 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 In another parish another squire was showing the 
 Bishop the church which stood in his own grounds. 
 And the Bishop having seen and approved, the squire 
 with reckless vanity asked him to come and see his own 
 pew, in which in truth there was much to see ; the luxu- 
 rious cushions, the handsome carpet with hassocks to 
 match, the whole hedged in and screened from view by 
 the high oak partition. The proud impropriator showed 
 it off, and pointed to the baize -covered table in the 
 middle, on which some handsome church services ostenta- 
 tiously reposed. " It only wants one thing," the Bishop 
 remarked. " And pray what is that, my Lord ? " "A 
 pack of cards." 
 
 When the Bishop came to consecrate the new church 
 there was of course a high function, and hospitality on 
 a large scale at the Vicarage, and to be out of the way I 
 was consigned to a room upstairs, where I was in 
 due course promised my dinner. But all among the 
 household were off their heads, and hour after hour I 
 remained forgotten and famishing, till at last some one in 
 commiseration brought me a dish of Normandy Pippins. 
 Now this was a luxury which after a good plate of meat 
 I loved well, as any healthy boy should, and being hungry 
 beyond words I finished the dish with nothing else to 
 appease my craving. That I should have been wretchedly 
 ill afterwards was, I suppose, natural enough, but I have 
 always regarded it as curious that from that day I have 
 loathed Normandy Pippins with a disgust which I cannot 
 describe. 
 
 I must be allowed to tell one or two unusual scenes 
 connected with the new church which I witnessed at an 
 age when I could keenly appreciate them. The corner 
 seat of a prominent pew was invariably occupied by the 
 principal farmer of the place, who was likewise church- 
 
 43 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 warden. Immediately behind him sat his brother, a 
 burly, athletic man whom few would have cared to stand 
 up to, still less to be knocked down by. It was surprising, 
 therefore, to say the least, to see this powerful young 
 fellow, one morning's service, just as the congregation 
 rose for a hymn, strike his brother without apparent pro- 
 vocation a heavy blow in the back. The brother did 
 not resent the assault in the least indeed if his expression 
 indicated any emotion it was rather that of satisfaction 
 and triumph. Of course after service an explanation of 
 the young yeoman's extraordinary conduct was asked 
 for and easily obtained. The victim of the blow put the 
 whole case in a nutshell. " I felt sum'mut crope up my 
 back," he explained. " So I turns my head and says to 
 my brother, * Jim, d'ye see a lump between my shoulders ? 
 That's a mouse. You hit 'un hard as soon as we stand 
 up.' You see I wore this coat at market last Thursday. 
 There was a sample of corn in the pocket, and I suppose 
 there was a mouse in among the corn." 
 
 Then there was occasional trouble about the Sunday 
 hats. A certain gruesome story related to the older 
 church, where, in the middle of the unlovely oblong 
 you couldn't call it a nave stood a stove round which, 
 summer and winter, sat two ancient parishioners, known 
 as Gog and Magog. The stove did well to put their hats 
 upon in summer, but a day came when Magog, forgetful 
 of the season and of the fact that the stove was alight, 
 placed his hat on the grated cover and forthwith dropped 
 asleep. Now that stove top soon grew hot, near to 
 redness, and that hat dated far back in the century, 
 and presently the congregation were painfully sensible 
 of- 
 
 No, I won't go on with that story. Let me tell of a 
 tremendous personage who was squire for a short while, 
 
 44 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 and who was the most fastidious, the most proud, as also 
 the most irascible man, I can recall. Insanely particular 
 about everything touching his pride or person, he was 
 perhaps most scrupulous about his Sunday hat, which 
 his footman at morning service was made to deposit with 
 infinite care in the recess of a window in the new church 
 now where in the ordinary course of events the vulgar 
 would not approach. Well, to this hour I don't know 
 how it happened, but one Sunday an unkempt rustic of 
 the rougher sort shambled up the aisle, and ventured 
 in a fit of temporary insanity, I suppose to throw his 
 greasy cap on to the same window ledge. But he was awk- 
 ward as he was uncouth, and the odious piece of felt 
 actually pitched right inside that faultless topper, where, 
 for all the lout cared, it was going to remain. My pen 
 is all too feeble to describe the awful exhibition of in- 
 dignation and wrath which followed. 
 
 But to another scene. In due course an organ, sup- 
 planting the modest harmonium, was erected at the west 
 end, and then the hat trouble broke out again ; for its 
 handsome front was ornamented by a moulding which 
 formed a sort of ledge, and on this ledge the senior mem- 
 bers of the choir young farmers and the like deposited 
 their hats. Now this had to be remedied, and certainly 
 my father would have been equal to the occasion. But 
 the organ builder, a brilliant performer, was in compli- 
 ment asked to come down and preside at his instrument 
 at some choral function the organ-opening probably 
 and being told of the little trouble about the hats merely 
 said, " Leave that to me ! " Then at the commencement 
 of service, the choir being assembled, and the hats in 
 extended line along their high perch, he took his seat at 
 the organ, and as he sat down made with either arm a 
 sweep to right and left. The hats hailed down and 
 
 45 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 ricochetted among the stalls ; but there was no disturb- 
 ance, for the next moment, with a crash on the full 
 organ, out pealed the opening bars of the ' Hailstone 
 Chorus.' Nothing was ever said by any one, neither 
 did any hat thereafter find a place on the organ case. 
 
 At this time and for some years after, the Vicar of the 
 mother church was Robert Milman, afterwards Bishop 
 of Madras ; and a man more capable of dealing with the 
 troublous condition of a large and lawless parish could 
 not well be imagined, if force of character counts for any- 
 thing. An overgrown village without the organization 
 of a town, the place was a hotbed of malice and mischief. 
 Arson was rife, and a dozen farms or houses had been 
 burned down without the misdemeanant being even 
 guessed at. Indeed defiance of all kinds of authority 
 was the common cause of complaint, and the Vicar devoted 
 himself to the reformation of the rising generation, with 
 what result may be gratefully told to-day. It will not 
 be hard to understand that such a man met with con- 
 siderable personal opposition from sundry bigoted in- 
 dividuals who in the nature of things are to be found in 
 wellnigh every place. And there was a certain exclusive 
 religious sect, presided over by a woman preacher, whose 
 attitude was peculiarly antagonistic and on one occasion 
 ill-advised. 
 
 The woman in question, believing in her own superior 
 gift of devotional eloquence, one day designedly asked 
 the Vicar into her cottage ; and there and then called 
 upon him to offer prayer. The request was at least 
 unceremonious, but it was complied with, for Robert 
 Milman was the very last man to be taken unawares, 
 nor was any man readier to turn any opportunity to ac- 
 count. He therefore in fitting and forcible language 
 gave expression to the hope that this misguided 
 
 46 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 woman might be brought to a better state of mind, and 
 then he took his leave. I remember his coming up to 
 to tell my father the story with much relish, but the 
 episode did not really end there, for a few days after- 
 wards the same female fanatic ran out into the street as 
 he passed, and shaking her fist at him cried triumphantly, 
 " Ah ! We've prayed for thee now ! " 
 
 In public speaking few men were more happy than 
 Mr. Milman and none more original and entertaining. 
 His voice alone ensured his being listened to, by reason 
 of a certain harshness and inflexibility which made his 
 periods the more incisive. I recall a platform speech 
 of his at a meeting convened for charitable purposes. 
 It was not very long after the extension of railways into 
 our remote district, and they were still more or less an 
 object of wonder in our quiet part of the country. It 
 seemed only by happy thought, therefore, that Milman 
 made allusion in picturesque language to the scene to 
 be witnessed at the railway-station. The harnessed 
 steam monster coming in with its train of coaches, the 
 ensuing bustle controlled by official authority ; then there 
 followed a picture of the familiar scenes on the platform ; 
 the newspaper boy was not forgotten, nor a certain dirty 
 little man who was always in attendance with his tin of 
 yellow grease oiling the wheels. And then he broke off 
 abruptly, and explained that that dirty little man was 
 himself, whose duty as treasurer it was to grease the 
 wheels that day, which he would do by appealing for a 
 liberal offertory. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that both Milman and Wilber- 
 f orce were keen horsemen, yet both rode a loose, ungainly 
 seat, a fact to which the fatal accident to the latter may 
 be in part attributed. I am told that on one occasion 
 when the two had ridden over together to my father's 
 
 47 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 house from Lambourn and were about to take their 
 leave, Robert Milman said, " My lord, let me show you 
 the short way home," which would mean a stiff bit of 
 country such as might satisfy the most ardent cross- 
 country rider. 
 
 One of the notable characters of our part of the 
 country in the days I can recall was Tom Hughes, the 
 father of the better known but certainly not more talented 
 Tom Hughes, author of " Tom Brown " and of the 
 "Scouring of the White Horse." The first of these 
 books it will be remembered was one of the most popular 
 publications of the time, and when it first appeared all 
 who knew the older generation said at once, " It must 
 be the father who has really written the book." This 
 was doubtless unjust, but when it was also said that 
 Tom Hughes the elder must have written much of the 
 " Scouring of the White Horse," this indirectly can 
 hardly have been otherwise than true. There was no 
 man who could repeat more country songs than he. 
 There was likewise none who could more cleverly and 
 happily improvise them. It may thus be hard to tell 
 to-day which among the wonderful collection of lays in 
 the volume comprising the " Scouring of the White 
 Horse and the Ashen Faggot " were real ballads of olden 
 time, and which emanated from the fertile brain of the 
 Squire of Kingston Lisle. 
 
 Tom Hughes the elder was the life and soul of the 
 famous West Berks Archers. He wrote of their deeds 
 in graceful and sometimes in comic verse. He would 
 tell stories as none else. Among his varied gifts was a 
 marvellous aptitude in imitating the voices of birds and 
 animals to the life. He spent his later years at Donning- 
 ton Priory, near Newbury, and my eldest brother relates 
 how once, walking with him through the outskirts of 
 
 48 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 the town, a dog was yelping noisily behind a tall yard 
 door, which provoked Hughes to play him a trick. 
 Placing his head near the ground on the outside of the 
 door, he imitated the snarling of a rival dog so perfectly 
 as to drive the noisy cur to fury. 
 
 A scouring of the famous White Horse scarcely eight 
 miles off across the downs occurred in my recollection, 
 and in some degree resembled the scene described by 
 Tom Hughes the younger. But the life had gone out of 
 it, and the former spirit of the old haunts had departed. 
 The same was equally evident when early in the 'sixties 
 the Volunteers encamped in force below the " Manger." 
 The crowd they drew was largely composed of a wholly 
 undesirable rabble, and as for the old sports the back- 
 sword play and the chase of the pig with a greased tail 
 the days of such things had clearly gone by, nor can they, 
 it would seem, ever again be revived in the old country- 
 side. The attempt would be as futile and as pure an 
 anachronism as was that of Lord Eglinton when in 
 the last century he tried to reintroduce the ancient 
 tourney. 
 
 Three miles westward of my own house, on a wild open 
 common, is an old-time race-course, once the scene of all 
 such rustic merry-making as was held periodically on 
 White Horse Hill. Here some years back there was an 
 attempt made to revive the old revels. All the old games 
 were to be there, and were there, and there was a large 
 gathering. But it was a wretched failure. No one could 
 wield the quarter-staff as of yore. The old trick of wrest- 
 ling was lost, and it gave no one pleasure to watch a 
 country lout grin through a horse-collar. By and by it 
 was thought that the reason of the change was discovered. 
 In the corner of the grounds, stolid, but with a vague 
 sense of duty, stood a rural policeman. He was inter- 
 D 49 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 fering with nobody, yet he clearly had no place in that 
 gathering ; and the repressing effect of the blue uniform 
 spoilt everything. 
 
 But one chief cause of the change that was coming 
 over all such meetings lay undoubtedly in the altered 
 and fast altering relation between employer and employed. 
 The true attachment, often life-long, of the labourer to 
 his master was passing away ; the hold which parson and 
 squire alike used to have over the masses in every place 
 was on the wane. In the days I recollect in country 
 places the parishioners for the most part were wholly 
 illiterate, and of necessity came to the clergyman for 
 advice or assistance in all sorts of difficulties. And it 
 was the same with the squire or large yeoman farmer, 
 who exercised the strongest influence over those de- 
 pendent on him, and who though often a strict, not to 
 say stern, disciplinarian, was respected if not loved by 
 all. The harvest home was a great and important 
 annual function, looked forward to through all the year. 
 One gathering of the kind I used to attend, and the 
 devotion of the common folk, who with wives and mothers 
 were all present, to the farmer squire the village king 
 was a spectacle one could never forget. Fifteen years 
 afterwards I should not have known where even to find 
 a single harvest home within as many miles. The old 
 retainers had died out, few stayed more than a short 
 time with a master, and as a natural consequence very 
 little true union existed. 
 
 One cause of the labourers abandoning their old masters 
 may have been due to their low wages and wretched 
 dwellings. Their fare was of the coarsest and poorest, 
 and for water they had nothing but the stagnant road- 
 side pond befouled by the farmer's cattle, and green 
 with duck- weed. Everywhere was overcrowding, and 
 
 50 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 sanitation was unknown. Yet the fact, which can be 
 borne out by every parish register remains, that the 
 death-rate was no higher than to-day, epidemics were at 
 least not more frequent, and the schools were practically 
 never closed. It used to be truthfully and feelingly 
 said by the old people in our parish certainly a high 
 and healthy spot " Folks may live here a'maist as long 
 as they'r a mind to't." 
 
 But there were higher wages heard of " round London 
 way," especially at hay harvest, and as crops were earlier 
 in that part it was common for mowers to go and cut 
 the grass in Middlesex and return in time for the mowing 
 at home. The far-off pastures were more than fifty miles 
 away, but this did not deter some of the lustier hands 
 from strapping their scythes on their backs and walking 
 the whole distance in a single day. 
 
 Shepherding was counted the most important, as it 
 was the most responsible, of farm labour. An old shep- 
 herd, who was generally chosen for his ability, was com- 
 monly looked up to as a man possessing superior ex- 
 perience and knowledge among his kind. If your dog 
 ailed you went to the shepherd for advice. If you were 
 in doubt about any past local event the shepherd would 
 " mind all about it." His tales too were wonderful and 
 not to be gainsaid. I remember one that used to inspire 
 me with terror. On the downs were many lone and 
 isolated barns placed there to receive any crops that 
 might be gathered around. They were sure to swarm 
 with rats, and in a hard season, when food ran short, 
 these rats were said to leave in a body at night, and cross 
 the down in quest of food elsewhere. The shepherds 
 should know this, for day and night they would be 
 abroad in winter at lambing time, and they would tell you 
 how perchance one might fall in with an army of these 
 
 51 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 flying famishing rats, in which case the shepherd, even 
 with his dog beside him, would perish miserably, de- 
 molished body and bones on the bleak plain. 
 
 The ignorance and wrong-headedness of the folk who 
 admittedly had " had no laming " was past credence. 
 They believed firmly in the " evil eye." They could prove 
 to you that stones grew from year to year, even as 
 cabbages grow, though of course much more slowly ; 
 since did they not pick the " big uns " off the field 
 every season for road mending, yet their number never 
 diminished, showing, beyond doubt, that the "little 'uns" 
 had "growed." Some of them went further. An old 
 carpenter, and preacher to boot, was employed to re-hang 
 a field-gate at home, and he left so big a space beneath 
 that I myself could crawl under. On asking him the reason 
 for this he explained to me in all sincerity that all things 
 "growed/' and that I should find the earth would grow up 
 to the gate. This apparent fact he had learned from 
 experience, failing however to see that it was the gate 
 which settled towards the ground. 
 
 Any one of our people was fully prepared to see an ap- 
 parition any day of his or her life. And not a few were 
 satisfied that they had done so. But it was almost too 
 much for a neighbouring clergyman when a woman 
 parishioner came and begged him in great distress to 
 " Come and lay our Will'um." The woman and her 
 husband were an aged couple, who had been summoned 
 by the master of the workhouse to attend their pauper 
 son William's funeral. This summons they had obeyed, 
 and had looked their last on the plain coffin with William's 
 name upon it. But a week had gone by, and their son 
 had overnight returned to earth and home. Wherefore 
 they besought the parson's aid to u lay " him. So the 
 parson went, and truly enough found William ; but very 
 
 52 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 much in the flesh, and hungry to boot. Of course the 
 workhouse authorities had got wrong with the names, 
 and some other pauper unknown had been the passive 
 principal at William's supposed funeral. But the old 
 people could not reason all this out, and were hard to 
 convince that their son was yet alive. 
 
 As I have referred to the neighbouring parish of Lam- 
 bourn, I should certainly not omit to make mention of a 
 boy two years my senior whose home was there. We have 
 sung together as trebles in the same choir. Subsequently 
 he became organist, and then well, the story is long 
 as it is brilliant. He is known to all the world now as 
 Sir George Martin, of St. Paul's Cathedral. 
 
 Three miles beyond Lambourn on the open rolling 
 downs stands a remarkable house, once more often seen 
 by strangers than it is to-day. It dates from the time 
 of the Plague, when in dire alarm my Lord Craven fled 
 to this wild lone spot, where in good truth he might hope 
 to escape the pursuit of any human scourge. A nephew 
 of Inigo Jones built him his house to order, and it may 
 be seen to this day how the servants' apartments, in- 
 cluding the kitchen, are removed from the main dwelling 
 by a passage two hundred feet in length. This might 
 have minimised the danger of contagion, but one wonders 
 on looking at this strange domestic arrangement whether 
 the people of that time were particular about having 
 their dishes hot when brought to table. 
 
 But I would talk not of Ashdown House but of Ash- 
 down Coursing in its palmy days. It may be a grave 
 lament that hares are scarce, and that the glory of those 
 old sporting meetings has disappeared. But I would 
 appeal to all who can see another side to the matter. 
 Granted all the recreation ; the physical training and 
 the fascination of fair sport ; the improving of a noble 
 
 53 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 breed of dogs ; the picturesqueness of the scene ; the 
 artistic beauty of that struggle of nature's most grace- 
 ful creatures. Yet if you have ever regarded that struggle 
 at close quarters, as the hare with eyes straining back- 
 wards, and with not a ghost of a chance given her, doubles 
 for the last time beside you, can you be callous to the 
 poor beast's agony ? Sport is glorious, but in its votaries 
 it seems to me to lead to inconsistencies. In Kingsley's 
 life there are two incidents that read something like this : 
 He was going to the altar rails at one morning service, 
 when his congregation suddenly missed him. The fact 
 was that he had stooped behind a high pew to pick up 
 a poor maimed butterfly which he proceeded tenderly 
 to place outside the chancel door. Suffering life appealed 
 to him so strongly. 
 
 But, say, a week after he is writing from on a holiday 
 visit somewhat thus : "I played a fine trout to-day for 
 an hour and killed it in the end." How about the suffer- 
 ing life here ? Such prolonged torture is inseparable from 
 such sport as his. On the other hand, I know that some 
 people argue as if they really knew that a fish doesn't 
 feel ; in which case perhaps they suppose that it is no 
 torture to a creature to know that it is hopelessly caught. 
 Have such ever taken note of a live mouse in a trap ? 
 
 I have given examples of the quondam ignorance and 
 credulity of the humbler people of the soil. Maybe, 
 however, there was not much more to be said for those 
 whose chances in life had been better and brighter. 
 Eight miles westward of White Horse Hill, or Uffington 
 Camp, as it is called, measured in a straight line (or say 
 along a Roman road), stands another noble hill crowned 
 in like manner by earthworks and forming one of the 
 ancient line of fortified positions running, in Roman 
 times at least, across the country. It was to this hill in 
 
 54 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences 
 
 the days of which I am writing that a certain learned (?) 
 archaeological society proposed to pay a flying visit on a 
 day appointed for their annual I was going to have 
 written holiday, but field day will sound better. At that 
 time I was domiciled with a tutor li ving hard by ; one 
 of those enviable men who ride their hobbies with perfect 
 confidence in their own ability and excel in everything 
 they take up. At seventeen, self-taught, he became 
 Champion Archer of All England, and held the belt for 
 many years. As an artist, a shot, a fisherman, a mechanic, 
 he was equally successful, and when I add that he was 
 reckoned no less distinguished as a classical scholar, it 
 will be believed that he was held in his own district at 
 least in high estimation. 
 
 Perhaps it was not unnatural that such a man should 
 have held a somewhat poor opinion of the average erudi- 
 tion of his neighbours. Anyway, it was a fact that he 
 misdoubted the technical knowledge of the members 
 of the archaeological society aforesaid, and, as dearly 
 loving a practical joke, determined to put it to the test. 
 Who shall blame him ? Others had done the like before. 
 He collected an assortment of Roman relics, quite as 
 genuine as the relics you shall find on Waterloo. A 
 collection of New Zealand arrow-heads and other imple- 
 ments, sent him by a brother, served well for ancient 
 weapons. A discarded chimney-pot in fragments did 
 duty for Roman pottery, portions of hoofs and the accou- 
 trements of horses were easily improvised, and so on. 
 These he carefully buried on the heights at suitable and 
 easily recognised spots, and then when the field day, as 
 also the archaeological troop, arrived, he went with them 
 to the earthworks and volunteered his ideas as a classical 
 authority on the probable military arrangement of the 
 ancient camp, suggesting that they might break ground 
 
 55 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 and explore. He pointed out the likely site of the 
 Ferrarium, and the navvies went to work, and surely 
 enough found relics of the ancient smithy. Then he 
 indicated the Armamentarium, and there they found 
 traces of the armoury. His guess as to the position of 
 the old Culina, or kitchen, was verified by quite half a 
 bushel of broken earthenware. By this time enthusiasm 
 among the onlookers was at its height, and the moment 
 had come for the denouement. He gave learned reasons 
 for a certain spot having probably been the Sanatorium, 
 and thought they might find something there. And 
 they did. Under the top sod lay a number of bottles 
 and pill boxes bearing the name of the popular doctor 
 of Marlborough ! I believe that archaeological society 
 became defunct. 
 
IV 
 A BERKSHIRE VILLAGE FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 WAR was virtually declared with Russia, as all the 
 world knows, in February, 1854, and before the 
 end of that month our first transports had put to sea 
 with troops for the Crimea, while a week or two later 
 the Baltic fleet had left our shores. 
 
 The men of Berks should remember this well. The 
 seat of Admiral Dundas, commanding the Black Sea 
 fleet, was but seven miles from our home, and many a 
 sailor before the mast hailed from our near villages. 
 But it was mainly as soldiers that our young men went to 
 the war. Among others went a family of three strapping 
 sons, all in the Guards. I remember their leaving, how 
 proud they were, how brave they looked in the portentous 
 bear-skin of that day ; how their friends at home, chiefly 
 in jealousy, spoke of them and their comrades as " feather- 
 bed soldiers " ; and how few the months before all 
 the world had to admire their splendid endurance and 
 heroism. A few more weeks, and all three sons had 
 laid down their lives in battle or as victims to worse fate 
 begotten of the muddle of those awful months. How 
 the tidings were received in their humble home will be 
 told presently. 
 
 In England the rigours of that first Crimean winter 
 will never be forgotten by any of those whose memories 
 can travel back so far. For myself, I remember it best 
 by a snow man of colossal proportions built with infinite 
 
 57 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 labour on our lawn, a work of many days which endured 
 as a monument through many weeks. As a stupendous 
 work of art I do not think the Ice Palace of Montreal 
 impressed me more. The tremendous accumulation of 
 snow around the house was more than the labour avail- 
 able could well deal with. Great limbs of trees came 
 down, and all avenues, save a few of the most indispens- 
 able, remained blocked. 
 
 But outside the grounds the scene beat all description, 
 surpassing anything that had been witnessed by any 
 villager living. On the main highway, one of the highest 
 and most exposed in the country, the snow had swept 
 up in a mighty ridge, drifting across from the valleys, 
 and piling itself till it hid the hedge-rows ; a wild, wide 
 plain of desolation. Traffic, including that of the mail 
 carts, was stopped, sheep were buried, and human lives 
 too were lost out on the downs. The actual cold may 
 have been probably was intense, but in cases like 
 this it is not the dwellers on the high ground who suffer 
 most. Cold bracing air is a heritage, and its greater 
 dry ness makes it harmless. Whereas in the valleys 
 through which cold winds sweep relentlessly, and where 
 the air in day hours as well as night lies damp and clammy, 
 you shall find that vegetation suffers far more ; all life 
 is at a lower ebb, and maladies are more frequent and 
 linger longer. 
 
 I am aware that in speaking of exceptional times in 
 one's early recollection one is apt to overestimate. 
 The tendency in after life is to regard all that impressed 
 one most in early days as unparalleled in its way. The 
 veteran of to-day would declare that no one ever sang 
 like Jenny Lind, no one ever played cricket like Alfred 
 Mynn. Moreover bitter weather would specially appeal 
 to a child, and even a short spell would affect his imagina- 
 
 58 
 
Berkshire Village Fifty Years Ago 
 
 tion as much and more than a long-continued winter 
 would in after years. Thus I am prepared to admit that 
 my childish estimate of the great winters that occurred 
 while I was yet in my teens is subject to discount. 
 
 Cold winters frequently come in batches, more par- 
 ticularly in pairs. It was in the winter previous, i.e. in 
 January, 1854, that the temperature in London reached 
 a minimum of 8 below zero. In that month the N.W. 
 railway line was rendered impassable, and a mail train 
 was imbedded for many hours near Tring ; while on the 
 G.N.R. main line matters were yet worse ; more particu- 
 larly between Peterborough and Newark, where both 
 rail and road were barred. Lastly the Thames itself 
 was blocked, collier vessels were stopped back down the 
 river, and as a dire consequence gas companies could not 
 fulfil their contracts and the city was threatened with 
 darkness. It was then that bread riots arose, one of the 
 first, I fancy, being at Exeter, where my grandfather had 
 been living, and where the mob broke into the bakers' 
 shops, the cause being the rise of the fourpenny loaf to 
 ninepence. 
 
 These facts read to all of us to-day altogether excep- 
 tional. Yet they were by no means unprecedented. 
 They were even exceeded in the first year of the century, 
 when it is stated that " street lamps could not be lighted 
 on account of the oil being frozen . . . while none of 
 the carriers arrived from the country nor any sheep or 
 cattle, and the town was without water except what 
 was got by melting down ice and snow." It may have 
 been the depressing effect of the hard winter, or it may 
 have been the influence which the war had on men's 
 minds, the cholera fiend which stalked the land, or the 
 general distrust of that authority which just then was 
 causing shameful mismanagement alike at home and at 
 
 59 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 the seat of war. Some ,or all these causes may have ac- 
 counted for a spirit of superstitious fear that had gone 
 abroad. This infatuation, strongly marked in our un- 
 tutored part of the country, may be traced in many ways 
 and many places. 
 
 Take one example, which, commented on by our 
 common folk, took strong though not abiding hold upon 
 my boyish imagination. The winter was wearing on 
 and it was now mid-February, when tidings came from 
 Devon that footprints of a mysterious and, as it was hinted, 
 supernatural appearance, had traced themselves in the 
 snow round about Exmouth, Dawlish, Torquay, and many 
 other principal towns. These footprints were said to 
 resemble those of a donkey, but the mystifying and 
 alarming fact about them was that, instead of proceeding 
 in a rational manner with treads right and left, the im- 
 pressions showed that foot followed foot in a single line, 
 while the uncanny visitor passed only once by each house 
 that he visited, sometimes choosing the ground, some- 
 times the roof, and sometimes the top of a high wall, 
 but never, even on the narrowest ledge, disturbing the 
 snow to right or left. More staggering than all was the 
 statement that this nameless being had traversed more 
 than a hundred miles of a most devious and irregular 
 route in a single night. 
 
 The story once abroad, the mystery and marvel grew 
 apace, and this in spite of all that could be done to restore 
 public equanimity. Professor Owen, with a carefully 
 executed drawing of the footprints before him, assured 
 the public that the traces were those of a badger ; that 
 badgers were nocturnal, and would become stealthy 
 prowlers in a hard winter ; and that the hundred-mile 
 track was made not by one creature but by many. 
 A clergyman, ministering in the midst of the alarmed 
 
 60 
 
Berkshire Village Fifty Years Ago 
 
 districts, alive also to the mental mischief which was 
 being wrought, and solemnly reminded by a member of 
 his community that " Satan should be unchained for a 
 thousand years when the latter days were at hand," 
 thought it well to utter a word in due season to his hearers ; 
 and justified his doing so by a picture of " the state of 
 the public mind, of the villages, the labourers, their 
 wives and children, old crones and trembling old men not 
 daring to stir out after sunset or to go out half a mile into 
 lanes or byways on a call or message, under the conviction 
 that this was the Devil's walk and none other, and that 
 it was wicked to trifle with such a manifest proof of the 
 Great Enemy's immediate presence." 
 
 I cannot find that the mystery was ever satisfactorily 
 cleared up, but the correspondence relating to it, which 
 was continued for several weeks in fact until the winter 
 left us in one of the leading London papers, ends with 
 a letter from a resident at Heidelberg stating, on the 
 authority of a Polish doctor, that the identical footprints 
 in a single line were commonly seen in Russian Poland 
 and were universally attributed to supernatural influence. 
 It is little wonder that the same strange portent was 
 reputed to have been seen in our own near neighbourhood ; 
 and it was during this period that late one winter's after- 
 noon a woodman brought an alarming story into our 
 own village to the effect that in one of the neighbouring 
 woods he had just encountered a " tar'ble wild beast, 
 seemin'ly like a bear." If truth be told, the man was a 
 sad drinker, and there was no evidence to prove that he 
 was particularly sober on this afternoon ; but his tale 
 was enough to scare many of our country folk out of their 
 wits. The man refused to resume work in the wood, 
 and some trouble might have ensued. It happened, 
 however, that a parishioner who had lost his donkey 
 
 61 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 succeeded in tracing it to this same wood, where it had 
 strayed. By a process of reasoning which it will be easy 
 to arrive at, this simple circumstance restored the public 
 peace of mind. 
 
 I have spoken of the general sense of mismanagement 
 in high quarters which prevailed, but I may have failed 
 to convey an idea of the real exasperation that was openly 
 expressed. The fearless, outspoken denunciations of 
 Mr. (after Sir) W. H. Russell, the correspondent of " The 
 Times " were in everybody's mouth, and warmly com- 
 mented on, and became, I think, in my own case a valuable 
 piece of early education. The sort of things which, 
 listening open-mouthed, I heard uttered nearly half a 
 century ago seemed to have found an echo in time 
 not long gone by. I turn back to a " Times " of this old 
 date and find columns of editorial comments written 
 in the strain of the following extracts made almost at 
 haphazard : 
 
 " The year has overturned our faith in many things, 
 shaken many convictions, and dissipated many illusions. 
 . . . The public time would have been best employed in 
 a searching inquiry into the working of our War De- 
 partments, yet . . . the nation is at a loss on whom to 
 fix the responsibility of numerous mortifying failures and 
 neglects. . . . Together with misgivings as to general- 
 ship we were beginning to entertain other doubts. To- 
 gether with the letters of our Correspondent thick and 
 fast came the news of neglect, disorder and incapacity. 
 Day by day the truth became better known till we awoke 
 to the conviction that . . . Balaklava was a cemetery 
 and Scutari a pest house." 
 
 It is, to say the least, instructive to read some of these 
 utterances of long ago in the light of recent history, but 
 having referred to the attitude of the public mind towards 
 
 62 
 
Berkshire Village Fifty Years Ago 
 
 sorrow and loss of brave lives due to official blundering, I 
 may illustrate by an example how this mismanagement 
 was borne by the simple country folk among whom I lived. 
 The tidings of the death of the three Guardsmen were 
 communicated to my father, whose duty it became to 
 break the news to the parents, both of whom were living, 
 and both of whom too, according to the custom of those 
 days, laboured in the field the man at a wage of not 
 more than nine shillings a week, the woman at little 
 more than half that pittance. My father found the 
 couple at work in the same field, at some little distance 
 asunder, and considered that he would do wisely in 
 addressing himself to the wife alone, leaving it to her 
 to tell her husband of their terrible bereavement. The 
 good woman stopped her work, listened attentively but 
 silently till the bare truth was told, then resumed her 
 hoeing with the simple remark, " They ought to have 
 been sar'd better." Then my father withdrew, but, 
 watching from a distance, noticed that the woman never 
 left her work to go and tell her husband. Yet this was 
 not apathy. Far from it. It was only an example of 
 the patient enduring among the common people of what 
 they saw no cure for. 
 
 As a proof that these good folks were in no measure 
 lacking in warm parental feeling, I may mention the 
 following true and touching incident. Adjoining the 
 Vicarage grounds lived an old widow and her son, of 
 whom the latter, now well on in middle life, had formerly 
 been in the Royal Marines and at this time subsisted 
 on his pension, aided only by such modest pay as he could 
 earn by light work chiefly in my father's employ ; for 
 hisjservice smartness had died out of him, and he was 
 now slow and shrivelled, and somewhat crippled withal. 
 The mother was no more demonstrative than any other 
 
 63 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 of her class, and perhaps the depth of her attachment to 
 her son might never have been manifested had not an 
 order come from head-quarters, consequent upon the 
 war, requiring all old service pensioners of all descriptions 
 whatsoever to repair to a neighbouring town to be ex- 
 amined with a view to their being re-enlisted. There 
 was no evading the order, and the widow became terrified 
 beyond words at the bare thought that her elderly and 
 decidedly incapable son might be torn from her home. 
 That her maternal alarm, though wholly irrational, was 
 entirely sincere, was abundantly proved the next day, 
 when with genuine tears of joy and satisfaction she came 
 to tell us that WilPum had not only come back again, but 
 the best of all possible news they had told him " he 
 wasn't no good for nothing." 
 
 WiU'um, be it said, was a highly esteemed friend of my 
 boyhood, and much respected by reason of his power of 
 spinning yarns. He was also long-suffering under per- 
 secution. He was always fair game, and never resented 
 any pranks played upon him. I may give an instance. 
 Chief among my earliest home pursuits, always of a 
 mechanical nature, was the manufacture of crossbows. 
 A crossbow is a somewhat formidable weapon to entrust 
 to a boy, but as I was allowed no projectiles save such 
 as I could procure from the hedgerow, it was considered 
 sufficiently safe in my hands. A green stick is not fitted 
 for a serviceable arrow, being too weak and heavy, 
 and withal too soft to preserve its point. Experience, 
 however, came to my aid ; baking the sticks made them 
 light and hard. A triangle of parchment inserted in 
 a cleft in the upper end made a tolerable feather, while 
 the other end, tapered and terminating in a nail cunningly 
 tied in, became a point quite capable of doing mischief. 
 
 Grown expert with this weapon, I soon learned that it 
 
 64 
 
Berkshire Village Fifty Years Ago 
 
 was unsportsmanlike to practise on the poultry or the 
 cat ; therefore with a sense of proper pride I went in quest 
 of blackbirds and the like, and no harm would ever have 
 ensued had it not been for William, who one day ventured 
 to ridicule my " toy," which he declared " wouldn't 
 hurt a fly." Now it chanced that this taunt was over- 
 heard by Joseph the gardener, who, always ready to be my 
 champion, now stepped forward and dared William as a 
 man and a soldier to stand a shot across the length of 
 the yard. I really hardly know how it all came about, 
 but William's honour was now at stake, and eventually 
 he was bantered into offering himself as an unwilling 
 target, on condition that he might use a stick to ward the 
 arrow off ; and then what followed is too ludicrous for 
 words. First he measured out twenty yards, the stipu- 
 lated distance, making them as long as he could. Next, 
 buttoning his coat, he huddled himself together so as to 
 offer the smallest possible front to the enemy ; and lastly, 
 taking a broken paling, proceeded to wave it vigorously 
 to and fro in front of his face, thinking thereby to intercept 
 the arrow, if Joseph for the game had grown too serious 
 for me to take a part in might happen to make a true 
 shot at him. Joseph, rejoicing at the wretched suspense 
 of his victim, took long aim, and the moment after he 
 released the arrow William's hat flew off, and the old 
 man, white as a sheet, rising hastily, picked it up with 
 the arrow which had pierced both sides still sticking in 
 it. William, despite his years of service, had never been 
 under fire before, but had he been in a score of actions 
 he could never have had a nearer escape from injury. 
 Need it be said that he preserved that hat with much 
 pride. 
 
 I have defended our people from a charge of apathy, 
 and I do not think that there should be brought against 
 E 6; 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 them any imputation of selfish indifference or want of 
 friendly feeling, but the following fact is typical. William 
 had an old comrade living just four miles away, one 
 who had shared with him a considerable portion of the 
 voyage of life, and of whom he liked to speak and would 
 have been pleased to meet. Each knew fully of the 
 other's whereabouts and circumstances, and each had 
 abundant leisure to renew old acquaintanceship; yet 
 both lived out the residue of their lives many years 
 and never met nor sought to meet. 
 
 The conclusion of the Crimean War brought home a 
 modest proportion of the young men who, full of ardour 
 and exuberant spirits, had " gone to fight the Roosians " 
 two years before. They were proud of their share of 
 glory, but their keenness for soldiering was gone, and 
 they were sadly sobered withal. They mostly went 
 back to farm life or to copse work as woodmen, and for 
 a while you would know them by their upright carriage 
 and a certain conscious superiority but not for long. 
 Toil soon bent the back and rounded the shoulders, and 
 they became the country labourers once again. 
 
 But throughout the land, and more particularly in 
 towns, there were a large and hopeless number who had 
 no work to turn to, and philanthropic associations were 
 formed to get these men employment. It happened 
 that the post of gardener was vacant at home at this 
 time, and my father, making application to one of the 
 above associations, was given the names of two men who 
 were available. One of these men, however, being told 
 of the chance open to him, promptly died, owing, as the 
 officials said, to sheer excitement. The other man, 
 lank and middle-aged, known as Robert, was duly en- 
 stalled as gardener, and of all who ever filled that post 
 became by a very long way the most remarkable. 
 
Berkshire Village Fifty Years Ago 
 
 Of the theory and practice of gardening he knew abso- 
 lutely nothing ; and indeed he was entirely destitute of 
 ideas beyond those which soldiering had given him. 
 Thus his methods of going about his work were found 
 to be peculiar. If he essayed to weed a patch of turnips 
 he would give himself the word of command and then 
 march to the bed, shouldering his hoe precisely as he 
 would his bayonet on parade. Again, scorning a tool 
 house, he used to " pile arms " with the various garden 
 implements, an exceedingly difficult operation, for the 
 spade was too short, with a slippery handle, and the rake 
 was too long and top-heavy to boot, when, as he insisted, 
 it was reared prongs uppermost. One of his peculiarities 
 was that he would constantly come " for orders," a de- 
 mand which was not always easy to satisfy ; and on one 
 such occasion, to keep him quiet, my mother bade him 
 weed her much prized rock- work, enjoining on him that 
 he must be very careful about the work. In half an hour 
 Robert was back, radiant with self-satisfaction, and 
 insisted that he had made a very clean job. In terror 
 my mother hastened to the spot, to find every plant up- 
 rooted and the labour of months destroyed. 
 
 But quarter-day brought us relief from Robert. He 
 had to walk four miles into the town to receive his pension, 
 and having been absent the entire day returned at night 
 in a condition which greatly alarmed the maidservants. 
 Interrogated in the kitchen as to what account he could 
 give of himself, he curiously pleaded the same malady 
 as his deceased comrade, declaring that he had suffered 
 from excitement. 
 
 Robert was many pegs below the intellectual standard 
 of our average countryman of those illiterate days, who 
 in spite of much crass stupidity, possessed a certain 
 shrewdness and a gift of rude but pointed repartee, and 
 
 67 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 above all a great idea of not being " bested " by any- 
 body. Boors as they were, I do not think they would 
 have been readily taken in by the confidence trick or 
 any ruse of that nature. I may give an example. 
 
 A certain pestilent sect, claiming supernatural powers 
 and making gain where they could by their impostures, 
 visited our neighbourhood, and three of them took up 
 their quarters one evening at a public-house in a neigh- 
 bouring village, where they simulated prayer with loud 
 voices far into the night. The next morning two of them, 
 creeping downstairs on tiptoe, with long faces and bated 
 breath informed the landlord that one of their party 
 had died during the night, but that he, the landlord, 
 should have no uneasiness, as they were going 'to fetch 
 one of their brethren from hard by who was possessed 
 of powers whereby he could raise the dead man to life 
 again. And with this they departed. 
 
 Now the landlord was a typical Berkshireman, and by 
 the light of his reason argued thus " If they fellers can 
 rise 'un, maybe I can ! " and with this he fetched a 
 hurdle stake and, going upstairs, began to belabour the 
 corpse with right good will. Needless to say the resurrec- 
 tion trick was readily accomplished, and the rascally 
 gang were heard of no more in our side of the country. 
 
 Were I asked what books appealed to me most at 
 about the time I have been describing, I should be in- 
 clined to mention first Mitchell's " Orbs of Heaven," the 
 production of an American author, but probably fairly 
 well known in England among the comparatively few 
 readable volumes of that date dealing with popular 
 science. I may at the same time be permitted to mention 
 that both Sir Robert Ball and Dr. Downing! have made 
 similar remarks with regard to this work. The style, 
 which is decidedly grandiloquent, is at least pardonable 
 
 68 
 
Berkshire Village Fifty Years Ago 
 
 in such an enthusiast as the author, but sometimes his 
 vivid imagination fairly runs away with him. He sees 
 our great ancestor sitting under a tree gazing for the 
 first time and with bewildered mind upon the going down 
 of the sun ; and on this a gloom greater than that of 
 nature settles on him till the moon gets up and completes 
 his astonishment. In this attitude he sits out the night, 
 and is struck completely dumb when the sun gets up again. 
 Here is quite enough to set any boy thinking, and he 
 presently begins to wonder what he is coming to next, 
 when looking on he reads how " East and west and north 
 and south from the watch towers of the four quarters of 
 the globe peals the solemn mandate, Onward." No one 
 will fail to understand that this was a book in a thousand 
 half a century ago. 
 
 But another book of a lighter nature, though not 
 devoid of teaching, was " The Seasons," by Thomas 
 Miller. For really good and wholesome anecdotes, ap- 
 propriately introduced and racily told, I venture to think 
 that there was no book of that date like it that ever came 
 my way. Yet I never saw more than that one copy in 
 my life, nor have I ever chanced to hear any one else 
 refer to that book. And this makes me wonder what 
 becomes of all the old but really good books which do 
 not get out of date. Are they simply torn up as soon 
 as the backs are shabby, and so pass not only out of print 
 but out of all existence ? 
 
 Certain old-time histories, of which I had knowledge 
 by tradition only, took strong possession of my mind at 
 this time. A walk of only three miles, though across 
 the boundary of the county, took you to Littlecote, one 
 of the noblest Early Tudor houses in the kingdom. There 
 was and is a peculiar spell and fascination about the 
 solemn secluded old mansion not to be excelled elsewhere, 
 
 69 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 chiefly by reason of its history, which, not more strange 
 than true, was spoken of with bated breath by story- 
 loving cronies of our place. Scott has told the ancient 
 story, which he was at pains to verify, yet it appears not 
 widely known. It related to Elizabethan times a 
 dark and rainy November night, when an old nurse was 
 summoned by a horseman who told her that her services 
 were needed by a person of rank, and that she should be 
 handsomely rewarded ; a condition of the bargain being, 
 however, that she must be blindfolded for reasons of 
 secrecy. To this the old woman consenting, she was 
 placed on a pillion and conducted many miles through 
 rough and dirty lanes to a large house, where, her sight 
 being restored, " she found herself in a bed-chamber in 
 which were the lady on whose account she had been sent 
 for and a man of a haughty and ferocious aspect." A 
 shocking scene ensued, a child being presently born and 
 immediately cast on the fire by the man already men- 
 tioned ; after which the nurse, being allowed for a period 
 to pay attention to the lady, was given a large sum of 
 money and conducted home again in the same manner 
 in which she had been brought. But the horrified 
 woman had attempted to take measures which might 
 serve to discover the house. She had cut a piece out 
 of the bed-curtain and sewn it in again. She also had 
 counted the number of the steps which led from the bed- 
 chamber. 
 
 The shameful story with this bare clue was laid before 
 a magistrate, with the result that the crime was brought 
 home to the proprietor of Littlecote Hall, known com- 
 monly by the name of Wild Dayrell. According to 
 Aubrey, " the Judge, Sir John Popham, gave sentence 
 according to Lawe, but being a great person and a fav- 
 ourite he procured a noli prosequi and it is stated as a 
 
 70 
 
Berkshire Village Fifty Years Ago 
 
 significant fact that the property passed then and there 
 into the hands of the judge." 
 
 A few months later, Wild Dayrell, out hunting, encounters 
 sitting on a stile a witch, who utters a curse upon him. 
 The horse taking fright throws its rider, breaking his 
 neck, and needless to say that stile became a haunted 
 spot. Nor does the story end here, for legend has it 
 that in her curse the old crone vowed that " to Littlecote 
 House there should ne'er be an heir," and subsequent 
 history has somewhat justified the supposed imprecation. 
 
 The name of Wild Dayrell occurred again in a happier 
 connection during the years now being referred to. In 
 May, 1855, a horse owned by Mr. F. L. Popham won the 
 Derby. The horse, which became famous in equine 
 pedigrees, was a dark brown standing sixteen hands 
 one inch, and was bred by its owner. It was reared 
 moreover in the stables of Littlecote Hall. More than 
 this, it was trained in the home park and ridden in the 
 great race by the owner's private jockey ; and by winning 
 under these exceptional circumstances not only created 
 a great sensation but dispelled some traditional delusions 
 of the turf. Mr. Popham gave the horse the name of 
 Wild Dayrell. 
 
 But a certain later history laid hold of my imagination 
 as perhaps none other a history that seemed to tran- 
 scend all else, a drama whose plot was laid not on the 
 earth but in the skies. I know not how to account for 
 its extraordinary fascination in my case. Idiosyncrasies 
 are puzzling, but mine perhaps may be regarded as mania. 
 My own constant dream was of flying, or rather floating 
 in the air. This I know is common enough, so common 
 as to have acquired the special name of " levitation." 
 I believe Ruskin constantly fancied, as a child, that he 
 had the power of flying down stairs. My own experience 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 was similar, only I should describe it as a delicious 
 dream of floating rather than flying. It was a delicious 
 dream, and in my case goes back as far as memory. 
 
 But to return. Mixed up with this early imagination 
 of soaring at will in the free air was the reality of the 
 grandest balloon venture on record, as narrated by my 
 own father, who was intimate with the leading spirit 
 of the great enterprise, Mr. Robert Hollond. This 
 heroic explorer I prefer to style him thus rather than 
 as the modest M.P. which he subsequently became 
 was at Cambridge with my father about the year 1831 or 
 earlier ; and ere the autumn of '36 was over all Europe 
 was ringing with his splendid daring and achievement. 
 Of this we have no written record save that of Mr. Monck 
 Mason, a fellow- voyager, whose turgid style much mars 
 an otherwise most fascinating narrative. 
 
 Mr. Hollond, having caught the true fascination of balloon- 
 ing, and having made the acquaintance of the famous 
 Charles Green, determined on a voyage of discovery through 
 the heavens which should eclipse all records, pow the 
 " Immortal Three," as they have been well styled, fared 
 through the night of their adventure, a night full of in- 
 cident, not unmixed with alarm, and how the next morn- 
 ing's light found them in the far forests of Germany, has 
 been told too often to be repeated here. But in my 
 youth I never could hear the brave story too often, nor 
 would I then believe that any feat of the kind could ever 
 surpass it. Possibly until another Immortal Three, 
 Andree and his two companions, sailed away into the 
 unknown north, bound on their heroic but hopeless 
 voyage, no grander enterprise is to be found in all the 
 history of aeronautics. There was a strange coincidence 
 in connection with the " Nassau Voyage," as this exploit 
 was termed, which is little known, but which deserves 
 
 72 
 
Berkshire Village Fifty Years Ago 
 
 to be recorded whenever the tale is told. The spot 
 where the balloon touched earth was Weilburg, in the 
 Duchy of Nassau. Now to this same spot had once 
 come another balloon, famous in its day by reason of 
 its belonging to M. Blanchard, earliest among professional 
 aeronauts. This Blanchard, ascending from Frankfort 
 only two years after balloons had been invented, made 
 his descent close by Weilburg aforesaid ; and in com- 
 memoration of the event the flag he bore was deposited 
 among the archives in the ducal palace of that town. 
 Fifty-one years passed by when, outside the same city, 
 the yet more famous balloon effected its landing, and with 
 due ceremony its flag was presently laid beside that of 
 Blanchard in the same ducal palace. 
 
 Now it may seem almost past credence that balloons, 
 which follow no beaten tracks and are wafted far and 
 wide simply by the wayward winds, should ever be found 
 to single out the same spots of earth to fall in. Yet 
 such has been the case on other occasions besides that 
 just cited. The following example is equally authentic 
 and remarkable. Some time in the 'twenties an aeronaut, 
 by name Sadler, of whom these pages will have to make 
 further mention, descended in a field near Milngavie, 
 where a young man hurrying up rendered him assistance. 
 It was a part of the country where balloons were unknown, 
 and were scarcely likely ever to be seen again. How- 
 ever, a whole generation elapsed, when the famous Mr. 
 Coxwell, ascending from Glasgow, descended in the self- 
 same field, and a man well on in middle life caught the 
 rope of his balloon the identical man who rendered 
 the same service to Mr. Sadler thirty years before ! 
 
 73 
 
"THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN." 
 
 "XT OT much remains to be added to this personal record 
 1 ^ of Bacon's early days. A few loose threads may be 
 gathered up, a few additional incidents recorded. Three 
 events in particular, which belong to this time, merit 
 reference, because they appealed, each in different fashion, 
 strongly to the boyish mind, and were often alluded to 
 in later years. 
 
 One was the digging of the Great Well. Lambourn 
 Woodlands stands high and exposed upon the confines 
 of the wide chalk downs of North Berkshire, and, as was 
 inevitable in such a spot, the water-supply was poor and 
 insufficient. In summer time the streams were always 
 dry, and quite a short spell of drought sufficed to drain 
 the shallow springs and wells. At the Vicarage the 
 nuisance grew insupportable, and it was resolved, at 
 whatever cost, to dig down through the chalk until the 
 deep waters were reached, even though this would entail 
 a well of depth quite unknown in that part of the world. 
 
 My grandfather had come recently from a curacy in 
 the West Country, where, among the miners, the sinking 
 of deep shafts was well understood. He did not realize 
 when he entrusted the digging of his well to local workmen 
 that he was giving them a task in which they would find 
 themselves, very literally, beyond their depth. The 
 result was nearly a tragedy. As they burrowed deeper 
 and deeper into the ground a spot was reached where 
 
 74 
 
" The Child is Father of the Man " 
 
 the air was no longer safe to breathe, and the order was 
 given that fresh air must be pumped from above. But 
 this instruction conveyed little meaning to rustic diggers, 
 with whom such an expedient had never before been 
 necessary. Elaborate apparatus was not at all to their 
 liking or comprehension. No, they knew a trick worth 
 two of that. " We'll take the beU'us down with us," 
 said they and with an ordinary kitchen pair of bellows 
 they descended the shaft and energetically blew the bad 
 air into each other's lungs, with results that proved well- 
 nigh fatal. 
 
 After this little difficulty was got over the well grew 
 deeper and deeper until it became the talk of the whole 
 country-side. The Vicar himself descended one morning, 
 sitting astride a stick like a workman, and not being used 
 to the vitiated atmosphere below was drawn up again 
 much the worse for his plucky adventure. At three 
 hundred and fifteen feet abundant water-supply was 
 found, pure and never-failing ; so that in dry summer 
 months many beside the household had reason to bless 
 the Vicarage well. Heavy gear was necessary to draw the 
 buckets from so great a depth. Occasionally the chain 
 would break, and then much ingenuity was needed to 
 rescue it from the bottom where it had fallen. One of 
 Bacon's earliest recollections was of such an occur- 
 rence, and of watching his father stand, hour after hour, 
 with specially invented grappling iron at the end of a 
 rope, patiently and skilfully fishing for the bucket. 
 Much excitement would ensue at anything like a "bite." 
 " Henry " the daring would lean over the black gulf to 
 quite an alarming extent in his efforts to peer below. 
 Not unnaturally his extremely ancient and greasy hat 
 fell down the well, and being of strong and tough material, 
 impregnated the water-supply for many months to come. 
 
 75 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Another unforgettable incident was the great thunder- 
 storm, which occurred when Bacon was but a tiny boy. 
 Mere baby as he was at the time, he remembered well 
 that night of terror when, for hours, the thunder boomed 
 on in one continuous rattle, and every second the land- 
 scape leaped into view illumined by the vivid lightning. 
 At last came one blinding, stupefying flash, coincident 
 with a roar as if the heavens were falling. The Vicar 
 thought of the spire of his new church, and was relieved 
 indeed when the next flash revealed it yet standing. 
 None of the neighbouring trees either seemed to have 
 suffered, yet all were convinced the lightning had fallen 
 in the immediate vicinity. Morning light revealed the 
 mystery. In the field adjoining the Vicarage grounds 
 a flock of fifty-two sheep had been feeding. When the 
 storm arose they had huddled together in a corner, their 
 wet fleeces all in close contact. There they yet lay 
 when morning dawned, in easy lifelike postures, but 
 strangely still and motionless. A shattered hurdle- 
 stake was in their midst. The lightning had blasted 
 it and passed from it through the entire flock. No wound 
 or mark was visible upon any one of them, and yet not 
 one was left alive. 
 
 The third event, or rather events, of those early years, 
 marked with a white stone for lifelong remembrance, 
 were the three famous cricket matches of 1852 and two 
 following years, when Hungerford, the tiny country town 
 of some two thousand inhabitants which stood as the 
 metropolis of that remote and primitive district, chal- 
 lenged the All England eleven and beat them gloriously. 
 At one of these matches at least, if not at more, the young 
 Bacon was present. He wondered at the players, dig- 
 nified and resplendent in white top hats with black 
 bands at the great Alfred Mynn, a veritable giant 
 
 76 
 
" The Child is Father of the Man " 
 
 among his colleagues ; at Box, faultless behind the 
 wicket ; Clarke, the celebrated slow bowler ; the two 
 Parrs ; Caffyn, Felix, and the rest of their illustrious 
 compeers. Names to conjure with in those days, and 
 still dear to many a heart that warms again over the 
 echoes of long past victories. 
 
 Oh ! the rapturous, delirious thrill of joy and triumph, 
 almost painful in its extreme intensity, when these mighty 
 heroes, demigods almost to the boyish mind, were over- 
 thrown by the home team, by men of his own country-side, 
 men of his actual acquaintance. It was probably at 
 the last match that the youthful Bacon was present, and 
 saw All England make 85 and 70, while Hungerford Park 
 marked 162 and 185, really beating their adversaries in 
 the first innings. Or it might have been the second 
 match of the three, when All England made 54 in the 
 first innings and the same number in the second, while Hun- 
 gerford Park scored 78 and in the second innings 32 with 
 seven wickets to fall. He would have been too young 
 probably to take to a cricket match in 1852, though this 
 was the year when Hungerford achieved their wildest 
 triumph. The astonished spectators could scarcely 
 believe their senses when, due in part to a violent thunder- 
 storm which soaked the ground and made the ball hang, 
 but more to the extremely good fielding of the home team, 
 the great All England eleven were dismissed the first 
 innings with eleven runs and one " wide." " It was a 
 famous victory." 
 
 And now what of the boy himself, the budding mind 
 that looked out through wondering eyes on all this mar- 
 vellous life, that garnered in all these crowding im- 
 pressions and moulded them and was moulded by them, 
 as the years unfolded and the world grew ever wider and 
 wider ? There is a picture of him at about five years old, 
 
 77 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 drawn in soft pencil outline by his uncle a beautiful 
 child face, solemn and intelligent, with parted cupid- 
 bow lips and long eyelashes and curly hair. He was 
 indeed a lovely child, and grew into a handsome boy ; 
 the kind of boy that elder women rave over and pet and 
 spoil only there were no women beside his mother to 
 spoil Johnny, for he had no sisters and few friends, so 
 that he saw little enough of ladies, and in consequence 
 was shy and abashed in their presence. Another attrac- 
 tion he possessed was a boy's voice of most unusual 
 sweetness and purity. Once, as quite a little fellow, he 
 accompanied his father on a rare visit to some friends at 
 a distance, and on Sunday morning, in Romsey Abbey, 
 he stood and sang, all unconsciously, beside another 
 guest sharing the same pew Sir Frederick Ouseley. 
 After the service was over the great man took the father 
 aside, and then and there begged that he might have the 
 boy who sang so sweetly to bring up and educate in his 
 famous college of St. Michael, Tenbury, then just starting, 
 and train him for the musical career for which he con- 
 sidered him so specially fitted. 
 
 But his father had other plans for him, and so Johnny 
 stayed at home and was educated, first by his clever 
 mother, then by successive curates who now assisted the 
 Vicar of Woodlands in his parochial duties ; until at the age 
 of twelve he was sent to the preparatory school of the Rev. 
 Edwin Meyrick, Vicar of Chisledon, near Swindon the 
 tutor already referred to in his own narrative, who played 
 the practical joke upon the archaeological society. Two 
 of his brothers; Maunsell and Hany, were then being 
 educated at Marlborough. Perhaps the family finances 
 did not allow of a third son being sent there, perhaps 
 there were other reasons, but certain it is that the young- 
 est boy was not allowed to follow their example. He 
 
 78 
 

 
 JOHN M. BACON, AGED 5. 
 
 Page 78 
 
" The Child is Father of the Man " 
 
 never afterwards lamented the fact. That his opinion 
 of the value of public-school education was not excessive 
 is evidenced by his never having considered it necessary 
 for his own son. Personally he did not hold he had lost 
 much by being taught privately. It is probable that 
 in some ways at least he gained a good deal. Edwin 
 Meyrick instructed him in more than the " humanities." 
 As has been related, Meyrick was a splendid " all- round " 
 man, and next to his archery he was specially great in 
 scientific and mechanical pursuits. In Johnny he found 
 a pupil after his own heart deft-fingered, quick to learn, 
 and eager to be instructed. Like a wise man, he allowed 
 and encouraged the boy to share his hobbies ; and certain 
 it is that the early lessons thus received in astronomy, 
 carpentry, chemistry, firework making, bell-ringing, 
 and what not, stood Bacon in greater stead all his life 
 through than the merely scholastic education he was 
 sent to Chisledon to acquire. 
 
 One of his favourite pastimes at this epoch, reverted 
 to in after years, was kite-flying. Many a time had he 
 listened to his father's story of the man who, in his 
 recollection, made a journey from London to Bath along 
 the great high road, in a light vehicle propelled solely by 
 kites, cunningly contrived and skilfully handled. This 
 was no impossible feat, for down the valleys through 
 which the Bath road runs for much of its way the east 
 winds of spring blow with pitiless strength and persistency, 
 as many a cyclist and motorist knows to his cost. Neither 
 in those days were there the telegraph wires to negotiate, 
 which would now form an insuperable bar to such a 
 mode of locomotion. The only obstacle was at Hunger- 
 ford, where the sign of the " Bear Inn " hung on a beam 
 that stretched right across the road. Here the enter- 
 prising driver was forced to cut his cable, but uniting 
 
 79 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 it again on the other side went merrily on his way without 
 further let or hindrance. 
 
 Johnny of course could not hope to emulate such a 
 triumph, but he made the most of the small means at 
 his, command. Tailless kites were not then known to 
 English boys, only the unscientific toys of childhood, 
 overweighted with clumsy laths and long fantastic tails. 
 But after many experiments the lad, whose dreams were 
 ever of sky-sailing, arrived at a form of small and very 
 light craft, which when let up with some half-mile of 
 tailor's pack thread would vanish out of sight against 
 the sky. And then with what joy would he stand and 
 hold the end of the string which disappeared into the blue, 
 and feel his unseen kite strain and tug at its moorings, 
 and dream long delicious dreams of the glorious realms 
 of upper air where it was sporting dreams that another 
 day were to be realized. 
 
 Meyrick's tuition being outgrown, and the age of fifteen 
 or so attained, there came the momentous question of a 
 career in life. Bacon's second brother, Frank, whom he 
 specially looked up to and emulated, had recently gone 
 into the Marine Artillery. It seemed to him that a 
 soldier's life was what he most desired, and in view of his 
 mechanical bent, the Engineers or Royal Artillery for 
 preference. Consequently, by the advice of friends, on 
 leaving Chisledon he was sent, about the year 1860, to the 
 Rev. W. H. Pritchett, an Army crammer at Old Charlton, 
 near Woolwich. Pritchett . (he subsequently became 
 Rector of St. Paul's, Charlton, and gave up scholastic 
 work) was at this time a highly successful " coach," and 
 had some fifty or more youths under his charge. He 
 was a very clever man, a high Wrangler and Fellow of 
 Corpus, Cambridge a fellowship he resigned to marry 
 a beautiful and attractive wife. He was a great dis- 
 
 80 
 
" The Child is Father of the Man "' 
 
 ciplinarian and a perfect martinet in his way, but he 
 carried his Spartan principles almost too far. The pupils 
 he had to deal with were of very mixed description. 
 They were at a difficult age for school discipline. The 
 neighbourhood was disorderly. Times were disturbed. 
 A regular mutiny took place about this epoch at " The 
 Shop," as the Woolwich Academy, where many old 
 pupils then were and many more were bound, was called. 
 Altogether it was a " rough " school, and a " rough " 
 time. Among much that was good there was also not 
 a little that was evil, and perhaps the recollection of this, 
 in later years, served to prejudice Bacon's mind, possibly 
 unduly, and made him determine that no child of his 
 should be made to pass through a similar ordeal. 
 
 The tuition indeed was all that could be desired, and 
 Bacon made rapid progress. For a brief period during 
 his Old Charlton days John Morley was classical master. 
 Several of the teaching staff beside were specially able 
 men. It needed a firm hand indeed to curb those un- 
 ruly youths, and woe betide the unlucky master who 
 failed to assert his authority. The spirit of mischief was 
 rampant throughout the establishment, and the variety 
 of pranks perpetrated was only equalled by their in- 
 genuity. 
 
 Bacon was nothing if not original and ingenious. 
 Anything daring and unusual had the strongest attrac- 
 tion for him all through life, and it was but natural he 
 should become a ringleader of lawless deeds. He had 
 two accomplices. One, a successful soldier, now the 
 sole survivor, looks back with an indulgent smile upon 
 his early misdeeds. The other was a young nobleman, 
 Lord Francis Douglas, brother to the eighth Marquis 
 of Queensberry. It added considerably to the unholy 
 pleasure of these three young' scamps that their wicked- 
 F 81 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 ness was quite unsuspected, and that they knew them- 
 selves especially beloved by Pritchett as the best- behaved 
 boys of his school, a pattern to their companions. This 
 fact did not in the least deter them from climbing down 
 from their bedroom windows night after night to let the 
 pigs loose in the garden. This act not only entailed 
 much damage to the cabbages, but caused the big watch- 
 dog, chained on the other side of the house, to bark 
 ceaselessly for hours a result greatly to be desired. In 
 vain would the Head, whose rest was disturbed, lock and 
 secure the door of the sty. The boys would climb inside 
 and lift the pigs carefully over the fence, until the pigs 
 grew so accustomed to the performance that they would 
 offer no resistance whatever, and not even squeal. The 
 culprits were undiscovered, and the matter remained 
 a mystery to the end of the chapter. 
 
 So did the strange behaviour of the schoolroom chimney. 
 At certain intervals during the winter terms a brick 
 would become dislodged from the top, and with infinite 
 noise and disturbance (always at work time) come hurt- 
 ling down the chimney, scattering the fire about the room, 
 and bringing with it clouds of soot and dust. Of course 
 the class had to be dismissed until order was restored, 
 and then the bricklayer was sent for to make investiga- 
 tion, but, curiously enough, never could find anything 
 wrong. No one, save the accomplices, suspected the 
 innocent-looking Bacon, who had climbed up on the roof 
 in the dusk, balanced the brick with great skill, and then, 
 with the aid of a black thread, completed the disaster. 
 
 It was Bacon also, I understand, who discovered that 
 by applying one's mouth to a certain gas-burner on an 
 upper landing and blowing with all one's might, the gas 
 in one of the classrooms could be extinguished, causing 
 much confusion and smell, and an interruption of work, 
 
 82 
 
" The Child is Father of the Man ' 
 
 which, with a little judicious mislaying of matches and 
 so forth, might be indefinitely prolonged. Certainly it 
 was Bacon who was responsible for the exploding of a 
 " maroon " upon the roof, with consequences so serious 
 that this time exposure and confession were necessary, 
 and the three best boys were humiliated in the eyes of 
 their sorrowfully indignant master. 
 
 It is time I related something more to Bacon's credit. 
 The following letter of his, written from Old Charlton, 
 shows how an early taste was beginning to develop : 
 
 " DEAREST FATHER, 
 
 " Without any definite object, and partly for want 
 of anything else to do, I had the cheek and audacity, 
 the other day, to write to a Mr. Ellacombe, a Rector in 
 Devon, about ' Bell- ringing ' ! He wrote back to say 
 that he was delighted to hear of any gentleman taking 
 up the science. He referred me to a Mr. Bannister at 
 Woolwich, who he said was about the finest ringer in 
 all England, and he said it was possible that he might 
 procure me some lessons. I was most delighted at this, 
 and wrote off instanter. I this morning received the 
 kindest note from him, saying that he could easily give 
 me some lessons at some regular practisings, that there 
 were no funds needed, and in fact it was evidently a 
 great act of kindness on his part to give me some lessons, 
 I suppose chiefly under his own guidance. But, worst of 
 all luck, the hours of practice are 7 9 p.m. on Mondays. 
 It is a great pity, as such another chance could never 
 again be met with. I mean to call upon him and thank 
 him for his great kindness ; but I must explain how 
 matters stand. On Monday evenings I do Classics, and 
 tho' doubtless I might write out the lesson beforehand, 
 yet I am afraid Mr. Pritchett would never allow it. It 
 
 83 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 seems the most tantalizing thing just to fall short of 
 gratuitous lessons by the best of all ringers so close at 
 hand. I am quite ready and willing to work Monday 
 afternoons or any amount of extra hours to make up for 
 the little time I should lose. If I could only impress the 
 matter upon Mr. Pritchett I might hope to turn out a 
 hand that might astonish even the ringers of Wymondham. 
 " Ever your most affectionate son, 
 
 "JOHN M. BACON." 
 
 This letter had the natural and probably not unfore- 
 seen result. The father wrote to the great Mr. Pritchett. 
 The matter was arranged, and Bacon began his ringing 
 lessons in Woolwich tower and learned the elements of 
 a craft he turned to good account another day. The 
 Rev. H. T. Ellacombe referred to was a famous antiquary, 
 and the greatest authority on campanology of the day. 
 Bacon kept up his correspondence with him, and some 
 years later paid him a visit and stayed in his house. 
 Ellacombe was then a very old man, and somewhat in- 
 firm ; but to the very last (he lived to be ninety-five), 
 however feeble under ordinary circumstances, yet take 
 him to a church new to him, and he would scale the crazy 
 belfry ladders that led up to his beloved bells with all 
 the spirit and enthusiasm of a youth. 
 
 Meantime a change had come over the family fortunes. 
 My grandfather had now spent a quarter of a century 
 buried in his remote Berkshire parish. In 1863 Lord 
 Westbury, then Lord Chancellor, offered him the greatly 
 superior Chancellor's living of Wymondham, in Leicester- 
 shire, which he gladly accepted. Some talk there had 
 been that the parish of Ham might be offered instead. 
 John Bacon always declared that if such had been the 
 case he should have had no alternative but to refuse, 
 
 84 
 
" The Child is Father of the Man ' 
 
 since the combination of names of parson and parish 
 would have been absolutely insupportable. 
 
 The family were now in more affluent circumstances^ 
 and the father was at last able to offer to the youngest 
 son a privilege he had himself enjoyed, and knew well 
 the value of a University education. Of late young 
 Bacon had somewhat repented him of his early choice 
 of a career. The wild life of many of his companions, 
 the disordered state of Woolwich, which had recently 
 been in open mutiny, had cooled his ardour for the Service. 
 His talents and leanings were all academic, and he eagerly 
 embraced the chance held out to him. Cambridge was 
 his destination, of course, and it was at first supposed 
 he would go to his father's old college of Corpus. In 
 the interval a different course of training was necessary, 
 and by the advice of Cambridge friends he went in 1864 
 (being then nineteen) for a year's coaching to the Rev. 
 Arthur Headlam, Vicar of Whorl ton- on-Tees, in the county 
 of Durham. 
 
 It was Bacon's first introduction to the North Country. 
 No youth with even a grain of romance or imagination 
 in his nature, who has been born and bred in the south, 
 can fail to be impressed when first he finds himself on 
 northern soil, beneath grey northern skies, amid bleak 
 northern scenery, and amongst the strange-speaking 
 north countrymen, blunt, outspoken, honest, " dark and 
 true and tender," for all their rough and rugged exterior. 
 Bacon was impressionable and imaginative to the back- 
 bone, and the place where he found himself was one of 
 the most lovely and romantic spots in all the north of 
 England. Whorltori is a little village in Teesdale, some 
 fourteen miles west of Darlington. From the high 
 ground above, where runs the high road to Barnard 
 Castle, the view stretches, far as eye can see, over the 
 
 85 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 wild Yorkshire moorland. Whorlton itself nestles at 
 the foot of the hill, a few trim cottages, smithy and car- 
 penter's shop, standing around the village green. Then 
 beyond comes the modern-built church, and beside it 
 the roomy, handsome, grey stone Vicarage. Cross a 
 stile and traverse a grass field, bearing ever downhill, 
 and you hear beneath you the roar of waters. Scramble 
 down a steep wooded bank, carpeted with flowers in 
 summer time, full of the song of birds, at every step 
 growing more wildly lovely, until at the bottom the trees 
 break, and Tees, in all his glory, lies sparkling at your 
 feet. 
 
 And what a river ! Never before, till he came to 
 Whorlton, had Bacon seen a northern stream. The 
 slow, placid watercourses of the south, full to the brim 
 and winding sluggishly through lush pastures, the Thames, 
 the Kennet, and the little Lambourn, these were all his 
 experience of what a river might be. What a revelation 
 was the rushing, hurrying, whirling Tees, the enormously 
 broad bed, the craggy overhanging banks, the rock- 
 strewn course, the shoals of bright shingle, the deep pools, 
 the islets and foamy waterfalls, the ceaseless chattering 
 murmur of the swift pellucid stream. Then again the 
 rapid rising flood, the wild tossing current of brown 
 peaty water, the awful sudden onrush that swept all 
 before it, and in a moment converted the half -dry bed 
 into a dark, swirling, angry sea. How Bacon loved the 
 Tees ! Many years afterwards he set his children to 
 learn by heart Scott's description of the famous stream, 
 or would read aloud to them (and no man could read 
 poetry more beautifully or feelingly than he) long 
 cantos of " Rokeby," with every scene of which he was 
 familiar. 
 
 In truth it was enchanted ground he trod in those few 
 
 86 
 
" The Child is Father of the Man " 
 
 pleasant months in Teesdale : Rokeby, Mortham Towers, 
 and ruined Egleston; grim Raby, haunted with its 
 rustling silken skirts and Heaven knows what ghosts 
 beside; Barnard Castle, with its grand ruin and bridge 
 and memories of long-past fights, now recalled only by the 
 children's shrill taunt 
 
 Coward-a-coward o' Barnie Castle, 
 Daren't come out and fight a battle ! 
 
 Wycliffe, whence sprang the great reformer; romantic 
 Deepdale; the heights of Stanmore ; the towers of Bowes ; 
 while ever 
 
 Brignal banks were wild and fair, 
 And Greta words were green. 
 
 At the Greta Inn, not far distant on the great coach 
 road, Nicholas Nickleby spent the night ; and some 
 seven miles off, on Bowes Moor, could be seen the very 
 identical building of "Dotheboys Hall," of infamous 
 renown. Some of the old inhabitants indeed remem- 
 bered Squeers himself, and represented him not by 
 any means as black as he was painted ; and were 
 half inclined to pity him when, through the influence 
 of Dickens's immortal book, his school came to an un- 
 timely end. 
 
 The Rev. Arthur Headlam was a Cambridge man, 
 Wrangler and First Class in the Classical Tripos. The 
 care of his three hundred parishioners did not absorb all 
 his leisure or energies, and for many years he took pupils 
 to coach for the University, three or four at a time. 
 The villagers still have lively recollections of the " young 
 gentlemen " whose youthful high spirits enlivened the 
 quiet monotony of the place. Their favourite sport 
 was fishing in the Tees but Bacon set a new fashion. 
 Fishing was not in his line. Instead he sought out a 
 
 87 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 friendly mechanician in Barnard Castle, who initiated 
 him into the mysteries of the lathe and the arts of the 
 mechanical engineer. This was very characteristic of 
 the lad, and it was also natural with him that he in- 
 fected others with his own enthusiasm. Handicraft 
 became quite the fashion at the Vicarage, and the 
 other pupils left their fishing-rods to try their hands 
 at manufacturing little boxes and wooden rollers and 
 the like, with an ardour generally much in advance of 
 their skill. 
 
 Bacon was always a pioneer. The craze for physical 
 training now possessed him. There was much bathing 
 and swimming in the Tees, walking, running and jumping ; 
 and he now proposed a course of " roughing it " by way 
 of becoming hardened for manly exercise. In the study 
 at Whorlton Vicarage were many rows of books placed 
 on shelves of quite unusual massiveness and breadth. 
 Bacon proposed to his chief ally, in pursuance of their 
 Spartan training, that they should sleep upon these 
 shelves instead of on their too luxurious beds ; and 
 accordingly every night, when the household had 
 retired, they stole downstairs, provided with blankets, 
 and passed the night behind the books ; very un- 
 comfortably in truth, but fortified by the conviction 
 that they were doing something unusual and praise- 
 worthy. 
 
 My father was acknowledgedly Mr. Headlam's favourite 
 pupil. He possessed more than the usual share of brains 
 and intelligence, and he was moreover a hard worker 
 and inspired with an ardent desire to learn. He planned 
 for himself ambitious schemes for University success, 
 as the following letter shows and when, throughout 
 life, Bacon's ambitions failed of their attainment it was 
 never through fault of his own. 
 
 88 
 
" The Child is Father of the Man " 
 
 " DEAREST FATHER, 
 
 " I have spoken to Mr. Headlam at length, and 
 asked his advice as to the choice of a college. 
 
 " He says a large college like Trinity possesses a chief 
 advantage over smaller ones in that there are such a 
 number of first class men against one, and consequently 
 more emulation and more encouragement to work. If 
 you fell short of a fellowship at a small college you would 
 not gain half the advantage from your college in after 
 life as you would if you had been to Trinity and read 
 your best. 
 
 " All this, of course, you know, and he says it rests 
 with you whether you think it best for me, with a mod- 
 erate chance of a small fellowship, to risk the getting 
 of it, or to go to Trinity and read for as high a place in 
 Honours as possible. The former course would be the 
 less expensive, and he gives me some hope of gaining a 
 fellowship. In his own case he says that he probably 
 would have gained a fellowship at a small college, but 
 still he is glad he went to Trinity instead. Neither its 
 scholarships nor fellowships require classics more than 
 mathematics ; good men in either subject will gain them. 
 Mathematics ought to be made my strongest subject, 
 but I must keep up both. 
 
 " I have heard from Mr. Ellacombe, who says he would 
 introduce me to good ringers at Cambridge. I hope you 
 are enjoying your trip to old Berkshire in spite of the 
 weather. 
 
 " Ever your affectionate son, 
 
 " JOHN M. BACON." 
 
 So Trinity it was settled to be, and Bacon set himself 
 to his work with renewed vigour, and quickly distanced 
 all his companions. That same spring, in vacation 
 
 89 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 time, Mr. Headlam took him with him on a holiday to 
 Lakeland for it was a long journey home to Wymond- 
 ham, and the tutor had become attached to his promising, 
 lovable pupil. They stayed on Der went water, and 
 that glorious scenery made an unforgettable impression 
 upon the youth ; as it does on all who have eyes for the 
 beautiful and poetic, and a heart in tune for a country 
 in which so many of our wisest and best have found 
 even after long travel amidst earth's fairest spots 
 their truest solace and delight. 
 
 90 
 
LORD FRANCIS DOUGLAS 
 
 Page 91 
 
VI 
 / ALMA MATER. 
 
 BACON went up to Cambridge in October, 1865. Some 
 three months before this an event had occurred which 
 affected him, as was but natural, very deeply. This was 
 the tragic death of the school fellow he had so lately 
 parted with Lord Francis Douglas, killed on the Alps 
 in the terrible accident which marred the triumph of 
 the first ascent of the Matterhorn. 
 
 Lord Francis had been Bacon's closest friend, accom- 
 plice, and comrade during the whole time they had spent 
 together at Old Charlton, and the dramatic story of his 
 untimely end came as a tremendous shock. 
 
 The fact that of the four victims of the disaster his 
 body alone had never been recovered nor ever has been 
 was an additional appeal to the imagination. Some 
 only half- explained details unhappily found their way 
 into the papers, giving rise to all sorts of wild, unfounded 
 notions. Bacon was tortured with the idea of his late 
 companion, caught up on some inaccessible ledge of 
 rock on the face of that awful precipice, alive perhaps, 
 but unable to make his position known ; and as he pic- 
 tured the ghastly thought his mind would revert to his 
 old dream of a balloon ; a balloon in which he could 
 explore the rocky steep that by no other mortal means 
 might be attained. 
 
 But soon there came Cambridge to distract his thoughts 
 Cambridge, the goal of his desires, the field of his am- 
 
 91 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 bitions, the arena of his labours ; Cambridge, which for 
 ten long years was to be all in all to him. Cambridge, 
 which was to be the scene of his proudest triumphs, his 
 bitterest disappointments, his purest joys, his keenest 
 griefs ; of love and birth and death, of hope and despair. 
 He loved every stick and stone of the place he loved 
 the atmosphere, he loved the life. Outside of his passion 
 for the daring, the adventurous, the unusual, his nature 
 was academic to the finger-tips. He was at his happiest 
 and brightest among his University friends, he looked 
 his best in cap and gown ; he walked his lightest and 
 freest over the well-worn flags and between the grey 
 walls of College courts. Had fates willed otherwise, and 
 the early promise of his life been fulfilled, he might have 
 spent his years and ended his days as the Cambridge Don 
 he was, in many ways, so well fitted to be. In this walk 
 of life, as in any other, he would have made his name and 
 left his mark and done great work. And yet perhaps 
 there is small reason to regret that such was not his 
 destiny. The academic world has its limitations, and 
 maybe somewhat narrow ones. Its placid, happy life, 
 be it never so useful and dignified, is apt to run in grooves. 
 It may even be doubted whether the elderly professor, 
 for all that his forehead is lofty and his brows are noble, 
 is yet the grandest development of the human race 
 whether his sympathies are quite so broad, his outlook 
 quite so wide, his share in the pleasures and toils of life 
 quite so large, as if the boundaries of college walls were 
 not so greatly the boundaries of his own existence. 
 
 When Bacon first went up to Cambridge, Trinity was 
 presided over by that wonderful man, that intellectual 
 giant, that acme, epitome, and highest consummation of 
 academic life, William Whewell. A freshman at Trinity 
 has little enough to do with the august tenant of the 
 
 92 
 
Alma Mater 
 
 Master's Lodge yet WhewelPs mighty presence made 
 itself felt even to the meanest servant of the College. 
 Bacon saw the massive form lately bowed by grief for 
 the loss of his second wife, slowly pace the great court. 
 He saw the noble head above the Master's stall in chapel ; 
 and he felt, as did the whole world, how grandly Whewell 
 sustained the traditions of the stately college ; how 
 fittingly he stood as figurehead of the proud establish- 
 ment ; how much he owed to Trinity, and how much 
 Trinity owed to him. 
 
 Whewell preached his last sermon in Trinity chapel 
 on Quinquagesima Sunday of Bacon's first Lent term. 
 Prophetically enough, he drew his text from Revelations 
 and spoke of the end of the world. Bacon, who had 
 ever the keenest appreciation of choice diction and fine 
 word-painting, must have thrilled as he heard the great 
 scholar, in measured periods, describe the last dread 
 scene, and picture : " No mountains sinking under the 
 decrepitude of years, or weary rivers ceasing to rejoice 
 in their courses. No placid euthanasia silently leading 
 on the desolation of the natural world. But the trumpet 
 shall sound, the struggle shall come ! This godly frame 
 of things shall expire amid the throes and agonies of some 
 fierce and hidden catastrophe. And the same arm that 
 plucked the elements from the dark and troubled slum- 
 bers of their chaos shall cast them into their tomb." 
 
 There was no trace of failing powers in a mind that 
 could string sounding phrases like these. It was re- 
 marked on all hands with pride and delight that the 
 Master was regaining his old vigour, temporarily crushed 
 under his late sorrow. Moreover he had become gentler, 
 more approachable, more human, more lovable, since 
 his loss and grief. The whole college warmed to him as 
 never before, and rejoiced to see the cloud lifting and his 
 
 93 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 interest in outside things revive. He was but seventy- 
 two. There were surely many useful years yet before 
 him. 
 
 And then, all in a few days, the end came. On the 
 afternoon of February 24th, it was rumoured round the 
 college that a serious accident had befallen the Master ; 
 that he had been thrown from his horse, riding on the 
 Gog-Magog hills ; that even now he was being borne, 
 grievously shattered, to the Lodge. There followed a 
 few days of sorrowful suspense, when footfalls went 
 softly upon the flagstones and voices were hushed. A 
 strange awed feeling was upon all that youthful throng 
 which seethed, a tide of young life, about the grey walls 
 of the old college, when it was known that their great 
 Head was passing from them. There was a tightening 
 of heart-strings and a dimming of vision, as the pathetic 
 story was told of how the dying man had asked for the 
 curtains of his window to be drawn aside that he might 
 once more see the sun shining on the Great Court, and 
 the blue sky, which he had ever declared was never so 
 blue as when glimpsed above the pinnacles of Trinity. 
 Then came the peaceful death, and a great shadow seemed 
 to fall across the college, and the blank void of an irre- 
 parable loss. 
 
 The Sunday after the burial was one never to be for- 
 gotten : The scene in the chapel, so familiar and yet so 
 strangely, indefinably, different ; the mellowed light 
 pouring down from lofty windows, the crowded benches 
 of white-surpliced youths, their overflowing spirits for 
 once awed and sobered ; the organ's funeral chords, the 
 empty Master's stall. In a voice vibrant with emotion* 
 Lightfoot, afterwards the great Bishop of Durham, paid 
 his last tribute to the mighty dead : " Our grand old 
 Master our pride and strength ! Our own always, not 
 
 94 
 
Alma Mater 
 
 in his triumphs only, but in his sorrows also. . . . He has 
 gone from us, leaving as a legacy his name and munifi- 
 cence. He has bequeathed to us his bright example. 
 His race is run his torch has passed into our hands full 
 burning, to keep ablaze or to quench as we will." And 
 then, by way of peroration, the strong appeal from that 
 great ensample to the young life before him ; the im- 
 passioned call to follow in the footsteps of him who had 
 gone before " resolving, as far as in us lies, to make 
 this college a holy temple of His spirit, in all sound learn- 
 ing and all godly living." 
 
 What lad, young, ardent, high-spirited, as Bacon was, 
 could fail to be stirred to the depths of his being by such 
 a scene, and by such words ? And then, the service over, 
 he was to hear those sounds, the solemnest, the most 
 heart-thrilling in all the world, the tones of a muffled 
 peal. The twelve beautiful bells of St. Mary's rang a 
 requiem that day as is rung only when the greatest pass 
 away. First, a brief peal with both sides of the clappers 
 muffled, terminating abruptly with all the bells " upset." 
 Then the muffling of one side of each clapper is removed, 
 and the ringing recommenced as is described in Bacon's 
 own words recording the event : 
 
 " First all the twelve bells speaking freely were an- 
 swered immediately by the ghosts of their own selves 
 by that indescribable far-off sound, weird and solemn, 
 seemingly coming out of another world. Irresistibly 
 the listener would pause and count out the twelve strokes, 
 alternately full and hushed, and presently he counts but 
 eleven ; the treble bell apparently missing ; and before 
 he has well assured himself of this the next in order is 
 silent too, and now but ten are speaking in the place of 
 twelve. So one by one the higher bells in order drop out, 
 while those of heavier metal strike on ; but more leisurely, 
 
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 widening out their intervals so as to count out, with 
 equal strokes, the invariable length of each bar of the 
 solemn music as marked by the stately swing of the 
 tenor ; and in this impressive manner each bell in dying 
 leaves the survivors filling the gap with more and more 
 measured utterance. Presently but two are speaking, 
 answering one another with long resounding beats. 
 Finally the great tenor swings on a few strokes alone, 
 its deep funereal, muffled voice ending the long-drawn 
 cadence." 
 
 Our hero knew well all about these same fine bells, and 
 described them as an expert. Mr. Ellacombe had been 
 as good as his word. The introduction to the Cambridge 
 ringers had been given, and Bacon had enrolled himself 
 a member of that famous campanological association 
 " The Ancient Society of College Youths." The written 
 and unwritten lore of the belfry was expounded to him. 
 The mysteries of change ringing had already been ac- 
 quired ; the intricacies of " Evening Pleasure " and 
 " Triple Bob Major," the cabalistic passwords of 
 " single," " caters," " tittums," and the like, no longer 
 presented any difficulties. To ring up the great tenor 
 of St. Mary's was a favourite exercise of his and a highly 
 esteemed privilege. By way of other recreation he took 
 up rowing, and sported the dark blue blazer of the First 
 Trinity Boat Club. But it was at the gymnasium he 
 chiefly distinguished himself. Under the skilful training 
 of George Jackson the original, by the way as he was 
 proud enough himself to testify, of " Mr. George " in 
 Dickens 's " Bleak House " Bacon developed into a 
 first-class gymnast. 
 
 His favourite exercises were with the flying trapeze, 
 and he gave exhibitions of his skill in this direction at 
 village entertainments at home until his mother's blood 
 
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Alma Mater 
 
 ran cold with horror at his daring. He was an adept with 
 the leaping pole, he had won prizes for throwing the 
 cricket ball, he loved swimming and diving, riding and 
 skating, and all physical exercises. In those days he was 
 muscularly of great strength, short of stature, but lithe 
 and active as a cat. The breakdown of his health, which 
 befell him while he was yet in full youth and vigour, put 
 a summary end to all his athletic pursuits ; but he 
 felt to his dying day the value of his early training. 
 Handicapped as he became, his activity never forsook 
 him. He could vault a gate, or turn a somersault from 
 one chair to another, at an age when most men have left 
 such youthful frivolities a good fifteen or even twenty 
 years behind them. To the very end of his life he could 
 climb a tree, or scramble up ratlins, or mount a crazy 
 ladder in a way that would put to shame many a youth 
 but a third of his age and he delighted not a little in 
 doing so. In his aeronautical adventures in particular 
 his active powers stood him especially in good stead. 
 When my father first went up to Trinity he was, for 
 some time, an " out college " man. At the beginning 
 of his second October term, however, he was most un- 
 expectedly offered a set of rooms in the Old Court. They 
 had been hurriedly vacated by a man of uncertain health 
 and nervous temperament, who had suddenly left them 
 and gone into lodgings, assigning no satisfactory reason 
 for his change. Bacon took the rooms, but not before 
 he had received a solemn warning against them from the 
 bedmaker, who, with an ominous shake of her head, 
 characterized them as " dreadful dismal." This was 
 mysterious, but the reason presently developed. With 
 gloomy November came wild and howling winds, and, 
 sitting up late over his books, Bacon heard the quiet room 
 filled with low, wailing, unearthly moans, as of a haunting 
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The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 spirit in agony, or some dark tragedy taking place in 
 the lane outside. This happened night after night, nor 
 was any explanation forthcoming until, after much search, 
 my father, who was not troubled with superstitious fears, 
 discovered it. In the " Gyp room " a piece of wall paper, 
 pasted across a chink, had developed a crack, leaving 
 two jagged edges which, under certain conditions of 
 draught, vibrated together like a reed, and produced the 
 noise described. A touch with the paste-brush speedily 
 silenced the spectre, nor was this the only ghost that 
 Bacon, in later days, was to help to lay. 
 
 Bacon's rooms at Trinity were in the south-eastern 
 corner of the Old Court. They were on the ground floor, 
 a fact which has its drawbacks to a reading man, since 
 it renders him more liable to interruption, but which 
 also possesses some advantages of its own, as the following 
 instance illustrates. A few staircases off, on an upper 
 floor, " kept " a studious friend of my father's, who passed 
 long hours there in study, always seated with his feet 
 upon a large footstool. This might appear, at first sight, 
 somewhat curious behaviour on the part of a strong and 
 active youth, known to be keenly averse to all forms of 
 " coddling." His " old-maidish fad " however admitted 
 of quite reasonable explanation. Directly below him 
 were the rooms of a light-hearted friend, keenly addicted 
 to the art of fencing, which he practised at all hours of 
 the day and not a few of the night. Careful experiment 
 had taught this playful youth that he could readily in- 
 sert the point of his foil through the plaster of the ceiling, 
 and between the wide cracks in the ancient floor above, 
 and thereby prick the toes of the tiresomely conscientious 
 comrade " mugging " aloft. This interesting employ- 
 ment appealed to him very strongly, and so assiduously 
 did he work at it that soon his ceiling was pitted all over 
 
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Alma Mater 
 
 with holes, and the victim's step across the room above 
 was sufficient signal for the sword-point to come pricking 
 up between the boards like the quick tongue of a serpent. 
 In vain would the student change the position of his 
 reading chair. His tormentor would as surely find him 
 out, and only by the aid of an unusually solid foot- 
 stool was the difficulty obviated and reading rendered 
 possible. 
 
 There were troublous times at Cambridge just then. 
 A highly unpopular Vice-Chancellor was in power, and 
 as a consequence something like active rebellion broke 
 forth among the undergraduates. The men grew out of 
 hand, and all sorts of lawless acts were perpetrated. One 
 night the tremendously massive iron-studded gates of 
 Christ's College, of terrific weight, were bodily removed 
 from their hinges and thrown into the river. It was the 
 wonder of all how they could ever have been carried so 
 far. Other outrages were perpetrated, and there came 
 the order that the undergraduates were to be excluded 
 from the gallery of the Senate House on the day of grant- 
 ing degrees. It is their immemorial privilege to be pre- 
 sent on this occasion, and to exercise their wit in pertinent 
 (and impertinent) personal remarks on the appearance, 
 character, and so forth of those taking part in the ceremony 
 beneath. A " row " was of course anticipated, and 
 Bacon went to see the fun. Being early, he obtained 
 a coign of vantage at the top of the flight of stone steps 
 which lead up to the side door of the Senate House 
 opening upon King's Parade. A dense mass of men 
 formed up behind him. At the stroke of the hour when 
 admittance is generally given there came a sudden rush. 
 Bacon was next the door, and for a moment it seemed to 
 him as if his ribs would burst and the life be crushed out 
 of him. It would surely have been so, had not the solid 
 
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The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 wooden panels given way like matchwood and precipi- 
 tated him among the foremost into the building. There 
 followed a wild scene as the infuriated undergraduates 
 surged in. The Chancellor's robes were torn to frag- 
 ments, the furniture was broken, and degrees were granted 
 amid a scene of noise and uproar unequalled in the annals 
 of the University. 
 
 Bacon's home now, the home to which he returned in 
 the vacations, was Wymondham, in Leicestershire, near 
 Melton Mowbray, a place which spells its name the same 
 as, but pronounces it quite differently from, the larger 
 Wymondham in Norfolk. The Rectory there is a roomy 
 comfortable house, built by a former incumbent, one 
 Craig, of whom many stories are told. Although dead 
 many years, he had left many tokens of his presence 
 about the place, for of his ingenious but eccentric fads 
 and crazes there appear to have been no end. One brilliant 
 idea of his was to make one fire warm two rooms. He 
 had a grate constructed, on his own designs, of course, 
 which went on sliding bars through the wall, and when 
 he had been sufficiently long in one room and wished to 
 retire to the next he would simply shoot it through, fire 
 and all, so that it greeted his arrival in the adjoining 
 apartment. Later tenants removed this economical 
 invention, though its traces could still be seen. It was 
 otherwise with another product of his fertile brain, which 
 in Bacon's time still ornamented the back door. This 
 was a dodge for the frightening of tramps and the spying 
 out of undesirable visitors. It took the form of a gro- 
 tesque and hideous face, let into the wood, with holes 
 where the eyes should have been. In these holes the 
 Rector, stealing noiselessly to the door from within, 
 would suddenly place his own eyes. The result was 
 decidedly terrifying, and the tramps, it is said, would 
 
 100 
 
Alma Mater 
 
 beat a hasty retreat with shattered nerves and much 
 bad language. 
 
 One Christmas vacation it chanced that Jack was 
 the only son at home. It was seasonable weather and 
 snow lay thick on the ground, when, in the middle of one 
 bitterly cold night, he was awakened by the furious bark- 
 ing of the big dog tied up in the yard. This was no unusual 
 event when the moon shone brightly in a frosty sky, and 
 none of the servants sleeping at the back of the house 
 were disturbed. Something unusual, however, in the note 
 of the dog's bark excited my father. He slipped out of 
 bed, and as he opened the door an unwonted light warned 
 him of what was amiss. The outbuildings and back 
 premises were on fire, and the flames, spreading rapidly, 
 were threatening the house and creeping round to the 
 spot where at the extreme limit of his chain the poor 
 dog was giving ceaseless warning of the danger. 
 
 The household was instantly roused and a messenger 
 sent up to the village for help, which quickly arrived. 
 Men with buckets swarmed to the rescue, but most of 
 the water had turned to ice. The little stream which 
 ran through the garden was soon exhausted, and it seemed 
 as if the house was doomed. The maidservants were 
 sent upstairs to bring down the objects of most value 
 they could lay their hands on. They went and returned 
 triumphantly, one bearing a hat box and the other a 
 three -railed towel-horse. Nor let them be unduly 
 blamed. All sense of the relative worth of movables 
 seems to disappear in a fire. During the recent burning 
 of a great Scotch house, crammed with priceless treasures, 
 a party of soldiers from the neighbouring barracks were 
 told off to assist in the salving ; and while some hurled 
 crockery, wardrobes, and dressing tables from upper 
 windows, others, at great personal risk, rescued a very 
 
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The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 massive cast-iron door-scraper and bore it carefully to 
 a place of safety. Jack performed prodigies of strength 
 in carrying heavy furniture, but in the end the house 
 was spared. When matters looked most desperate, 
 some one suggested the happy expedient of piling snow 
 upon the flames. A maltster's was near at hand ; and the 
 huge wooden shovels used for shifting the malt were 
 commandeered. With these the snow, which lay thick 
 around, was flung up on the top of the burning beams, not 
 otherwise to be reached, and so the fire (which had origin- 
 ated from the incautious throwing of hot cinders into a 
 wooden shed) was extinguished before it reached the 
 house, though the outbuildings were entirely destroyed. 
 " Sambo," by whose agency the household was preserved, 
 wore a medal for the rest of his days. 
 
 It was during a certain Long Vacation spent at Cam- 
 bridge that Bacon witnessed a sight which he never forgot 
 as long as he lived, and which, for many years after, 
 constantly recurred to his memory. This was a balloon 
 ascent, the first he had ever seen. 
 
 In truth there is something not a little stirring and 
 impressive about such a spectacle. The shapely, graceful, 
 silken craft, towering up into the sky ; the straining 
 ropes ; the creaking wicker-work as the car is attached ; 
 the struggling crowd ; the sharp words of command 
 while the monster tugs and pulls at her moorings, im- 
 patient to be free. Then the last bags of restraining 
 ballast are handed out, the last farewells spoken, the 
 final order given, " Let go all ! " and, amid ringing 
 cheers, the great balloon glides upwards into the air, 
 silently, smoothly, swiftly, with infinite grace and dignity, 
 higher and higher, floating far and farther into the blue 
 until it melts in distance a drop against the sky. This 
 particular ascent took place from Downing grounds, and 
 
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 Alma Mater 
 
 the balloon fouled a tree to begin with and broke off a 
 great branch of elm entangled in the rigging, through 
 the leafy barrier of which the aeronaut waved a graceful 
 farewell as he rose. " I don't think I ever quite re- 
 covered the mental bias that this ascent gave me," wrote 
 Bacon many years afterwards. " I dreamed of balloons 
 in happy nightmares for long days to come, and when- 
 ever I allowed myself to speculate on some possible 
 excursion which should be out of the common, somehow 
 the idea of a balloon would always intrude itself." 
 
 Henceforward there was ever present at the back of 
 his mind the resolution to make, one day, a balloon 
 ascent himself. But for the present, and for many a year 
 to come, he had other things to think about. Long 
 hours of night reading by the light of an inefficient lamp 
 began to tell upon his sight. Presently his eyes broke 
 down altogether, under the strain, and for months he 
 was tortured by that most dread spectre that can well 
 haunt a man the fear of blindness. Work had perforce 
 to be abandoned, just at the most critical point, and his 
 time at the University was extended by another year, 
 in the hope that matters might improve before his final 
 examination for the Mathematical Tripos. 
 
 Then came other distractions. Almost the first ac- 
 quaintances he had made upon his arrival at Cambridge 
 were a pair of brothers, sons of the Rev. C. J. Myers, of 
 Flintham Vicarage, Nottingham, then an elderly clergy- 
 man passing a quiet life in his college living, or on his 
 own Cumberland estate ; but in his younger days a man 
 of great attainments, a scholar of Trinity, and fifth Wran- 
 gler the year his friend Airy was Senior. The younger 
 of these two sons, Fred, a brilliant youth whose early 
 death cut short a career of unusual promise, was Bacon's 
 especial and dearly loved companion, and closest of his 
 
 103 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Cambridge friends. The Myers family was a large one, 
 and from time to time one or more of the handsome 
 sisters would come to visit their brothers and share in 
 the gaieties of May Week, or other festivities. Particu- 
 larly came Gertrude, the youngest, a pretty girl with 
 big, soft, brown eyes, a bright, vivacious manner, and a 
 happy nature, the placid sweetness of which no storms 
 could ever ruffle. Bacon went to stay with his friends 
 at Flintham ; Fred Myers in return brought his favourite 
 sister to Wymondham ; and she recorded in her school- 
 girl diary (she was but nineteen), that " Mr. John Bacon 
 was most polite during our visit." More meetings ensued, 
 and then the inevitable occurred. In September, 1869, 
 they became engaged, she being then twenty and he three 
 years older. 
 
 A long engagement seemed before them. Bacon was 
 destined for the Church whither the University life 
 then so largely tended. He was also minded to try 
 coaching work as soon as he had taken a degree. Any- 
 way, it might probably be some time before he could 
 support a wife. The lovers were supremely happy in 
 each other, but clouds were on the horizon. They shared 
 one fear in common. Mr. Myers had suffered a paralytic 
 stroke, and was failing visibly; while John Bacon, the 
 dearly loved, indulgent father, to whom his four sons 
 looked up with almost adoring reverence, was attacked 
 by a lingering and most painful malady, the end of which 
 was inevitable. John was ever his father's most tender, 
 devoted and indefatigable nurse, and the father's last 
 months were brightened by his son's successes. In 
 April, 1869, he gained a Trinity Foundation Scholarship. 
 Sundry lesser laurels fell also to his share. He won an 
 essay prize, and his college prize for reading in chapel. 
 But his crowning honour the place for which he had 
 
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Alma Mater 
 
 worked so hard and longed so fervently was denied him. 
 He had hoped for high rank among the Wranglers, and 
 those who saw his work and were best competent to judge 
 had confidently predicted it for him. The results of a 
 tripos can be fairly well foretold by those " in the know," 
 and a place among the first ten was spoken of on best 
 authority. But the eye trouble was still present, even 
 at the end of the additional year. The oculist per- 
 emptorily forbade the reading that would be inevitable, 
 and the deeply disappointed Bacon must perforce be 
 content with an cegrotat degree. This maimed honour 
 he took in January, 1870, and being, as it were, 
 a class to himself, and going up last for the Chancellor's 
 "laying on of hands," at the ceremony in the Senate House, 
 the " gods " in the gallery not unnaturally mistook him 
 for " Wooden Spoon," and cheered him accordingly. 
 
 But if his labours and talents did not receive the hall- 
 mark they merited, they were none the less understood 
 and acknowledged by his Cambridge contemporaries. 
 Immediately after taking his degree he posted the usual 
 notice in the " Union " that he was desirous of obtaining 
 University pupils. In response came thirty pupils the 
 first term, an unprecedented success. Elated and en- 
 couraged, Bacon now embarked on a bold step. Maunsell, 
 his eldest brother, seven years his senior, had some while 
 before entered the Civil Service and become a clerk in 
 the War Office. He had also married and children were 
 born to him. But promotion in his profession, if sure, 
 was desperately slow. The daily round of trivial time- 
 wasting in that palace of red tape where he worked was 
 growing intolerably irksome to him, and his health was 
 suffering by the confinement of town life. His younger 
 brother wrote to him ardently and affectionately. " Give 
 up the War Office," he said. " Leave London and come 
 
 105 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 up to Cambridge. Enter one of the colleges as a non- 
 resident, take your degree and go into the Church. 
 Meantime, to keep the pot boiling, share my pupils with 
 me. We will go into partnership in coaching. You 
 shall take the classical part and I the mathematical, 
 and together we will make a success of it." 
 
 It was a daring move for this youth of twenty-three to 
 take upon himself the responsibility of his brother and 
 his brother's family in this fashion. But the elder man 
 had every confidence in the younger 's judgment and 
 energy, and the event proved that he was right. He 
 took a house in Cambridge, entered Sidney-Sussex, read 
 for a " pass " degree, and meanwhile worked hard with 
 the pupils who came every term in increasing numbers. 
 
 The partnership proved the most triumphant success. 
 The Bacon brothers were " poll " coaches, that is to say 
 they catered for the " poll " or " pass " men who were 
 content to get through the University with the minimum 
 amount of work, and scrape through a degree with the least 
 margin to spare, rather than read for " honours " and take 
 rank in a tripos. Nor let it be for a moment supposed 
 that the work of their tuition demanded less skill or care 
 than if they had all been budding Senior Wranglers or 
 Double Firsts. Speaking generally (for of course there 
 are many exceptions), the man who is content with a 
 " poll " degree is pretty certain to be lacking either in 
 industry or brains or both and it is a truism that it 
 requires a wise man to teach a fool. The Bacons soon 
 acquired a reputation for steering even the stupidest 
 and idlest of their pupils (and some were very stupid 
 indeed) through the quicksands of the dread examina- 
 tions. They had recourse to all sorts of devices to arrest 
 the roving fancy and spur the feeble memory. Fpr 
 example, there was that renowned quagmire, " Paley's 
 
 106 
 
Alma Mater 
 
 Evidences," which has engulfed so many a weak-kneed 
 Cambridge pilgrim to his destruction. The elder brother, 
 who was, and is, a talented versifier of the Gilbertian 
 order, sat up all one night condensing the heads of the 
 learned divine's immortal discourse (how the wan 
 spectre of Paley must have shuddered at the sacrilege !) 
 into rhymes that were adapted to the popular tunes of 
 the day then most in vogue in undergraduate circles. 
 John Bacon possessed a lithographic stone and printing 
 apparatus, which were quickly got to work, and before 
 twenty-four hours had elapsed printed sheets of the 
 doggerel, music and all, were distributed broadcast, and 
 soon, all over the town, pianos were tinkling, and lusty 
 young voices chanting these novel but improving ditties. 
 For a long while the immensely popular and much sought 
 after verses were circulated among the Bacon pupils 
 only. Later on a few of them were incorporated in a 
 work published by a friend, and which, under the title 
 of " Paley's Ghost," is still on sale at Cambridge. 
 
 John M. Bacon in those days made much use of his 
 lithographic press. He was not without his share of 
 the family artistic skill. He etched most delicately, and 
 his lettering, when he pleased, was a triumph of design 
 and execution. He delighted to produce dainty and 
 fanciful programmes, book-plates, and the like. He 
 photographed also at a time when photography was a 
 real art, demanding much manual skill and beset with 
 difficulties that the dilettante amateurs of the present day, 
 who imagine that because they press a button or turn 
 a handle they can style themselves photographers, 
 could never even realize. He possessed too, by this 
 time, a splendid baritone voice, and took up singing with 
 his customary energy and thoroughness. The multitude 
 and all-embracing variety of Bacon's hobbies, then as in 
 
 107 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 later years, may be gathered from a spirited sketch of 
 the time by his brother Maunsell, entitled " The last 
 neat thing in Cantab. Freshmen." A heavily and most 
 miscellaneously laden railway porter inquires of an 
 undergraduate (presumably John) in cap and gown, and 
 carrying a pair of handbells " Any other luggage, 
 sir ? " C.F. : " Yes. You will find in the van an electric 
 machine, a galvanic battery, a lathe, a canister of gun- 
 powder, a photographic apparatus, a horizontal bar, a 
 coil of rope, and two iron rings ; and then there is this 
 little pair of dumb-bells behind me. Bring them up to 
 my rooms at once." Exit porter for a " Memoria Tech- 
 nica." 
 
 His degree taken, Bacon began reading for Ordination. 
 He was ordained Deacon on Trinity Sunday, 1870, in 
 Ely Cathedral, by Bishop Harold Browne, and next day 
 he wrote to his Gertrude : " The Ordination was the 
 most impressive and admirably conducted service you 
 can imagine. The whole ceremony was worthy of being 
 held in that magnificent Cathedral. Perhaps nothing 
 was more impressive than the fine manly voice and deli- 
 very of the Bishop I love so much. I am quite unable 
 to describe my admiration for that man. His manner, 
 which is so marvellously winning, is so thoroughly sincere. 
 No one has ever met with greater hospitality or more 
 generous kindness than all of us did at the Palace." 
 
 A fortnight later he preached his first sermon in Wy- 
 mondham church, but his father was too ill to be present. 
 As it was not his intention to leave Cambridge he was 
 licensed as Curate to Harston, a little parish some four 
 miles out of the town a mere formality, for he received 
 no stipend and began Sunday duty there during the 
 summer. Beside the pupils he shared with his brother, 
 he coached " honours " men as well by himself, and 
 
 108 
 
Alma Mater 
 
 among his earliest were two half-brothers of the late 
 Marquis of Salisbury, Lords Arthur and Lionel Cecil. 
 They were known as the Twins though not so in reality 
 but they were inseparable in all things, especially in 
 their pursuits, which were inclined to be of a Spartan 
 nature. They bathed together in the Cam every morning 
 before breakfast, and in winter time sent their " gyp " 
 before them to break the ice. Philip Beresford-Hope, 
 their connection, was also a pupil, and so was another 
 relative, Francis Balfour, brother of Arthur J. of that 
 ilk, and of whom more anon. In addition to his other 
 work, and as an aid to his teaching labours, Bacon 
 brought out this autumn two little books, " Hints on 
 Elementary Statics " and " Notes on the Acts," followed 
 later by other works of the same description, written 
 either by himself or in conjunction with his brother, 
 some of which are still in print and find sale at Cambridge 
 as singularly clear and lucidly expressed primers for 
 undergraduate needs. 
 
 Mr. Myers died in November, 1870, and John Bacon 
 in the March following. His son felt his loss most keenly, 
 but at the time there were other matters to distract his 
 mind. His own marriage was near at hand. On April 
 nth, 1871, the wedding took place at the parish church 
 of Millom, in Cumberland, and after a short honeymoon 
 spent in Edinburgh (where it rained ceaselessly the 
 whole while) the young pair settled down in the comfort- 
 able little Cambridge house 12, Park Side, looking out 
 upon Parker's Piece, which for the next five years was 
 to be their home. 
 
 109 
 
VII 
 SORROW AND DISAPPOINTMENT 
 
 AND now it were high time to mention certain of 
 the friends and acquaintances who belong to these 
 Cambridge days, and to recall a few of the great names 
 which cluster around ten years of University life. When 
 Bacon first went up to college in 1865, and for several 
 years later, the venerable, benevolent head of Adam 
 Sedgwick looked out over his stall in Trinity Chapel, 
 and the octogenarian Woodwardian Professor still de- 
 livered his courses of lectures now reaching into the 
 fifties with unabated power and enthusiasm, and re- 
 iterated his solemn warnings against what he maintained 
 to be the mistaken and materialistic doctrines of Darwin's 
 " Descent of Man." Darwin's two sons, George Howard 
 and Francis, by the way, were Bacon's contemporaries 
 at Trinity. One summer day one of the brothers, now 
 the Professor, was cruising slowly up the Backs, sitting 
 in the stern of one of those frail walnut-shell shaped 
 " tubs " which on warm afternoons skim thick as mayfly 
 upon the placid stream, his coat-tail well overlapping the 
 low gunwale. " Hi ! Darwin, your tail's in the water ! " 
 shouted a quick-witted undergraduate from a passing 
 boat. A roar of laughter rose up from the banks, and the 
 apposite remark went the round of the University. 
 
 A. J. Balfour, W. H. M. Christie (the present Astrono- 
 mer Royal), Arnold Morley and his brothers, A. F. Kirk- 
 patrick (Master of Selwyn), C. V. Stanford ; Maurice, son of 
 
 no 
 
Sorrow and Disappointment 
 
 Charles Kingsley ; Hallam, son of Lord Tennyson : these 
 are a few of the names which catch the eye in looking down 
 the long lists of men whose days of undergraduate life 
 coincided more or less with my father's, and with most 
 of whom he came more or less into contact. Among 
 the Dons were two successive Bishops of Durham Light- 
 foot, Hulsean Professor of Divinity, and Westcott, 
 Regius Professor. H. Fawcett was the Professor of 
 Political Economy; Charles Kingsley, of Modern History; 
 W. Sterndale Bennett, of Music. Adams, discoverer of 
 Neptune, and Challis, who scarcely assisted in that dis- 
 covery, were the two Astronomical Professors; Cayley 
 and G. G. Stokes the Mathematical. 
 
 But three or four men, who were Bacon's own intimate 
 friends, must receive special notice. First and foremost 
 was that wonderful mind, that splendid genius, quenched 
 by early death in the first brightness of its dawn, William 
 Kingdon Clifford. Clifford was two years Bacon's senior 
 at Trinity (he was Second Wrangler and Second Smith's 
 Prizeman in 1867, an ^ became a Fellow the subsequent 
 year), but it was hardly possible that two men whose 
 tastes and natural bent were so identical should fail to 
 gravitate together. Their hobbies coincided exactly. 
 Clifford was fond of handicraft and mechanical invention. 
 He took up scientific kite-flying. He was keenly inter- 
 ested in aerial research, and even harboured ideas of the 
 construction of a flying machine. He was a magnificent 
 gymnast, and was prouder of his reputation as an athlete 
 than even of his academic distinctions. In comparing 
 the lives of the two men the points of resemblance are 
 so many as to be quite curious. Both went on Eclipse 
 expeditions (Clifford observed in the Mediterranean 
 the total solar eclipse of 1870) ; both were unusually 
 talented at public lecturing ; they were brother enthu- 
 
 iii 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 siasts'even over such minor matters as shorthand and 
 Morse code. These facts, of course, are pure coincidence, 
 yet they serve to explain how readily Bacon fell under 
 the spell of Clifford's influence and wonderful personal 
 attraction, how ardently he admired him, how keenly 
 he valued his friendship. Nothing delighted Clifford 
 so much in his Cambridge days as congenial discussion. 
 His boundless range of sympathy and interest, his ex- 
 treme openness and candour, his wonderful quickness of 
 perception and lucidness of expression, his keen sense 
 of the ridiculous and his unfailing tact, made him an 
 altogether exceptional conversationalist. He would con- 
 stantly sit up most of the night, talking with a chosen 
 few " solving the Universe " as he expressed it, and 
 every conceivable subject, under every conceivable 
 point of view, would come under discussion. He main- 
 tained as one of his most firmly held convictions that 
 metaphysical and theological problems should be dis- 
 cussed with exactly the same freedom and fearlessness 
 as scientific or political questions ; and he himself would 
 suffer the yoke of no conventions in formulating his 
 opinions. This was in the days ere yet the narrow bounds 
 of authority had been aught relaxed, and the teachings 
 of Darwin, Spencer,, and other pioneers had come upon 
 the world with the added shock of novelty. It was in 
 Clifford's rooms that Bacon first heard the clash of arms 
 in the mighty warfare of Church and Science, became 
 aware in fact that such a warfare was possible, and here 
 again Clifford's influence made itself felt and bore its 
 fruit in due season. 
 
 And so Bacon was admitted to the intimacy, and sat 
 at the feet of, the greatest man of all his Cambridge con- 
 temporaries. They shared a great friend in common 
 in the person of George Robert Crotch, the naturalist ; 
 
 112 
 
Sorrow and Disappointment 
 
 formerly Under Librarian at the University Library, 
 and at the time of his death travelling, at the expense of 
 the University, on an entomological survey of remote 
 parts of the world. As in the case of Clifford, an untimely 
 end cut short a career of unusual promise, and the same 
 may be said of another young scientist who was for a 
 while Bacon's own pupil, being coached by him in Mathe- 
 matics at one part of his Cambridge course. 
 
 This was Francis Balfour, afterwards Professor, a man 
 of altogether exceptional genius and ability. His brother 
 Arthur had preceded him at Trinity and taken his degree 
 four years previously, and in those days it was popularly 
 considered at Cambridge that, brilliant as was the youth 
 who was presently to become Prime Minister of England, 
 the younger brother was by far the cleverer of the two. 
 Huxley, who loved him as his own son, said of him, " He 
 is the only man who can carry out my work," and again 
 later on, when the all too short career was closed, he wrote : 
 " His early death, and W. K. Clifford's, have been the 
 greatest loss to science not only in England, but in the 
 world, in our time. Half a dozen of us old fogies could 
 have been better spared." 
 
 Professor Balfour met his death on the Alps in July, 
 1882, while attempting the ascent of the Aiguille Blanche, 
 then unclimbed. As a testimony to the rare thought- 
 fulness and courtesy which have ever characterized the 
 Balfour family, it may here be mentioned that nearly 
 twenty years later my father, whose recollection, for 
 some reason, had lately reverted to his old friend and 
 pupil, ventured to write to Mr. Balfour, then Leader of 
 the House of Commons, to ask if he had a photograph 
 of his brother that he could spare him. The reply came 
 immediately that Miss Balfour possessed certain copies 
 of such a photograph, though at the moment she could 
 H 113 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 not lay hands upon them, but if they presently were 
 discovered one should certainly be sent. So time went 
 by, and the matter passed completely from my father's 
 mind, as he presumed it surely must have from the mind 
 of a man who was holding the reins that guided a nation. 
 Nevertheless, after a whole year, there came an autograph 
 letter from the statesman, enclosing the photograph, 
 which had just come to light. 
 
 One more friend of Cambridge days was Edward Henry 
 Palmer, the Orientalist, equally notable in his own way 
 with those just commemorated, and like them cut short in 
 the full tide of activity and usefulness. The tragedy of 
 his courageous death belongs to the annals of English 
 History. 
 
 Bacon's first few months of married life opened aus- 
 piciously enough. There was abundance of pupils ; 
 friends were kind ; the clever, good-looking young parson 
 and his pretty, vivacious wife were very popular. They 
 loved entertaining, and there was much coming and going 
 at 12 Park Side, and all the pleasant social excitement 
 which appertains to youthful Cambridge existence. 
 
 Bacon was working very hard far too hard, in fact ; 
 for in addition to the tutorial work which absorbed all 
 his week-day hours, his Sundays were fully occupied with 
 clerical duties. He was ordained Priest at Ely Cathedral 
 in September, 1871, and beside his regular work at Har- 
 ston he took occasional duty over a wide area. There 
 was scarce a church within a radius of many miles of 
 Cambridge in which he did not, during this time, officiate ; 
 driving himself in his dog-cart, or riding his mare, far 
 down into the dreary fenland, or to remote outlying 
 parishes where a few rough coprolite diggers formed his 
 uncouth and occasionally unruly congregation. Some- 
 times in after years he would tell quaint stories of his 
 
 114 
 
Sorrow and Disappointment 
 
 experiences in these uncivilized, forgotten hamlets ; of 
 navvies who threw turnips at him, of interrupted mar- 
 riages, of gipsy christenings, of eccentric parish clerks ; 
 of the church where there was a swarm of bees behind 
 the altar, members of which community would crawl 
 disconcertingly over his surplice ; and of that other 
 Cambridge church where a scientific former incumbent, 
 Professor and Rector and Senior Wrangler to boot, had 
 erected a parabolic sounding-board over the pulpit, the 
 focus of which was occupied by the preacher's head. 
 From the congregation's point of view this arrangement 
 was delightful, for the principle was acoustically perfect, 
 and the speaker's voice carried to the farthest seats. 
 The professor parson, however, had overlooked the con- 
 sequences upon the preacher himself. Before the service 
 began Bacon was warned, as was every new clergyman 
 who came to the place, that he might possibly be dis- 
 turbed in the pulpit, and before ever he had announced 
 his text he understood the significance of the caution. 
 For if the great parabola had the power of reflecting the 
 preacher's voice, it was also equally efficient in collecting 
 the sounds which came from the congregation. Every 
 rustle, every cough, every footfall, every turning leaf, 
 were gathered together into an overwhelming whole 
 which smote upon the ear in the focus in a continuous 
 buzz, alike unfamiliar and disconcerting. My father 
 was wont to say that he feared his sermon suffered not 
 a little in consequence, but at least the incident served 
 to impress the acoustic principles of the parabola firmly 
 upon his mind a fact that he found useful in later days. 
 
 These clerical journeyings around Cambridge recalled 
 many times to him a story of the past often related by 
 his father, to whose college days it belonged. 
 
 In the early years of the century there lived at Cam- 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 bridge an old clerical pluralist of the name of Field, who 
 held the livings of Hauxton-cum-Newton-cum-Barrington, 
 three small villages covering a wide area a few miles out 
 of the town. The responsibilities of so large a cure 
 weighed in no wise heavily upon their Vicar. Being of 
 a social disposition, he found it suited his convenience a 
 great deal better to make his home in Cambridge, and all 
 the week to leave his parishes to take care of themselves. 
 He probably argued (if he troubled about the matter at 
 all) that they got on just as well without him, which was 
 doubtless the case. On Sundays, however, something 
 in the nature of duty had perforce to be gone through. 
 Accordingly in the morning he would mount his old pony 
 and ride out along the Trumpington road towards Newton. 
 Before reaching it he would pass the corner of the road 
 which led to Hauxton, and here he would pause a moment 
 and look anxiously down it. If a Hauxton congregation 
 had been inconsiderate enough to assemble for service, 
 the parish clerk would be standing in the distance, waving 
 his hat on a stick by way of signal. If, however, the 
 road was vacant, the Vicar understood that no service 
 was expected of him, and with a sigh of relief would amble 
 on to Newton. 
 
 Here he knew that service must be taken, since the 
 ladies who lived in the Manor House were regular in their 
 attendance at church and would infallibly be present. 
 It behoved him, however, in view of his long ride, to be 
 expeditious, and he had his own peculiar method of saving 
 time. He dismounted at the church and turned his pony 
 loose in the churchyard to browse among the graves, 
 but as he entered the gate of the hallowed precincts he 
 began to recite the office of Morning Prayer, beginning 
 with " Dearly beloved brethren," and continuing, so that 
 by the time he had entered the building, donned his 
 
 116 
 
Sorrow and Disappointment 
 
 surplice and reached the chancel, he had got almost as 
 far as the First Lesson. 
 
 This was a great saving of time and breath, yet never- 
 theless by the time he had reached Harrington in the 
 afternoon his clerical labours had begun to tell upon him. 
 Perhaps a few coprolite diggers were lounging about the 
 churchyard waiting for service. To them he would say : 
 " Now, my men, you are doing no good here ! Here's 
 sixpence apiece for you. Go off and drink my health ! " 
 Perhaps, however, it was a handful of bashful school- 
 children who greeted his arrival. Them he would regard 
 with a stern and reproving countenance : " Girls ! 
 girls ! What do you mean by being out without your 
 mothers ? Go home immediately ! " Having thus dis- 
 posed of his congregation he would jog back to Cam- 
 bridge, wearied indeed, but with the serene content of a 
 man who has done his duty. 
 
 This was the story as my grandfather would tell it to 
 his sons in their young days. Many years afterwards, 
 curiously enough, Maunsell, the eldest, became himself 
 Vicar of Newton-cum-Hauxton (Barring ton had long 
 been separated from the triple alliance). At Hauxton 
 Church was still the original surplice that was in use in 
 the days of Field, and his successor was quick to note 
 how the back of it hung in curious curves where the linen 
 had been torn by the spurs of the late divine, and the 
 hem had been turned up time and again to repair the 
 damage. 
 
 It is ofttimes difficult for the young, strong, and enthu- 
 siastic to realize, before it is too late, that there are limits 
 even to their endurance, and that they run the danger 
 of drawing overdrafts upon their store of strength and 
 energy that may never be recovered. Troubles and 
 anxieties came all too soon upon the happy pair. Fred 
 
 117 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Myers, the dearly loved friend and brother, sank into a 
 rapid decline, and his life, which had opened most bril- 
 liantly, closed at only twenty-three at Mentone, in 
 December, 1871. Less than a week before, Mrs. Myers, 
 the mother, had died with great suddenness. This double 
 shock naturally made Bacon anxious for his wife, then 
 shortly to become a mother. On the 23rd of January 
 was born their first child, Francis, to whom Beres- 
 ford Hope stood sponsor at the christening. The young 
 wife was long and seriously ill after this event. The 
 young husband felt that the added responsibilities and 
 expenses of fatherhood entailed upon him yet harder 
 work and more strenuous efforts. One drenching, bitter 
 day of April he took Sunday duty far down in the country, 
 got wet through, and for many hours remained in his 
 damp clothes. This was the finishing straw to a con- 
 stitution already far overtaxed by anxiety and work. 
 A violent chill was the result, which in its early stages 
 was neglected and wrongly treated, until it developed 
 into congestion of the lungs, and this in turn into more 
 serious trouble yet. For six long weeks of bright spring 
 weather he lay in bed, and when he rose at length he was 
 but the shadow of his former self. He did not perhaps 
 at first realize the full significance of the calamity which 
 had befallen him, but in truth the mischief of a lifetime 
 had been done, and the seeds of a fatal malady implanted. 
 Already his bright career was nipped in the bud. Ere yet 
 he had reached six-and- twenty he had received a handicap 
 more completely and cruelly crippling than the loss of a 
 hand or foot or eye. 
 
 The brief fragmentary diaries, half a dozen words to a 
 day, which he kept during this and subsequent years, 
 read inexpressibly sad to one who realizes the full meaning 
 underlying the bald, terse statements. To his child, at 
 
 118 
 
Sorrow and Disappointment 
 
 least, they seem all the more pathetic by reason of their 
 very brevity and simplicity, and above all, because there 
 breathes through these records of dark days and some 
 of the times then and to come were dark indeed the 
 same spirit of patient courage, of brave endeavour under 
 crushing burdens, of noble endurance, which all through 
 his chequered life was the man's grandest characteristic. 
 Even during the time spent in bed, when the journal of 
 weary days is inscribed in faint, wavering pencil, the 
 active brain is busily seeking distraction and ever finding 
 fresh interests to occupy it. He takes up shorthand ; 
 he tries, when allowed to sit up in bed, to paint lantern 
 slides ; he becomes (by proxy) an enthusiastic gardener. 
 The entries, " Pot mimulus and verbena cuttings," " Bed 
 calceolarias and petunias and asters," " Start creepers 
 in greenhouse," have so little suggestion of the sick-room 
 about them that it comes as quite a shock to find, a full 
 fortnight later, the record of his sitting up an hour or two 
 in his bedroom for the first time. How radically different 
 the treatment of pulmonary disease is in these days 
 from what it was only thirty years ago, may be gathered 
 from the fact that Bacon makes note of the window being 
 opened in the fifth week of his illness, and this was in 
 June weather. Yet his doctor and dearly loved per- 
 sonal friend was none other than George, afterwards 
 Sir George, Paget, head of Addenbrooke's Hospital, as 
 great a physician as his brother James was a surgeon. 
 My father has told me in later years how specially trying 
 to him, while he was ill, was this fetich of the closed win- 
 dow he to whom from earliest boyhood fresh air and 
 the cold morning tub were a veritable cult. He amused 
 himself in bed with planning all sorts of methods by 
 which free ventilation without dangerous draught might 
 be ensured, and recommended them to his doctors, who 
 
 119 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 laughed them to scorn. Nevertheless he lived to see his 
 theories vindicated and not a few of the devices he had 
 once conceived in universal operation. 
 
 During the summer he recovered somewhat and re- 
 sumed his work, but his former strength had departed 
 from him, never to return. He had lost the usfe of one 
 lung completely and beyond all recovery. His gym- 
 nastic and athletic pursuits were entirely at an end. 
 Henceforward he could not run, or even walk fast, or 
 exert himself quickly in any way. In later years, when 
 Anno Domini had worked its ravages upon his contem- 
 poraries and his own life of rigid simplicity and self- 
 denial had preserved intact the active powers so often 
 lost beyond forty, he regained somewhat the bodily pre- 
 eminence he once held, so that men of his own years 
 marvelled to see how much he could do and endure, and 
 would scarce believe he was in truth so crippled as was 
 the case. But in the days of his full activity and youth, 
 with all his life yet before him, to be converted by one 
 fell stroke from an unusually strong man to a semi- 
 invalid a thing of respirators and chest protectors 
 was a cruel blow indeed, and when the months passed 
 by and brought no renewed strength, but in place ever 
 recurring attacks of pulmonary hemorrhage, even blacker 
 shadows lurked about the little Cambridge home where 
 life had opened so brightly but a year ago. 
 
 What the poor devoted young wife must have gone 
 through in these months of bitter trial is pitiful to dwell 
 on, and yet even worse troubles were before her. In the 
 winter of this ill-fated year a favourite sister died sud- 
 denly, and in the following summer the baby, their first- 
 born, then a beautiful boy of eighteen months, was seized 
 with convulsions. Again the brief diary record brings 
 a lump to the throat of the reader who can feel the heart- 
 
 120 
 
Sorrow and Disappointment 
 
 break beneath the enumeration of doctor's visits, three 
 and four a day, until " Babe at rest " closes the brief 
 chapter of a tiny life. 
 
 Bacon's health still did not improve. The hemor- 
 rhages continued. Change of air was tried Cambridge 
 work abandoned, and visits paid among friends and 
 relations. They went to Bognor, to Berkshire, to the 
 Wye Valley, and the whole of the winter of 1873-4 from 
 November to April was spent in lodgings at Torquay. 
 Too often it seemed as if they were fighting a losing 
 battle, but Bacon fought hard. Never for a moment 
 did he allow himself to sink into the listless apathy of 
 prolonged invalidism. His powers were sadly limited, 
 but he made the most of them, nor ever lacked for in- 
 terest or employment. He became a proficient in short- 
 hand, and felt the value of it all his life. He resumed his 
 interest in astronomy and bought and read many books, 
 especially those of R. A. Proctor, then just coming out. 
 He took up botany, and made carefully pressed collections 
 of the flowers he could find in the short walks his feeble 
 strength allowed him. At Torquay he joined the Art 
 School and took lessons in water-colour painting. While 
 there he also tried to test ocean currents by means of 
 corked bottles thrown into the sea with stamped addressed 
 messages within, and obtained a few curious results. 
 How greatly his bid for health was assisted by his own 
 pluck and spirit and the power he ever cultivated of 
 throwing himself into outside occupation, it needs no 
 physician to point out. 
 
 And he had need of all his strength and courage and 
 patience, for a new trial, the severest yet, was upon him. 
 The pair returned to Cambridge early in April, 1874, and 
 on the igth of that month their second child, a daughter, 
 the present writer, was born to them. This was before 
 
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The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 the time of the highly trained nurses and watchful medical 
 care of the present day. Some neglect occurred, some- 
 thing went wrong. Many months of deep anxiety and 
 trouble and one shock upon another, had doubtless had 
 their effect upon the sorely tried young wife, for all her 
 placid sweetness and brave endurance. However that 
 may be, immediately after my birth my mother was 
 taken violently ill, her illness being all the more terrible 
 and affecting in that it was of the mind and not of the 
 body. There followed dark days indeed. The poor 
 baby innocent cause of the mischief was packed off 
 to its grandmother's care, while doctors and nurses held 
 sway over the distracted Cambridge home. Chief nurse 
 of all, most tender, devoted, patient, and unremitting in 
 his care, was the deeply stricken husband. Despite his 
 own broken health, he watched by his wife's side day and 
 night until the acute stage of the malady at length was 
 past. But his Gertrude was not yet restored to him. 
 After many weeks and months the brain was still clouded, 
 and it was felt at last that from time alone could be hoped 
 the possible ultimate recovery. 
 
 Bacon felt that he had come, though all too soon, to a 
 parting of the ways. Another winter had been spent at Tor- 
 quay, yet still his health showed no signs of improvement. 
 He went to the doctors with a definite inquiry. They 
 shook their heads, talked vaguely, and recommended 
 Madeira or the south of France. Bacon interpreted 
 their meaning only too clearly. He was but twenty- 
 eight, had been married scarce four years, but already his 
 work was done, his golden dreams shattered, his bright 
 career at an end. He who might have accomplished so 
 much must meekly put his aspirations aside. His beloved 
 Cambridge life, and with it all the high hopes and ambitions 
 for which it stood, must be abandoned. Henceforward 
 
 122 
 
Sorrow and Disappointment 
 
 he must leave to others the sun-flecked upward path of 
 honourable toil and well-earned success, and he himself 
 must find some quiet backwater where, with his invalid 
 wife and baby daughter, he might turn aside and die. 
 Nothing now remained to keep him at Cambridge. 
 His elder brother's University career was finished. He 
 had taken his degree, had been ordained, and had been 
 appointed to the living of Newton, where, with his family, 
 he had removed. Cambridge life and climate were good 
 neither for Bacon's health nor his wife's condition. Early 
 in June, 1875, after ten years spent at the University, 
 he left it for good, and by so doing closed with what 
 bitter pangs a chapter of his life. 
 
VIII 
 THE HOME AT COLDASH 
 
 BACON'S first move was to North Stoke, a little 
 village on the Oxfordshire side of the Thames, 
 not far from Moulsf ord. He chose this spot in order to 
 be near his second brother, Frank, who by this time had 
 left the Service, had married, and lately had been dis- 
 tinguishing himself by the invention of a gun of special, 
 and most ingenious, breech-loading mechanism. At 
 North Stoke, Bacon spent one winter. But neither the 
 house nor the climate proving desirable, he was soon 
 seeking for a new home. Berkshire, his native county, 
 had the strongest attraction for him, and he searched 
 for a spot as near as might be to the scenes of his 
 earliest recollections. At length he found it. Some 
 four miles north-east of Newbury, about a mile and 
 a half north of the great Bath Road, lies the little 
 village of Coldash, perched picturesquely about the 
 slopes and summit of a ridge of high upland known 
 locally as " The Rudge." The church is reputed to 
 stand the highest of any church in Berkshire, and this 
 may well be the case, since it is 500 feet above sea-level. 
 All the winds of heaven may, and do, blow clear about 
 that lofty spot. From the road which runs along the 
 top of the ridge are said to be visible the proverbial seven 
 counties ; that mystical number claimed for every lofty 
 elevation in Great Britain, except the higher mountains, 
 
 124 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 which demand belief in fourteen. Bacon, who studied 
 the matter carefully, could never satisfy himself about 
 the visibility of the seventh county, though of six there 
 is no doubt whatever. It was his great delight to take 
 strangers up to the high ground behind our house, and 
 point out to the north the tree-clad Oxfordshire hills 
 rising over the Berkshire downland, with the high ground 
 of Nettlebed and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire 
 on the far horizon ; while to the west and south could 
 be seen Wiltshire and Hampshire, with a distant blue 
 glimpse of the Surrey Hog's Back above the woods to 
 the extreme left. 
 
 Within the memory of not very aged inhabitants, 
 Coldash was an unenclosed, uncultivated upland common, 
 surrounded by long stretches of woodland, with a few 
 humble, remote cottages scattered haphazard about it. 
 Some fifty years ago the church was built, but for long 
 there was no Vicarage, and the first Vicar occupied a 
 house, almost the only one of any pretentious whatever 
 in the village, which he himself enlarged to accommodate 
 his increasing family. It was this dwelling which Bacon 
 happened on. " Sunny side " was an unpicturesque, 
 irregularly built, yet roomy house with a blue-tiled roof, 
 standing just below the summit of the hill. Some nine 
 acres of most picturesque grounds surrounded it, all 
 sloping and undulating, so that there was not a level 
 square yard in the whole estate, all the more beautiful 
 on that very account. A broad green lawn led down 
 to a pond overhung with willows, where white waterlilies 
 grew and where a couple of swans used to float. A deep 
 gully was crossed by a long rustic bridge, trailed over 
 with roses ; fine trees surrounded the house, and the mea- 
 dows were rich and fertile. It was a delightful spot, and 
 Bacon fell in love with it at once. Its beauty and health- 
 
 125 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 ful situation appealed irresistibly to him ; its remote- 
 ness and loneliness (for in those days at any rate it cer- 
 tainly deserved such qualification) he considered no draw- 
 back under the circumstances. He removed there with 
 his family in the early part of 1876, and there for all the 
 rest of his life, wellnigh thirty years, he made his home.' 4 ! 
 
 Bacon was the type of man who loves his own nest and 
 clings to old associations. He delighted and revelled 
 in his beautiful Berkshire home from the first, and the 
 years only made him more passionately attached to it. 
 He had every reason indeed to love it, for to begin with 
 at least it brought him renewed health and happiness. 
 From the time of arrival his wife's health began rapidly 
 to improve, so that in a very few months she was entirely 
 herself again ; and the consumptive semi-invalid, her 
 husband, who imagined his days were numbered, found 
 soon that the pure breezes and bracing, if rigorous, 
 climate of the upland village were bringing with them 
 slowly, but surely, returning health and vigour. 
 
 Coldash has become a popular health resort in these 
 days. Its special properties and attractions are known 
 to the multitude, and are becoming more and more ex- 
 ploited year by year. It is hard enough to realize the 
 place as it was thirty years ago, an unknown, unvisited, 
 remote, neglected hamlet, with not even a village carrier 
 to keep it in touch with the outside world ; its inhabitants 
 a rough, uncouth population, ignorant and superstitious, 
 whose sole interest and pastime was poaching. They 
 gave (and still give) the hair of a stray dog in butter to 
 cure their children of whooping cough. They saw ghosts 
 and occasionally the Old Gentleman himself. The 
 school being of recent origin, comparatively few of the 
 middle-aged, and scarcely any of the old men and women, 
 could read or write, and in all respects outside their very 
 
 126 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 limited agricultural experience their ignorance was 
 colossal. They ascribed their first Vicar's untimely 
 death to the " overlooking "of a woman in the 
 village, whose dark brows bespoke gipsy origin. 
 They held strongest views upon the poisonous pro- 
 perties of blindworms and " efts " (pronounced " effuts " ), 
 as they called newts. They were ready with numerous 
 instances of people who had lost limbs or life through 
 meddling with these creatures, and if pressed hard with 
 scientific argument and illustration would merely qualify 
 their statements by the guarded reply that " Some says 
 'tis one way and some t'other, but if they things beant 
 all'us venomous they'd maybe turn so at any time." 
 
 Such were the people and such was the home where 
 Bacon found himself in his thirtieth year. He was now 
 a man of leisure. His health at that time did not allow 
 of his earning his own livelihood, nor was there any 
 necessity for him to do so. But he was the last man in 
 the whole world to remain idle. He read largely on all 
 scientific, but especially astronomical subjects, and began 
 to form the very extensive library which presently, 
 every year adding fresh shelves, lined the walls of his 
 own particular sanctum. He took up all manner of 
 hobbies and pursuits, chemistry, gardening, rose-growing, 
 music, what not. He was skilful at every form of handi- 
 work, and loved to learn the " tricks of the trade " from 
 every workman he came across, so that there was soon 
 no kind of domestic craft with which he was not familiar, 
 and no household emergency, from a leaky kettle to a 
 stopped clock, from a broken window to an incapacitated 
 pump, with which he could not cope. 
 
 But his principal work lay in other directions. It 
 was not for himself or his own interests that he chiefly 
 laboured. He had ever the strongest sense of the duties 
 
 127 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 he owed his fellow-mortals. Charles Kingsley was his 
 manhood's as he had been his boyhood's idol, and the 
 clarion call to be up and doing for the good of humanity, 
 as sounded in his stirring sermons and such books as 
 " Two Years Ago," rang always in Bacon's ears. He 
 quickly busied himself among his new neighbours. He 
 began at once to help in clerical duty at Coldash and 
 elsewhere, to establish and assist in parochial institutions, 
 and, by concerts, lantern entertainments, and the like, 
 enliven the long winter evenings in a manner quite un- 
 wonted in that secluded spot. He was specially anxious 
 to provide some interest for the male population of the 
 place which should prove a rival attraction to the public- 
 house and illicit snaring of game, till then the sole mascu- 
 line relaxations. The happy idea struck him of inaugu- 
 rating a Cottage Show, exclusively for the villagers of 
 Coldash, when substantial prizes should be offered for 
 the best garden produce, and the stimulus of competition 
 should prove an incentive to the cultivation of cottage 
 gardens and allotments, with results alike profitable to 
 mind, body, and pocket. 
 
 It may seem, nowadays, when such institutions are as 
 common all over the country as daisies on a lawn, that 
 there was nothing specially original or important about 
 such a scheme ; nevertheless, in this, as in many other 
 movements, Bacon was a true pioneer. Thirty years ago, 
 in South Berkshire at any rate, cottage shows were 
 practically unknown. The towns had their horticultural 
 societies, and certain large neighbourhoods would unite 
 together for an annual exhibition, but for the smaller 
 villages there was no provision, nor was such deemed 
 possible. Since Coldash triumphantly led the way and 
 demonstrated the practicability of such an enterprise, 
 cottage shows have sprung up on every side, and now 
 
 128 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 there is scarce a village within a twenty-mile radius of 
 Newbury which has not its own annual horticultural fete. 
 In thirty years the origin of popular institutions may well 
 become obscured and forgotten. All the same, it was 
 Bacon who set the fashion and who showed the way. 
 
 Of the real importance of such a movement among the 
 rural population and of its widespread beneficent con- 
 sequences, it boots not to speak. Suffice it to say that 
 in Coldash, at any rate, the improvement was soon ap- 
 parent. The inauguration and carrying on of such a 
 scheme in those days, when all was new, meant no little 
 thought and labour. Bacon formed a small committee 
 of the neighbouring farmers, though he wisely kept the 
 real control in his own hands. He interested the land- 
 owners and gentry in the matter, and obtained their sub- 
 scriptions. He personally visited each cottage of the 
 place, walked round the garden, discussed learnedly of 
 " turmuts " and " 'taters," and coaxed and cajoled the 
 rustics, bashful and diffident to begin with, to exhibit 
 their produce and compete for the prizes. He invited 
 the neighbourhood and his own personal friends to be 
 present and give countenance to the venture, and his 
 brother Maunsell to help him and to make the humorous 
 speech so absolutely necessary on such an occasion. He 
 lithographed the small bills on his own stone, he gave his 
 meadow for the show, he erected the tents and tabling 
 with his own hands, he arranged everything personally, 
 to the smallest detail. The day came and with it the 
 cottagers (some wore smock-frocks still in those days) 
 trundling their wheelbarrows full of produce. There 
 were cheery greetings with " Dan'l " and " WilTum," 
 and pleasant banter with " 'Liza " and Mary, in their 
 big sun-bonnets, carrying apples and pot plants, and the 
 children with their gay bunches of wild flowers closely 
 i 129 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 compacted. There was the bustle of staging, the solemn 
 mystery of judging, followed by much refreshing of the 
 inner man for the willing helpers. Then, the midday 
 siesta over, the village echoed to the stirring drum- thumps 
 of the advancing band the tune they played a little 
 vague, but the time the drummer kept beyond all praise 
 and with the band arrived the people, all in their best 
 and cleanest clothes, and there was the pleasant smell of 
 flowers and trampled grass and fresh vegetables, the 
 keen excitement over the awarding of the prizes, the 
 speeches, the cheering, kiss-in-the-ring, and the returning 
 band storming " Auld Lang Syne " through the village 
 in the warm summer twilight. It all reads trivial and 
 archaic enough in these times, to be sure, scarce worthy 
 of mention, but to the unsophisticated rustic dwellers of 
 that remote, neglected spot it was a red-letter day indeed, 
 and fraught with overwhelming interest. The first 
 Coldash Show was voted on all hands a tremendous 
 success, and thus was happily inaugurated an institution 
 which Bacon continued for twenty years, and the influence 
 of which is yet fresh and still extending over a large and 
 ever-increasing area. 
 
 In these and similar labours, in all manner of in- and 
 outdoor pursuits, in visiting and entertaining friends, 
 and all the while to Bacon in winning back health and 
 strength, passed four pleasant, peaceful years. In the 
 autumn of the year after they came to Coldash he took his 
 wife abroad to Paris and Switzerland, and they both 
 regarded this little trip as their real and long-deferred 
 honeymoon, which was to inaugurate a new and, they 
 hoped, happier life. Alas ! sore trouble was yet before 
 them. 
 
 Under date December 28th, 1880, the laconic diary 
 before mentioned contains the simple entry, " Third 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 child born, Pigs killed " a record the callous brevity 
 of which was a source of much amusement and banter 
 in later days. The child referred to was a son, Frederic, 
 named after the favourite brother. The winter that he 
 was born was long remembered in fact, is not yet for- 
 gotten in the south of England by rea!sbn of the great 
 snow storm. Unusually mild weather before Christmas 
 had given place to bright frosty days at the beginning 
 of the new year, which continued with ever-increasing 
 rigour until the 17 th of January. That night the snow 
 began. Next morning the village woke to a white world 
 covered with snow so deep that no postman could make 
 his way through the choked lanes to the upland heights. 
 Still the snow fell, sweeping down in volleying gusts 
 from the dark sky and piled by the fierce wind in mountain 
 drifts that reached the tops of the hedges. Coldash was 
 in a state of siege, and not only Coldash but every out- 
 lying village throughout the country. Trains were 
 snowed up all over England, nearly one hundred 
 barges were sunk at the mouth of the Thames ; the 
 pier at Woolwich was carried away by ice, and the 
 Post Office announced that communication between 
 London and the provinces was almost altogether stopped. 
 All that day it snowed, and far into the night. Bacon 
 at that time possessed a beautiful St. Bernard dog of 
 unusual size and great intelligence. Big as a small calf, 
 with tawny coat and grand waving tail, he inspired terror 
 in the juvenile breast as he walked abroad, almost upset 
 his master when in playful gambols he placed huge fore- 
 paws upon his chest, and many times bowled over the 
 little girl who threw sticks in the pond for his delectation 
 and got wet through when he shook himself over her after 
 his swim. That night, the second night of the storm, 
 Lion, tied up in the yard, barked wildly and ceaselessly, 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 apparently for no reason, for, true to his instincts, he loved 
 the snow and preferred to sleep on it rather than inside 
 his kennel. Morning came, and still no postman reached 
 the beleaguered village, but soon tidings got about of a 
 piteous tragedy which had occurred in our very midst. 
 In an outstanding and solitary cottage on the hill, visible 
 from our windows, lived a labourer a carter, a steady, 
 middle-aged man. On that terrible day he had gone 
 with his wagon and team to a place some miles distant. 
 The roads were awful, and for many hours, during which 
 he was without food, he had battled desperately with the 
 snow and storm. But at length he could get his wagon 
 no further, and leaving it in a place of safety for the night, 
 he unharnessed the horses and started by himself to lead 
 them homewards. The short, dark winter day drew 
 quickly to a close, darkness fell, and along the heights 
 of the Rudge which he had to traverse, the wind, thick 
 with whirling flakes, swept fierce and ever fiercer about 
 him. He reached the gate of the field across which lay 
 his house. Only some hundred and fifty yards separated 
 him from his own doorstep, but his sorely tried strength 
 was failing at last. The fatal stupor of intense cold was 
 creeping over him. Overpowered at length, he sank 
 down under a hedge where the wind had blown a space 
 clear of snow, and here his own son found him next morn- 
 ing, frozen to death, with the patient horses standing 
 unharmed beside him. Bacon was terribly upset at 
 this pitiful event which had occurred almost at our very 
 doors, just at the top of our own meadows in fact, and he 
 never ceased reproaching himself that he had lacked the 
 power to interpret the meaning of his wise dog's warn- 
 ing. 
 
 But all too soon his own cares engrossed his attention. 
 At first, after the birth of her son, it appeared as if all was 
 
 132 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 going well with the mother, and the shadow of a great 
 dread, which could not fail to oppress them both, seemed 
 lifting, when signs of the old trouble began to reappear. 
 In vain change of scene was tried. A complete break- 
 down ensued, and although the acute stage passed quicker 
 than on the previous occasion, yet never afterwards, 
 during the whole of the rest of her life, did she ever fully 
 recover her mental balance. For fourteen more years 
 she lived among us, loving and beloved, perfectly happy 
 and content, her sweet unselfish nature unchanged, her 
 love for her home and family undiminished ; but hence- 
 forward she could no longer be her husband's intellectual 
 companion, enter into his pursuits, or triumph in his 
 success. She could no longer bring up her children or 
 rule her household, or entertain her friends, nor, despite 
 long years of hoping against hope, did the power ever 
 return to her. 
 
 To me, the fourteen years which followed seem ever the 
 finest of my father's life. Not till they were over had he 
 opportunity of showing his real power to the world, or of 
 doing the particular work which has made his name and 
 fame. The very circumstances of his trouble compelled 
 him to lead a quiet, retired life, rarely to leave home, to 
 entertain few friends, to abandon intercourse with the 
 world outside his own immediate circle. Yet surely, 
 if our Christian beliefs count for anything, these fourteen 
 years of purest devotion and self-sacrifice, patient hope, 
 brave endeavour, manly fortitude, uncomplaining re- 
 signation and noble example, yield place to none in true 
 value and importance, and rank higher than all earthly 
 success and honour in that complex whole which makes 
 the Man. Lacking these years, he had surely lacked 
 much of the wonderful power of sympathy and under- 
 standing with high and low which endeared him to all 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 with whom he came in contact, and gave him a marvel- 
 lous attraction and influence, especially over the young. 
 Lacking these years, his best loved, and those few who had 
 his whole heart, would have lacked an ensample which 
 all their lives long will stand to them in highest and 
 holiest recollection. 
 
 Not even his own children knew, though they might 
 partly guess, what his trouble meant and entailed upon 
 him. Never had wife a more tender, devoted husband. 
 Hand and foot he tended and cared for her, even to 
 brushing and combing her long hair, which never to the 
 end of her life was streaked with white. Her affliction 
 only endeared her the more to him. He was ever by her 
 side, and all his thoughts were for her pleasure and com- 
 fort. To his boy and girl he was henceforward both 
 father and mother, instructor and ruler, playmate, 
 guide, philosopher, and friend. Alone he brought them 
 up, alone he educated them, alone he ordered his house 
 and controlled his servants, Everything, even to the 
 most minor domestic affairs, hung upon his shoulders, 
 and he stood alone. 
 
 One thing at once became evident to him after the 
 first few crushing months of his trial, and that was that 
 if he was to preserve health and spirits he must seek out- 
 side distraction. Forthwith he threw himself heart and 
 soul into every kind of pursuit possible to him under the 
 circumstances, and particularly he redoubled his efforts 
 on behalf of others. If he had worked hard for his 
 neighbours before, he now worked twice as hard. Tiring 
 of occasional duty, he attached himself as clerical assistant 
 to a neighbouring clergyman and friend, the Hon. and 
 Rev. J. H. Nelson, greatnephew of the mighty seaman, 
 who held the Rectory of Shaw, four miles distant. Curate 
 he could scarcely be considered, since the stipend he 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 accepted to make the matter binding was nominal only 
 (Never at any time did he derive any income worthy 
 the name from his clerical profession.) But with two 
 and three services each Sunday, saint's-day and other 
 week-day duties, Sunday-school teaching and visiting, 
 he did a full curate's labour. It was work for which he 
 was naturally well endowed, for he was a particularly 
 good preacher. His sermons (at first written, latterly 
 extempore, but always carefully prepared) were scholarly 
 and finely worded, with the true " grip " of conviction, 
 which riveted the attention even of the most somnolent 
 of Sunday afternoon congregations. Theological hair- 
 splitting and abstruse problems of divinity were not to 
 his taste. He loved best to choose his text from the 
 burning pages of Isaiah, and send his hearers home with 
 the stirring message or the stern warning ringing in their 
 ears. He was the lucky possessor of a splendid and most 
 sympathetic voice which he knew how to use to best 
 advantage. He ingratiated himself immediately with 
 all with whom he came into contact. Had his tastes and 
 inclination really lay, as he once thought they did, to- 
 wards the life of a parish priest, there is no doubt he would 
 have made a highly popular and successful one. 
 
 For seven years he held his position at Shaw, driving 
 the four intervening miles in summer and riding them 
 in winter, always with such regularity that the cottagers 
 whose houses he passed set their clocks on Sunday morn- 
 ings by his appearance. He allowed himself no holiday, 
 save the usual " parson's fortnight " every autumn 
 when he took his family to the seaside. In all those years 
 he never once missed a service, or, save once when on a 
 frosty day his mare came down under him, was even a 
 minute behind time. To this riding and driving in the 
 open, through all weathers, he attributed his recovered 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 health, and the fact that never during all that while did 
 he once suffer cold or indisposition. 
 
 But he had plenty of other vent for his activity, and 
 scope for his enterprise. The great event of the year to 
 his village was of course the flower show, and he now set 
 to work to add more attractions to the programme and 
 render it more specially unique every season. A cat 
 show was the first and very popular addition, and village 
 matrons brought their favourites in baskets, and children 
 staggered under their unwilling burdens, who frequently 
 escaped at the last moment ; and rows of sleek pussies 
 with ribbons round their necks, with and without their 
 families, labelled with fanciful names and prices, as 
 " Angelina, 1000 guineas," " Cleopatra, 500," and so 
 forth, sat on red cushions behind restraining wire netting, 
 and regarded the spectators with sulky indifference or 
 smug and purring self-satisfaction. 
 
 A donkey show was the next addition, and then all 
 manner of side-shows and exhibitions. One year a 
 skilful chef in white cap and apron, with portable 
 cooking stove, gave illustration to the villagers of the 
 making of wholesome and inexpensive soups and stews. 
 Another year a fountain (reputed to be of marvellous 
 healing power) spouted home-made lemonade. A display 
 of every kind of domestic handicraft was succeeded by a 
 bee tent, and practical illustration of the various means 
 by which enterprising cottagers might add to their earn- 
 ings. The Coldash Show was becoming a very popular 
 and widely known institution, and the fact that there 
 were practically no outside expenses connected with it, 
 that there were no paid assistants, and that Bacon did 
 the work with his own hands and devoted his time without 
 limit, enabled the enterprise to be almost self-supporting, 
 and to distribute substantial prizes with a list of sub- 
 
 136 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 scriptions far smaller than that needed by even the most 
 modest village institutions. Year by year Bacon added to 
 the attractions and at the same time lessened the expendi- 
 ture. He and his wife between them produced not only 
 all the flags and streamers which made the field on show 
 day a rainbow of colour, but they actually set to work 
 to manufacture the very tents which housed the ex- 
 hibits ; she sewing the long seams, he planning and 
 cutting out the material, arranging the gores, turning 
 the finials, planing the poles, and working the ropes. The 
 sewing and arranging were all done in the garden in summer 
 time, the material spread out on the grass, and in a few 
 years they made some dozen and more tents, several of 
 considerable size, and equal to any professionally turned 
 out articles. 
 
 The next economy was to set up a printing press and 
 outfit. An upper room of the house was given over for 
 the purpose, and here Bacon spent happy hours turning 
 out handbills, prize cards, programmes, church notices, 
 leaflets, and so forth, not only for himself but for numerous 
 friends and acquaintances. In this, as in all his other 
 pursuits, he trained his children to help him, and it was 
 their keenest delight to pull the printed sheets deftly 
 from the press, to pick the type out of the cases, and later, 
 when their spelling powers were equal to the task, to 
 " compose " it in the " stick." It was a delightful way 
 of simplifying the art of learning to read. It put ordinary 
 information in a fresh light, and added details of new and 
 absorbing interest, so that the difference between an 
 " em " and an " en " quad, and the position of the letters 
 in a type case, were learned along with the alphabet and 
 as deeply impressed on the mind. 
 
 Desire to add to the attraction and usefulness of the 
 cottage show led constantly to new developments. The 
 
 137 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 first and most important was handbell ringing. Bacon 
 had never lost his old love of campanology, though it 
 had now been long since he had taken his place in the 
 ringing chamber. He might never hope to do so again, 
 but much pleasure could be derived from handbells, and 
 he conceived the design of forming and training a hand- 
 bell team, ostensibly as an attraction at the show and 
 other village functions, but very largely with a view to 
 providing a healthful interest among a certain class of 
 men, whose needs are apt to go uncatered for in village 
 circles. He chose his team of eight with great care. 
 There was the village baker, a local joiner and his brother, 
 four farmers or sons of farmers, and himself. Later, to 
 fill the gaps which occurred, a retired police officer, a young 
 schoolmaster, the village carpenter, and others, were added 
 to the ranks. Between these men and their leader there 
 soon arose a bond of almost brotherly union. They one 
 and all looked up to their teacher with wellnigh reveren- 
 tial love and admiration, and he in turn regarded them 
 as his own chosen disciples. They were at his beck and 
 call for every manner of enterprise ; no tasks were too 
 hazardous, or arduous, or ridiculous for them. They 
 followed him blindly wherever he led, and never had man 
 more faithful, devoted colleagues. Chief among them 
 in point of age, size, and strength was an old Scotchman, 
 once head-gardener in large estates, now a small and not 
 very prosperous farmer, of unusual bodily powers, of 
 iron nerve, of inconceivable rashness, with the strongest 
 sense of humour, the broadest Scotch dialect, the wicked- 
 est love of mischief, and withal the tenderest and kind- 
 liest heart that ever beat. Like so many of his class, he 
 had his weakness, the difficulty of saying " No " to the 
 promptings of so-called good fellowship, and it was for 
 this very reason that Bacon enrolled him a member of 
 
 138 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 the ringing team and specially shared with him all his 
 subsequent pursuits and hobbies ; thereby occupying the 
 old man happily and harmlessly many evenings that 
 might otherwise have been spent to less advantage. 
 For very many years, long after the ringing days were 
 over, the old farmer, by tacit consent, would come up 
 two and three nights a week, one being invariably Satur- 
 day, to play billiards, drink his single glass of whisky, 
 and discourse with great shrewdness on every conceivable 
 topic. Between him and my father there existed the 
 truest bond of friendship and mutual esteem. There 
 was nothing that either would not do for the other, but 
 it fell to Bacon's lot to perform the last office for his old 
 comrade. One bitter cold winter afternoon he was sum- 
 moned hastily by tidings of an accident, and, hurrying to 
 the farm, found that the old man, chilled by a long drive 
 from market, had fallen on his head from the cart he was 
 descending from on to the iron-hard ground of his own 
 yard. It was Bacon who lifted the poor grey head and 
 tried vainly to force stimulant down the lifeless throat. 
 It was Bacon who broke the tidings to the widow. It 
 was Bacon who wrote the obituary notice for the local 
 press and followed to the grave the old friend he loved 
 well and mourned deeply. 
 
 Another specially loved member of the band was a 
 tall, good-looking young farmer, stout and strong enough 
 apparently, but who, as the result of a neglected cold, 
 caught in the bitter nights of lambing season, sank pre- 
 sently into a decline a common enough story, unfortu- 
 nately, among his class. Bacon did everything he could 
 for his assistance. He took him to town to see a special- 
 ist, and afterwards, at his own expense, to the seaside, 
 where, I recollect, the visitor (it was his first sight of the 
 coast) remarked that the sea went uphill, and displayed 
 
 i39 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 an inordinate fear of being caught by the tide. But in 
 despite of all the disease ran its fell course, and there was 
 a touching scene when the two friends bade each other 
 a last farewell. For the young schoolmaster, who dis- 
 played musical talent, Bacon provided organ lessons, 
 which were turned to good account. For a fourth, it 
 may perhaps be mentioned (whose head measure was the 
 same as his own), Bacon dedicated one of his top-hats, 
 which was borrowed indiscriminately for weddings and 
 funerals. Not one of the party still living (for quite 
 half have joined the majority) but still gratefully remem- 
 bers their leader for many happy hours spent together, 
 for many little deeds of kindness, and a helping hand held 
 out in the hour of need. 
 
 The ringing team were as true-hearted a set of men as 
 could be desired, but it cannot be conceded that they were 
 musical geniuses. Scarce one of them could read a note 
 of music, and the task of teaching them was laborious 
 in the extreme. One method employed for aiding their 
 memories and sharpening their wits, was to compel the 
 defaulter to take a specially strong shock from a galvanic 
 battery, while his comrades stood round and jeered ; 
 but no shock was too strong for the old Scotchman, who 
 therefore remained incorrigible to the end of the chapter. 
 Nevertheless, by dint of much patience and by specially 
 invented and extraordinarily simplified " scores," most 
 successful results were attained. The Coldash Ringers 
 became famous throughout the whole neighbourhood, 
 and were greatly sought after for all manner of enter- 
 tainments, often going many miles to exhibit their skill 
 and add to the pleasure of their neighbours. Bacon's 
 bells were of specially soft tone, and in later years he 
 almost doubled their number with his own hands, making 
 the moulds from which the metal was cast in a local 
 
 140 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 foundry, and then turning these rough castings in his 
 lathe, tuning them carefully (by no means an easy task), 
 making the handles and clappers, and completing them 
 in every particular. The long range of handbells was 
 quite a feature of the Coldash home, and afforded no little 
 amusement to visitors and friends long after the old 
 team was scattered and gone. 
 
 Out of the interest excited by this new venture grew 
 a handbell competition, which for several summers was 
 a famous annual institution at Coldash. Campano- 
 logical experts, from St. Paul's and elsewhere, were the 
 judges, and competing teams came from all the country- 
 side, the whole neighbourhood flocking to hear them. 
 The success of these institutions encouraged Bacon to add 
 to them. The good old country competition once 
 widely popular of a ploughing match had died out in 
 South Berkshire, and Bacon set himself the task of re- 
 viving it. Various meetings took place under his gui- 
 dance. The movement was very popular, and, due to 
 his exertions and with the addition of his own original 
 attractions, " caught on " immediately. As in the case 
 of the cottage show, others took the enthusiasm and 
 followed suit, and ploughing matches are once more 
 common functions in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The next hobby was bee culture. In those days, 
 twenty years ago, interest was first being aroused in local 
 and specially village industries, and in the means by which 
 the labourer might be taught to add to his earnings and 
 to the limited interests of his life. Bacon became bitten 
 with the idea. He started bees himself, made his own 
 hives and appliances, went long distances to consult 
 authorities (for in those days the science of bee-keeping 
 was in its infancy), read up every book on the subject, 
 and adopted every latest improvement. Whatever 
 
 141 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 work he undertook he gave his whole soul to, with the 
 result that he always achieved success, and with bee- 
 keeping he was very successful indeed. 
 
 Where he succeeded others must share too. He 
 thirsted to impart his new-found knowledge. The out- 
 come of his desires was "The Newbury District Bee 
 Association. President, The Queen (bee). Hon. Sec., 
 J. M. Bacon. Expert, S. Knight, Jnr." Not much in 
 the way of subscription was needed to float and work the 
 new enterprise, for there were no salaries, Bacon did the 
 printing, and he and his wife made the bee tent with 
 their own hands. The " expert " was another true and 
 trusty friend, who can to this day recall merry memories 
 of long drives to outlying parishes, the secretary driving 
 his mare in a tax-cart laden with tent poles and canvas 
 and apparatus, a " skep " of bees between their legs, 
 which probably came unsecured before the end of the 
 journey, with exciting results; or of bee-driving ex- 
 periences when the bees got " nasty," and the two men 
 behind the black gauze curtains had to appear serenely 
 unconscious of bees up their sleeves, and bees down their 
 necks, and stings which, despite their immunity due to 
 the frequency of the occurrence, made it hard at times to 
 smile and look happy. The Bee Association did good 
 work, but it was sometimes uphill labour. The ignorance 
 of the peasantry was only equalled by their determination 
 to remain unenlightened. One summer Bacon thought 
 he had made some progress in his own home. It was 
 the custom of the village bee-keepers, of course, to take 
 their honey every autumn by the primitive method of 
 killing the bees. Bacon persuaded them to let him save 
 the bees' lives by driving them instead, giving the owners 
 the honey and taking the stocks himself. At first the 
 villagers were delighted enough with this plan, which 
 
 142 
 
The Home at Coldash 
 
 saved them all trouble in the matter ; but the following 
 winter was a specially bad season, and as a consequence 
 many hives died. The cottagers saw in this only the 
 direct result of the new-fangled notions, and reverted 
 promptly to their ancient barbarity. 
 
 Bacon taught his children to help him a little in this 
 work, but beyond their feeble aid he could get no assist- 
 ance from the Coldash yokels. The old Scotchman was 
 altogether too reckless ; the rest of the ringing team would 
 have followed him through fire and water, but they drew 
 the line at bees. His own gardener was the biggest 
 coward of the lot. He used to complain loudly that the 
 row of hives interfered with his work in the kitchen garden, 
 and tell endless stories of the way in which he had been 
 attacked. " But they never sting you, do they, Alfred ? " 
 asked my father one day after one of the periodical 
 growls. " No, sir, I can't exactly say as they stings, but 
 they pricks a bit sometimes," was the startling reply. 
 It was the same trusty servant who came to consult his 
 master one morning about the " harmonium " in the 
 stable, and Bacon was much exercised as to this strange 
 position of a musical instrument, until it dawned upon 
 him that " ammonia " was probably intended. It was 
 a friend of the gardener's, so he said, who died (not 
 inappropriately) of "begonia," and it was one of the 
 elders of the ringing team who one night, discussing 
 " ritualism," said he understood it was the custom in 
 certain places to burn " insects " in the churches surely 
 not a bad plan where ancient cushions and hassocks do 
 abound. 
 
IX 
 A FIRST BALLOON ASCENT 
 
 LOWER shows, bee-driving, and handbell contests 
 A were summer occupations, but there were plenty 
 of winter diversions as well. First and foremost, and 
 most keenly enjoyed of all, came firework making. I 
 suppose it was the boy instinct in Bacon, an instinct he 
 never outgrew, but it may be doubted whether even 
 ballooning afforded him truer pleasure than the making 
 and letting off of his own fireworks. In the many years 
 covered by the diaries aforementioned there stands one 
 entry, and one only, written in red ink. This is the 
 record of the firing of his first rocket a red-letter day in 
 very truth. As usual, he went into the art very thor- 
 oughly, made his own apparatus, and bought his own 
 experience. 
 
 [I His skill increased rapidly, and proportionately his 
 rockets grew in size until they culminated with a leviathan 
 of twelve pounds or more, the case strengthened by 
 lashings of cord, and secured to a regular pole by way of 
 stick. Making fireworks was a capital diversion for bad 
 weather, and the whole family, with the outdoor servants 
 to boot, all with large aprons and blackened faces, would 
 find employment in the barn which did duty as an out- 
 door workshop, cutting brown paper, rolling the cases, 
 " choking " the rockets, moulding stars, and loading 
 Roman candles. The outcome of several weeks' labour 
 would be a grand " display " one calm moonless night, 
 
 144 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 when the whole village would assemble on the lawn or 
 in the meadows, and gaze with open-mouthed and gasping 
 appreciation at flights of rockets, bursting shells, twirling 
 tourbillions, bombardments of coloured stars, gerbes, 
 Catherine wheels, and the like. Great was the excitement 
 afforded by these entertainments. The old Scotchman, 
 who must necessarily be chief assistant in the firing, kept 
 his leader in agonies by the tremendous and quite un- 
 necessary risks he insisted on running. One night a 
 " pigeon " escaped from its restraining cord, and after 
 ploughing an alarming course among the crowd, made a 
 neat little hole through the glass of a bedroom window 
 and burnt up part of a carpet and the towels on a towel- 
 horse, before its location was discovered. Winter by 
 winter the displays became more elaborate and ambitious, 
 while novel features were continually being introduced. 
 One time the home-printed programmes, illustrated with 
 spirited woodcuts (also Bacon's handiwork) announced 
 the promised arrival of distinguished visitors to wit, 
 King Hokie Pokie and certain of his loyal subjects from 
 their Cannibal Archipelago. In the midst of the fire- 
 works these dusky warriors, wild and ferocious of aspect, 
 suddenly appeared, dancing around a coloured watch- 
 fire to the strains of their national anthem ; while the 
 indulgent, but slightly scandalized, Rector of Shaw 
 beheld his clerical assistant, the dining-room woolly 
 hearth-rug about his waist, his blackened head stuck 
 with white goose feathers, wedged half in and half 
 out of a paraffin barrel, carried in triumph on the 
 shoulders of his comrades (the ringing team), similarly 
 attired. 
 
 The fame of Bacon's fireworks spread abroad. He 
 widened his field of action and gave exhibitions in sur- 
 rounding villages to help on local institutions, Primrose 
 K 145 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 League entertainments, and the like. His winters were 
 soon completely filled, for he became the recognized 
 popular entertainer of the neighbourhood. Generally the 
 handbells formed part of the repertoire, sometimes fire- 
 works, or both. Hokie Pokie occasionally showed him- 
 self, and so did Ching-Fo, the great Chinese giant, 8 ft. 
 5J- in. in height (but rather short in the arm), who was 
 very splendid in appearance but not very firm in gait, 
 since the Scotch legs would indulge in such vagaries and 
 fits of chuckling that the little baker above, who wore 
 the great green hat and portentous pigtail, was hard put 
 to, to preserve his dignity and balance. 
 
 On less ambitious occasions it was " Al-a-Humbug, 
 the Eastern Magician," who provided the entertainment. 
 Sufficiently disguised in spectacles, lofty cap, and long 
 white beard, and clothed in scarlet robes thickly em- 
 broidered with cabalistic signs, Bacon would mystify 
 rustic audiences by incomprehensible conjuring tricks of 
 the scientific order ; take their photographs through a 
 marvellous camera on sheets of paper which, when 
 damped, would display lineaments declared to be exact 
 likenesses ; and compound chemical smells of such ter- 
 rific intensity that the company have been known to rise 
 to their feet and fly, until open windows had somewhat 
 cleared the atmosphere. 
 
 One specially severe winter, when a good deal of distress 
 prevailed, Bacon went in to the subject of cheap and nourish- 
 ing food for the masses, and read all that Count Rumf ord 
 and other experts have had to say on the matter. The 
 result was the institution of soup evenings in our barn 
 at Coldash, when the villagers brought their basins and 
 consumed generous helpings of strong and tasty vege- 
 table soup, thickened with oatmeal and suet dumplings, 
 which was universally voted excellent, and the recipe of 
 
 146 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 which (in part arrived at by Bacon's own experiments 
 in a pipkin over the study fire, for he liked to experi- 
 mentalize in cooking as in all other things) was widely 
 disseminated. An hour or two's entertainment followed 
 the soup-eating, and the natural sequence of these social 
 evenings was the establishment of a young men's club 
 in that same invaluable barn, duly decorated and arranged 
 for the purpose. 
 
 The Coldash Club, while it lasted, was an unqualified 
 success, which is more than can be said for many similar 
 institutions. Again and again, at clerical meetings and 
 the like, Bacon heard his brother clergy acknowledge and 
 deplore the impossibility of preserving interest in village 
 clubs, started with considerable outlay and much flourish 
 of trumpets, but after the first few months, when the 
 novelty had worn off, deserted and inoperative. He 
 drew his own conclusions, and later, at the end of some 
 four or five years, looked back upon his own venture 
 with pardonable self-congratulation ; for until the day 
 when, through pressure of other work, he decided not to 
 reopen the club another winter, the muster roll was as 
 large as ever, the interest as keen, and, while the ex- 
 penses were practically nil, the loafing, idling element 
 of the village had most sensibly diminished. 
 
 For all this his own hard work and personal influence 
 were entirely to thank. He had his ringing team to help 
 him, but he himself was always present on club nights 
 to keep the ball rolling, and he spent his time in devising 
 fresh amusements and developments. The barn was 
 enlarged to twice its original dimensions ; a stage was 
 erected, a cowshed adapted as "green room," Bacon 
 added scene-painting to his other accomplishments, and 
 soon theatrical entertainments were the order of the day. 
 It was hard work to unearth much histrionic power in 
 
 i47 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 such a neighbourhood, but talent was discovered in un- 
 likely quarters, and not the most finished and elaborate 
 performances at the Lyceum or His Majesty's were ever 
 received with more whole-hearted and rapturous applause. 
 The barn came in useful also for other kinds of meetings. 
 At the close of 1885 was fought the first General Election 
 after the extension of the franchise. For the first time 
 the unsophisticated Berkshire yokel found himself the 
 proud but somewhat puzzled possessor of a vote, and 
 discovered that he had thereby become a person of im- 
 portance ; while the further fact that he was also likely 
 to become the dupe and tool of the unscrupulous had not 
 yet dawned upon him. Bacon was no politician. He 
 prided himself that newspaper reading occupied (or as he 
 styled it " wasted ") no part of his time. He was no 
 respecter of institutions whose antiquity was their sole 
 excuse. But at the same time he was no iconoclast, and 
 the doctrines of Disestablishment, Home Rule and the 
 like, were entirely distasteful to him. The Conservative 
 candidate for South Berks was a personal friend, the 
 model landlord of a large property. Bacon espoused 
 his cause heart and soul, and for the first and only time 
 in his life took an active part in an election. Conservative 
 meetings were held in the barn, specially enlarged and 
 decorated for the purpose. A small fountain played in 
 front of the stage, and above the speaker's head a large 
 Japanese umbrella, actuated by a bottle-jack, clicked 
 slowly and ceaselessly round, displaying in turn the heads 
 of various statesmen, one crowned by a big fool's cap. 
 I don't know whether this ocular demonstration may 
 have affected the issue, but the Conservatives won the 
 day amid wild excitement which culminated, as far as 
 Coldash was concerned, when Bacon brought the news 
 from Newbury (there was no telegraph in those days) 
 
 148 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 on horseback, with the blue ribbon of victory fluttering 
 from his whip. 
 
 My father was Ruling Councillor for a while of the 
 local Habitation of the newly founded Primrose League. 
 A far more important position was that of Poor Law 
 Guardian, which he held for several years. To the enu- 
 meration of all these labours, responsibilities, and pursuits, 
 must needs be added the entire education of his boy and 
 girl. No governess or tutor was suffered to invade the 
 sanctity of the home circle, no school terms apportioned 
 out the year. Friends and relations looked with appre- 
 hension on this unconventional upbringing, and were 
 minded to remonstrate at what they considered so 
 momentous and drastic an experiment. But Bacon had 
 the strength of his convictions, and, as ever, he went his 
 own way. His methods of teaching were unique but 
 extremely effective ; his curriculum also was distinctly 
 out of the ordinary. French and Latin, and later (for 
 the sake of the Cambridge " Little Go " ) Greek, were 
 included in it, though no great stress was laid upon them. 
 History, geography, and grammar were left very much 
 to look after themselves, but mathematics with both 
 his children was carried much further than usual at their 
 age, and natural sciences, elementary astronomy, chem- 
 istry, botany, and physics, formed a considerable part 
 of the day's work. His specially avowed aim was to 
 teach his children to think for themselves, and to implant 
 in their young minds the desire for knowledge as more 
 important than the knowledge itself. To this end he 
 assisted and encouraged them without s^tint in any pur- 
 suit for which they showed inclination, and placed at 
 their entire disposal a splendid library, the contents of 
 which were varied enough to suit the most catholic of 
 tastes, and to throw light upon every conceivable topic 
 
 149 
 
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 that came to hand. One peculiar method of education 
 he adopted was to set various Subjects on which, after 
 due interval for preparation, we children had to deliver, 
 without notes, and in the presence of a small audience, 
 something that we proudly termed a "lecture." This 
 proceeding possessed special advantages of its own. My 
 father held that many men (though perhaps scarcely as 
 many women!) are much handicapped in later life by 
 fright at the sound of their own voices, as witness many a 
 painful exhibition at after-dinner speeches and the like. 
 I think both of his children have lived to prove the wisdom 
 of the early training that taught us to assimilate facts 
 with a view to imparting them to others, and rid us of 
 nervousness and hesitation in so doing. 
 
 Thus passed several peaceful, useful years. They were 
 happy years too, on the whole, I believe. The shadow 
 of one great trouble never lifted, but Bacon had learned 
 the solace of hard work, and his children, with whom he 
 shared every interest and occupation, were growing more 
 and more into his companions. So far his labour had 
 been all for others, but there came a day, at last, when 
 he felt he had fairly earned a " treat " for himself, and 
 of the form which this indulgence was to take there could 
 be no doubt. The story of his brief holiday experience, 
 fraught as it was with unforeseen but all-important con- 
 sequences, was written by my father, some short while 
 afterwards, for a manuscript magazine circulating among 
 a few friends and relations. It has never, to my know- 
 ledge, been printed before, and may therefore be here re- 
 produced. It bears the, at first sight, ambiguous title 
 of "In Memoriam," and it must be borne in mind that 
 it was penned almost twenty years ago, when ballooning 
 was a very different matter from what it is at the present 
 day. 
 
 150 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 I left this world about 5.15 on August 2oth, 1888. 
 
 The above announcement, in that it reads only too 
 like an incident that must come into every life, needs 
 further explanation, for my departure from earth dif- 
 ered from that of most in the fact that I came back again . 
 
 The event I proceed to relate was one that I had 
 fondly looked forward to for many years. Indeed, 
 I may say it was the realization of the earnest wish 
 of half a lifetime. Never more eager than I did 
 sailor-boy " whistle to the morning star." And 
 not even Kingsley himself among the primeval 
 forests could cry with truer enthusiasm " At last ! " 
 than did I on a summer evening as I floated at a vast 
 height over the heart of mighty London, the roar 
 up from ten thousand streets ringing in my ears, and 
 the feeling that ten times ten thousand eyes were 
 centred on the little craft that bore me. 
 
 A balloon voyage worthy of the name is not al- 
 together an easy matter to arrange. It is easy 
 enough to pay your footing and secure a seat in an 
 ordinary ascent at any gala gathering, where the 
 aeronaut has based his estimate on getting to earth 
 again as soon as he is fairly out of sight, and so you 
 find your trip terminate somewhere the other side 
 of the next parish. But this was not a voyage, in my 
 eyes. So I sought the assistance of perhaps the best 
 man then before the public, Captain Dale, the aero- 
 naut of the Crystal Palace Company, and a distin- 
 guished pupil of the great Coxwell himself. He 
 readily entered into the spirit of my proposed enterprise. 
 
 He was making ordinary ascents from the Crystal 
 Palace every week, and we soon arranged that we 
 should wait for a full moon and, if conditions favoured, 
 stay aloft and pursue our voyage through the night 
 
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 until, as we agreed, we sighted the sea somewhere. 
 On the day decided on his engagement required him 
 to make his ascent at 5 p.m., and I therefore re- 
 paired to the Palace gardens early in the afternoon 
 to witness the process of filling and other prepara- 
 tions ; for the balloon set apart for us had a capacity 
 of 80,000 cubic feet and would require four hours for 
 inflation. 
 
 If any one looked like business that day I rather 
 fancy I did : clad in a mackintosh, though the day 
 was lovely, and straw hat, and wearing a satchel 
 over my shoulder containing a good square meal, in 
 case of emergency. However, on attempting to 
 step over the balloon enclosure a policeman obstin- 
 ately interfered, with a large amount of customary 
 bluster, and would nohow be convinced that I meant 
 going up. Bobby took some talking to, and when 
 I had presently won his confidence I took him to task 
 for his behaviour. " Well," he pleaded, " we have 
 to speak sharp. When it comes to the start you'll 
 see there'll be twenty of us here, and then we shan't 
 keep the crowd back." But when it did come to the 
 start the balloon herself kept her own ground clear, 
 as I shall show. 
 
 At the time of my arrival a large portion of the 
 space within the enclosure was spread with a tum- 
 bled heap of silk and netting, in the centre of which 
 an excrescence was rising, in shape like a mushroom. 
 It was not a little difficult to conceive that that inert 
 and shapeless mass would presently grow into a mon- 
 ster that would carry five men, and all their baggage, 
 away into the skies. But the filling was really going 
 on apace. The skipper himself soon made his 
 appearance, dressed like a naval warrant officer. 
 
 152 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 Captain Dale was a short, powerfully built man of 
 thirty or so, full of life and energy, with a keen grey 
 eye and jovial manner. He was full of spirits about 
 our venture, for he had made some two hundred 
 ascents, but never one that promised better luck. 
 The upper currents, if they kept steady for two hours 
 more, would carry us over the very heart of London, 
 a piece of good fortune which had never happened 
 before in his experience. " And what do you think 
 of the weather, Captain ? " I asked. His manner 
 of answering the question struck me. Craning his 
 neck backwards and shading his eyes, he bent his gaze 
 steadily on the light drifting haze far, far up. That 
 was the point of the sky that most concerned him. 
 " All is clear for 6,000 feet, if the clouds don't come 
 up." That was the great question, and none could 
 answer it, for that was the exceptionally wet summer 
 we all remember, and no day was to be trusted. 
 
 Meanwhile the mushroom grew on and began to 
 gather its skirts into shapely proportions. Pre- 
 sently there was a smell of gas and the Captain put 
 his nose down and sniffed the gale, and all his little 
 pack likewise put down their noses, and following the 
 scent we soon found a small rent in the silk through 
 which gas was escaping. This was a mishap, and 1 
 watched with something more than curiosity how it 
 was to be met. Apparently it was nothing new or 
 unexpected, for Mrs. Dale (who I believe generally 
 attended her husband's ascents) promptly appeared 
 from somewhere and sticking on a patch proceeded 
 to execute a makeshift job with needle and thread. 
 The reason of my mentioning this incident will be 
 apparent in due course. 
 
 But the mushroom was growing into a pear, and 
 
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 already it had lifted from the ground and was holding 
 higher yet and higher some gigantic letters which 
 now spelt out the word " Victoria." Moreover it no 
 she was growing wayward, and the Palace men began 
 to swarm round her and hook on bags of ballast which 
 she would tug at and drop and then tug up again. 
 
 And now there came on the scene another member 
 of the Dale family, Tommy, a merry, mischievous 
 little boy of six, who busied himself in energetically 
 poking in the silk with his fingers to see it puff out 
 again. Then it did occur to me that Tommy's 
 finger nails were very likely sharp, while the silk had 
 been shown already to be somewhat rotten. So I 
 tried to engage Tommy in conversation. I started 
 such topics as should stimulate the interest of a boy 
 of his years ; but they seemed beneath Tommy's 
 notice. At last, trying to edge him away from the 
 balloon, I asked with affected animation, " How 
 would you like to go in a balloon yourself another 
 day ? " "I've been up three times ! " he replied, 
 and with that took to poking away at the silk more 
 vigorously than before. 
 
 It was now within an hour of the start, and we 
 began more anxiously than ever to scan the sky. 
 The only certain indication was that the wind which 
 had been for some time rising would soon blow stiffly, 
 and worse than that, in gusts. Then our little party 
 began to muster. A train had just come in, bringing 
 down from his house in town a young Berkshire 
 squire whom I had induced to make the voyage with 
 me. He was one of those sporting characters who 
 are always ready for any new enterprise, one who 
 had shot big game of all kinds in jungle and back- 
 woods, and had had many an adventure both afloat 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 and ashore. He was greatly bitten with my pro- 
 posed voyage through the skies, but having lately 
 taken one of his own farms in hand declared he could 
 not afford it. However, I, his tempter was constantly 
 by his side and ever whispered wicked words. 
 " Hang it ! " he said at last with emphasis, " I'll see 
 if I can't sell a pig and come." And so there he was, 
 and he looked a happy man. There was also another 
 semi-professional, who was taking this opportunity 
 of gaining experience and at the same time of render- 
 ing valuable assistance. 
 
 And now I bethought me of anxious friends. 
 Were many dear hearts palpitating on my account ? 
 I couldn't be sure. Could I afford them one grain 
 of consolation ? Very likely. So I wrote a hurried 
 post card to a favourite brother. I appealed to the 
 tender feelings of my now friendly Bobby. Into his 
 massive palm, that had so often succoured his fellow- 
 man ! I dropped my post card, likewise a shilling. 
 He put the latter into his pocket, while I besought 
 him in faltering accents to put the former in a Palace 
 pillar box " when I was 1 gone." He stoutly promised 
 that he would ; perhaps he did. If so, it must be 
 there still, for it has never reached. 
 
 Hitherto I have said nothing of any other folks 
 there that day. There were, however, 20,000 of 
 them. It was a great temperance demonstration, 
 the most noteworthy feature of which seemed to me 
 to be the very large number of intoxicated people 
 taking part in it. They were moving our way now, 
 and began buzzing round us like a swarm of flies ; 
 there were the bluebottles too. You could see dozens 
 of them edging their way forward to keep the crowd 
 back from the balloon. 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 But who was going near it ? Restive and im- 
 patient of the gusts that battled with it, it was lurch- 
 ing and swooping and sweeping the ground around 
 us, and even the score of old hands who were in 
 charge had to put out all they knew. Then the car, 
 which had been at some distance, was brought up 
 and cleverly run into the spot where a perfect tangle 
 of ropes, moored to a pile of sandbags, still kept the 
 giant in check. A heap of these bags were tumbled 
 into the car, and then the Captain shouted, "If you 
 mean going, stand ready ; watch your chance and 
 run in between the ropes." 
 
 A moment later the chance came. There were 
 only twenty yards to clear, and the walls of the car 
 were but four feet high, but the risk lay in the sawing, 
 straining cordage. In a trice my companion and I 
 had sprung inside, when a dozen voices yelled, " Lie 
 down " and not without cause. To have raised one's 
 head just then would have involved decapitation. 
 
 And so for many minutes the scion of an ancient 
 family and a quiet country parson lay huddled to- 
 gether at the bottom of a sort of old clothes basket 
 in a manner as little dignified as can well be imagined. 
 " Eyre," I said quietly, " I should rather like some of 
 our Berkshire friends to see you just now." I could 
 feel him shaking with suppressed laughter, but his 
 only answer was a groan, for his legs were far too 
 long for such cramped quarters, and besides, those 
 sandbags were cruelly hard against our ribs. 
 
 Of what was going on around us we could only 
 guess. We were being rudely shaken about, while 
 outside we heard only the shuffling of many feet and 
 the laboured lugging and tugging of men as they 
 struggled with the straining gear. Through it all 
 
 156 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 the Captain's voice was heard ordering, encouraging, 
 occasionally denouncing ; always in earnest, particu- 
 larly so as, with a "Look out, there, "he and two others 
 jumped in pell-mell upon us. 
 
 That was our release, for we could now raise our 
 heads, as the ropes were all taut and in place. 
 Then there was no more delay, for bag after bag was 
 handed out, till the huge craft seemed but a feather- 
 weight. " Out with one more ! " and so we were 
 free and away. 
 
 Now I will solemnly aver that from this moment 
 till we came to ground again, we, in our little world, 
 never stirred or swayed. Down and away fell the 
 earth to a vast depth, and then began revolving be- 
 neath, but we never moved, nor, for us, did even the 
 faintest breeze blow. People may assert the contrary, 
 but I was there, and must know best. It was now 
 that the crowd got their chance, and used it in a lusty 
 cheer. It was un-English not to respond, so the voy- 
 agers stood up and cheered back. One, however, did 
 not rise, but kicked and struggled, and what he 
 shouted was not " Hurrah." 
 
 This individual was myself. In the confusion 
 the anchor had slipped behind my back and now had 
 penetrated my leather wallet, riddling its contents 
 and harpooning me like a whale, until I was rescued 
 by my companions. It was now apparent why the 
 man of so many voyages was so jubilant over this 
 one. It was impossible to tell till we were actually 
 away where our true course would lie. In fact, there 
 had appeared some risk of our fouling the great water 
 tank on our left. But there was no longer a shadow 
 of a doubt. Our line was straight for London, pro- 
 bably somewhere over the City. 
 
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 Southward the grounds we had just quitted were 
 closing up in narrowing perspective, the 20,000 had 
 frittered away into a handful of stragglers. And 
 the Surrey suburbs, looking their freshest and fairest 
 in the mellow evening light, were opening up below 
 us, while right ahead, and looming large and larger, 
 pile on pile, the vast grey masses of the Capital of the 
 World. 
 
 And nearer fast and nearer, 
 Do the red brick walls come. 
 
 And louder still and yet more loud, 
 From underneath yon rolling cloud, 
 Is heard the City's rumbling proud, 
 The trampling and the hum. 
 And plainly and more plainly 
 Now through the gloom transpires, 
 Far to left, and far to right, 
 In broken gleams of yellow light, 
 The long array of chimneys bright, 
 The long array of spires. 
 
 Then out spoke our bold Captain 
 
 " This won't do," he said. " The Palace balloon 
 must go a lot higher over London." " Luff," he 
 cries, and puts the helm hard a-port. This is what 
 you would suppose he would have done. What he 
 really did was to empty half a bag into empty space. 
 As he did so we saw to our dismay a stone go plunging 
 down. What billet that stone found it is vain to 
 inquire, but a few weeks afterwards there was an 
 indignant letter in the " Standard " from some 
 suburban householder, complaining that he had had 
 his roof smashed by a stone from Captain Dale's 
 balloon. But blame did not really attach to him. 
 According to the contract, it was the Palace Company 
 that had to supply the ballast and were answerable 
 for what was in it. 
 
 158 
 
RISING ABOVE THE CRYSTAL PALACE GROUNDS 
 
 See page 157 
 
 CRICKET FROM ALOFT 
 
 Page 159 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 Soon we came up with familiar features. Ken- 
 ning ton Oval was one of the first of these. There 
 were tiny lambs gambolling about on it, and so some 
 one remarked. But Eyre knew better. " That's a 
 cricket match," he said, and he was right. Presently 
 we saw the field change over and a couple of runs 
 made. Then the play stopped. What was up ? 
 A glance through a field-glass settled the point. By 
 general consent the match had been suspended, and 
 it was we who were the observed of all observers. 
 Then a cheer came ringing up. It was meant for 
 us, and we waved our acknowledgments and passed 
 on. 
 
 The next notable feature of course was the river. 
 A truly noble sight. Yes, to us Father Thames was 
 in truth a noble river. What was it to us if his banks 
 were unsavoury and his flood were mud ? From our 
 point of view his surface mirrored only the sunlit 
 sky, and up and down, to us, his stream was all pure 
 silver, and innocent of cats. Low-lying Lambeth 
 looked almost lovely, her Palace part of Paradise 
 let us hope it is. Westminster, of course, was very 
 conspicuous, so also was the huge unlovely roof at 
 Charing Cross. But it was downstream, below the 
 Docks, below where the Tower stands proudly, that 
 Thames stretched out his grandest reach. Sweep 
 away the bricks and mortar, and where in all England 
 would you find so fair a valley ? 
 
 We were eager to see the point where we should 
 cross the river, nor had we long to wait. Just west- 
 ward of Blackf riars Bridge we shot across, and sailed 
 above the chimney-pots of Ludgate Hill close under 
 (I mean over) St. Paul's, whose cross was dwarfed 
 to the humble level of the streets. There was no 
 
The Record -of an Aeronaut 
 
 haze nor a trace of smoke that lovely summer evening, 
 and every detail of the great capital lay mapped out 
 below us as sharply as Bacon himself would trace 
 it. What a sight, and what a rare chance was ours ! 
 Yet it was the sound that was the more impressive. 
 We had long heard the roar from the streets, but now 
 the big diapasons were all open and the swell full on. 
 The only epithet I can use is " indescribable." 
 
 In two respects the appearance oi the streets was 
 remarkable. They were not nearly so closely 
 crowded as to passengers they seem to be, and the 
 traffic, what there was, seemed scarcely moving. 
 But one could grasp as never before what were 
 the lungs of London and what her arteries. For 
 Oxford Street had lost its title to the name ; it was 
 the Oxford highway now. The Northern tramways 
 were the ways towards York and Cambridge, and 
 Piccadilly was the Bath Road. And there were those 
 greater arteries that carry England's life-blood to and 
 from her heart. We struck them now, three at once, 
 over Euston, St. Pancras, and King's Cross, along 
 which latter line one of the company's splendid 
 trains, going north, was trumpeting. 
 
 At length we were out over the open country, the 
 first time since the start ; the last trace of cockneyism 
 being the Alexandra Palace, into the grounds of which 
 we could have thrown a stone, provided there had 
 been another to throw. We were traversing Hert- 
 fordshire, and here in its own way the northern side 
 of London has as many beauties as the Surrey side. 
 Rich pastures everywhere, chequered with the last 
 of a late hay harvest ; on all sides country houses 
 with extensive parks. We could trace the plan of 
 their lawns and gardens as we passed over. From one 
 
 160 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 of these the barking of a dog came up with strange 
 distinctness. Presently my ears were filled with a 
 sighing murmur as of the distant sea. Then it ceased ; 
 after a little while it came again, clearer and fuller. 
 Then I discovered the cause. Down below lay a 
 large wood, and the leaves stirred by a now boisterous 
 wind were whispering up at us. They had a message 
 which they were telling but too truly. At first our 
 little party had been chatty, not to say jovial. But 
 of late our spirits had flagged considerably, and there 
 was a reason why. We could see nothing of the sky 
 overhead. Above us was our own stately ship, ap- 
 parently so motionless ; through the open mouth we 
 could look up into the great cavern where the misty 
 gas lay slumbering. We could see the graceful out- 
 line of silk and rigging sharp against a now dark 
 background, and we had misgivings that it hid from 
 view what we should far less like to see ; for the 
 whole horizon had been growing dark with cloud, 
 darkest where we were drifting. We had long lost 
 our bearings, nor could we tell to a county where 
 we might be. 
 
 Presently " rattle, rattle " against the silk over- 
 head told that a sharp shower was falling. We looked 
 in one another's faces, for we knew what showers 
 meant that summer. Some one hazarded a remark, 
 " We're under shelter here, anyhow." But the Cap- 
 tain smiled grimly as he replied, " Every drop that 
 falls on the balloon will reach us here presently." 
 Of course it would. Then another relapse into silence, 
 which I think was next broken by " Whoop, whoop," 
 on our right, and a wreath of white smoke was seen 
 wriggling through the valley, caterpillar-like. The 
 region we were over was too thickly wooded to allow 
 L 161 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 of our recognizing any certain landmarks, and all 
 we knew was that we were about to cross a line of 
 rail. Shortly two or three houses came in sight. 
 " We had better learn where we are," said the Cap- 
 tain, and gave a hard tug at the valve-rope. Up 
 surged the great earth till within two or three hundred 
 yards, when it approached no nearer. The skipper 
 had manipulated his craft most deftly, but straight- 
 way his reason seemed to forsake him. There was 
 not one solitary human being to be seen. What 
 we did see were flocks of sheep and herds of cattle 
 that bolted as we swooped down. Never have I 
 seen cattle bolt like that, positively bursting through 
 thick hedges in excess of terror; but no herdsman 
 was there, nor a living soul. No doubt when cattle 
 are frightened you should speak to them, and Dale 
 did speak to them in the form of a question. 
 Leaning over the car and putting his hand to his 
 mouth, in clear ringing tones he asked, " Where are 
 we ? " We chid him for his folly, but instantly a 
 score of human voices shouted back in lusty chorus 
 " Hatfield ! " The old aeronaut knew his business. 
 It was raining smartly, so smartly that even the 
 yokels were under cover, but we ought to have known 
 that the eyes of the whole countryside were on us. 
 
 Now Hatfield is a principal station on a great 
 main line. In an hour later we might be out over 
 the fens, where we could not find so much as shelter 
 through a drenching night. " Gentlemen," said 
 our Captain gravely, " I'm afraid the game is up. 
 I never saw so bad a sky. We'd better land where 
 we can, and try again a better night." His logic was 
 unanswerable, and we sadly gave assent. 
 
 Then followed an exhibition of skilful manoeuvring 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 it was a treat to witness. We could read in the old 
 voyager's face that he felt he had his work cut out, 
 and in real truth he had. We were on the outskirts 
 of Lord Salisbury's park, which are not only thickly 
 wooded but consist for the most part of small mea- 
 dows surrounded by forest trees ; while our balloon 
 was flying faster than a horse could trot. " Keep 
 cool," cried our pilot, " and do just what I tell you." 
 Then he made us all rise and hold each a bag of ballast 
 with its mouth open and ready for prompt use. 
 
 A further discharge of gas brought us down to the 
 level of the trees, and we should have infallibly fouled 
 a big elm but for a couple of hatfuls of sand smartly 
 dropped by one of us. Clearing the topmost boughs, 
 we got a view of the next field, a meadow of about 
 two acres with tall trees at the further end. In a 
 moment Dale decided to try his luck, and opened 
 the valve to the full, which brought us down with a 
 swoop. Quick as thought, but cool as ever, he laid 
 his hand on my shoulder, emphasising his one word 
 " Now ! " I dropped my allotted portion some- 
 thing like a hot potato and in a moment we righted 
 and shot up again. The next moment I was caught 
 by the arm and drawn against the rigging with a 
 sharp wrench. The anchor had been thrown out 
 while I was busied with the ballast, and I was en- 
 tangled in the cable. Dale had scarce time to liberate 
 me when he shouted, " Look out, all ! Sit down ! " 
 Never did I sit down like that! With a jolt that 
 tested every joint of one's backbone we plumped 
 down on the turf, and instantly bounded up again to 
 the full length of the cable. This was repeated again, 
 and a third time the car bumped down, and then lay 
 still. The monster that had carried us lay writhing 
 
 163 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 its length along the grass, trying to rise, but unable 
 to do so so long as we kept our seats. 
 
 Then shouts were heard, and in a moment several 
 rustics burst through the hedge and made for us, 
 some in their shirt sleeves, one with a pitchfork, all 
 intensely excited. Their leader, a man of upwards 
 of sixty, was simply beside himself. He had run as 
 fast as the youngest, and was out of breath to the 
 point of collapse. Still with his hand to his chest 
 he rattled on in broken sobs, " Who ever knowed a 
 thing like this ! To think of my living to see this 
 happen on my farm ! Lor, what a sight you was, 
 to be sure ! " But our Captain had an eye for busi- 
 ness, and cut in, " Look here ; you've a horse and cart 
 somewhere, and I must have it. What will you 
 want ? " " Ah ! you may well ask. I'm broken- 
 winded now for life, and you'll have to pay for that ; 
 then there's my hayrick getting wet, that'll be another 
 five shillings " ; and so on. Dale put some money 
 in his hand and bade him be quick with his cart, while 
 quickly and cleverly, with the assistance of the rest, 
 the silk was emptied, folded, and packed in its car. 
 Then our little party broke up, and I think the 
 " good-byes " were spoken by each with the feeling 
 that we had been comrades for an hour or two in a 
 little venture that would not quickly drop out of 
 mind. 
 
 When I got home, and for days after, I was evidently 
 fair game for everybody. One's friends said some- 
 thing smart and strangers passed me with a smile, 
 and little boys at street-corners in groups pointed 
 over their shoulders as I passed and said, "That's 
 he as went up in a b'loon." 
 
 The foregoing simple narrative is a tribute, as its 
 164 
 
A First Balloon Ascent 
 
 title testifies, to the memory of the chief actor in 
 our little enterprise. On the 2gth of June, 1892, 
 Captain Dale, in company with three others, including 
 his son (not Tommy), embarked on an ascent from 
 the Crystal Palace in a craft utterly unfit for service. 
 After rising a few hundred feet a rent occurred low 
 down in the envelope, which quickly split up its 
 whole length. In that fatal emergency Dale did all 
 that lay in man's power to do. He threw out every 
 thing in the car down to his own coat, and so far 
 successfully that his son and one other, though 
 badly hurt, survived. But he lost his own brave 
 life in that terrific descent. His wife was witness 
 of the tragedy. 
 
 Lightly lie the turf above him ! 
 Earth will restrain him never more. 
 
 165 
 
X 
 
 AN UNCONVENTIONAL CLERIC. 
 
 THE fact of Bacon's balloon ascent did indeed, as 
 he has said, enhance his importance in local circles, for 
 it must be remembered that in those days the present 
 fashion for ballooning, which he himself certainly started, 
 was a thing of the distant future ; and no one (with very 
 rare exception) ever even dreamed of making a voyage 
 in cloudland. But soon there arose other and widely 
 different cause for attention to be directed to him, so 
 that before six months were out his name was in every 
 mouth, and his latest achievement was* the one topic of 
 the entire neighbourhood. 
 
 To understand rightly the next important episode in 
 my father's life it is necessary to recall the times in which 
 it occurred, and to reconstruct (no easy task) the mental 
 atmosphere of eighteen years ago. Thought has moved 
 apace in these latter times, and to read to-day of the 
 battles that then raged under the banners of " Science " 
 and " Faith," the fiery theological onslaughts, the answer- 
 ing heavy artillery of Huxley's " Nineteenth Century " 
 articles and the like, is to marvel that so much breath 
 and acrimony (and ink) should have been expended over 
 the slaying of the already slain, and frequently to wonder 
 vaguely what all the fighting was about : so many an 
 outwork, wildly contested on both sides as the key to 
 the whole position, is now wholly abandoned as of no 
 importance whatever ; so many a so-called bulwark 
 over which the wordy battle has surged to and fro is now 
 
 166 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 tacitly conceded with scarce a thought. Perhaps it is 
 tolerance, perhaps indifference, perhaps greater wisdom, 
 that is to thank. Be that as it may, the noise of warfare 
 has faded into distance, the weapons have been laid 
 aside, and Peace spreads her wings once more over the 
 deserted battlefield. 
 
 It was far otherwise half a generation ago. The fight 
 was then at its fiercest, and it was altogether impossible 
 that a man of Bacon's nature and temperament should 
 fail to find himself in the thick of it. As has been already 
 stated, my father in his college days had been a personal 
 friend of Clifford, and the influence of that fearless 
 thinker had effect upon him which later years but served 
 to ripen and develop. The love of science was born and 
 bred in him, and though, until now, his tutorial work, 
 his own troubles and ill-health, and his voluntary labours 
 for others, had in turn prevented him from actual re- 
 search, he read largely and widely and kept himself 
 abreast of current scientific discovery and thought. In 
 1888 he became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical 
 Society, and about this time he exchanged the small 
 telescope he had long possessed for a serviceable 4^ 
 refractor, which he mounted equatorially in an observa- 
 tory on high ground above the house. The observatory, 
 from its brick foundation to its ingeniously sliding roof, 
 was entirely his own construction, as was the equatorial 
 mounting of the telescope and the mechanism which 
 drove it. Later he added a reflector to his equipment, 
 and then he took to speculum grinding. With the aid 
 of a home-designed and home-made machine he ground 
 and polished, all through one winter, a twelve-inch 
 mirror which he subsequently silvered and mounted in 
 a second and larger observatory added (with a dark 
 room) to the first. 
 
 167 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 These observatories, I recall, were put to many other 
 than their original purposes. They were connected with 
 the house by a home-made telephone, and in warm wea- 
 ther we turned them into a sort of glorified summer 
 house. We children learned our lessons in them, my 
 father made them his study, and once, when the house 
 was crowded, he and his little son passed the night there 
 in hammocks slung from the roof. This, however, by the 
 way. They served their legitimate use on many a frosty 
 winter evening and clear summer night when Bacon spent 
 long and happy hours with his telescopes, making stellar 
 observations, but more especially sketching lunar detail, 
 a work for which his equipment seemed best fitted, with 
 results that he published from time to time in scientific 
 journals. They were also the scene of frequent im- 
 promptu astronomical lessons to friends and neighbours, 
 who came to have their first glimpse of the heavenly 
 bodies through a telescope, and were duly impressed or 
 disappointed according to the expectations they had 
 formed. " It only looks like a lot of old mortar ! " was 
 the rather disgusted comment of one of the ringing team 
 on the scarified countenance of our satellite. 
 
 Through astronomical work and meetings, as well as 
 by wide reading, Bacon was growing ever more in actual 
 touch with the scientific world, their methods of thought 
 and labour ; and infallibly there began to arise in his 
 mind comparisons between them and the clerical world 
 with which he had, up till now, been so much thrown in 
 contact. The difference in those days appeared to him 
 sufficiently striking. 
 
 In sharp contrast to the spirit of patient, humble in- 
 quiry and cautious utterance on the one hand, he heard 
 not seldom the dogmatic assertion of ecclesiasticism 
 hurled with anathemas at the so-called unbeliever. In 
 
 168 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 place of the prudent statements, delivered only after 
 laborious investigation and thought, was too often the 
 rash dogmatism of ignorance. Bacon's blood boiled 
 when, at a certain meeting of the Clerical Club to which 
 he then belonged, the assembled parsons discussed the 
 position of Hell, and fixed it comfortably to their own 
 satisfaction, and in accordance, so they said, with latest 
 scientific discovery, in the centre of the earth. Be it 
 remembered always that this was in the " eighties," that 
 Bacon lived in a sleepy part of the southern counties 
 where change was slow to penetrate and old traditions 
 lingered. Be it conceded that there were, even then, 
 and in high places also, splendid examples in the way of 
 church dignitaries who had really conformed to altered 
 conditions and placed themselves in line with modern 
 thought and tendency. Nevertheless it has to be owned, 
 on the other hand, that these pioneers were greatly in the 
 minority and regarded askance by their own side ; that 
 instead of trying to understand and adapt themselves 
 to the change which increased knowledge was bringing 
 in conditions of thought, clerics too often made the fatal 
 mistake of merely ignoring or, worse, fiercely denouncing 
 such change ; that a spirit of intolerance was abroad, 
 and that, above all, the spell of a rigid conventionalism 
 was upon the whole Church, paralysing any effort that 
 might be made to move forward, be it never so little, 
 with the times. 
 
 Under such restraint Bacon began to grow restive, and 
 grew ever more so as time went on. He believed himself 
 in a false position, and the thought was intolerable to 
 him. Narrow clerical trammels, and they were narrow 
 indeed in those days, were growing very irksome, and 
 the day came at length when he felt he was right to cast 
 them aside. But there should be no mistake as to the 
 
 169 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 reason for his action. He wished to vindicate his attitude 
 to the world, and he chose his own method of doing so. 
 One day the Clerical Club aforementioned met at his own 
 house, and my father took the opportunity of reading 
 them a paper of an unwonted and unwelcome description. 
 Putting, by way of conceit, the words in the mouth of 
 his famous namesake Roger, and speaking as the ghost 
 of that much persecuted scientist yet among them, he 
 pointed out how the same spirit of intolerance to new 
 truths of which he must accuse them was the same which 
 had betrayed the clerical world into much grievous error 
 in the past, even to the torture of a Galileo and the burn- 
 ing of a Bruno, and would surely do so again, did they not 
 realize, before it was too late, that certain of the teachings 
 of the Church, unless they were to become a mere dead 
 letter, must, as all other teaching, move with the times. 
 As was but natural, so daring a statement, daring at least 
 for those days, emanating from one of their own cloth, 
 caused some little fluttering of the clerical dovecote, 
 and Bacon was branded as a dangerous man who was 
 carrying his eccentricities over far. But worse was to 
 follow. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1889, Bacon, after seven 
 years' work there, definitely severed his connection with 
 Shaw, and by so doing closed the chapter of his pastoral 
 labours. Simultaneously there appeared, under the title 
 of " The Curse of Conventionalism : A Remonstrance, 
 by a Priest of the Church of England," a pamphlet from 
 his pen, in which he expounded his position and the reasons 
 which had led him, after long consideration, to his present 
 course. It was a trenchant, possibly a too trenchant, 
 indictment of the attitude of the Church towards scientific 
 knowledge and thought, written with the fire of righteous 
 indignation, almost with the enthusiasm of a rebuking 
 
 170 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 prophet. It was addressed to " My Brothers," and 
 started with the three postulates or " ominous signs " 
 that : 
 
 " Our flocks have grown thinner. 
 
 " That our hold upon them is less and ever lessening, 
 and 
 
 " That the old faith is being boldly challenged. 
 
 And went on to enforce and expound as the causes, that 
 
 " The world has progressed, while we have not. 
 
 " That being out of date, we are also out of touch. 
 
 " That neither what we practise nor even what we 
 preach bears any true resemblance to what Christ taught." 
 
 For the rest a couple of quotations shall suffice : 
 
 " And why all this sad blunder on our part ? Why 
 do we fall back on that marvellous special pleading, 
 which a Ballantine might envy, in order to hold our 
 position ? Few things distress me more. Beyond mea- 
 sure I wonder at the elasticity that divines discover in 
 their text, and the surpassing ingenuity with which they 
 can make white read like black, but most profoundly do 
 I distrust both. And in Heaven's name why are we in 
 this false position ? We are taunted with being * literal 
 but illiterate,' and is not this true ? And in consequence, 
 are we not doing untold mischief to our high cause ? Is 
 it not we, and not the Book, that has been in error? 
 Would not this error be avoided if only we were a little 
 more modest and humble minded, a little less bigoted 
 and dogmatic ? " 
 
 And again, further on : 
 
 " But what of our general attitude ? Is a desperate 
 attempt at reconcilement so imperative that it should 
 be made at any risk to truth ? Is it wise that our teachers 
 of religion should try to cover a bad position by reckless 
 statements on points of which, as a body, they are pro- 
 
 171 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 foundly ignorant ? Can it be well, for instance, that 
 they should go about with the ready falsehood that 
 ' Darwinism has broken down,' when it was never more 
 firmly established ? Or the old platitude that ' all 
 men, savages included, naturally believe in a future life,' 
 when recent authorities tell us, on the contrary, ' that 
 whole nations, constituting from first to last the immense 
 majority of the human race, have had none of these 
 ideas.' Ignorance will not excuse the perversion of fact. 
 . . . But I am wellnigh out of patience. As matters stand 
 I see I am not properly one of you and will not pretend 
 to be. I will admit no compromise, for I must be wholly 
 loyal or withdraw. For the present at least I must stand 
 out, and if only my doing so be properly understood I 
 shall not regret the wrench." 
 
 The publication of this pamphlet was as the bursting of 
 a bombshell in that quiet neighbourhood. Bacon had 
 foreseen that it would be so. Sympathetic friends, 
 knowing of his purpose beforehand, had warned him that 
 social ostracism would be the result, and even urged upon 
 him the expediency of leaving a place where he would 
 infallibly incur great unpopularity. It was indeed a 
 daring and fearless step to take, but Bacon had the 
 strength of his convictions, with a holy horror of all 
 insincerity and humbug, and it seemed to him that nothing 
 short of such public expression would satisfy his con- 
 science and make clear his standpoint. A perfect tor- 
 nado of anger, horror, indignation, and pained surprise 
 uprose and for a time engulfed him. One brother cleric 
 wrote begging that he might be allowed to buy up the 
 whole edition of this dangerous work and destroy it ; 
 others attempted more or less feeble replies. Grave elders 
 strove to overawe him by the weight of years and ex- 
 perience, and self-confident youths to silence him with 
 
 172 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 specious argument and invective. So keen was the feel- 
 ing excited that Bacon felt constrained to explain himself 
 yet further, and did so fearlessly in a crowded public 
 lecture in Newbury town hall. Socially he was for a 
 while under a cloud. His name was struck off certain 
 visiting lists, sundry acquaintances ceased to patronize 
 his annual garden-party, a few eyes became short-sighted 
 when he passed. But he cared not a scrap. The few 
 friends he lost (and those only for the time) were more than 
 atoned for by the very many he gained. From all over 
 the country came letters of sympathy and appreciation, 
 and thanks for his outspoken courage, which had voiced 
 the silent opinions of earnest thinkers; and on the strength 
 of the little pamphlet more than one lasting friendship 
 was made. 
 
 Henceforward Bacon gave up his clerical work, and 
 with it the conventional coat and collar of his calling. 
 Nevertheless, although he never resumed the latter out- 
 ward signs of his profession, he did not wholly abandon 
 duty. True, he scarcely ever preached again. "I am 
 waiting for the time when I can have a lantern screen 
 stretched across the chancel arch, and a photograph of 
 the Orion Nebula, or some other glory of the heavens, to 
 talk about," he would declare. But brother clerics in 
 distress could ever rely upon his ready services, and special 
 friends count on his help at Church festivals and the 
 like. Bacon was always a Churchman, in the highest 
 sense of the word, all his life. If his beliefs and aspira- 
 tions had been less real to him than they were he would 
 not have striven so hard to free them from the fettering 
 bonds of conventionalism and insincerity. 
 
 Now that Bacon's work at Shaw was at an end he 
 had more time to spend on other things, to start new 
 interests and to improve on old ones. A good portion 
 
 173 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 of each summer was still devoted to the Cottage Show, 
 which year by year developed fresh features until it 
 became an absolutely unique function, as popular as it 
 was unusual. As the best way of illustrating Bacon's 
 originality and fertile fancy in this direction, let us briefly 
 recall the scene at one of these alfresco village entertain- 
 ments, held about this time. 
 
 The bills advertising the Coldash Show of 1892 con- 
 tained, in addition to the usual notices, the startling 
 announcement of an important archaeological discovery. 
 Experts, it was stated, had lately determined the site, in 
 the grounds of Sunnyside, of an ancient battlefield, 
 probably of Plantagenet date. The occasion of the 
 Cottage Show, held on the very spot, would be taken 
 advantage of for the opening of the barrow, when im- 
 portant discoveries might be anticipated. 
 
 So interesting and mysterious a statement naturally 
 excited much local curiosity, which combined with a 
 fine afternoon to draw a record concourse of visitors, who 
 duly inspected the flowers, vegetables, cats, donkeys, 
 and other exhibits, found pleasure (not being over- 
 critical) in the performance of the rustic band, and 
 regarded with half-incredulous anticipation the barrow, 
 represented by a carefully roped-off space of perfectly 
 clear ground in front of the observatories. 
 
 The hour arrived, and the expectant crowd, grouped 
 round the ropes, made the acquaintance of the great 
 archaeologist, Professor Bosch, introduced to them by 
 Bacon as the authority on whose advice the tumulus 
 was to be explored. The professor, a venerable gentle- 
 man with long white beard and loose flowing coat, 
 explained at some length, and speaking with a strong 
 German accent, the various circumstances which had 
 led him to his present opinion regarding the existence of 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 the ancient battlefield, and finally indicated the precise 
 spot where the excavations should be commenced. 
 
 Bacon, who had been listening indulgently, yet half 
 incredulously, to the expert's tirade, thereupon gave the 
 signal to a couple of navvies with mattock and shovel, 
 standing by, to fall to work. It was obvious to every 
 one that the portion of grass meadow before them was 
 absolutely unbroken and had never been tampered with 
 before ; yet the removal of the first sod revealed the 
 presence of a number of implements, bones, etc., which 
 the professor excitedly declared to be of the twelfth 
 century, and exactly confirming his deductions. The 
 crowd was now growing interested, and watched the 
 digging operations eagerly. The navvies worked with 
 a will, and soon achieved a hole of respectable size and 
 depth, when one of them, shrieking aloud in terror and 
 dropping the shovel from his paralysed hands, suddenly 
 collapsed in a dead faint. In a moment Bacon was at 
 his side, administering restoratives, striving to calm 
 him, and endeavouring to elicit the cause of his fright. 
 Utterly unnerved, the poor workman could only stammer 
 out, " There be Summat alive down there ! " and relapse 
 into fresh convulsions. In vain Bacon assured him that 
 such a thing was absolutely impossible. Even as he 
 spoke there was a sudden convulsion at the bottom of 
 the hole, and there struggled forth, blinking, into the 
 daylight the bulky form of a burly monk, rope girdle, 
 rosary, and all complete, the earth still hanging about 
 the folds of his brown cassock and hood. " Donner und 
 Blitzen ! Friar Tuck ! " gasped the professor, falling 
 back in amazement before this apparition, and the Friar, 
 responding to his name, but still half dazed after his 
 seven hundred years incarceration, put his identity 
 beyond doubt by inquiring thickly for a mug of ale. 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 This unexpected appearance of a historical character 
 half prepared the delighted but much mystified crowd 
 for what was coming, and when a tall figure, clad in 
 Lincoln green, bow in hand, with horn and baldrick, 
 reared himself from the hole, they hailed him with one 
 accord as Robin Hood ! 
 
 The greeting between the two outlaws who found 
 themselves once more upon their native soil was hearty 
 but brief, for the Friar was engaged with his ale, and 
 Robin was seized with the keenest desire to go forth 
 immediately and shoot red deer. In vain Bacon repre- 
 sented to him that red deer were now extinct in that 
 part of the world, and he might get himself into trouble 
 with the local authorities. There was no staying him, 
 and he wandered forth into the field. 
 ^uThe next person to emerge from the excavation was 
 a tall, slight youth, in the garb of a wandering minstrel, 
 his " wild harp " (it bore much resemblance to a modern 
 ban]o) " slung behind him." To the crowd (who had 
 failed to recognize him) he explained that his name was 
 Blondel, the same who had rescued the Lion-hearted 
 King from his enemies, discovering his place of imprison- 
 ment by playing his favourite tune outside the castle 
 walls, when the captive answered him from within. 
 " Ah ! would that my dear master were with me now," 
 lamented the faithful servant. "If he were but near 
 he would yet answer to my song." Upon his banjo 
 (beg pardon, harp) he struck the familiar notes that to 
 the crowd seemed singularly like " Ta-ra-ra-boom-de- 
 aye," but this can only have been curious coincidence, 
 for on the instant there came from the depths of the 
 earth an answering bellow, and the barrow was stirred 
 by a perfect earthquake. It has been mentioned before 
 that the old Scotch farmer was a man of large propor- 
 
 176 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 tions. Encased in sheet-iron and leather, crowned by 
 a massive helmet, and encumbered with a sword and 
 shield that suggested a tea-tray which had seen better 
 days, it was a work of tremendous effort to hoist him 
 through the hole. But it was done at last, and Cceur- 
 de-Lion himself stood revealed, brandishing right and 
 left, and entirely forgetting his part in his excitement. 
 
 A little prompting, however, recalled him to the know- 
 ledge that he had important business connected with Sara- 
 cens yt to see to in the Holy Land, which it appeared he 
 had already over-long delayed. So eager was he to be 
 off that, as the best way of appeasing him, one of the 
 prize donkeys was requisitioned, on which he was mounted 
 and rode off through the crowd under guidance of a police- 
 man, who was charged to show him the quickest road 
 to Palestine. But suddenly there came the sound of 
 advancing music and trampling feet. The local band, 
 playing lustily, " What shall he have who killed the 
 deer ? " accompanied by a troop of excited rustics, 
 were escorting back in triumph Robin Hood, who had 
 slain, not a red deer, but the nearest modern equivalent 
 he could find a tabby cat. This animal (stuffed) he 
 carried with him, and all would have gone well had not 
 the Sheriff of Nottingham inopportunely appeared with 
 a warrant for Robin's apprehension on the charge of 
 shooting game on the royal preserves. It boots not 
 further to enlarge upon the subsequent proceedings, when 
 the fun waxed fast and furious, nor to relate how Robin 
 was sentenced to be hung, but on winding a last blast 
 on his horn was rescued by a band of green-clad foresters ; 
 how the tables were turned, and the Sheriff came under 
 sentence of death, and was forced to plead piteously 
 for his life ; how King Richard grew bloodthirsty, and 
 wanted personally to behead everybody, down to Friar 
 M 177 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Tuck, now sleeping peacefully in a wheelbarrow, his empty 
 mug clasped close to his chest. As a temporary measure 
 the cat had just been slung up on the gallows, hastily 
 erected, when all too quickly the end came. A sudden 
 explosion rent the air, and startled the group happily 
 engaged in hanging the cat. A cloud of fire and smoke 
 issued from the hole, and this had scarce cleared away 
 when there emerged an awesome and grizzly figure of 
 coal-black hue ; horns surmounted his terrible head, 
 a pitchfork was in his hand, and he trailed behind him 
 a long black tail. Certain austere clerics among the 
 onlookers affected to look shocked, but the crowd shrieked 
 with delight as His Satanic Majesty claimed the truants. 
 " Enough of this ! Back you go ! " thundered his dread 
 command, and with his fork he drove them shrieking 
 down the hole, himself last of all seizing the wheelbarrow 
 in which the unconscious Tuck still slumbered, and 
 trundling it off the field. 
 
 Only a very few among the onlookers that afternoon 
 knew the secret of the mystery by which a dozen men 
 had emerged from an unbroken patch of ground in the 
 middle of the meadow. These few recalled how, a year 
 before, Bacon and a nephew had spent some while in 
 digging out an elaborate excavation in the soft sandy 
 soil close to the observatories, which hole had grown 
 into a veritable cavern, with chambers capable of holding 
 several people at a time. Over the entrance the larger 
 observatory had subsequently been built, so that the 
 opening was entirely concealed from the outside. All 
 that was needed, therefore, for the illusion, was to 
 further excavate a long sloping passage from the cave 
 to within a foot or two of the surface, taking care not 
 to disturb the turf, which remained unbroken until the 
 occasion itself. The cave, by the way, long remained 
 
 178 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 a source of much amusement at Coldash. A visitor, 
 after inspecting the observatories, would be startled 
 by the pulling open of a trap-door in one corner, reveal- 
 ing a black, gaping hole with the top steps of a decaying 
 ladder, the end of which was lost in darkness. With a 
 little persuasion he might be induced to explore its 
 earthy depths, Bacon accompanying him with a lighted 
 candle, which somehow, at the end of the tunnel, would 
 get extinguished. In the pitch darkness which ensued 
 Bacon would take the opportunity of relating how he had 
 for some while suspected that the cavern was haunted ; 
 and, as if in confirmation of his words, there would begin 
 to be audible long low wails and moans, echoing round 
 the vault, and coming apparently from another world. 
 Somewhat startled, the stranger would turn to find him- 
 self alone, and by the time he had groped his way pain- 
 fully to the daylight, and found his host, and his host's 
 children (who had been blowing down a small lead pipe 
 in the outer observatory), laughingly awaiting him at 
 the top, he probably desired no further experiences. If 
 he did, however, he was set to climb an awkward and 
 rickety home-made ladder, leading to a tiny platform 
 thirty feet up the flag-pole, from which there hung a 
 gigantic speaking-trumpet. The platform was very 
 difficult of access, there being little to hold on to, and 
 though Bacon to his last days would scale it with the 
 utmost ease, the majority of his guests found it a much 
 more nerve-shaking experience than the cave, and 
 generally cried off before they reached the summit. 
 
 To the writer of these memoirs, writing now of days 
 of which she has the vividest recollection, the passing 
 years at this period of Bacon's life seem designated and 
 characterized by the pursuits and hobbies which filled 
 them. This was the winter when he bought the micro- 
 
 179 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 scope, learned how to prepare and mount specimens, 
 and fished the upland ponds for their minute denizens. 
 This was the summer when photography, now simplified 
 by the introduction of the dry plate, was reinstalled in 
 favour, and carried to a high pitch of proficiency, ever 
 afterwards maintained. That was the spring when he 
 learned to bicycle, that the autumn when the billiard - 
 table was erected in the old club-room. One year the 
 practical study of electricity occupied every spare 
 moment. Bacon's Son was now growing to an age when 
 the strong mechanical bent he inherited began to indi- 
 cate in which direction his future career should lie. 
 True to his acknowledged principles, his father laboured 
 to assist him to the utmost of his power ; and as the 
 best possible practice and object-lesson, resolved to 
 establish electric light throughout his house at Coldash, 
 he and his boy being sole engineers and mechanicians. 
 This they most successfully accomplished. The engine 
 was built at local works under their personal supervision, 
 the boiler erected by their own hands. Together and 
 alone they wound the dynamo, set up the cells and wired 
 the house, and when all was ready a " thirty-hour run " 
 test of twelve-year-old endurance triumphantly in- 
 augurated the installation, which for years was main- 
 tained by the two amateur electricians in completest 
 efficiency. 
 
 Perhaps it was the study of electrical matters necessary 
 for such a work that first directed Bacon's attention to 
 earth currents ; or possibly the realizing that in his 
 underground cavern up the field, far away from any 
 disturbing influence, he had an ideal observatory for 
 their investigation. Certain it is that about this time 
 he began to engage himself very busily in gathering 
 together all the information available concerning terres- 
 
 180 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 trial magnetism, and in conducting experiments on his 
 own behalf with the means at his command. A galvano- 
 meter, with specially sensitive needle, was placed in 
 the cave aforementioned, and in adjacent meadows 
 copper earth-plates, duly connected, were sunk in the 
 soil. Most careful watch and record was kept of the 
 results obtained, and presently we find Bacon writing 
 enthusiastically to a brother : 
 
 " I met with a little triumph yesterday in the work 
 I have been engaged in for several months. Airy and 
 other experimenters have never succeeded in tracing 
 earth currents through much less length of line than three 
 miles, telegraphic wires being always needed ; but having 
 just completed a very delicate instrument, I got a deflec- 
 tion of nearly 80 minutes through only no yards ! This 
 is probably important, and will fit in with my St. Paul's 
 experiments. I must peg away." 
 
 The St. Paul's experiments referred to, and which 
 Bacon had recently conducted, arose in this way : 
 
 Delicate instruments for recording the variations of 
 the earth's magnetism, consisting essentially of a magnet 
 slung by a double thread, and carrying a tiny mirror, 
 which reflects a spot of light on to a ribbon of photo- 
 graphic paper driven forward by clockwork, thus regis- 
 tering every minutest tremor which influences the needle, 
 are maintained at the observatories of Kew and Green- 
 wich. Nowadays, alas, they waste much of their valuable 
 time in recording such banalities as the daily workings 
 of the local electric railways and tram lines ; but in the 
 year 1890, which is the date of which we are now speak- 
 ing, the L.C.C. influences had not attained their present 
 wellnigh overwhelming supremacy, and the curious 
 differences in the records traced out in the same twenty- 
 four hours by identical instruments, stationed only 
 
 1*1 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 twelve miles apart, was one of the most interesting and 
 important results arrived at. 
 
 It occurred to Bacon that records both instructive 
 and valuable for comparison might be made at some 
 point midway between Greenwich and Kew, and further- 
 more it struck him that St. Paul's Cathedral was an ideal 
 spot for the purpose. For there in one huge building, 
 standing nearly on a straight line between the two 
 observatories, five miles from one and eight from the 
 other, could be found an admirable subterranean chamber 
 in the crypt ; while, with little trouble, another observ- 
 ing station might be utilized in the golden Ball, nearly 
 four hundred feet vertically above. The more he thought 
 oi it the more convinced did he become that the great 
 cathedral was the place above all others in which to 
 conduct his experiments ; and at last he boldly, if some- 
 what doubtfully, approached the late Dean Church, 
 who then held sway over St. Paul's, with the request 
 that he might be allowed the necessary facilities for his 
 observations during a whole summer night, since from 
 all considerations it was evident that night hours were 
 best suited for his particular purpose. Most courteously 
 the Dean granted ready permission, with no further 
 restriction imposed than the presence of his own head 
 verger ; and accordingly it followed that, late one June 
 evening, Bacon, and a young electrical engineer nephew, 
 who acted as coadjutor, carrying each their precisely 
 similar instruments, constructed on the lines of those 
 already described, were admitted by a small side door 
 into the vast, silent pile, dark save for one solitary gas 
 jet in the dim, far-away choir; totally deserted but 
 for the night-watchman, whose muffled footsteps echoed 
 ever and anon from distant gallery or aisle. 
 
 Having settled his companion to his work in the crypt 
 
 182 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 surely ghost-haunted at that hour ! Bacon laboriously 
 conveyed his instruments up the many hundred steps 
 that lead, through intricate ways, to the tiny eyrie at 
 the very summit of the building which goes by the 
 ambiguous title of " the Ball Room." There was a 
 touch of the romantic and adventurous about the whole 
 proceeding which specially appealed to him, so that he 
 oiten afterwards referred to that night as a delightful 
 and enjoyable experience, quite apart from its scientific 
 value. Perched aloft, a solitary sentinel, far above 
 the heads of the sleeping city stretched beneath, he kept 
 his pleasant vigil, and by way of passing the hours in 
 the intervals of taking ten-minute readings, jotted down 
 notes in the form of a letter, which may here be allowed 
 to tell its own tale : 
 
 " The hour is near midnight, and I am sitting alone 
 on the topmost ladder of St. Paul's Cathedral, my nearest 
 companion being Arthur Bacon, who is keeping a like 
 solitary watch four hundred feet below me. In a niche 
 in the wall beside me I have an instrument comprising a 
 delicately suspended compound magnet, whose sensitive 
 behaviour has been my constant care for some weeks 
 past. It is now from minute to minute telling a tale 
 which will, I trust, be of real value to the scientific 
 world. Meanwhile I have other things to note. A 
 grated window eighteen inches square, half-way up my 
 ladder, affords me a view of the great world outside, 
 which becomes a complete panorama whenever I mount 
 into the narrow stone platform under the great Ball, a 
 feat which I perform as often as I feel disposed to meet 
 the rude buffeting of a tremendous high-pressure blast 
 of cold but most refreshing air. The roar and rattle up 
 from the streets below which was so striking two hours ago, 
 
 183 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 now only reaches me as a distant murmur, scarcely more 
 noticeable than I heard it two years ago from a balloon 
 three thousand feet almost directly above my present 
 station. The frequent rail way- whistles, however, are 
 borne in from all quarters, and apparently from great 
 distances, and every now and then there is the unmistak- 
 able horn of a passing bicycle. But the great charm is 
 in the fading light and the comparative repose that 
 gradually settles down upon the restless city. The rows 
 of lamps still map out the well-known thoroughfares 
 and trace the bridges, and even here and there show by 
 reflected light the flow of Father Thames ; but these are 
 but night-lights while London herself has gone to bed, 
 and it is my concern to watch till she awaken once again." 
 
 Elsewhere, and in picturesque phrases, Bacon has 
 described the striking of midnight as heard that night 
 from his lofty coign of vantage : "It was some neigh- 
 bouring upstart tower far below me that led off in hasty, 
 fussy fashion, rattling through its part alone. This was 
 by way of recitative. But St. Paul's broke in reprov- 
 ingly, the chimes thundering out of the north-west tower 
 as never heard before, followed after a dignified silence 
 by the deep full stroke on the tenor, which sent a tremble 
 through the air. By this time there was mad frenzy 
 everywhere. From every quarter the strike of iron 
 tongues mingled in babel indescribable. It was quite 
 a long while before all was over and peace restored, and 
 even then one or two feebler voices contested queru- 
 lously who should have the last word." 
 
 This was the signal when, according to arrangement, 
 the observers were to change over, the colleague below 
 leaving the crypt at twelve precisely, and allowing 
 fiiteen minutes climbing to reach the ball. Almost im- 
 
 184 
 
An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 mediately after the clocks had finished striking, however, 
 Bacon heard his ascending footsteps apparently on the 
 flight below, and called out to him, " You are before 
 your time ! " To his surprise, no answer was returned 
 to this or to another shout some minutes later when the 
 footfalls were apparently just at hand. Only after 
 another ten minutes, spent by the nephew in steady 
 climbing, came the answering " Hallo ! " even then 
 from some floors beneath ; for in the quiet of that deserted 
 spot, and among the weird echoes of the mighty dome, 
 a strange acoustical phenomenon had manifested itself, 
 and magnified the sounds from the foot of the stairs, 
 despite intervening doors and passages, until they seemed 
 actually beside the listener perched at the very summit. 
 After this the letter continues : 
 
 " It is now two o'clock, and I have changed places 
 with my colleague and taken my turn below among the 
 vaults, and a couple of hours have passed pleasantly 
 enough in hunting up my old historical friends with the 
 aid of a dark lantern. 1 am sorry to say that I found 
 my own ancestor, Sir Nicholas, in a very sorry plight, 
 broken and dismembered ; it would seem that he has 
 found our national Cathedral anything but a sanctuary 
 in days gone by. But there go the chimes again, and I 
 am due aloft once more to see the sun rise and to com- 
 pare our notes of the night. I find my partner has got 
 a brave record of the last two hours, and the result of our 
 joint observations, when properly reduced, will have to 
 be sent to Greenwich and elsewhere. We have now the 
 task of packing up our delicate as well as bulky apparatus, 
 and getting it down the first awkwardly cramped and per- 
 pendicular ladders ; but it is safely accomplished, and 
 presently we are standing on the stone parapet watching 
 
 185 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 the first streak of returning dawn far away over the 
 G.P.O., which is still one blaze of gas-light from base 
 to roof. The freshness of the air and our elevation is 
 most refreshing, but we have a long descent to make, 
 and we mean to accomplish a photograph in the crypt 
 before daylight is upon us. ... Writing the rest of this 
 letter from home, I can add that the above-mentioned 
 photograph taken in the vault is not yet developed, and, 
 knowing well the remarkable property of the camera 
 to record appearances that are invisible to the naked 
 eye, I am of course prepared to find the picture reveal 
 something besides ourselves, and I shall at once under- 
 stand it if I see there, say, a military gentleman with 
 a classical nose and a one-armed companion. The last 
 hour of our sojourn in the Cathedral was devoted to an 
 exploring excursion through some of the unknown regions 
 of the vast building in company with the watchman of 
 the night, who at the outset explained that having only 
 been five years nightly on duty he, as yet, knew com- 
 paratively little of the endless intricacies of the place. 
 This sounded somewhat strangely, but the sober sig- 
 nificance of the remark was soon manifest, for a rabbit 
 warren would be a mere joke to that stone labyrinth. 
 The entire walls seem to be hollow with passage-ways 
 running simply everywhere, downwards and upwards, 
 crossing and recrossing in all directions, while every 
 niche almost is a trap-door and every column a stair- 
 case. Chambers and recesses seem without end, and 
 often on a lavish scale ; workshops, a mason's yard, 
 lead foundries, engine-rooms, museums, libraries, store- 
 rooms without number, all included in that stupendous 
 pile. The Dean's verger assured us that after thirty 
 years he did not know the whole of the building, nor 
 probably did any man living. He only knew that it 
 
 1*6 
 
m 
 
 An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 would be a week's work to visit every part. Another 
 day (or night) I must try again." 
 
 Just a year later, by the way, Bacon passed another 
 summer-night vigil under quite different circumstances. 
 With an old Newbury friend he made a pilgrimage on 
 Midsummer night to Stonehenge, to test photographically 
 the story that on the 2ist of June an observer, standing 
 on the Altar Stone of that mysterious temple of forgotten 
 rites, sees the sun rise exactly over the summit of the 
 outstanding monolith, some distance from the rest, 
 which goes by the name of the Friar's Heel. The result 
 of course but confirmed this well-attested fact, but at 
 the same time convinced Bacon of the futility of attempts, 
 which have from time to time been made, to arrive at 
 the date of Stonehenge by astronomical calculations, 
 using exact deductions, based on the very small change 
 which has taken place in the tilt of the sun's path since 
 the time when the stones were first set up. The mere fact 
 that the altar-stone has no mathematical centre is enough 
 to render any such task impossible, let alone the certainty 
 that the stones have shifted their position in the inter- 
 vening centuries. In Bacon's own words : 
 
 " That the peak of the misshapen and unsupported 
 pointed stone, some sixteen feet high, should still with 
 any accuracy lie in the same line of sight as it originally 
 did, would be the greatest marvel of all relating to 
 Stonehenge." 
 
 In the autumn of 1892 came a happy enough little 
 reminder of past times in the shape of a visit to Cam- 
 bridge, where Bacon had not now been for over sixteen 
 years. It is the pleasant custom of Trinity College at 
 intervals to invite, during vacation, its former members, 
 yet on the books, selecting them in groups at a time, 
 
 187 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 according to the years in which they took their degrees, 
 to spend a day and night amid the scenes of their youthful 
 days. Great pains are taken on these occasions to render 
 the reunion as complete and delightful as possible. 
 Special service is held in the chapel, a feast given in 
 Hall, and when, after long prolonged converse, old friends 
 who have not met since college days part at last for the 
 night, they go back to sleep in the very rooms they 
 occupied as light-hearted, light-limbed undergraduates 
 perhaps a generation before. 
 
 It is a pleasant but withal a most pathetic reassem- 
 bling, fraught to even the least emotional with how many 
 recollections, reflections, and self-examinings. The rows 
 of bald and silvered heads are bent low in chapel ; tremu- 
 lous voices chant " Auld Lang Syne " as hands are 
 gripped round the festive board at the end of the feast. 
 All is so changed and yet so unchanged, and the grey 
 college walls look down almost mockingly upon the old 
 and middle-aged men, bowed with the years that have 
 left no trace upon their hallowed stones. 
 
 Bacon took all his family to Cambridge on this occasion, 
 and lovingly pointed out to his children each well- 
 remembered haunt of bygone days. The gathering itself 
 was a particularly brilliant one, since among the guests 
 was the Archbishop of Canterbury (Benson), representing 
 an older generation, while A. J. Balfour held place of 
 honour among the men who were Bacon's own contem- 
 poraries. To my father it was a noteworthy event, 
 recalling as it did, and under pleasantest circumstances, 
 a chapter of his life long since closed. 
 
 And yet another page was shortly to be turned. In 
 the autumn of the following year my mother's health 
 showed signs of failing, and by the time that winter came 
 her family had begun to dread the worst. The end was 
 
 1 88 
 
I 
 
 An Unconventional Cleric 
 
 mercifully brief. After but three days spent in bed, she 
 died, on the 19 th of January, 1894, peacefully in her 
 sleep, in the arms of the husband who had so tenderly 
 loved her and so devotedly cared for her through the 
 twenty- three chequered years of their married life. Never 
 was wife more truly or more deeply mourned. That 
 beautiful law of life which endears the invalid child to its 
 mother more fondly than those strong ones who have 
 less need of her care, caused my mother's very depriva- 
 tion to bind her but closer to her husband's heart. Most 
 sadly he felt her loss, and when at last the long strain of 
 fourteen years was relaxed and the object of his watchful 
 care removed from him, he seemed to lack the power to 
 rally from the blow ; and though he never for a moment 
 relaxed his work or activities, it was many months before 
 he regained his accustomed energy and spirits. 
 
 189 
 
XI 
 IN SEARCH OF THE CORONA. 
 
 IN the summer of 1893 Bacon was asked to accept 
 the presidency of a large young men's club in New- 
 bury which he himself had had some share in founding. 
 Years before, in days when he yet took clerical duty at 
 Shaw, his Rector's son, Mr. J. E. Nelson, was busy evolv- 
 ing from the chaos of small beginnings a social institution 
 for the youths of the neighbouring town which eventu- 
 ally assumed concrete form as the " Newbury Guild- 
 hall Club/' carefully specified as "non-political, and 
 non-sectarian." 
 
 This club grew and flourished exceedingly, mainly 
 due to the efforts of the members themselves. Among 
 their number was one, Mr. E. J. Forster, whose splendid 
 talent for organization, quick enthusiasm, and boundless 
 energy, singled him out at once as Honorary Secretary for 
 the venture, as it has since then for many more onerous 
 positions. Bacon was ever keen to recognize talent 
 in others, and in this keen and gifted young man he 
 found not a few answering chords to his own ardent 
 nature. Infallibly the two became fast friends, and 
 their friendship but strengthened and deepened with 
 the years that passed over their heads. 
 
 From the first my father had given the Guildhall Club 
 his whole-hearted support, for it was a movement 
 with which he was altogether in sympathy. No one 
 
 190 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 recognized better than he did the need there is for whole- 
 some influence in the lives of the young men of our 
 towns tradesmen's sons, shop assistants, mechanics, 
 and the like in whose path lie many temptations, and 
 whose wants are apt to be overlooked by philanthropists 
 labouring for the amelioration of a lower rank of society. 
 He saw that the importance of an institution, healthy, 
 high-principled, attractive, free from bias, run by the 
 young men themselves for their mutual benefit, could 
 not be overestimated, and to it he gave all the help in 
 his power. After he was unanimously elected presi- 
 dent, on the resignation of the founder, his efforts were 
 redoubled, until the welfare of his club became one of 
 his dearest aims. There was full scope for his enter- 
 prise. In the Senior Secretary he had a fellow- worker 
 after his own heart, and in almost weekly meetings and 
 constant correspondence the two laid their heads to- 
 gether for the improvement and aggrandizement of an 
 institution, for which it is not claiming too much to say 
 that it was soon without its rival, for a town the size 
 of Newbury, in the whole south of England. 
 
 This is not a place in which to relate the tale of the 
 Guildhall Club's triumphant progress ; of how it secured 
 the patronage and interest of the great and influential, 
 until even Royalty itself smiled upon it ; of how it ran 
 seasons of winter lectures and addresses by the most 
 famous men of the time, such as no other institution 
 couldj boast ; of how it carried through large photographic 
 exhibitions, said by experts to be the best outside London, 
 to which the Queen lent her name and the Royal Family 
 contributed their own snap-shots ; of how it broadened 
 its interests and widened its boundaries, extending always 
 new branches in every form of sport, amusement, and 
 occupation dear to the youthful male mind. Never, 
 
 191 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 surely, was a more flourishing institution in those days, 
 and certainly never a more popular President. 
 
 " Ideal " was the word invariably used in describing 
 the relationship between Bacon and the members of his 
 beloved club. His winning personality attracted the 
 young men to him in a quite extraordinary degree. In 
 their presence he became as one of themselves, so that 
 differences in age and circumstance seemed completely 
 to vanish, leaving him merely their friend and comrade, 
 capable of participating in their pleasures, of entering 
 into their lives, of rendering ready help in their difficul- 
 ties. He delighted to be among them, and some of his 
 happiest, albeit his busiest, hours were passed on the 
 frequent occasions when he invited the members to his 
 home at Coldash, and for a long afternoon and evening 
 entertained them after his own most original fashion. 
 
 Among the club's most influential supporters and 
 it boasted very many three stood pre-eminent. Two 
 of these were those untiring philanthropists, Lord and 
 Lady St. Helier, then Sir Francis and Lady Jeune, whose 
 country house, Arlington Manor, favourite resort of 
 the most distinguished men and women of the day, 
 was some three miles from the town. The third was 
 Mr. J. N. Maskelyne, the Modern Magician, in those 
 days not yet forced to leave the scene of early triumphs, 
 ever inseparably connected with his name, the Egyptian 
 Hall. The most noteworthy event of that period of 
 Bacon's life immediately following the death of my 
 mother, was his becoming acquainted with this famous 
 man. Mr. Maskelyne at this time had lately become 
 possessed of a cottage delightfully situated on the borders 
 of Bucklebury Common, one of the healthiest and most 
 beautiful spots in the neighbourhood, within a walk of 
 Coldash. Here, with his charming wife, he spent his 
 
 192 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 week-ends and brief vacations, and here Bacon first met 
 him personally professionally he had long been his 
 ardent, though deeply puzzled admirer. From the very 
 first the two men became fast friends, drawn together 
 as they were by mutual esteem, similarity of tastes, 
 and concurrence of opinions. Some one has said that 
 the power of entering into close friendship belongs to 
 youth alone, and that no man over forty ever becomes 
 as truly attached to another as he does in the former half 
 of his life. Bacon was a witness to the exact contrary. 
 The very fact that circumstances had severed him from 
 his early friendships, and for long years hindered him in 
 making others, perhaps preserved his friendly instincts 
 all the keener. Certain it is that the friends of the last 
 dozen years of his life were among his best loved of all, 
 and at the head of the list, or very near it, stood Mr. 
 Maskelyne. 
 
 In the first months of his widowerhood Bacon wisely 
 sought the distraction of travel, and in the summer 
 of 1894 took his two children abroad for the first time, 
 on a cycle tour in Belgium. This was a few months 
 before cycling for ladies came into general vogue, and 
 also before pneumatic tyres had fully asserted their pre- 
 eminence. The sufferings of the party in endeavouring 
 to propel antiquated solid-tyred machines over the 
 execrable Belgian chaussees are better imagined than 
 described. But they managed to extract no little 
 amusement from the experience, as the following letter 
 of Bacon's can testify :-- 
 
 " So long as we were anywhere within the outskirts 
 
 of Ostend every one we spoke to replied in fluent French. 
 
 Half a dozen miles out in the country it was very different. 
 
 On our road to Bruges, after about an hour's hard jolting 
 
 N 193 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 alongside one of those endless canals which evidently 
 go on for ever, we were overtaken by a thunderstorm, 
 and took refuge in the outbuildings of a small farm. 
 The farmer came to us, and we explained our plight in 
 French, then in English, then we invented words in all 
 languages, but it was no use. Then he brought his wife, 
 and then all his family, and then his carter ; but they 
 only spoke Flemish, and so we stood there for an hour 
 gesticulating in dumb show, each party highly amused 
 with the other, but wholly devoid of language. Then 
 a bright idea struck us that we would take their photo- 
 graph, so we unpacked our camera, made them all stand 
 out in the rain, and took a snap-shot. In the end I 
 brought out a piece of paper, folded it like an envelope, 
 drew a rough representation of a postage-stamp in the 
 corner, and handed it with a pencil so that they might 
 write their address, but to no purpose. They passed it 
 round, examined my drawing minutely, upside down and 
 all ways, and eventually handed it back with a hopeless 
 shake of the head. But we had won their hearts. They 
 followed us to the road and waved their adieux as long 
 as we were in sight." 
 
 The following summer Bacon fulfilled a long-made 
 promise to his fourteen-year-old son, and took him his 
 first voyage in the skies. The occasion was a race from 
 the Crystal Palace, and Bacon was not a little impressed 
 to find that the aeronaut of the rival craft was one of the 
 two survivors of the terrible accident which terminated 
 the lives of Dale and a passenger over those very grounds 
 three years before. Not even that awful experience, 
 or the severe injuries he had himself received, had power 
 to wean him from his hobby. From his own lips my 
 father learned the consoling fact that, although every 
 detail of those dread moments of peril and terrific fall 
 
 194 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 were indelibly impressed on his memory, he had no 
 recollection whatever of actually reaching the earth 
 showing that Nature in such cases proves more merciful 
 than we often venture to hope. 
 
 The ascent itself was an ordinary afternoon's voyage, 
 undertaken for no sterner purpose than as a pleasant 
 experience. Even in those days, however, Bacon was 
 on the look-out for acoustical phenomena, and the strange 
 spasmodic " yelping " noise, " suggesting a dog just 
 underneath the car," of artillery practice on Plumstead 
 Marshes a mile below, a sound that on earth is heard as 
 a resounding boom, came in for special comment. The 
 incidents of the race, skilfully contested on each side, 
 afforded valuable object-lessons in the relative speed 
 of upper and lower air-currents, the poise of a balloon, 
 which never for a single second is in absolute quiescence 
 in space, and the tremendous art which lies in such an 
 apparently simply act as the discharge of a small quantity 
 of ballast. By careful attention to all these details 
 alone their craft was enabled to win the race, which 
 terminated, after three happy hours, near Rainham 
 Creek, in Essex. It was on this occasion that Bacon 
 first made the acquaintance of that unrivalled aeronaut, 
 Mr. Percival Spencer, his companion and friend in so 
 many subsequent aerial adventures. 
 
 In the summer of 1896 there occurred an all-important 
 event. On the gth of August of that year a total eclipse 
 of the sun took place, visible along a narrow tract of 
 earth which ran, for part of its course, across the upper 
 portion of Norway. This was the first time for many 
 years that the elusive shadow had fallen so near our 
 shores, and the newly founded and enterprising British 
 Astronomical Association early seized upon the oppor- 
 tunity and organized a party of its members to observe 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 the phenomenon. Bacon, who had been interested 
 in the Association from its commencement, was one 
 of the first to give in his name, with that of his 
 two children, for the expedition ; and on the 25th 
 of July the party started on a delightful cruise, which 
 to Bacon, for one, was fraught with all -important 
 consequences. 
 
 Our vessel, the " Norse King," since under other 
 management rechristened the " Argonaut," carried a 
 distinguished party. All the astronomical world was 
 represented : Greenwich Observatory by Mr. E. W. 
 Maunder and Mr. Andrew Crommelin; the Nautical 
 Almanac Office by its chief, Dr. Downing. Sir Robert 
 Ball was there, and Dr. Common, in charge of a branch 
 of the party sent out by the Joint Permanent Eclipse 
 Committee of the Royal and Royal Astronomical 
 Societies to every available eclipse. Half a dozen 
 distinguished foreign professors hailed from Italy, 
 France, and Greece ; and one dark-skinned savant 
 from India ; while such famous lady astronomers as 
 Miss E. Brown and Mrs. Maunder were among the 
 number, in proof of the well-attested scientific attain- 
 ments of the fairer sex. 
 
 It was a unique shipload of clever people, albeit 
 leavened by a large admixture of sightseers who laid no 
 special claim to such an adjective. But let not the un- 
 scientific reader hastily assume that it was the more dull 
 or heavy on that account. Your scientist, when he un- 
 bends, is the lightest-hearted of beings and most delight- 
 ful of companions. The astronomers had come not only 
 for an eclipse expedition but for a holiday as well ; and 
 united as all were by a common interest and a common 
 aim, insular reserve was broken down in a manner quite 
 unprecedented, and the passengers formed as it were 
 
 196 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 a huge family party, in which cordiality, merriment, and 
 right good will reigned supreme. 
 
 This fact is attested in the following letter written by 
 Bacon to his faithful Club Secretary in the early days 
 of the cruise : 
 
 " Stavanger. 27.7.96. 
 
 " DEAR FORSTER, 
 
 " I can give some account of our start, a very fair 
 start so far, though a little bit rough for some of our party. 
 Yesterday broke foul with a baffling wind which brought 
 up a stormy night and a nasty roll, and our table, which 
 started with thirteen, fell to five ; so with all the rest. I 
 have not been a sufferer, and Fred, when others look 
 doubtfully at their food, will order roast beef and horse- 
 radish sauce and send for a second allowance of pudding. 
 We are one hundred and sixty-four passengers, and we 
 are very proud of our company ; indeed I question if such 
 a select party has left an English port for many a day. 
 Besides our own leading astronomers we have a score of 
 professors of all countries, also a Scotch Bishop. He has 
 been very bad, poor man, but has revived to-day. 
 We also have a Parsee, who seemed at his last 
 gasp yesterday. Then some of his friends came and 
 asked him what sort of funeral ceremony would be 
 proper in his case, others told him they thought they had 
 seen vultures in the distance, and the like. The Bishop 
 was unequal to attend service yesterday, so the Captain 
 officiated. 
 
 " Will it astonish you to hear that our destination is 
 on the same longitude as Cairo, and the latitude of 
 Baffin's Bay ? We shall go three hundred miles within 
 the Arctic circle and pitch our tent on Lapland territory, 
 close to the Russian frontier. We are, if arrangements 
 hold, to have our heavy equipment of instruments 
 
 197 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 hauled up a couple of miles to where a military guard is 
 posted, and at sea will be a veritable fleet, every country 
 sending private excursions on pleasure or business, 
 while half a dozen British men-of-war, training-ships, 
 will also lie off. I have had a talk with Sir R. Ball about 
 his visit to us, and am to discuss the matter further. 
 I may be able to judge after hearing his three lectures on 
 board which would best suit ourselves. I have had 
 many opportunities of interesting new friends in the 
 Club, and have little doubt I could induce some of them 
 to lecture ; but all being astronomers, they should, I think, 
 be kept in reserve for another season. It is an under- 
 stood thing on board that we are to regard ourselves as 
 a family party and every one is to know every one else. 
 This is very un-English and very delightful, and should 
 lead to many friendships. We sit down our entire 
 party to dinner, and being put at the head of one of the 
 tables the task of making various guests acquainted falls 
 partly on myself. 
 
 " Our baggage room is a sight, with all the bulky in- 
 struments stowed there, and my next letter ought to tell 
 how the important preparations are proceeding. So far 
 the sky has been uncertain and some heavy rain has 
 fallen. We are fast getting northward, snow on the 
 mountains, and we have sighted our first whale. Re- 
 member me to all, and with our kindest regards. 
 " Yours ever sincerely, 
 
 "JOHN M. BACON." 
 
 Our destination was Vadso, a quaint little township 
 of Norwegian Lapland, at the mouth of the Varanger 
 Fjord, some half-day's sail past the North Cape. Vadso 
 is far beyond the range of the ordinary tourist, to whom 
 it offers no attraction nay, rather presents one pungent 
 
 198 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 reason for keeping away ! It is the local centre for the 
 extensive fish-drying trade of that district, and in the 
 miles of open wooden sheds that surround the town cod 
 and salmon are hung to " cure." Cod-liver-oil and guano 
 are also manufactured there, and a whale-boiling factory 
 is in the vicinity. Let it be recorded to the credit of the 
 astronomers that for a whole week they bore, uncom- 
 plainingly, the mingled odours that one of the party 
 declared positively woke him up at night. " I had no 
 idea until now," plaintively remarked a Greenwich ob- 
 server, " that a total eclipse could smell so strong." 
 
 For the use of the members of the British Astrono- 
 mical Association a small uninhabited island, opposite 
 the town, was assigned, and here we toiled all day erecting 
 our instruments, while certain self-sacrificing volunteers, 
 Bacon and his son of course among them, shared the 
 task of watching them by night. (There were reindeer 
 on the island, and the numerous Lapp population proved 
 themselves both inquisitive and drunken.) Bacon's 
 astronomical equipment was sufficiently complete and 
 workmanlike. With his four-inch refractor, conve- 
 niently mounted and adapted, he and his son were to 
 photograph the Corona, while a smaller instrument was 
 under charge of the writer. The two were carefully 
 erected in a good position on the top of the cliffs over- 
 looking the fjord, and in the centre of the camp of valu- 
 able and elaborate apparatus there assembled. 
 
 As the day of the eclipse drew near the harbour of 
 Vadso presented an animated scene. The British Train- 
 ing Squadron arrived, with ships of the Danish and 
 Norwegian navies, as also passenger steamers and private 
 yachts of all nations. The many-coloured signal flags 
 flashed all day about the yards of the men-of war in 
 international courtesies ; boat-loads of blue-jackets darted 
 
 199 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 over the water, and the rocks around the f j ord re-echoed 
 to the unwonted sounds of saluting guns, bands, and 
 bugle-calls. The sad and deeply impressive ceremony 
 of the naval funeral of an English " Middy," killed in an 
 accident, the first Englishman to rest in that remote 
 little Lapland cemetery, was the one sorrowful episode 
 in a delightful week. The ceremony itself was sufficiently 
 touching and picturesque. Kindly Norwegian women 
 strewed the road before the coffin with sweet-smelling 
 heather, two Lutheran clergy, with Geneva gowns and 
 stiff white ruffs, stood with the English Chaplain over the 
 grave ; and between the sharp volleys of the firing party 
 rang out the shrill bugle notes of the " reveille," symbol 
 of the joyful Resurrection. 
 
 Elaborate rehearsals filled up every spare moment of 
 the astronomers' time until the great day arrived. The 
 eclipse was to commence at 5 a.m., and half -past two that 
 morning saw us all astir and rowing across to the island 
 in boats a rather uncomfortably early start, but rendered 
 less apparent from the fact that at that time and latitude 
 we were enjoying a twenty-four hours' day. During the 
 night hours it had been raining, and the sky was yet 
 thick with cloud ; but there was just that appearance 
 which seemed to herald a general clearance later ; patches 
 of blue could be traced here and there, and for the time, 
 at least, there seemed small reason to despond. But 
 with the rising sun came sinking hopes, for he rose only 
 behind ever more thickly gathering gloom. After " first 
 contact," the exact moment when the dark body of the 
 satellite begins its insidious advance over the sun's bright 
 face, hope gave place to despair. It grew darker and 
 darker, and, with the oncoming shadow, colder and colder 
 too. Once for one brief second, through a rift in the 
 passing vapour, a pale, thin, watery crescent peeped wanly 
 
 200 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 down upon us. One young lady present called it the 
 moon a fact long remembered against her. Then deeper 
 blackness shut down on the desolate scene. 
 
 As the actual moment of totality drew near, the astrono- 
 mers, with one accord, left their instruments, to which, 
 until then, they had clung desperately, and prepared to 
 enjoy, as best might be, what was to follow. Perfect 
 silence fell upon the camp, broken only by Bacon himself, 
 who, seeing his daughter, in the rapidly increasing dark- 
 ness, approaching, as he thought, too near the edge of the 
 cliff, shouted lustily, " Come back, you silly child ! " a 
 remark for which we both subsequently received our share 
 of banter. Then followed the bugle-call heralding the 
 immediate advent of totality, and a moment later the pall 
 fell. 
 
 The 1 06 seconds which followed, during which the sun 
 behind the clouds was totally eclipsed, were always de- 
 clared by Bacon to be the most wonderful of his life, not 
 to be equalled even by the two solar eclipses he subse- 
 quently witnessed. It would be hard indeed to paint a 
 more impressive scene. Huge clouds of the deepest, 
 richest purple enveloped the sky, and through their in- 
 terstices on the horizon flashed golden gleams as of a 
 stormy autumn sunset. A curious green shade was over 
 all, through which the dimly distinguished faces around 
 showed of a pallor almost corpse-like. The darkness 
 itself was never intense, for even at mid-totality it was 
 possible to trace the hands of a watch ; but surely never 
 before had fallen a more strange, weird, unearthly dark- 
 ness, a darkness that poured down upon us with the 
 greatest rapidity, a darkness that could positively be felt. 
 Every nerve of the trembling body seemed to cry out against 
 so unnatural a nightfall, presaging, as it seemed, some dire 
 and awful cataclysm. The spell of the dread gloom was 
 
 201 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 almost hypnotic in its uncanny influence ; and when, with 
 breathless rapidity, it suddenly lifted, the light came 
 flashing back over the landscape, the green and golden 
 gleams faded away, and in place came an early sunrise 
 effect with a pink blush on the fjord, there remained a 
 gasping and speechless crowd, tongue-tied by the mystery 
 they had just beheld, filled with blended emotions, in 
 which wonder, relief, and awe found place ; and disap- 
 pointment, and pity for the disappointment of others, 
 only subsequently gained sway. 
 
 Almost before the astronomers had recovered their 
 senses, and long before the unused instruments were 
 packed up again and the big cairn built on the site of the 
 dismantled camp, plans were being laid for the next 
 total eclipse, which, seventeen months later, was to be 
 visible in India. Names were already being given in for 
 the B.A.A. expedition, and Bacon's was again among the 
 first. Thus it came about that Christmas Eve, 1897, saw 
 another smaller, but not less enthusiastic, band set forth 
 in pursuit of a shadow, this time with Bacon himself as 
 their leader. 
 
 The Norwegian eclipse cruise had done much for my 
 father. Not only had it gained him a score of new friend- 
 ships, some the closest of the rest of his days, but it had 
 roused him from the long lethargy into which my mother's 
 death and his former troubles had plunged him. It had 
 thrown him into contact with men of his own calibre, it 
 had quickened his energy and fired his ambition. During 
 the rest of the happy homeward voyage he became more 
 identified with the leaders of the expedition, and on their 
 councils afterwards his energy and organizing skill soon 
 won him leading place. The arranging of the Indian 
 Eclipse Expedition proved a far more difficult and onerous 
 task than the Norwegian. For the latter there were a 
 
 202 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 large party of observers, all of one mind, bound for one 
 spot, not very remote, in the season of summer holiday. 
 Few indeed were the astronomers who would face the 
 trouble and expense of a winter voyage to India, with the 
 added discouragements, as it so chanced at the time, of 
 plague, famine, and war. The last Border campaign was 
 not yet terminated, the country had just passed through 
 the throes of a terrible famine, and plague was raging at 
 Bombay. Small wonder the number of volunteers was 
 small, and the task of securing special terms and facilities 
 for them proportionately greater. The labour entailed 
 on the leaders was extreme, and then, at the last moment, 
 the little party further divided itself, one portion, under 
 Mr. Maunder, sailing a week previously for a post in the 
 centre of India where a camp was already arranged for 
 them ; while the larger party, under Bacon's charge, 
 were to proceed a thousand miles inland from Bombay to 
 Buxar, in the Central Provinces, with no very definite 
 ideas concerning what was there to become of them, and 
 eight days only in which to prepare for the eclipse. 
 
 In the summer intervening between the two eclipses 
 came the Diamond Jubilee. Through his friendship with 
 Mr. Maskelyne, Bacon became a participator, to a small 
 extent, in the former's ambitious scheme whereby a site 
 in St. Paul's Churchyard, now occupied by Messrs. 
 Spence's premises, was secured, the existing buildings 
 pulled down, and in their place erected the largest stand 
 for spectators, in the finest situation, on the whole route 
 of the procession. Bacon and his son were night-watch- 
 men on the Maskelyne stand the eve of the great ceremony, 
 which they subsequently beheld from the same coign of 
 vantage. Mr. Maskelyne and his talented eldest son, 
 Mr. Nevil Maskelyne, F.R.A.S., were now Bacon's stanch 
 allies, as keenly interested in his doings as he was in 
 
 203 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 theirs, and by their suggestion and help he was enabled 
 to include in his instrumental outfit for the Indian Eclipse 
 an apparatus never before employed for the purpose, but 
 from which valuable results might well be anticipated. 
 
 It had long been a question of importance to astrono- 
 mers whether the Solar Corona, which changes so com- 
 pletely in form from one eclipse to the next, alters ap- 
 preciably within the short period of totality. Satis- 
 factorily to test this point with the photographic means 
 until then employed in eclipse work was practically im- 
 possible, but Mr. Nevil Maskelyne suggested that the 
 then newly invented animatograph might be enlisted to 
 settle the matter ; and he now set to work to adapt such 
 a machine to imprint, on one long film, hundreds of ex- 
 posures, five or six per second, which should form an 
 animated photograph of the whole length of totality. 
 With this apparatus, capable of taking four hundred 
 photographs of the Corona during the minute and a half 
 the total phase would last, Bacon specially charged himself ; 
 hoping with good fortune thus to secure a unique record. 
 
 Densest fog enveloped London on the 23rd of December, 
 which rendered futile the heroic efforts of friends and 
 relations who had undertaken long journeys for the pur- 
 pose of seeing us off. Others, however, were more fortun- 
 ate, and we did not lack for hearty good wishes as the 
 boat train steamed out of Liverpool Street. At Tilbury 
 our little party of sixteen boarded the P. & O. vessel 
 " Egypt " lying in midstream ; but the fog never lifted, 
 and not until noon next day did our boat quit her moor- 
 ings in the muddy, crowded river. Once started, how- 
 ever, fortune favoured us, and a safe and pleasant voyage 
 brought us to Bombay on the i6th of January. Bundles 
 of letters were awaiting our arrival. Bacon's untiring 
 efforts of past months had not proved in vain. A govern- 
 
 204 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 ment, vast and powerful enough to control its 996,000 
 square miles of territory, and two hundred and thirty 
 millions of souls, and yet able to stoop to the needs of 
 sixteen helpless English astronomers stranded in its 
 midst, had responded to our prayers, and provided us 
 with camping ground, tents, furniture, and servants even 
 then awaiting our pleasure at Buxar. This was good 
 hearing indeed, and with light hearts we started on our 
 thousand-mile train journey, and cheerfully endured 
 the heat, the dust, and midnight uprousings for " medical 
 inspection " that the plague regulations entailed on all 
 coming from infected Bombay. 
 
 Benares was our first halting-place that nightmare 
 city of dark and dreadful rites, painted, flower-decked 
 idols, putrid holy wells, loathsome fakirs, filthy temples, 
 and corpses smouldering on the banks of the muddy 
 Ganges. After two nights spent here we pushed on to our 
 camping ground. Buxar is only sixty miles from Benares 
 on the direct line of the G.I.P., yet it took us three-quarters 
 of a long day to cover the distance. This was not so 
 much through lack of trains as excess of passengers. 
 The forthcoming eclipse, which would be visible at 
 Benares, brought with it, to the native mind, an unrivalled 
 chance of salvation ; for every pious Hindu believed 
 that could he but contrive to enter the Holy River at the 
 moment that the shadow struck the water, his sins would 
 be washed away from him and heaven be sure. There- 
 fore from every corner of that vast country came the 
 pilgrims, hundreds, thousands, nay, millions of them ; 
 blocking the roads, choking the trains, congesting the 
 stations. Dusty and footsore, weary and wayworn, 
 dropping out by the way, lying down to die by the road- 
 side ; of all ranks, ages, and positions, but each with staff 
 and " lota " in hand, and the light of eager faith in their 
 
 205 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 dark, patient eyes. When the eclipse actually came, 
 harassed, all-suffering English officials had untold labour 
 in passing this dense mass of humanity safely through 
 the limited extent of available Ganges water, and in frustra- 
 ting the pious design of many to drown themselves therein. 
 It was a wonderful and intensely impressive spectacle, 
 but it interfered not a little with our progress to Buxar. 
 
 Arrived there, we had another proof of the boundless 
 resource, and equally boundless kindness, of the Anglo- 
 Indian official. Buxar is but a tiny station with very 
 limited facilities, and it was proving a second Benares 
 in the matter of pilgrims. Only here the pilgrims were 
 of another class, fewer in numbers but with more re- 
 quirements. From all over the country, headed by the 
 Viceroy himself, not to mention the Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Bengal, came the dignitaries and big-wigs, both English 
 and native, to observe the eclipse. They wanted special 
 trains, they wanted camps, they wanted servants, they 
 wanted provisions what was it they did not want ? 
 and yet an overworked but ever-courteous District Com- 
 missioner, and a ditto ditto Local Magistrate, found 
 time to attend to every detail of the encampment we 
 discovered waiting for us, and to call upon us themselves 
 and offer yet further assistance. 
 
 The next few days were an experience alike unusual 
 and delightful, as Bacon's own enthusiastic description 
 testifies : 
 
 " Ours was indeed an ideal encampment, possessing 
 every charm that life under canvas is capable of. Half a 
 dozen luxurious sleeping tents were picturesquely grouped 
 in the shady recesses of a mango grove, shielded at the 
 far end by our mess tent, a " Swiss Cottage " of noble 
 proportions. All had been most expeditiously and 
 
 206 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 liberally provided for us, and it only added to the enjoy- 
 ment and novelty of all, if arrangements were as yet some- 
 what incomplete. Who cared about a bedstead, if there 
 were clean straw on which to spread our rugs ? Who 
 would complain of scant furniture, if there was a telescope 
 tripod on which to hang one's clothes and an empty 
 packing-case doing duty equally well for wardrobe and 
 writing-table ? It is true that a single wash-hand basin 
 had, in strict rotation, to go the round of the entire party. 
 What matter, when a delicious stream ran within twenty 
 yards of our outposts ? Astronomers take a philosophical 
 view of things, and if, as happened a score of times, a 
 lawless tribe of poultry had to be hunted out of our tents, 
 there was the consoling feeling that at any rate the com- 
 missariat department was sufficiently provided for. 
 There was other evidence of this. From the boughs of 
 a shady tree hard by hung various joints of sheep and 
 buffalo, watched jealously by half a dozen crows above 
 and as many natives below. This was our larder. 
 Underneath it a convenient hole had been scooped out of 
 the ground, and round it were ranged a few vessels of 
 metal and earthenware. This was the kitchen, and it is 
 needless to add that the impromptu cooking was always 
 alike excellent and varied. It was this very primitive 
 and unconventional state of things that gave the charm 
 to all. Our sojourn here was one long picnic, and life 
 was all romance." 
 
 The Eclipse day at last ! and one glimpse at the pale 
 blue sky in the early dawn of that morning was sufficient 
 assurance that this time we need fear no disappointment. 
 On a clear space of ground before the tents stood the 
 instruments. Bacon had entrusted to his children the 
 apparatus used or rather, not used in Norway, and he 
 himself was to work the precious animatograph, with 
 
 207 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 which he had been practising diligently for weeks. In 
 this he needed an assistant, and for the purpose had 
 carefully trained and instructed our chief native servant, 
 "Dabie" by name, white-turbanned, inscrutable, ap- 
 parently limited in intelligence, still more limited in his 
 knowledge of English, who performed his duties faithfully 
 enough, but watched the uncanny, clicking, whirring 
 machine with inquisitive, possibly too inquisitive, eyes. 
 The rest of our party had their own telescopes and cameras 
 to attend to, or employed themselves in naked-eye 
 sketching and similar observations. 
 
 As the morning advanced the scene grew animated in 
 the extreme. The Viceroy arrived and was conducted 
 with much pomp to the huge camp, covering several acres, 
 and specially raised platform erected for him. Train after 
 train rolled in, depositing its hundreds of sightseers. To 
 clear the rapidly growing concourse away from the station, 
 where they would otherwise have impeded the traffic, 
 one gifted official had hit upon a singularly happy idea. 
 He had erected a sign-post, with pointer pointing down 
 the road, bearing the legend, " This way to the Eclipse." 
 Seriously meant or not, his notice at least had the desired 
 effect. 
 
 Then followed the deeply impressive hour during 
 which the light of heaven is slowly blotted from the sky, 
 and there falls on the trembling earth the strange, weird 
 darkness that is like nothing else in the world in its awful 
 menace. Verily Nature is the greatest of stage-managers, 
 and works up to her climax in a way that no writer or 
 actor of melodrama can ever hope to approach for real 
 awesomeness and scenic effect. The gathering of a mighty 
 thunderstorm, the mustering of the typhoon, are terrible 
 and impressive indeed. But the hour in which the 
 ghostly shadow falls thick and thicker upon the shudder- 
 
 208 
 
BACON AT THE NORWAY ECLIPSK 
 
 See page 2.0 
 
 BACON AT THE INDIAN ECLIPSE 
 
 Page 208 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 ing earth is the most solemn and fearful in the history of 
 life. It is as if annihilation threatened to the very source 
 of our being itself, and creation stood aghast at the ruin 
 to come. 
 
 As the daylight waned, frightened birds, uttering strange 
 calls of protest, fluttered trembling to their roosts. The 
 camp was quiet with the hush of suspense, though now 
 and again a quick exclamation or a nervous laugh jarred 
 upon the ear, for the strain of the excitement was growing 
 intense. Only the narrowest crescent, narrowing every 
 moment, of the sun's veiled face was left in the sky, and 
 behold close beside it in the fading blue there flashed forth 
 Venus, Mercury, and the brighter stars, gleaming bright 
 and brighter. The light was going now by leaps and 
 bounds, with, as it seemed, almost visible pulsations. 
 Over the ground sped the dark ripples of the " shadow 
 bands." The last gleam of sunlight trembled on the 
 verge and then went out. Simultaneously came Bacon's 
 warning voice, " Now ! " and totality commenced. 
 
 Then in the pale blue sky above sprang forth a vision 
 of purest beauty, such as the gross eye of man may 
 almost fear to gaze upon, so wellnigh divine it seems in its 
 heavenly loveliness ; glorious, mysterious, and indescrib- 
 able ! A great dark ball of inky blackness hung in the 
 heavens, an awful dead sun, bereft of light and life. But 
 round the corpse there played a lambent rosy flame, and 
 a bright brilliant ring of silver light like the halo with 
 which medieval painters surround the heads of saints 
 in bliss. While far out towards the twinkling stars there 
 stretched rays and streamers of pearly light, many times 
 the diameter of the sun in length, sharply defined and clear, 
 yet of a fineness ethereal and unearthly ; filmy wisps of 
 ghostly substance, of a delicate beauty past all words. 
 It was like nothing we could have seen or imagined, even 
 o 209 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 in dreams. Surely the gates of the unseen world had 
 swung ajar, and once more, as in days of yore, to longing 
 mortals was vouchsafed a single fleeting glimpse of the 
 glory of the land beyond the veil ! 
 
 Then as we gazed spellbound there came on the limb 
 of the sun a blazing star of light, before whose increasing 
 brilliance the ghostly vision began to pale and fade, yet all 
 reluctantly, as if loath to go. The long streamers went 
 first, and then the Inner Corona narrowed up on the side 
 furthest from the light and finally disappeared altogether, 
 though not for ten or fifteen seconds after totality was 
 past. The light came flooding back, the stars and planets 
 faded in the blue, and on the banks of the river the natives 
 raised a long, weird cry. A sigh whispered through the 
 camp, a deep breath of wonder, regret, almost of relief. 
 The great eclipse was past and over, and the shadow 
 fleeing at lightning speed over land and sea to realms 
 of space unknown. 
 
 The little party of astronomers had made good use of 
 their ninety-six seconds. Valuable photographs and 
 notes had been secured, and one novel result in the shape 
 of a set of light tests that seemed to show that the rapid 
 return of the light, apparently much more rapid than its 
 withdrawal, is an objective and not merely a subjective 
 phenomenon. The animatograph had worked admirably, 
 and that night the precious film was removed from the 
 machine and carefully stowed away to await development 
 in England. Telegrams, of course, had to be despatched, 
 and the Guildhall Club that evening was gladdened by the 
 receipt of a single unbeautiful word "Abcess" which, 
 however, by the aid of a carefully prepared code, they were 
 able to expand as follows : " Weather perfect. Obser- 
 vations successful all round. All well. Large party 
 collected. No disturbance of any kind. Smooth pas- 
 
 210 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 sage." Later on, Bacon, writing to the Senior Secretary, 
 added a few more details : 
 
 " Ludlow Castle Hotel, 
 
 " Delhi. 
 "Jan. 26, '98. 
 
 " DEAR FORSTER, 
 
 " You will have had my telegram and learned the 
 splendid success that attended astronomers along their 
 whole line across India. We ourselves are triumphant, 
 and feel that we have enjoyed such an experience as can 
 never come into our lives again. 
 
 " The Viceroy's enormous encampment adjoined ours, 
 and to furnish it the resources of the country had been 
 taxed to the utmost. In spite of this, however, Govern- 
 ment supplied us with a camp of our own on quite a 
 princely scale, and posted a guard of some thirty police 
 over us night and day. Nor was this unnecessary. The 
 concourse was unparalleled. Elephants, camels, bullock- 
 carts, and every conceivable species of conveyance, passed 
 us, and the natives, gathered from all India, trooped by 
 incessantly in countless thousands to their strange rites 
 in their holy river. Those days and nights spent under 
 canvas were certainly the most novel and most delightful 
 in my life, and we fear that all else in India will by com- 
 parison seem commonplace. 
 
 "My own work has been heavy but well rewarded. 
 Everything has gone through my hands. I was called 
 on by every one, and enjoyed the special compliment of 
 being asked to lunch with His Excellency the Viceroy after 
 the eclipse was over. This I did, and turned the occasion 
 to account afterwards by taking an animatograph of his 
 brilliant gathering. 
 
 " Remember us to all. Ever yours very sincerely, 
 
 "JOHN M. BACON." 
 
 211 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Then after the work was done and the camp broken up 
 came a four-weeks' scamper over some of the wonder 
 spots of India, which left a crowd of vivid mental pictures, 
 indelibly imprinted on the brain. The Taj Mahal by 
 moonlight was perhaps the loveliest of these, or the Alpine 
 flush at dawn on Kinchinjunga as seen from the heights 
 of Darjeeling. But most of all was Bacon stirred by the 
 deathless story of the Great Mutiny, and on the Ridge 
 at Delhi, before the Cashmere Gate, in the ruin-strewed 
 gardens of the Lucknow Residency, and by the little 
 white temple that overlooks the awful Massacre Ghaut at 
 Cawnpore, he traced the well-remembered details of a 
 glorious history that from boyhood had quickened his 
 pulses and stirred his imagination. The homeward 
 journey was begun from Calcutta on the i8th of February, 
 and from Port Said Bacon posted the following. (Mr. 
 Maskelyne, it should be mentioned, had provided a few 
 spare animatograph films to be exposed on any effective 
 Indian scenes that might lend themselves to a living 
 picture.) 
 
 " S.S. Palawan. Red Sea. 
 " March 6, '98. 
 
 " MY DEAR MR. MASKELYNE, 
 
 " I have the chance to scribble half a dozen lines, 
 which should precede us by some few days and tell of our 
 being, at this moment, half-way home again. The date 
 of our arrival is quite uncertain; and as your box is stuffed 
 out with travelling cushions and other personal gear I 
 propose taking it straight home and returning it to you 
 in proper order a day or two later. For safety's sake, I 
 had it consigned to the care of the P. & O.'s Agent at 
 Calcutta immediately our camp was struck and our long 
 forced journeys up country began. I was hoping to get 
 another ' animatograph ' picture at Calcutta, but saw 
 
 212 
 
In Search of the Corona 
 
 no opportunity worth the candle. It is a fine city, but 
 far too English and commonplace. The " Chandni 
 Chouk," the centre of the native quarter at Delhi, would 
 have made a novel and effective moving scene, but with 
 this exception I had no chance of working up a picture, 
 so that, of necessity, I bring back the main of your films 
 unused. 
 
 " Our good fortune has continued with us on our home- 
 ward voyage, the passage so far having been exception- 
 ally fine, with no very extreme heat. The one single 
 little mishap that has occurred to any of our party fell to 
 my lot a few days ago. We were coaling all one night 
 at Colombo, and the cabins being stuffy with closed ports, 
 I slept in a chair on deck, Fred on one side of me. and a 
 ship's officer (off duty) on the other. Naturally a light 
 sleeper, I must through that noisy night have been ex- 
 ceptionally wakeful, yet one of those thieves for which 
 the island is famous succeeded in detaching my gold 
 watch as I slept and making off. It was an old favourite. 
 They tell me on the ship that such robberies are constant, 
 and the villains never hesitate to use their knives freely 
 to make good their escape. I am looking forward with 
 growing eagerness now to seeing yourself and all again. 
 I earnestly hope and trust that Mrs. Maskelyne and all 
 your circle are well. Pray remember us most kindly and 
 believe me 
 
 " Ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 "JOHN M. BACON." 
 
 My father of course never heard any more of his watch 
 a valuable one but a more serious loss was before 
 him. Tilbury was reached, and Mr. Nevil Maskelyne 
 himself met the boat and received the precious packing- 
 case in which the eclipse film had been stowed. " Wel- 
 
 213 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 come back, our President ! " was the cheery shout that 
 greeted us in the darkness when our little family party 
 stepped out of the train that evening. Some thirty men 
 of the Guildhall Club were there to receive us, and by 
 their escort rendered the drive home quite a triumphal 
 progress. Our home-coming was delightful enough, but 
 next morning brought frantic telegrams from the Egyp- 
 tian Hall, consternation, and endless questioning. Mr. 
 Maskelyne had discovered the small box which held the 
 film in the packing-case where it was packed, but the 
 box itself was empty and the film had disappeared ! 
 
 Who was the thief and when and where the theft was 
 committed, has never been cleared up. The fact that 
 the case had clearly been tampered with on its way from 
 the docks seemed to point to the possibility, incredible 
 as it seemed, of a robbery at home, and Mr. Maskelyne 
 offered a reward of 50 for information, which elicited no 
 reply. More plausible appeared the theory that one of 
 our native servants in camp Dabie himself, perchance 
 actuated perhaps by superstitious fanaticism, or hope of 
 gain, or mere curiosity, had obtained access, as he quite 
 possibly might, to the box and abstracted its contents. 
 Many theories were promulgated in the press and else- 
 where, nor were there wanting ill-natured folk who declared 
 the whole thing a hoax that there was no film, nor ever 
 had been ! It was all very annoying and extremely 
 disappointing, but there was no more to be done except 
 to hope and arrange that fortune might be retrieved at 
 the next total eclipse, to be visible in May, 1900. 
 
 214 
 
BACON'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC BALLOON ASCENT 
 
 Mr. J. N. Maskelyne, Dr. Lachlan, Captain Lynn-Smart, Bacon, Prof. Turner, 
 Mr. N. Maskelyne 
 
 Page 215 
 
XII 
 "THE SCIENTIFIC AERONAUT" 
 
 ON the 27th of July, 1898, the grounds of Shaw 
 House, Newbury, an historical locality, presented an 
 animated scene. If the ghosts of King Charles (who 
 once spent an unhappy night in the grand old Elizabethan 
 mansion) and of Cromwell (who gave him a good trouncing 
 on the morrow) looked down that afternoon on a spot 
 they had both good reason to recollect, they must have 
 agreed together that times had altered very much since 
 their day. In a field beside the fine elm avenue a large 
 and happy crowd had collected, for the Guildhall Club 
 were holding a gymkhana, and the weather was propitious. 
 All serious interest, however, and there was no lack of it, 
 was concentrated in one corner, where a large balloon 
 reared its shapely form as high as the tree-tops, and 
 a group of scientific gentlemen toyed with as curious 
 a collection of acoustic instruments as had ever been 
 brought together in one meadow. 
 
 There was apparatus in plenty for both hearing and 
 making a noise ; giant " ears," speaking-trumpets, and 
 huge " receivers." Bandsmen with musical instruments, 
 volunteers with rifles, a stationary engine to which were 
 attached every variety of steam hooter, siren, whistle, 
 and other ear-piercing invention to be obtained ; while 
 ever and anon there broke over the field the terrific re- 
 port of a cotton-powder fog-signal, such as Trinity House 
 
 215 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 uses for its lighthouses and lightships all round the coast. 
 These were fired by the Secretary of the Cotton Powder 
 Company himself, Captain Lynn-Smart, and each stun- 
 ning explosion, louder than all the artillery of the battle 
 three hundred years ago, was followed by an answering 
 crash from the refreshment tent, where startled customers 
 and waiters had dropped their cups and saucers. There were 
 more noisy possibilities also than met the eye. Three miles 
 off the sexton of Thatcham Church was preparing to ring 
 up the heavy tenor of that steeple ; while thirty miles 
 distant, as the crow flies, artillerymen at Portsmouth, by 
 special favour, were making ready at a given signal to 
 fire the big guns. 
 
 There seemed scarcely room for the passengers in the 
 car of the balloon, so packed was it with cameras, tele- 
 scopes, electrometers, chronometers, thermometers, baro- 
 meters, speaking-trumpets, ear- trumpets, horns, " dust- 
 counters," and every conceivable variety of portable 
 acoustic and meteorological implement. They managed 
 to wedge themselves in somehow, however, and when 
 the moment of ascent came they were wafted up and 
 away, notebooks, ear-trumpets, and stop-watches in 
 hand, till they disappeared into the sky : while there 
 followed them at preconcerted intervals, singly and to- 
 gether, in unison and in discord, the lustiest hootings, 
 tootlings, screechings, brayings, whistlings, and explosions, 
 that continued long after the balloon, like a drop in the 
 air, had faded into the clouds. 
 
 Thus was happily inaugurated, certainly with no little 
 noise, the first of a long, long series of scientific balloon 
 voyages which formed Bacon's chief work for the remain- 
 ing busy years of his life, and with which his name is 
 inseparably connected. 
 
 It began in this wise. From his youth upwards Bacon 
 
 216 
 
" The Scientific Aeronaut " 
 
 had been deeply interested in the vagaries of sound. 
 The " ghostly " experience in his rooms at Trinity already 
 related, and more than one other occasion when he had 
 assisted in the solving of an acoustic mystery, had drawn 
 his attention closely to the subject. At all times he was 
 quick to notice sound phenomena, and his ear was ever 
 alert to record echoes, the varying travel of distant 
 noises, and the like ; never more so than when in night 
 hours, perched aloft in the Golden Ball of St. Paul's, or 
 hovering in a balloon over the city or country, the sounds 
 of earth had come up to him with a distinctness and im- 
 port not to be obtained in any other situation. More re- 
 cently his own voyages had recalled the subject of the 
 travel of sounds at sea, specially emphasized about this 
 time by several terrible shipwrecks where the disaster 
 seemed to have been brought about by failure to hear the 
 recognized coast signals, though uttering their warning 
 messages quite close at hand. 
 
 Eagerly he had read all available authorities on acous- 
 tics, more especially the works of that famous physicist 
 Professor Tyndall. As scientific adviser to Trinity 
 House, Tyndall had made a very special study of this 
 very matter of sound-signals at sea, with exhaustive 
 experiments lasting over a long period. Bacon followed 
 these experiments with keenest interest, noting carefully 
 points where he opined more conclusive tests might have 
 been instituted, or side-issues which might be profitably 
 followed up. Again and again he went over them, and 
 each time he halted at a sentence where the Professor 
 makes one frank admission. After giving the results 
 of his investigations, results in many points quite at 
 variance with earlier authorities, he records his desire 
 to test his theories from a free balloon, but owns that, 
 on consideration, the risk appeared too great. 
 
 217 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 To Bacon this paragraph came in the nature of a direct 
 challenge. 
 
 Ever since the day of his first ascent, and indeed before 
 that, his library had, of course, contained all the literature 
 he could lay hands on concerning the history of aero- 
 nautics ; place of honour being reserved to Glaisher's 
 fascinating " Travels in the Air." Naturally the scientific 
 aspect of ballooning appealed most strongly to Bacon's 
 mind, and in reading of the brilliant results arrived at in 
 the past it struck him again and again as deplorable that 
 of late years the balloon, as a means of scientific research 
 unrivalled in its way had completely fallen into 
 disuse. In early days scientists had been quick to recog- 
 nize its possibilities. As far back as 1802 Gay Lussac 
 and others were learning by its means all sorts of physical 
 facts till then unknown or unproved. Continental 
 savants attested its value again and again, and after 
 fifty years the British Association awoke, somewhat 
 tardily, to its possibilities, and organized a series of 
 scientific ascents by Mr. Welsh, of Kew Observatory ; the 
 veteran Charles Green, " Father of English Aeronautics," 
 hero of the Nassau voyage, as aeronaut. These ascents 
 proved of much interest and gave high promise to further 
 research, but the illness of Mr. Welsh brought them to an 
 untimely close. A few years later, however, came the 
 record-breaking voyages of Glaisher and Coxwell, the 
 finest series of scientific ascents until then accomplished. 
 Their work and adventures, including the terrific plunge 
 of seven miles into the sky, form a most keenly interesting 
 contribution to scientific research, of an importance not 
 to be overestimated ; but since their day, now more than 
 thirty years ago, scientific ballooning seemed, in this 
 country at least, to have completely dropped. The 
 balloon, in fact, had sunk to the level of a show for gala 
 
 218 
 
" The Scientific Aeronaut " 
 
 gatherings and nothing more. The airship and the 
 flying machine were in earliest experimental stages only. 
 Ballooning as a fashionable pastime an outcome of the 
 interest which Bacon's own efforts were to produce 
 was still years distant, and the British Aeronautical 
 Society, pursuing a quiet existence, had little indeed 
 save American and Continental news to record. 
 
 Gradually it was dawning on Bacon that here was his 
 chance. Ballooning research of the past had been mainly 
 of a meteorological nature, but as an observatory for 
 acoustical phenomena also a free balloon possessed, as 
 Tyndall had acknowledged, unique and unrivalled advan- 
 tages. Possibilities of other upper air observations, 
 astronomical, biological, and chemical, also presented 
 themselves. Bacon was the last man in the world to be 
 deterred by the element of personal risk ; ballooning was 
 his keenest pleasure in life, and now at last he saw 
 the opportunity for turning his hobby to real practical 
 use. 
 
 Plans began shaping themselves, but preparatory to 
 undertaking the work opening out before him he sought 
 the advice of the leaders of the scientific world on his new 
 project. Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, Sir W. Huggins, 
 Professor J. J. Thomson, Professor W. Ramsay, Pro- 
 fessor H. H. Turner, and Sir Robert Ball, among others, 
 were approached by him, and from one and all he ob- 
 tained warm encouragement and sympathy, and not a 
 few valuable suggestions. Next he unfolded his plans 
 to his friends the Maskelynes, and here he received prac- 
 tical assistance not to be overestimated. Mr. Maske- 
 lyne's skill as a mechanician needs no insisting on, and his 
 son Nevil, by his more recent work in connection with 
 wireless telegraphy and other matters, has sufficiently 
 demonstrated his genius for applying his inherited talent 
 
 219 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 to the invention and perfecting of delicate scientific 
 apparatus. He devised all manner of sensitive instru- 
 ments for the receiving and recording of sound, specially 
 suited for balloon observations. Moreover he and his 
 father devoted the whole of their summer holidays to 
 helping Bacon in a tentative series of sound experiments 
 on the ground, made in preparation for his aerial re- 
 searches. 
 
 So during the summer of 1898 weird noises began to 
 disturb the day, and frequently the night, echoes of the 
 open stretches of Bucklebury Common. Startled sheep 
 would scatter at the furious braying of horns, gipsies 
 be roused in terror by the thunder of an exploding fog- 
 signal ; while rustics wagged incredulous heads at the 
 spectacle of gentlemen with speaking-trumpets listening 
 behind gorse bushes, or endeavouring to locate with 
 astonishing-looking apparatus the position of metro- 
 nomes and watches hidden among the heather. 
 
 One most valuable result of this work was the per- 
 fecting of an " ear " of quite marvellous sensitiveness. 
 Recollections of his long-past clerical experience with 
 Professor Parish's parabolic sounding-board at St. Giles's, 
 Cambridge, recurred to Bacon's mind, and led him to the 
 construction of a giant ear-trumpet of special form, with 
 which it was possible to pick up and locate faint noises 
 with the greatest ease. Armed with these instruments 
 the family would issue forth, night after night, to catch 
 the rumble of the G.W.R. expresses in the Swindon valley 
 thirteen miles across the downs, the bells from distant 
 village steeples, or the nine o'clock gun at Portsmouth. 
 We never succeeded satisfactorily in verifying the last, 
 by the way, though the keepers in the neighbouring pre- 
 serves averred that always at nine o'clock every night 
 startled pheasants would rustle in the branches, proving 
 
 220 
 
" The Scientific Aeronaut " 
 
 that their sensitive organs detected a sound too faint for 
 human ears. 
 
 As far as the actual balloon arrangements for his 
 aerial experiments went Bacon found no difficulty, for 
 Mr. Percival Spencer and his brother Stanley threw 
 themselves heart and soul into the matter, and assisted 
 with all the skill and knowledge that their unrivalled 
 experience as aeronauts lent them. Another trained 
 scientific observer, however, was needed in the car, and 
 here Bacon was lucky enough to enlist the services of Dr. 
 R. Lachlan, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 a distinguished mathematician, quick in observation, 
 cool in action, than whom no better colleague and helper 
 could be desired. 
 
 The inaugural ascent was a triumphant success. A 
 mass of careful observations were recorded, the results 
 of which were naturally instructive rather than con- 
 clusive, and further voyages followed in quick succession. 
 In the third of these, ascending from the Crystal Palace, 
 the wind chanced to be blowing from almost precisely 
 the same quarter as in Bacon's first voyage of all, ten 
 years before ; and once again he found himself traversing 
 the heart of London, and looking down on the wilderness 
 of its roofs and chimney-pots. Again the roar of the 
 streets arose to him, but this time with strangely abated 
 force. In Bacon's own phrase, " The same harsh instru- 
 ment was sounding, but the full organ was wanting and 
 the swell was closed." Also a thick and very palpable 
 haze, invisible from below but only too apparent when 
 aloft, and sufficient to render aerial photography hope- 
 lessly futile, was in the air. Clearly this latter pheno- 
 menon was the cause of the first, and further proof of 
 this was to hand in the fact that that mighty sounding 
 board the earth, which from a balloon throws back aerial 
 
 221 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 sounds with startling volume, this time refused to answer 
 to the usual signals ; and not until a height of under a 
 thousand feet was. attained would it reluctantly return 
 the notes of a horn that, on previous days, were readily 
 flung back to twice or four times that elevation. 
 
 The circumstances of this particular voyage made it 
 easy to compare the varying sound-reflecting powers of 
 the varieties of country traversed ; for, London being 
 passed, the balloon sped low over Hertfordshire and 
 Cambridgeshire fields and woods. Pastures and ploughed 
 land reflected badly, stubble-fields with hard-baked soil 
 were better ; but woods in full foliage, or crops of roots 
 with broad expanding leaves, were better still. Best of 
 all for the return of sound, be it mentioned, is still, un- 
 ruffled water ; but the nature of the sound tested makes 
 some difference to the results obtained. 
 
 Evening shadows were falling thickly over the wide 
 and peaceful landscape when our balloon (it was the 
 writer's first experience of Cloudland) sank down towards 
 the newly reaped cornfield chosen for our landing-place. 
 The scene, however, was scarcely as peaceful as it looked 
 from a mile's elevation, for a stiff breeze, uncomfortably 
 in evidence when we left the Palace grounds, had by no 
 means abated its vigour. The ground, moreover, was 
 baked iron-hard with weeks of drought, and the prongs 
 of the grapnel refused to enter. A stunning crash an- 
 nounced our arrival on terra firma, and then, the wind 
 catching the flapping, half-empty silk, there ensued a 
 very pretty steeplechase over the harvest-fields. Neatly 
 piled corn-sheaves flew in all directions, panting and 
 perspiring labourers in full cry were left far behind. The 
 race was exciting and fatiguing, for the car was dragging 
 all over on its side and it needed much holding on to pre- 
 vent being jerked out of the basket. There was not 
 
 222 
 
OVER THE TOWN 
 
 See pageJ22i 
 
 DESCENT ON TELEGRAPH WIRES 
 
 Page 223 
 
"The Scientific Aeronaut" 
 
 much time left for reflection in our hurried progress ; 
 nevertheless the thought was in all our minds that we 
 were speeding towards a deep cutting of the Great Nor- 
 thern Railway, seen from aloft, in which ugly ditch our 
 course would certainly be stayed and then there would 
 be the frequent express trains to be reckoned with ! 
 
 Some fifty yards of grass-field now only separated us 
 from the cutting ; but fringing the field ran the North 
 Road, and, luckily, alongside it, a double row of telegraph 
 and telephone wires. Over these wires the mass of the 
 silk plunged and lay, heaving, on the roadway ; but on 
 the further side the car remained suspended, until such 
 time as the shouting harvesters rushed up to our assis- 
 tance. Those wires had proved our salvation, and it 
 seemed a little ungrateful on our part that when the 
 balloon was cleared away two of them lay broken and 
 twisted upon the ground. Naturally we expected to 
 hear more of this incident ; but the G.P.O. proved itself 
 as generous as it had been helpful, and nothing was said. 
 Our steeplechase terminated, I recall, in close proximity 
 to a donkey. This animal alone of all the occupants of 
 the fields we passed over held his ground. Horses and 
 sheep and cattle bolted wildly at our approach, man him- 
 self evinced the maddest excitement, but the donkey 
 stood firm and made no sign or sound. Only after a 
 long half-hour, when the wreckage was at last cleared 
 away and hoisted into a wagon, did the situation seem 
 to dawn upon him, and uplifting voice and tail he brayed 
 and brayed and brayed. 
 
 Almost the next voyage that Bacon made he ex- 
 perienced a similar steeplechase at the finish, and, through 
 lack of an anchor, came near ending his days over the 
 lofty " Lover's Seat " cliff at Hastings. Again he may 
 be left to tell his own tale : 
 
 223 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 " It was desirable to attain a considerable height, and 
 to continue the observations as long as possible. On the 
 eve of starting I appealed to our aeronaut and asked him 
 if, as the day was calm, we might not dispense with the 
 extra weight of heavy anchor and trail-rope. 
 
 " ' I think we might, 7 was his reply, ' but you will have 
 to take the chance of what sort of landing we may get.' 
 
 <c My colleague, Dr. Lachlan, and myself readily agreed 
 to this, and, all being in order, the final directions were 
 promptly given. The next moment we were mounting 
 upwards with abundant buoyant power and eight bags 
 of ballast to the good. 
 
 " The afternoon was perfect for our purpose, warm, still, 
 and almost cloudless, with only such summer haze as tones 
 the sky to greyish blue. We took frequent snapshots as 
 we drifted slowly to the S.S.E. at a height of hardly half 
 a mile. From the moment of starting one peculiarity 
 in the physical conditions prevailing was abundantly 
 apparent. The air was not in fittest mood for conveying 
 sounds. The cheering of the crowd in the Palace grounds 
 had quickly faded. In twenty minutes from the start 
 we were sailing over Bromley. Half an hour later we 
 could watch the trains burrowing under Polhill tunnel 
 and could catch their smothered rumbling even under 
 the hill that buried them. Presently Tonbridge and 
 Tunbridge Wells lay beneath us. Then 4,000, 6,000, 
 8,000 feet were rapidly recorded. Soon we looked down 
 from a mile and three-quarters high. What a sight it 
 was! 
 
 4< The sea was well in sight. Beachy IJead stood bold 
 and bluff on the right. Dungeness was away on the 
 east and far down, but straight in front and rapidly 
 approaching, were unmistakably outlines of the twin 
 towns of Hastings and St. Leonards. Hastings loomed 
 
 224 
 
LEAVING THE CROWD 
 
 ABOVE THE SUBURBS 
 
 Page 224 
 
"The Scientific Aeronaut" 
 
 large on the weather bow, with the old town right ahead 
 and apparently only three or four miles away. Mr. 
 Spencer fell a-musing, and, looking over the side, began 
 toying with fragments of paper, which he threw out from 
 time to time. I ventured to break in on his reverie and 
 remark that the town seemed very close, and that there 
 was no margin between it and the bare sea-cliff. 
 
 " c What's the height, Doctor ? ' he asked. 
 
 " ' Eight thousand feet,' was the reply. Mr. Spencer, 
 without deigning to look seaward, merely took the valve- 
 line in hand. 
 
 " ' But, Mr. Percival,' I said with gentle chiding, ' you're 
 not looking the way we are drifting, and there are only 
 two or three fields now between us and the sea.' 
 
 " For all that, Mr. Spencer obstinately looked another 
 way and merely demanded the height again. The 
 Doctor replied, without a tremor in his voice, yet some- 
 what promptly, ' Six thousand feet.' 
 
 " We were already over the houses. Beyond them were 
 the cliffs a hundred feet high, and beyond the open sea. 
 
 " Flesh and blood could not stand this, and I asked in 
 desperation if the hanging rope wouldn't damage the 
 chimney-pots. 
 
 " ' Yes,' replied the helmsman, ' but not so much as 
 the car,' and with that he looked harder than ever in the 
 wrong direction. Already we were swooping down with 
 a rush. 
 
 " * Ready with this sandbag,' broke in Mr. Spencer, 
 ' and look out.' The next moment circumstances were 
 all altered, and we were caught by a strong undercurrent 
 blowing in another direction, the presence of which Mr. 
 Spencer, watching the smoke of the chimneys beneath, 
 alone had detected. And so we cleared the housetops 
 after all, coming down in the identical harvest-field that 
 p 225 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 our captain had had it in his mind to drop in from the 
 very first. 
 
 " It was a bold exploit, beautifully carried out ; and 
 successful as far as it went ; but our adventure was very 
 far from being yet over. The wind that had been so 
 light in the Palace grounds was now blowing half a gale 
 along the bleak high cliff. In consequence of this we at 
 once bowled over, and as we had no grapnel we began 
 dragging very rapidly. All who are familiar with Hast- 
 ings can picture the spot hard by the sea, on the eastern 
 outskirts, and will understand how only one field separ- 
 ated us from the top of the high cliff. Along this field 
 we now began to coast, at an accelerating pace which, 
 to say the least, grew exciting. Right across the middle 
 of this field, however, was drawn a substantial fence of 
 posts and rails, and this was a most welcome obstacle. 
 For as we were fairly tobogganing on the ground we hoped 
 that this would hold us up until the balloon, already half 
 empty, should have entirely collapsed. The mistake we 
 made was in forgetting our momentum. One is so apt to 
 regard a, balloon as devoid of weight. Yet in reality 
 we represented some three-quarters of a ton, moving as 
 fast as a horse could trot. Railings are not found in a 
 meadow that will stand such a mad charge, and we were 
 quickly on the wrong side of the fence, with a huge gap 
 behind us. %. 
 
 " We were now perfectly helpless, and dragging on our 
 side could take no clear view of the ground before us. 
 We only knew that, while our course was parallel to the 
 coast-line, the actual outline of the headland was indented, 
 and a yawning chasm was somewhere close ahead of us. 
 
 " It will need no insisting on that to have been dragged 
 over the edge of a lofty cliff with a crippled balloon would 
 have meant complete disaster. Further, if it be asked 
 
 226 
 
< 
 
 The Scientific Aeronaut " 
 
 why we did not attempt to get out, the answer is a simple 
 one. It would have been impossible for us all to have 
 jumped out together, and the attempt would infallibly 
 have meant the carrying away of one or more of the 
 party. Come what might, we must stick by the craft and 
 one another. Now and again one of us the victim of 
 some extra heavy bump would utter an ejaculation as 
 cheerily as he could, to indicate that so far he was all 
 right. Then one, momentarily catching a better view, 
 suddenly cried " Look out ! " with an accent which pro- 
 claimed that the crisis had come. It had. Just ahead 
 the ground disappeared, dropping into some steep hollow 
 how steep or where ending we knew not ; but its 
 brink was bordered by a few trees, and if only luck would 
 
 stand by us 
 
 "Well, it did. With a delicious * swish' we crashed 
 into a big oak, and our brave craft had found its haven. 
 And where were we ? We soon learned. Half Hastings 
 was hurrying out to greet us, and then we found out that 
 our career had ended actually at the romantic Fairlight 
 Glen that overhangs the sea." 
 
 And so voyage succeeded voyage all that summer, 
 each adding its quota to the mass of valuable observa- 
 tions now beginning to assume important dimensions, 
 each characterized by its own special incidents. One 
 ascent from town followed with curious exactness the 
 course of the famous Nassau journey of sixty years before, 
 and the aeronauts were strongly tempted to make the 
 resemblance more complete by crossing the Channel, as 
 they might very easily have done. Only the fact that 
 two days later they were to ascend at the meeting of the 
 British Association at Bristol, and the risk of not re- 
 turning in time, restrained them. Fear of descending 
 
 227 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 among the hop-fields of Kent a hop-field is a peculiarly 
 unpropitious spot for a balloon descent, both because the 
 crop is valuable and costly to damage, while hop-poles 
 are stout and long and pointed, and poke unpleasant 
 holes in silk and person kept them aloft until dusk had 
 fallen on the ground, though in the sky twilight and the 
 exquisite colours of a flaming sunset yet lingered. The 
 final plunge to earth was a plunge into darkness, and a 
 quarter of a mile of blind tobogganing before the anchor 
 held ensued. It was very much a case of trusting to 
 luck, and in this case the luck held, for the balloon even- 
 tually found safe resting-place in a ditch. Then followed 
 an amusing minute or two. Countrymen had seen the 
 great craft against the sky, and were running up from all 
 directions to where they surmised it had fallen. But by 
 this time it was night, or very nearly so, and they could 
 not locate the spot where the aeronauts lay quiet in 
 the overturned car, listening through chinks in the 
 basketwork, and waiting with glee to see what would 
 follow. 
 
 Around them lay tumbled the great folds of the silk, 
 floundering and flapping in the breeze like some stranded 
 leviathan in its last throes ; an uncanny enough spectacle 
 to encounter in lonely fields amid the shades of evening. 
 So the rustics seemed to find it, for when the shouting 
 crowd drew near and voices cried excitedly " 'Ere 'er be ! " 
 no great anxiety was at first displayed for a nearer ac- 
 quaintance with the monster. A breathless pause ensued, 
 and a half-doubtful inquiry, " What be 'er ? " The party 
 hidden in the basket with difficulty stifled their mirth 
 and remained motionless until cautious footsteps ap- 
 proached their hiding-place, and nervous hands felt 
 about the car. Then they burst into a shout of laughter, 
 all the heartier because at the unexpected sound their 
 
 228 
 
OVER KENT 
 
 SHADOW OF THE BALLOON ON THE GROUND 
 
 OVER KENT. SWANLEY JUNCTION 
 
 Page 228 
 
" The Scientific Aeronaut " 
 
 discoverers shied off again promptly, in alarm, into the 
 darkness. 
 
 The British Association ascent which followed was an 
 instructive one in many ways. Many leading scientific 
 men were, of course, present, and displayed a warm in- 
 terest in the proceedings : notably Professor Ramsay, who 
 provided Bacon with an exhausted glass flask in which 
 to bottle off air in the upper regions for his own subsequent 
 analysis. The ascent was to form one of the attractions 
 of the garden party given to the savants at Clifton College, 
 and not until long evening shadows lay thick across the 
 lawns where the guests had assembled did the balloon rise 
 upon its voyage. Almost despairingly Bacon snap- 
 shotted the quickly alternating scenes. He had had 
 little luck with aerial photography, attempted under 
 seemingly most favourable conditions, during recent 
 ascents, and there seemed small chance of succeeding 
 better when the light was so far spent. Nevertheless he 
 achieved on this occasion the best series of photographs 
 he ever secured, and this curious fact appeared signifi- 
 cantly to dovetail in with another observation made. 
 Long weeks of sunny, rainless days had succeeded each 
 other through a summer of most unusual drought. The 
 dry weather had every appearance of still continuing, 
 and no forecast yet had even hinted at the possibility of 
 a break. Nevertheless the instruments carried aloft on 
 this occasion revealed an unexpected state of affairs. 
 
 The temperature of the upper air had sunk in a marked 
 degree, and high up the air was saturated with moisture. 
 Clearly a colder current from the N.W. was settling earth- 
 ward, replacing the dry dust-laden lower stratum with 
 moister and more transparent atmosphere. The aero- 
 nauts foretold a coming change, and three days later their 
 scarce-believed prophecies were justified. In the border- 
 
 229 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 land of moist and dry air, encountered above, stray cloud- 
 lets formed and vanished again beside them. At their 
 highest point of several thousand feet a floating globe 
 of thistledown a voyager far indeed from home 
 wandered past the car. A rapid descent which seemed 
 to threaten an impact with the ground over-severe for 
 delicate apparatus^ was checked by a fall in the pliant 
 branches of an oak tree near Frome. Ridiculously enough, 
 some mistake occurred in communicating the safe termina- 
 tion of the voyage, and the newspapers next morning saw 
 fit to announce that the aeronauts were " missing." In 
 fact they worked up quite a little sensation over the 
 matter, so that my father, wholly unconscious, returning 
 to London later in the day, found himself confronting a 
 street placard of an evening edition announcing in large 
 letters, " Safety of Professor Bacon ! " The next num- 
 ber of the " World " contained the following verses 
 
 "PIGS MIGHT FLY." 
 
 (To the balloon in which Professor Bacon left Bristol on Monday 
 night, and which, after its disappearance had caused some anxiety, 
 alighted eventually near Frome). 
 
 You started for your journey in the clouds, 
 
 Bent on aerial investigation, 
 Acclaimed by shouts of scientific crowds, 
 
 Whose gas inspired you with your inspiration. 
 
 And after many hours, though you were tossed, 
 By tempest hurled, storm-buffeted or shaken, 
 
 This you can boast that honour was not lost, 
 For in the end, at least, you saved your Bacon. 
 
 So far the aerial experiments, promising and instructive 
 as they were proving, had been carried out only in the 
 hours of daylight, and Bacon was now thirsting to repeat 
 them in the silence and altered conditions of night. A 
 date was accordingly fixed for a night balloon voyage 
 under the harvest moon of early autumn, and with boyish 
 
 230 
 
" The Scientific Aeronaut " 
 
 enthusiasm Bacon looked forward to a novel and alto- 
 gether delightful experience. Glaishier, whose scientific 
 ascents had also included a night journey aloft, had 
 spoken of the difficulty of taking observations by lamp- 
 light. My father decided to overcome this difficulty by 
 preliminary practice, and, by way of fitting rehearsal 
 for the event, to choose some isolated and elevated 
 position for the purpose. With this view, he begged 
 permission of his friend the Vicar to spend a night 
 on the fine old tower of Thatcham Church, some 
 mile and a half distant, and here with his son and 
 daughter he kept night vigil, diligently practising with 
 the apparatus intended for the balloon ascent, and adding 
 many experiments to which the situation lent itself, as, 
 for example, the hearing of faint sounds as carried from 
 the ground to the parapet eighty feet above, and vice 
 versa. 
 
 It was somewhat of an eerie experience aloft above 
 that moonlit, silent graveyard ; but more especially so, 
 when, in our toilsome ascent, laden with baggage, among 
 the crazy jackdaw-littered ladders of the belfry, the 
 solitary light we bore became extinguished, leaving us in 
 total darkness, just as the timbers to which we clung 
 commenced an uncanny trembling, and immediately 
 beside us, with startling suddenness and deafening uproar, 
 the bells crashed out the chimes and hour of midnight. 
 
 It proved splendid preparation, however, for the ascent, 
 which took place from the Crystal Palace in ideal weather 
 conditions a few days later. A night balloon voyage 
 possesses romantic attractions of its own not to be sur- 
 passed, and in scenic effects alone the midnight journey 
 over the Garden of England and beneath a moon posi- 
 tively blinding in its brilliance, at that height, was without 
 its equal. In the upper regions the air proved consider- 
 
 231 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 ably warmer than on the ground, and in much comfort 
 and delight the three aeronauts (Mr. Swinbourne, the 
 war correspondent, was this time of the party), leaving 
 the sparkling, star-traced streets of London behind them, 
 sped smoothly across Kent, over Eynsford and Ayles- 
 ford, making meteorological and other observations by 
 the light of a Davy lamp (necessary because of the near 
 presence of the gas) slung aloft, and continually challeng- 
 ing the echoes from earth, this time behaving in a quite 
 unexampled and most instructive fashion. In the strange 
 deceptive mixture of darkness and moonlight it was a 
 difficult matter to recognize landmarks, and time and 
 again the white sheet of low-lying mists beneath suggested 
 irresistibly to voyagers making their first night journey 
 that the sea had been reached. Finally, a few miles 
 from Maidstone, the balloon, sinking earthwards, caught 
 her trail-rope in telegraph wires, and the party hauled 
 themselves down, hand over hand, until a panting game- 
 keeper, who swore he had run a mile and a quarter in 
 pursuit, burst through one hedge, even as a burly police- 
 man on night duty shouldered through another. The 
 nearest habitation, a solitary inn, was a mile and a half 
 away ; but by skilful adjustment of the ballast the 
 exactly poised balloon was conveyed breast-high, without 
 effort, by these two cheerful helpers to the spot. They 
 might have saved themselves the trouble, however, for 
 that inhospitable " public " refused to open its doors to 
 what it evidently supposed were belated hooligans, 
 despite (or perhaps in consequence of) showers of pebbles 
 on the windows and bugle-calls on the horn. Disgustedly 
 the party, having succeeded in rousing a local carrier, 
 drove five miles to Maidstone, where they arrived, cold 
 and tired, as the town clocks were striking three. 
 Maidstone, however, did not, this time, live up to its 
 
 232 
 
" The Scientific Aeronaut 11 
 
 usual hospitable reputation. At the only hotel they 
 succeeded in rousing, an elderly gentleman put a furious 
 head out of window and threatened to give them in charge 
 of the police. The police themselves were not more 
 helpful, and when Bacon in desperation suggested to 
 them the breaking of a window, which would, at least, 
 give them the entree of the lock-up, replied sadly, " You 
 wouldn't be comfortable in there, sir. It is already full 
 of drunken hop-pickers ! " Finally a humble but re- 
 spectable inn afforded them scant accommodation until 
 morning. 
 
 233 
 
XIII 
 OBSERVATIONS AND ADVENTURES 
 
 MEANTIME Bacon was supplementing his aerial 
 experiments with corresponding observations upon 
 the earth. With the assistance of Mr. Nevil Maskelyne, 
 sound tests of much delicacy were carried out in quiet 
 ground near London, and a useful fortnight was spent 
 at Kingsgate, Kent, where the coastguards, for several 
 years past his especial friends, lent invaluable assistance 
 in sound-signalling experiments of all kinds. Wishful to 
 test the far-famed acoustic properties of the Whispering 
 Gallery of St. Paul's, permission was again obtained 
 (this time of Dean Gregory) to spend a night in the build- 
 ing ; and in the silent hours Bacon thoroughly explored 
 the famous echo and proved its nature to be quite other- 
 wise than Sir John Herschel and other observers noting 
 it probably under much less favourable conditions had 
 described. 
 
 But Bacon longed for greater facilities for carrying on 
 the work in which he was daily growing more absorbed. 
 Balloon ascents, instructive as they were, lasted but so 
 short a while. Observations on the ground were hampered 
 by all manner of restrictions and disturbances that no 
 care could wholly obviate. In Bacon's own words : 
 " I was as yet no nearer learning more about those all- 
 important Zones of Silence noticed by mariners at sea ; 
 and though the investigations of atmospheric conditions 
 prevailing at all heights and at all hours should prove of 
 
 234 
 
I 
 
 Observations and Adventures 
 
 great value, as also all records of the sounds that could 
 be heard, or not heard, in the upper air, yet there were 
 many questions which could only be answered by obser- 
 vations made actually at sea. Unfortunately, however, 
 the motion and noise of the waves are usually great 
 hindrances in the way of acoustic experiments, either on 
 cliffs or shipboard. The ideal observatory would be 
 some island well out at sea, but on whose shores the waves 
 should never beat. It should be somewhere near the 
 track of vessels, where steamers plying night and day 
 should sound their warning signals, where fogs lie, and 
 beacon lights be shining. Further, it would be well if it 
 should be within earshot of distant cannon, and perhaps 
 of big bells tossed about by the waves. It might be 
 supposed such an island does not exist on the face of the 
 waters, and yet it does, and through the extreme courtesy 
 and generosity of Trinity House I found it." 
 
 Voyagers round our eastern coasts are familiar with 
 the Maplin Lighthouse, a weirdly shaped erection, rising 
 on an iron framework straight out of the waves, six miles 
 from the nearest point of the Essex shore, far out in the 
 estuary of the Thames as strange and lonely a habita- 
 tion as is to be found in the whole British realms. There 
 is no reef where the Maplin stands reared high above the 
 water, and on its slender piles is practically no lap of 
 waves. It overlooks the great ocean highway between 
 London and the North Sea, it is within sound of the guns 
 of Shoeburyness and Sheerness, and of a bell buoy to the 
 east ; and four miles on either side of it the lightships of 
 the " Swin Middle " and the " Mouse " blink their warn- 
 ing beams. " Ideal " was indeed the word to describe 
 such an observatory, and probably never in all his life 
 did Bacon thrill with keener delight or happier anticipa- 
 tion than when, Trinity House yielding graciously to his 
 
 235 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 bold request, he started in the middle of November for his 
 self-imposed exile (of unknown duration) to a Robinson 
 Crusoe island entirely after his own heart. 
 
 Very miscellaneous was his luggage, consisting as it did 
 of all manner of acoustical and meteorological instru- 
 ments, " paraboloid ears," bed and bedding, and pro- 
 visions (even to water-supply) for several weeks. He 
 was particularly anxious, I recall, to meet with a fog, 
 among his other experiences, and altogether before he 
 was ready for it his desire was gratified. He left home 
 one Monday afternoon bound for Blackwall, where he 
 was to join the Trinity House yacht " Vestal," then 
 starting on her monthly visitation to the lighthouses and 
 lightships of the district. The next news heard of him 
 was a hurried card : " Dense fog. Should have been 
 quite lost but for extreme kindness of station-master." 
 The letter I received two days later, however, was more 
 reassuring : 
 
 " ' Vestal,' 9 p.m. Monday. 
 
 " DEAREST GARTIE, 
 
 " Never since Indian days have I met with such 
 extreme attention and courtesy. The fog at Blackwall 
 Station was so dense that it seemed impossible to venture 
 outside, and the whole of the staff were out on fatigue 
 duty with fog signals. By feeling the outside wall I tried 
 to grope my way to the watchman of the dock. I missed 
 his gate, however, and finding the way blocked by a 
 chain I got under it and tried a little further, but gave 
 it up as hopeless and went back. Lucky I did, for a few 
 more steps would have taken me over the wall into the 
 river. 
 
 "The station-master, who proved a splendid friend, 
 felt sure I couldn't move out of the station, and offered 
 
 236 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 me a bed. The only safe way of reaching Trinity Wharf 
 would be by a walk of two miles, and an old hand could 
 hardly find the way. Eventually he thought of a plan. 
 He took me himself (first class, at the Company's ex- 
 pense) to another station, where he got a porter with a 
 signal lamp to walk i miles with me the whole round of 
 the dock to the Superintendent's house a Captain 
 Browne, who was expecting me and had orders to make 
 a royal guest of me. He vowed to put me on the 
 steamer somehow, even though I could not get my gear, 
 which was left at Blackwall. He had been forty years 
 in the service of Trinity House, and sat for half an hour 
 telling me about Tyndall and old days. Suddenly we 
 found the fog (which had lasted twenty-four hours) had 
 vanished like a dream. Then he hailed his boat, put me 
 on board, and sent his own man by boat to fetch my 
 baggage. So here I am in princely comfort, and have 
 the private cabin reserved for the ' Elder Brethren.' 
 We get under weigh at 10 a.m. to-morrow, and make quite 
 a voyage, visiting a whole lot of light-stations (one is 
 the ' Mouse,') finishing with the Maplin, which, by the 
 way, is bang in the sea, not an inch of ground round. 
 
 " Tuesday. 
 
 " Am treated like a prince. No private cabin on 
 the ' Egypt ' could beat mine. Fog still thick, but the 
 captain expects to reach the Maplin this afternoon. We 
 are getting under weigh as I write the same old motion, 
 the same old sounds down the river. Very reminding 
 of the old days, only I want you and Fred here. The 
 flag at our stern is very service-like, a red ensign with 
 four ships in the opposite corner to the ' Jack.' There 
 are some hundreds of water-barrels (nine gallons) on 
 deck, coal and oil, a big buoy to replace one carried away, 
 
 237 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 and I know not what else below. I have my own private 
 steward. Be chary of your telegrams, as they involve 
 some little favour. I too shall not wire often. Best 
 love to you both. 
 
 " Your own Dad." 
 
 After this a brief but joyous telegram or two was the 
 only communication received from the exile, now far 
 beyond the range of the postman. The Maplin is in 
 telephonic communication with Southend, which fact 
 explains how messages were received at all. By means 
 of the telephone-wire the keepers on that solitary station 
 keep in touch with the land they are shut off from for 
 several weeks at a stretch. By such intercourse, too, 
 they form friendships with men with whom they hold 
 frequent converse, perhaps for years, whose voices and 
 modes of speech they are familiar with, but whose faces 
 they have never seen. 
 
 When Bacon returned at length, greatly improved in 
 health by his wholesome sea life, he had much to relate. 
 His scientific observations were many, valuable and 
 curious, exceeding indeed what he had anticipated, But 
 it was the personal details of his strange sojourn that his 
 children were especially keen to hear ; and from his ac- 
 count, and from the photographs he brought back, they 
 strove to picture the remote little world which had been 
 his habitation. The main structure of the Maplin, he 
 told us, consisted of one chief room the living room 
 with odd-shaped side and store rooms opening out of it, 
 and three cabins occupied by the two light-keepers and 
 himself. Above was the lofty lantern, surrounded by a 
 wide gallery, on which hung the harsh-tongued bell that 
 in thick weather flung its dolorous monotonous note 
 ceaselessly across the oily waves. The two keepers were 
 
 238 
 
THE MAPLIN LIGHTHOUSE 
 
 See page 235 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE MAPLIN 
 
 Page 239 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 fine, intelligent men, with whom Bacon was immediately, 
 of course, on friendliest terms. One of them he quickly 
 found was a self-taught but enthusiastic musician ; in 
 the cabin of the other, a youth of cultivated literary 
 tastes, he noted, well worn, the complete works of Shake- 
 speare. Both were clever cooks, especially skilful at 
 baking delicious bread, for which, moreover, they manu- 
 factured their own yeast. A scrupulous neatness and 
 cleanliness, exceeding that of almost any dwelling-house 
 ashore, was of course maintained this is a characteristic 
 of the service of Trinity House and, with good and abun- 
 dant meals of quite astonishing variety, there was no 
 lack of comfort within the restricted boundaries of this 
 tiny world. Bacon asked his friends how they bore the 
 strain of so long incarceration alone together, and re- 
 ceived reply that they seldom or never quarrelled, but 
 after the first week or so, when all topics of conversation 
 were completely exhausted and, in their narrow life, 
 no events arose to create more, relapsed into silence 
 rarely broken. 
 
 Bacon's days on the Maplin were marked out by a strict 
 routine, commencing at three o'clock in the morning, when 
 the night-keeper, coming off duty, roused him and, forti- 
 fied by a cup of hot Bovril, he kept two hours' watch on 
 the gallery, returning to bed for a couple of hours' more 
 sleep until dawn ; after which, rising for good, the day's 
 work of observations was broken only by stated meals 
 and sundry interludes of hot tea and Bovril, provided 
 by the attentive care of his two companions, who, welcom- 
 ing with delight the friendly visitor who broke the dreary 
 sameness of their lives, looked after his needs with utmost 
 vigilance. For the rest, the distant guns across the 
 river's mouth, the hooters of the passing vessels, and the 
 deep boom of the bell buoy, brought him their own mess- 
 
 239 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 ages. Fog banks sank down upon the brown waters and 
 rose again, winds blew, waves curled, and clouds drifted 
 with a purpose ; and through the darkness the " Mouse " 
 and the " Swin " winked wicked green and yellow eyes 
 upon him with a meaning he was quick to interpret. 
 It was with much regret, and heartiest best wishes on the 
 part of hosts and guest, that, a day coming when un- 
 mistakable warnings heralded the approach of rough 
 weather and the termination of the experiments, a little 
 coasting vessel, opportunely passing, was signalled ; and 
 the light-keepers, with difficulty launching the lighthouse 
 boat, for the waves ran high, rowed Bacon alongside the 
 ship and left him to be landed later in the day at Col- 
 chester, after one of the pleasantest experiences of his 
 life. 
 
 In the ensuing winter Bacon joined the ranks of the 
 Lecture Agency, and commenced to deliver popular 
 lectures on his work and experiences. He also began to 
 write for the press, and henceforward articles from his pen 
 appeared at frequent intervals in all the leading journals 
 and magazines. It was with a very definite object in 
 view that he adopted both these courses. The work 
 that he had taken up was proving an exceedingly costly 
 hobby. Ballooning, under all circumstances, what with 
 the worth of the gas, the labour involved, and the great 
 value of the craft itself, is an expensive business ; private 
 and special ascents such as Bacon's investigations necessi- 
 tated, are far more costly yet. Bacon's slender income 
 had of late years, from one cause and another, very visibly 
 shrunk, and it soon became evident that his work was 
 assuming dimensions out of all proportion to what he 
 could afford to spend on it. In other days, and in other 
 countries, as he knew well enough, public and private 
 funds were to hand to help the aspirant to aeronautical 
 
 240 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 research. But a few abortive attempts at obtaining 
 assistance, even of the smallest, from scientific societies 
 and the like showed him he must expect no pecuniary 
 help from these quarters, and that he must rely on his 
 own exertions alone for the wherewithal to carry on the 
 labour which had now become his life's work. Hence- 
 forward he must contrive to make the work support 
 itself, and in this, by dint of sheer hard labour, by toil 
 of pen and brain, by interesting influential people, by 
 writing and lecturing, he may be said to have fairly suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 Nor was the earning of money his sole aim in thus ex- 
 ploiting his scientific work and its results. From earliest 
 days Bacon had held the strongest views on the im- 
 portance to the world not only of the investigator but of 
 the popularizer as well. He himself had derived too 
 much benefit from the writings of Proctor, Sir Robert 
 Ball, Grant Allen, and others of their school, to be likely 
 to underestimate the value of the labour which unfolds 
 to the multitude knowledge gained by the few. To share 
 with others that which he himself had received, to foster 
 and encourage the love of science as the highest and best 
 education, to expound to the ignorant those laws of 
 nature through the neglect of which half the sorrows of 
 the world arise this was now, as ever, his dearest wish 
 and his most earnest endeavour. 
 
 In February of the following year Bacon read a paper 
 on " The Balloon as an instrument of Scientific Research " 
 before the Society of Arts. A brief holiday spent in 
 Cornwall and the Scilly Isles a very meteorologically 
 instructive corner of the British Isles formed the prelude 
 to the next summer's campaign. During the winter 
 Bacon had been formulating a new departure in his aerial 
 acoustic experiments. So far the work had mainly taken 
 Q 241 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 the form of studying, from aloft, the carrying of sounds 
 rising from below. Now the tables should be turned, 
 and listeners on earth should hear and report on the 
 artificial thunder he was going to provide for them in 
 the clouds. Those terrific cotton powder fog-signals 
 with whose power he was now familiar, exploded elec- 
 trically beneath the car of his balloon, would form an 
 exceedingly good imitation of nature's dread artillery ; 
 while through the medium of the daily press it were 
 easy enough to enlist hundreds of willing assistants on 
 the ground who would listen for the explosions and re- 
 cord their nature and intensity. To ensure as many 
 listeners as possible, the experiments should take place 
 over London or the suburbs, and to avoid error the actual 
 time of the firing should not be revealed. 
 
 The novel experiment was, perforce, widely advertised, 
 and excited considerable interest ; but the first occasion 
 drew a blank, for, through some mistake in the apparatus 
 provided, the bombs refused to explode. And yet not 
 quite a blank, since next morning's post after the ascent 
 brought a score of reports, from all over the country, 
 giving full times and detail of the hearing of the unfired 
 signals. It at least showed what a little imagination, 
 and possibly Easter Monday rifle practice in the distance, 
 can bring forth, and threw useful light on the value of 
 many observations, regarding the sounds of bursting 
 meteors and the like, to be met with in the columns of 
 many journals. 
 
 The second trial proved eminently successful, as also 
 a trifle exciting to boot. It exemplified yet again if 
 further exemplification is indeed needed that the real 
 dangers of ballooning arise, not from its obvious risks, 
 but from those thousands of small and quite unforeseen 
 possibilities against which no amount of forethought 
 
 242 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 can provide. Certainly it seemed as if the balloon, rising 
 lazily from the " Welsh Harp," Hendon, rather late on a 
 mid- April day, and drifting on the lightest of breezes 
 southward over London, could have but the tamest and 
 least eventful of voyages. So, somewhat regretfully, 
 thought the voyagers, disregarding the fact that the gas 
 which inflated the silk was heavy and wanting in lifting 
 power, that they were overladen (Bacon's son and Mr. 
 Thomas Simpson, a scientific friend and frequent aerial 
 comrade, were of the party), and had been obliged to 
 abandon the anchor and half the trail-rope and ascend 
 with only a few pounds of ballast ; while they were, 
 at the time, ignorant of the further detail that the valve- 
 rope was out of position, thus rendering the valve beyond 
 their control. 
 
 Lazily they drifted towards the great city, and pre- 
 sently, when the houses grew thicker beneath them, with 
 some little trepidation as to the wholly unknown result, 
 they revolved the handle of the dynamo they carried, and 
 touched the wires that exploded the detonating cartridge 
 slung 120 feet below the car. They all knew the quite 
 appalling force of the explosion of these signals when fired 
 upon the ground, and the mere pistol-shot which im- 
 mediately greeted their ears came as a complete anti- 
 climax to their excited expectation. Of course they 
 broke into disappointed exclamations and fears of failure, 
 cut short hurriedly by a mighty uproar, like the falling 
 of heaven itself, as from the boundless bosom of the earth 
 there rolled back the million echoes of the sound, gathered 
 up in one terrific whole, and fading gradually away in long- 
 prolonged reverberation. 
 
 It was a strange and marvellously impressive expe- 
 rience, repeated many times as they floated over Kensal 
 Green, Westbourne Park, and Wormwood Scrubbs. 
 
 243 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Repetition in no way detracted from its wonder, though 
 it demonstrated again and again a remarkable result 
 which subsequent experiments never failed to enforce. 
 Most careful record was kept of the times of the explosion 
 and of the hearing of the echo from earth, and in each 
 case an unmistakable and well-marked " lagging " of the 
 echo was detected, as if the sound-waves travelled less 
 rapidly upwards than downwards through the air an 
 altogether unexpected occurrence. 
 , Slowly and more slowly on the dying evening breeze 
 their balloon hovered over Kensington, until just above 
 the tiny toy which stood for the Great Wheel at Earl's 
 Court it came to a complete standstill. Time passed and 
 the darkness gathered, yet still they hung there immov- 
 able, save for the fact that the chilled balloon was gradu- 
 ally sinking nearer the earth. Their ballast was gone, 
 the valve rope had failed them, their craft was out of 
 control, and they were becalmed above the housetops. 
 A forced descent on an extremely unfavourable landing- 
 place, and a heavy bill for damages to roofs and chimney- 
 pots, seemed before them. For this they prepared them- 
 selves, and indeed almost looked forward to the sensation 
 they were about to create since the experience, though 
 costly, would scarcely be dangerous when suddenly a 
 new peril very literally " flashed " upon them, and the 
 element of horror leapt instantly into their calculations. 
 A street below was in a minute outlined with a string of 
 gas lamps, glimmering brightly in the gloom, then another 
 and another, till the glow-worms thickly speckled the 
 whole ground below each light a deadly menace to the 
 inflammable explosive gas of their balloon, apparently just 
 about to sink into their very midst. Strong measures 
 were inevitable, if indeed the threatened disaster, the 
 results of which did not bear thinking about, could 
 
 244 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 anyhow be averted. The heavy and costly dynamo, bor- 
 rowed property and highly treasured, must go overboard, 
 no matter at what risk to heads below ; and the trail rope 
 was hauled in on which to partially lower it to the ground. 
 Meanwhile the balloon sank, and by so doing escaped 
 its fate. The river was close at hand, and along its bed 
 and close to the earth a scarce perceptible breeze was 
 breathing. Slowly, very slowly, the balloon began to 
 drift again, creeping low over the housetops, while the 
 aeronauts counted each yard of ground covered. The 
 gas lamps thinned out, open ground was at last before 
 them, and in market gardens at Willesden their race was 
 narrowly won. 
 
 The acoustical results of this voyage were many and 
 deeply instructive, and pointed to the necessity for other 
 trials of a like nature. Accordingly, taking advantage 
 of an advertised balloon ascent, Bacon went up from 
 the Crystal Palace on the following Whit Monday, again 
 equipped with sound-signals to fire from aloft. It is 
 surely the fact that the possibilities and surprises of 
 balloon travel are endless, and can in no wise be pre- 
 dicted, even under, apparently, the most ordinary con- 
 ditions, that gives, in a prosaic age when adventures 
 are far to seek, its especial fascination to sky sailing. 
 No two voyages are ever alike, and this ascent in par- 
 ticular was to stand out from the rest as, in several points, 
 peculiar. The balloon party were three in number, a 
 young aeronautical enthusiast accompanying Bacon 
 and Mr. Percival Spencer aloft, taking his place, by his 
 own special request, perched up in the " ring " from which 
 the car is slung, and thus in close proximity to the open 
 mouth of the balloon. Whit Monday was following its 
 usual unpropitious weather traditions, and drizzling rain- 
 cloud hung heavy upon damp and dispirited sight-seers, 
 
 245 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 and obscured the tops of the lofty towers of the Crystal 
 Palace in dismal mist. 
 
 The wind was light, but constant, setting towards 
 the west, a fact specially noted by the aeronauts, who 
 foresaw that in a short time they would lose sight of the 
 earth among the clouds. This, in fact, they quickly did ; 
 but they were scarcely prepared for the exceeding thick- 
 ness of the fog, so dense that in passing through it they 
 could scarcely distinguish each other's faces ; or for the 
 overpoweringly bright sunshine above and matchless 
 beauty of the scene into which they burst. Above the 
 clouds through which they had risen were higher clouds, 
 from which, as they neared them, they perceived that 
 fine rain was falling, rain which never reached the ground, 
 but was absorbed in drier atmosphere below. Rising 
 still above these they were bathed in fierce sunlight of a 
 brilliance unknown on earth, at least in foggy England. 
 White patches of loftier cloud still hung above, and be- 
 neath the sea of snowy glistening vapour, piled and 
 tossed into mountain waves and billows as of some storm- 
 swept ocean, presented that rapturous scene of inde- 
 scribable heavenly beauty that only the aeronaut, and 
 occasionally to a lesser degree the mountaineer, are 
 privileged to behold. 
 
 Bacon was overjoyed, for it was the acoustic properties, 
 whether conductive or non-conductive, of just such a 
 barrier of cloud that he was above all anxious to test. 
 He and Mr. Spencer were soon busy with their bomb firing, 
 and while so engaged their attention was temporarily 
 withdrawn from their companion in the ring, until a 
 sound from aloft suddenly awoke them to the fact that 
 all was not well with him. It was apparent at once that 
 a fit of some kind had seized him, and that his wits had 
 entirely forsaken him, as, screaming and foaming at the 
 
 246 
 
ABOVE THE CLOUDS 
 
 Page 246 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 mouth, he clung convulsively to the ropes. The first 
 duty was obviously to get him down from his dangerous 
 position, and with infinite difficulty Bacon and Spencer, 
 climbing on the edge of the car, unfastened his clenched 
 fingers and half supported, half dropped him down into 
 the basket beneath. Here he lay inert among the sand- 
 bags, wholely senseless, white as death, and to all ap- 
 pearance absolutely lifeless. In vain his horrified com- 
 panions listened for his breathing, felt his heart, or raised 
 the limp hand which fell again with sickening suggest- 
 iveness. In vain they tried to force brandy between 
 his clenched teeth. No water or other means of recover- 
 ing him was at hand. There was not a breath of air to 
 fan his cheek. They could but loosen his clothes, tie 
 handkerchiefs round the ropes to shield his head from 
 the fierce sun, and gently bestow his long limbs as easily 
 as might be in the hopelessly cramped quarters of that 
 tiny basket. It added greatly to their distress and to 
 the difficulty of their position, that they believed, from 
 the direction of the wind when they left the earth, that 
 the suburbs of London must yet lie thickly below them ; 
 so that an immediate descent could not possibly be risked, 
 especially with their helpless burden in the car. Their 
 only course was to stay aloft for some while longer, until 
 they could fairly presume that they were over open 
 country. Meanwhile they had come hopelessly to the 
 end of their very slight medical knowledge, and of the 
 nature or cause of the sufferer's seizure they could not 
 even guess. Truly it was a strange and a most woebegone 
 little party in that wicker basket lost above the clouds ! 
 
 For some while Spencer and Bacon really believed 
 their poor companion, lying limply among the sandbags 
 at their feet, to be dead, and their feelings are easier 
 imagined than described. Will it be instanced in proof 
 
 247 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 of the supposed callousness of the scientific mind that, 
 having done everything in their power for his recovery 
 and failed, they continued their acoustic experiments 
 and fired the rest of the bombs they had brought aloft 
 with them ? 
 
 So time wore on, and it was with relief of mind in- 
 describable that they presently perceived in their com- 
 rade signs of returning animation. Slowly and painfully 
 he was coming to his senses, and his first articulate words 
 disclosed the nature of his illness : " It was that horrid 
 gas ! " Then they understood. The balloon had risen 
 with great rapidity, and the young man up in the ring 
 had breathed, perforce, the volumes of carburetted 
 hydrogen pouring from the open mouth of the silk just 
 above him had been, in fact, asphyxiated. If a doctor 
 had been present he would have adopted artificial re- 
 spiration to expel the poison from the lungs, but the 
 aeronauts can scarcely be blamed that this remedy had 
 not occurred to them. 
 
 By this time, too, the balloon was sinking earthward, 
 and they considered they now might safely descend. 
 They had been aloft nearly two hours, and by ordinary 
 calculation should find themselves over Berkshire or 
 Hampshire. Their course was directly westward when 
 they rose, their height had not been excessive, the char- 
 acter of the day was unchanged ; and though they had 
 completely lost sight of the ground since the start and 
 thus had no exact knowledge of their course, they were 
 confident they could not be far out in their reckoning. 
 
 So the valve was opened, and down they swooped into 
 the dark abyss of the cloud, and as they sank through 
 its depths there arose a strange sound from beneath. 
 What could cause that splashing murmur which filled 
 their ears ? It was not a mill-stream or a waterfall, or 
 
 248 
 
DESCENDING IN THE SEA 
 
 Page 249 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 the tossing of boughs in a gale. Surely below it must 
 be raining heavily, and this was the splashing of rain- 
 drops on the leaves of one of the extensive woods of Berk- 
 shire. 
 
 One more moment of uncertainty, then the clouds 
 broke beneath, and behold the sea ! Wide grey waters, 
 breaking waves, and a cargo boat so close beneath that 
 the long trail-rope swept the deck, and astonished sailors 
 stared open-mouthed and speechless at such an apparition 
 sinking suddenly out of the overcast skies. Apparently 
 a descent was about to be made in the ocean ; an alto- 
 gether disastrous contingency, especially with a sick 
 man in the car, who though slowly recovering was still 
 terribly ill and faint and incapable of exertion. 
 
 But as the lifting cloud disclosed wider horizon they 
 perceived shore at some distance on either side, and the 
 estuary of a wide river with ships passing up and down 
 that it was impossible not to recognize as the Thames. 
 But how could this be, when their course from the Crystal 
 Palace had been due west ? And behold they were 
 travelling westward still, going up the river towards town, 
 and they were soon looking directly downward into the 
 fort at Gravesend ! Here was indeed a marked instance 
 of the vagaries of the wind : two currents of air, one 
 above and one below the cloud barrier, blowing at the 
 same time in diametrically opposite directions. Lucky 
 it was they had descended when they did, or they might 
 have found themselves so far out over the German Ocean 
 that they would never have won back to land. 
 
 Ballast was now almost expended, and, the balloon 
 keeping in midstream, it seemed as if a watery landing- 
 place was still inevitable. But presently, at a bend in 
 the bank, they drifted inland low down over the house- 
 tops of Greenwich. The three-hundred-foot trail-rope, 
 
 249 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 wet and heavy, which had been dragging in the water, 
 was now actually slanting across the streets, climbing the 
 sides of the houses, and rattling across the tiles. To 
 attempt to haul it in would be to bring the car itself 
 right down on the houses. Surely some damage must 
 be done soon ! and quickly there came a crash which 
 Bacon ascribed to a falling chimney, but Spencer, more 
 correctly, to a broken window. Luckily, at the last 
 moment, a forgotten half-bag of ballast was discovered 
 at the bottom of the car, and by its help the town was 
 cleared and a safe descent made in open ground some 
 miles beyond. 
 
 During the ensuing summer Bacon invested in a motor- 
 car. It was a small Benz car, with a belt-driven engine 
 and solid tyres, capable when all went well of carrying 
 three passengers. But all was not always well. Bacon 
 was of course his own chauffeur. He loved his little car, 
 and was exceedingly proud of its performances ; and 
 certainly no one but he could have got so much out of its 
 exasperating machinery. But motor-cars in those days 
 were in their earliest and most inexperienced youth. 
 The best of them were unreliable and subject to frequent 
 breakdowns. Bacon's car was cheap, under-engined, 
 and second-hand to boot. Yet he drove it for five years 
 (when he exchanged it for a larger one), and succeeded 
 in extracting from it an amount of use and pleasure out of 
 all proportion to its worth or capabilities. 
 
 In the intervals between his ascents he employed him- 
 self in acoustic experiments on earth, testing echoes, and 
 the like. By permission of the Duke of Marlborough he 
 made an expedition to Woodstock Park, to investigate 
 the famous echo there which guide-books and textbooks 
 still insist upon as repeating seventeen syllables by day 
 and twenty by night. With detonating rockets he 
 
 250 
 
NEWBURV FROM A BALLOON 
 
 Page 251 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 roused echoes at Fair Rosamund's Well such as had 
 never' been heard there before, but of the seventeen 
 repetitions he found no sign ; nor was he likely to, since 
 investigation proved that they rested solely on the author- 
 ity of an observer who flourished no less than two hundred 
 years ago, when buildings, long since destroyed, were 
 yet in existence. This he found but a typical instance 
 of much textbook information on acoustic and other 
 matters. 
 
 In a balloon ascent made from Newbury this August 
 he and the Messrs. Maskelyne between them introduced 
 a quite novel experiment. Mr. Nevil Maskelyne had 
 lately begun his investigations in wireless telegraphy 
 which have since rendered him famous ; and it was now 
 proposed that, for the first time, the new discovery should 
 be applied to balloon travel, and apparatus carried in a 
 free balloon capable of receiving messages transmitted 
 from earth. As possessing no little importance from a 
 strategic and military point of view, the experiment 
 excited wide interest in many quarters, and was freely 
 commented on in the daily press. Full precautions 
 were taken for its success. A lofty pole in the field at 
 Newbury, whence the balloon was to ascend, carried one of 
 the necessary long vertical wires, while the other wire 
 was run up the rigging of the balloon to the top of the 
 silk. The transmitting apparatus was considered too 
 heavy to bear aloft, and the aeronauts contented them- 
 selves with carrying the small " receiver," being thus able 
 only to receive and not to transmit the wireless messages. 
 The result proved a signal success. The day was perfect, 
 the sky flecked with summer clouds, behind which the 
 balloon became presently hidden from view. Above 
 the rolling vapour, in a fairyland of their own, the aero- 
 nautical party were as completely severed from earth and 
 
 251 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 the friends they had left behind them as it was possible 
 to conceive. And yet not so, for there in the car between 
 them the delicate bell of the little apparatus they carried 
 continued to tinkle forth the messages which Mr. Maske- 
 lyne, in the field now ten or twelve miles away, was still 
 flashing to them across empty space. 
 
 Later in the summer Bacon experienced two sad dis- 
 appointments. He was particularly keen to test the 
 theory, held by many aeronauts and meteorologists, 
 that high aloft in the sky there is always to be found a 
 constant and unvarying wind-current blowing from west 
 to east, and corresponding with the direction of motion 
 of the earth's rotation. Experienced balloonists have 
 made no doubt of this current. In fact both Green in 
 England and Wise in America each desired to attempt 
 an aerial crossing of the Atlantic, so certain were they 
 of finding a driving wind for the purpose. Bacon more 
 modestly essayed to settle the point by crossing the 
 North Sea from London, if possible to the coast of Den- 
 mark. 
 
 The mere crossing of the Channel from England to 
 France he considered a feat altogether too hackneyed and 
 cockney to engage his attention ; but a voyage to Den- 
 mark would mean five hundred miles of salt water to 
 traverse, while a wind but a few points more from the 
 north would yet entail a fairly respectable voyage to 
 northern Germany or the neighbourhood of the Zuyder 
 Zee. In either case, however, it would be unwise to 
 start unless the breeze were absolutely favourable, both 
 in direction and intensity ; especially as no very large 
 balloon was available for the purpose, so that the amount 
 of ballast to be carried would perforce be small for so 
 great a distance to be traversed. 
 
 Arrangements were accordingly made that a balloon 
 
 252 
 
Observations and Adventures 
 
 then doing captive work at the Crystal Palace should be 
 at Bacon's disposal to start with the first fair wind ; and 
 Bacon accordingly came to town and spent a fortnight, 
 mainly at the Palace itself, ready and waiting to take 
 instant advantage of the first favourable occasion. But 
 the occasion never came. Once or twice the wished for 
 wind blew for a short while, but before preparations 
 were complete had veered again. At the final attempt 
 a sudden squall arose, swept the balloon ground, tore 
 away ropes and netting, and would have utterly destroyed 
 the balloon itself had not the silk been promptly emptied. 
 The second disappointment was at the meeting of the 
 British Association held this year at Dover. Here again 
 the wind frustrated the promised experiments. The 
 season was now drawing to a close, and Bacon feared 
 that there was but little likelihood of retrieving his ill 
 fortune. An adventurous voyage, however, was shortly 
 before him, which, in its way, was to establish a record 
 in English aeronautics. To this, as perhaps Bacon's 
 most famous experience, as it was certainly his greatest 
 peril, a fresh chapter is due. 
 
 253 
 
XIV 
 A PERILOUS VOYAGE 
 
 ON the 1 6th of November, 1899, astronomers pre- 
 dicted a return of that great shower of meteors, 
 radiating from the constellation " Leo " and known as the 
 " Leonids," whose periodic recurrence thrice a century, 
 at thirty-three years' interval, had until then been one 
 of the great events of astronomical chronology. The 
 last display, in 1866, had proved a marvellous sight, still 
 fresh in the memories of the older generation. All classes, 
 and not the scientific world alone, were deeply interested 
 in the coming marvel ; and half England were forming 
 resolutions to sit up until the early hours that night, and 
 rouse up the children to behold a wonder they would 
 remember all the rest of their lives. 
 
 But, alas, the skies of foggy November were not to be 
 relied upon. It seemed more than likely, in that season 
 of mists, that thick clouds would intervene, and astron- 
 omers and sightseers alike be balked of their marvel. 
 Clearly here was an obvious opening for a balloon, by 
 which means alone, in the very probable event of an 
 overcast night, record could be obtained of the coming 
 meteors. Bacon had a strong case, which he presented 
 to influential quarters. As a result "The Times " news- 
 paper itself rose to the occasion, and generously under- 
 took to finance an ascent which should ensure the fact 
 that some English witnesses at least should behold and 
 report upon the expected shower. 
 
 254 
 
A Perilous Voyage 
 
 To obtain the best possible results from the mission 
 entrusted to him, Bacon consulted the chief authorities, 
 both astronomical and aeronautical. The former told 
 him that, while the shower was pretty confidently pre- 
 dicted for the early hours of November the i6th, it was 
 just possible it might appear twenty-four hours earlier ; 
 so that it would be as well to be prepared to ascend, if 
 necessary, the night before. Aeronautical experts, re- 
 presented by the Spencer Brothers, advised in this case 
 that, as the balloon might have to remain inflated for a 
 long while before starting, one of large size should be 
 employed, and a " solid " or " ripping " valve substituted 
 for the usual " Butterfly " variety ; which, though poss- 
 essing the undoubted advantage of being able to be 
 opened and shut while the balloon is aloft, can, by no 
 amount of " luting," be rendered absolutely gas-tight. 
 
 A " ripping " valve can best be described by likening 
 it to the top of a jam-pot. A piece of the varnished silk 
 of which the balloon itself is made is drawn tight over 
 the orifice at the top, and hermetically sealed down. A 
 sharp wrench alone, at the end of the voyage, tears this 
 covering bodily away, leaving a large gaping hole through 
 which, of course, the gas escapes with great rapidity. For 
 this reason, and because the valve when once wrenched 
 apart cannot again be closed, the voyage must be 
 at an end and the balloon quite close to the ground before 
 the hole be torn open ; otherwise so quickly does the 
 balloon empty a fatal fall to earth would inevitably 
 result. This form of valve is perfectly gas-tight, neither, 
 under ordinary circumstances, does it present any danger- 
 ous disadvantages. It is rarely the case in balloon travel 
 that the aeronaut requires to open his valve until the 
 last moment. Gas is always wasting away through silk 
 or joints or open neck while the craft is afloat ; so that 
 
 255 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 the difficulty is not to come down, but to keep up and 
 prevent the balloon sinking of its own accord. Only by 
 the frequent discharge of ballast well called the " life " 
 of a balloon, can the aeronaut hope to maintain his 
 position in the sky. 
 
 The ascent was to take place from the grounds of the 
 Newbury gas-works, and the aeronautical party were 
 three in number ; Mr. Stanley Spencer, younger, though 
 no less experienced member of the firm, being in charge 
 of the balloon, and the writer accompanying her father 
 as assistant. According to arrangement, the silk was 
 inflated with its 56,000 cubic feet of gas, and everything in 
 readiness by the evening of Tuesday, the I4th. The night, 
 however, proved clear and cloudless, and it was soon 
 apparent that there were no meteors to ascend for. Evi- 
 dently the astronomers were correct in their calculations, 
 and the shower was coming at the predicted time. 
 
 Wednesday, the I5th, closed in dark and heavy. Thick- 
 est clouds covered the sky, and all over England thou- 
 sands of would-be observers retired disgustedly to bed 
 in bitter disappointment. Not so the three aeronauts, 
 excitedly waiting at Coldash. Such a night was just 
 what they wanted. It was the very presence of the 
 clouds which justified their ascent and gave them the 
 opportunity for which they were thirsting. 
 
 A couple of hours' sleep was snatched, a meal partaken 
 of, and then at midnight the trio, heavily coated and laden 
 with impedimenta, drove into Newbury in the little car 
 and spent an hour or two at the Guildhall Club, kept 
 open all night for the occasion. Careful deliberation had 
 fixed four a.m. as the hour of the ascent. Firstly because 
 from four to six the shower was predicted at its height ; 
 secondly because above those clouds the balloonists 
 would quickly lose all sight of earth, and a prolonged 
 
 256 
 
A Perilous Voyage 
 
 journey must not be embarked on, since, with the pre- 
 vailing wind, it would almost certainly lead them to the 
 sea-coast. 
 
 On the way to the gas-works the probable duration of 
 the voyage was discussed and settled. The wind was 
 light but constant, blowing directly west, and the darkness 
 above made it impossible to tell the drift of upper currents. 
 If the breeze aloft was the same as below by no means 
 a certainty we should follow the course of the Kennet 
 Valley and Great Western Railway, and reach the sea 
 at Bristol, sixty miles away. Putting the force of the 
 wind at thirty miles an hour, our voyage should last but a 
 couple of hours. Probably the speed was less, so three 
 hours might perhaps be risked ; but four would be very 
 unsafe, and anything beyond quite out of the question. 
 In the practically certain event of losing all sight of the 
 earth above the clouds, we finally decided to finish our 
 voyage at dawn, when our work would be at an end ; 
 though should the wind bear us northward, and the clouds 
 breaking allow us to see our course, we might be tempted 
 to keep up a little longer. 
 
 It was a weirdly impressive scene at the gas-works 
 that black November night. The moon, though at the 
 full, yet could not penetrate the heavy wetting mist now 
 settled into a fine drizzle ; and flaming gaslights dimly 
 revealed hundreds of white upturned faces, and glittered 
 on the shiny sides of the damp silk towering up mon- 
 strously into the darkness, its top completely hidden in 
 the gloom. A large crowd who, despite the weather, 
 had patiently waited all night, heralded our arrival with 
 cheers. Soon the gold-braided aeronaut and his eager 
 assistants were swarming about the balloon in their 
 final preparations, carrying sandbags, adjusting the ring, 
 the valve-cord, the trail-rope and the heavy grapnel. 
 R 257 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 Next our paraphernalia was stowed in the car a camera, 
 field-glasses, a specially constructed instrument for col- 
 lecting the meteoric dust that might be floating in the 
 upper air, notebooks, pencils, and star-maps on which 
 to chart the meteor tracks, a Davy lamp to light us, rugs 
 and great coats, and a thick packet of sandwiches. No- 
 thing had been forgotten; even life-belts, in case of a 
 possible descent in the sea, had been provided, but at the 
 last it seemed ridiculous to be burdened with what was so 
 obviously needless, and they were left behind. Lastly 
 we ourselves scrambled into our wicker basket, and amid 
 general enthusiasm, shouts of farewell, and the wild 
 tooting of the steam hooter at the gas-works, our craft 
 rose gracefully and swiftly into the darkness. For some 
 three or four minutes the spectators below, straining their 
 eyes, could still trace the dim light of our Davy lamp 
 hovering over the town. Then it vanished in the mist 
 and the crowd went home to bed, expecting by breakfast- 
 time at latest to hear tidings of our descent, probably 
 not so very far distant. Bacon had, of course, promised 
 the Guildhall Club that he would wire them the earliest 
 intimation on reaching the ground. Yet hour by hour 
 went by and no news came ; and when morning wore to 
 afternoon, lunch-time to tea-time, and still no telegram, 
 friends grew more and more nervous as to our safety, and 
 anxious excitement ran high. 
 
 Meantime, we in the car, quickly exchanging the tur- 
 moil of the start for the calm silence of the free heavens, 
 were in a very few minutes enveloped in the cloud. Very 
 dense and oppressive we found it, and through its stifling, 
 clinging folds our balloon could but with the utmost diffi- 
 culty force her upward way. Bag after bag of ballast 
 was emptied rapidly over the side, and still the indicator 
 of the tell-tale aneroid recorded but little progress. The 
 
 258 
 
A Perilous Voyage 
 
 cloud was 1500 feet deep, and it took four sandbags to 
 clear it, an unprecedented quantity for so short a time. 
 But the contents of the fourth was scarcely discharged 
 before, at last, the vapour broke above our heads, and we 
 emerged into a realm of beauty aloft that none but we 
 three in all the world were privileged to enter. 
 
 For us alone the full moon, strange tawny copper in 
 hue, reigned glorious in the heaven, ringed about with 
 a wondrous double halo of brightest rainbow tints. For 
 us alone Sinus flashed magnesium blue, and the other 
 stars glistened as jewels in a blue-black velvet sky. For 
 us, and us alone, was spread that " perilous sea, in faery 
 lands forlorn," whose filmy, tossing billows were turned 
 to silver in the moonlight, whose deep hollows harboured 
 shadows of richest purple, whose boundless, snowy ex- 
 panse stretched to the horizon's furthest limit in one 
 vast, silent, glorious ocean. For a while we gazed spell- 
 bound and speechless at this crowning marvel of loveliness 
 of all our lives. For quite an appreciable interval we 
 forgot the meteors ; and when, after a while, we looked 
 upwards at the empty sky and the bright sickle of Leo, 
 from which not one " Leonid " would condescend to 
 " shoot," we had scarcely room for disappointment that 
 the marvellous shower had never come after all. 
 
 I doubt if we saw a dozen meteors all that night ; but 
 the unutterable beauty of the fairy land we had invaded 
 was amplest recompense for our trouble, and delightedly 
 we made a compact to come meteor-hunting again the 
 next year and every year afterwards ! But before this 
 we had been much concerned at finding the balloon sink- 
 ing back again into the mist. Two more sandbags had to 
 go at once, and then another, making seven altogether 
 in twenty minutes. This was quite exceptional, and 
 could only be accounted for by supposing the silk of the 
 
 259 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 balloon to have become heavily moisture-laden in its 
 passage through the fog, and the gas chilled in the colder 
 upper air. Mr. Spencer hesitated indeed at the seventh 
 bag, and questioned the wisdom of parting with weight 
 so rapidly. But Bacon reminded him that our duty 
 was not yet fulfilled, and instructed him, at all hazards, 
 to keep aloft for some while longer. So the sand shower 
 went hurtling downwards just before we touched the 
 cloud floor, and after this we maintained an even height 
 3000 feet above the earth, just above the top of the 
 mists, and, at the time, we congratulated ourselves upon 
 the fact. 
 
 We were a supremely happy party up there in fairy- 
 land, wrapped in rugs, nibbling dry sandwiches, counting 
 stray meteors, and trying to judge from the occasional 
 sounds of earth that reached us our probable landing- 
 place. A chorus of wild barkings early in the voyage 
 revealed we were over the kennels of Ashdown. The 
 rumble of a train and the rhythmic clatter of horses' hoofs 
 stood for the G.W.R. and the Bath Road. As six o'clock 
 approached we caught the buzzing of a steam hooter, and 
 imagined ourselves somewhere in the vicinity of the 
 Westbury iron- works. A church clock below tolled out 
 the hour, and almost on the moment one of us, facing 
 eastward, uttered an exclamation, and, turning, we beheld 
 in the already fast-lightening sky the breaking flush of 
 dawn. With great rapidity the daylight strengthened ; 
 and as it invaded the realm over which the moon had 
 lately held sole sway the white ocean turned green and 
 copper and golden, the stars faded, and thick grey mists 
 swept upwards to hide the face of the conquered satellite 
 as she sank, vanquished, towards the west. Then from 
 below, as in a'paean of victory, came up a chorus of piercing 
 cockcrows, shrill, continuous, and triumphant. Seem- 
 
 260 
 
. 
 
 A Perilous Voyage 
 
 ingly there were many poultry farms below ; and since 
 the cocks aroused the dogs, and the dogs in turn woke 
 up the cows, the rural cantata was loud and varied. 
 
 The grey mists were sweeping around our basket too, 
 and stretching up clammy arms to clasp us. Surely 
 our descent must be near at hand, and an easy landing 
 in the still dawn assured. Yet a glance at the aneroids 
 revealed the astonishing fact that our height was un- 
 changed, though no further ballast had now been thrown 
 out for an hour and more. Also, as it grew lighter and 
 lighter, the mist wreaths rolled up lower and less frequently 
 around us, as if they lacked the power to enfold us in their 
 damp embrace. An awkward silence had fallen on our 
 trio, and Mr. Spencer's genial face looked strangely white 
 in the dawn. Presently the situation began to dawn on 
 me. " Would it be safe," I inquired, " supposing in 
 another half-hour we are at the same height, to pull the 
 valve open ? " Quickly and emphatically the answer 
 came, " No ! " and then I understood. In another half- 
 hour the sun would have risen, and with bright beams be 
 drying the silk and expanding the gas, in which case 
 should we not rise instead of fall, and rise for how long ? 
 
 The next half-hour passed almost in silence ; but the 
 changing beauty of the dawn had lost its charm. Mr. 
 Spencer continually threw out of the car tiny scraps of 
 paper which fluttered ominously downwards. Bacon 
 leant far out looking at the cloud floor, and in so doing 
 his cap dropped overboard and disappeared instantly in 
 the mist. Then indeed we laughed, for we pictured the 
 scene below, saw in imagination the unsophisticated 
 rustic going to milk in the early dawn, and fancied his 
 face as, from the cloudy, overcast sky above, there falls 
 at his feet coming from heaven as it were an ancient 
 cap ! After this, above the sinking mists there shot up a 
 
 261 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 brilliant ray of light, obscured for a moment, but rising 
 again higher and higher ; and as we gazed, fascinated, we 
 saw the dazzling body of the sun in golden splendour 
 mount majestically into his kingdom. Below us the 
 creeping vapours, like baffled spirits of the night, sank 
 down for the last time. Above us was the cloudless blue 
 and the gaudy seams of the balloon, stretched tight and 
 dry in the warming beams. Beside us, slung under the 
 extinguished Davy lamp, the aneroids indicated a rise 
 of 500 feet. 
 
 It was no use pretending any longer. We were cornered 
 caught in a trap. The sun would continue to increase in 
 power and warmth ; our balloon would continue to rise 
 into realms where no clouds could form to shield us. It 
 was now seven o'clock, and not for five long hours, till 
 noon was past, could we even hope to descend. Five 
 more hours in the narrow world in which we had already 
 spent nearly three, was not in itself a terrible fate. There 
 were plenty of dry sandwiches left in the packet, although 
 certainly the contents of one of the ballast bags had be- 
 come somewhat mixed up with them, and made them 
 sand-wiches in literal truth. The bright sunbeams would 
 ensure our being warm enough, November though it was. 
 Our limbs were growing cramped in our little basket 
 (six feet long, by three and a half wide and three deep) 
 but not unendurably so. No, it was not here that our 
 trouble lay, but in the awful uncertainty of our position, 
 our inability to see the earth and so to judge in any way 
 our direction or speed, our knowledge that we had already 
 exceeded the time we had considered safe to be aloft 
 when we left the ground, and our hopeless conviction 
 that we were already close approaching the Atlantic, 
 out over which we must surely float, hour after hour, 
 beyond hope of rescue, until, with declining day, our spent 
 
 262 
 
BALLOON FILLING AT NEWBURY GASWORKS 
 
 See page 256 
 
 A MILE ABOVE THE CLOUD-FLOOR 
 
 Page 263 
 
A Perilous Voyage 
 
 balloon sank down far out on that watery waste, to rise 
 no more. 
 
 For the time indeed we were over the country, and 
 clearly travelling at a very slow rate. For almost half 
 an hour we hung above one particular farm, and were 
 able distinctly to recognize and distinguish the voices of 
 its varied and vociferous live stock. But we were rising 
 rapidly, 600 feet at least each quarter of an hour, and 
 earth's peaceful voices melted one by one into the silence 
 of space. Soon beneath us the white snow-sheet of the 
 cloud floor lay flat and glistening a whole mile distant. 
 To our lofty eyrie only the whistle and rumble of trains 
 seemed able to penetrate ; and yet, all too soon, there 
 rose another softer sound, that confirmed our worst fears 
 and sent the blood rushing to our hearts as with one 
 accord we exclaimed to each other, " We are over the 
 sea ! " The sound was the shrill, well-remembered shriek 
 of a ship's steam siren, and mingled with it was the clash 
 and clang of hammers in a dockyard seaport town. But 
 more ominous far than these was that gentle rhythmic 
 beat, that softly sighing accompaniment that could be- 
 long to one thing and one thing only in all the world. 
 Who that has ever heard its distant murmur can mistake 
 the sound of breaking waves upon a pebbly beach ? 
 
 So our fears were realized, and we had reached the 
 Atlantic at last. Now there remained but a few hours 
 dragging, weary wait before our journey ended in the 
 waves. Probably our balloon would float awhile on the 
 waters, but we had no life-belts, and heavy net and cord- 
 age would entangle and hold us down. It was small 
 odds indeed, on that wide ocean, that we fell within sight 
 or aid of a ship. In very truth our case was desperate, 
 and Mr. Spencer was in favour of ripping open the valve 
 put his hand, in fact, upon the valve-rope. There was 
 
 263 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 the feeble chance, even then, that if in the awful descent 
 that would ensue we threw everything out of the car, 
 down to our own hats and coats, the empty silk, collapsing 
 into a parachute, might bring us down alive. But Bacon 
 restrained him. The risk was too terrible to contemplate. 
 It was a choice of evils indeed, but drowning seemed a 
 preferable death to being dashed to pieces. 
 
 To the writer, recalling the hours that followed, indelibly 
 imprinted on the mind as they must ever be, the fact 
 that stands out the clearest was Bacon's own absolute 
 calmness and apparent perfect indifference to his fate. 
 One thing alone seemed in the least to trouble him 
 the press telegram that he was writing to " The Times." 
 With the utmost care he composed his message, turned 
 the sentences, counted the words, and copied them out 
 on the forms. He was rather proud of what he had 
 written, read it aloud for commendation, and was really 
 genuinely distressed to think that Mr. Moberly Bell and 
 his readers might not, after all, receive the benefit of it. 
 Beyond this absurd and tiny detail the situation had no 
 terrors for him, the near approach of death no fears. 
 For himself he minded not at all, for his two younger 
 companions he was all sympathy and consideration. 
 The more desperate our circumstances grew, the more 
 persistently cheerful he became. " If only we come out 
 of this alive," he said, " what friends we shall all be ! " 
 this by way of cheering poor Mr. Spencer, thinking, as 
 we knew, of his wife and little one at home, to whom, we 
 believed, he wrote his farewell message. Breakfast was 
 his next suggestion, and obediently we consumed an 
 unappetizing meal. After this he proposed photography, 
 and we unpacked the camera and snap-shotted the cloud 
 floor, the sky, the open mouth of the balloon, and finally 
 each other, huddled up in the corners of the car. The 
 
 264 
 
A Perilous Voyage 
 
 sun by this time was growing almost uncomfortably 
 powerful, and to shield ourselves somewhat from his rays 
 we tied scarves and coats about the ropes, and Bacon, 
 since his cap was gone, improvised a head-covering from 
 a pocket-handkerchief, the knotted ends of which hung 
 in ridiculous fashion about his grey whiskers and patri- 
 archal beard. In truth we were a forlorn crew, in a for- 
 lorn plight, and fairyland had proved a trap, and meteor 
 hunting had brought us woe. Bacon waxed facetious 
 at our rueful faces, and we had at least one hearty laugh 
 over a situation that had comic as well as tragic sides 
 to it. 
 
 For long we heard the sea beneath us (subsequent 
 events led us to suppose we traversed some twenty miles 
 of the Bristol Channel), but all the while from time to 
 time arose sounds that made us believe we were still in 
 the vicinity of some big sea-port town. We imagined 
 it to be Bristol (though it may have been Cardiff), and 
 we wondered if no help were to be had from all those 
 thousands below, whose willingness to aid us we could 
 not doubt, did they only know of our situation a couple 
 of miles above them, behind the clouds. Suddenly we 
 bethought us of the press telegraph forms with which 
 Bacon's pockets were filled. Why not use them as 
 distress messages to the folk beneath, and get them to 
 warn the coastguards round the neighbouring shores 
 that we expected shortly to descend in the sea, so that 
 they might be on the lookout and have their boats in 
 readiness to pick us up if we came down in sight of land ? 
 It was the maddest of chances to rely on, of course, and 
 the feeblest of straws to clutch at, but at least it was 
 better than nothing. So out came pencil and forms, 
 and, dividing the labour equally among us, during the 
 next three hours we wrote and posted over the side three 
 
 265 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 dozen or so neatly folded notes, labelled " Important," 
 and bearing the following message within : 
 
 " Large balloon from Newbury overhead, above clouds. 
 Cannot descend. Telegraph to sea coast (coastguards) 
 to be ready to rescue. 
 
 " BACON AND SPENCER, n a.m. Nov. 16." 
 
 Surely their destination was the Bristol Channel, for two 
 only were ever heard of again picked up several days 
 later on the Welsh mountains near Pontypridd, appar- 
 ently many miles from where we threw them out. 
 
 Yet they served their purpose, if only in passing the 
 time. They helped the hour of noon to come at last, 
 and almost with the hour came our earliest ray of hope. 
 Bacon, who kept watch over the aneroids, announced 
 that we had fallen since the last reading from 9000 feet 
 (our greatest height) to 7000, and were still falling. Nor 
 was this all. Mr. Spencer, who had been gazing long 
 and silently upon the cloud floor far below, suddenly 
 exclaimed, " I can see a church ! " It seemed impossible 
 to suppose he could really have seen anything of the sort, 
 and I knew from the soothing way in which my father 
 laid a hand upon his shoulder and said, " Where, my good 
 fellow, where ? " that he thought the long strain and hot 
 sun had affected our aeronaut's head, and that he was 
 wandering. But, looking down also, we saw to our surprise 
 that the cloud floor was thinning beneath us, as snow 
 melting in the sunbeams, and actually breaking in places 
 into pits and hollows, through one of which we caught 
 a momentary glimpse of a white thread on a pink ground. 
 The thread we knew for a road, and red soil belongs to 
 the West of England. Land and not sea was still beneath 
 us, but the next glimpse showed us our pace was quick- 
 
 266 
 
A Perilous Voyage 
 
 erring, and we wondered if we should yet reach the ocean 
 before our voyage was at an end. 
 
 How slowly our balloon, dying obstinately by inches, 
 crept down the sky, falling a hundred feet, stopping 
 altogether, and then retrograding ninety-five. How 
 fast and faster sped the earth beneath, seen in momentary 
 peeps among the rolling vapour. For two long hours 
 more the most trying of our ten-hour voyage the race 
 continued, and then, at length, when nerves were strained 
 near to breaking point, the mists once more received us, 
 enveloped us but for a few minutes, and then let us 
 through again beneath. Sea was before us and not far 
 distant, but we heeded it not, since we were falling, now 
 with great rapidity, on peaceful green fields below. The 
 earth was rushing up towards us at a great rate, but not 
 for the world would we risk, by the discharge of a grain 
 more ballast than was necessary, a return to those weari- 
 some realms aloft. With bent knees we awaited the 
 shock of the fall, but when it came it proved infinitely 
 more violent than we had anticipated. We had not 
 reckoned indeed upon a boisterous gale of wind raging 
 for several days past upon the Glamorganshire coast. 
 But as we swooped downwards a sudden wild gust, sweep- 
 ing from between the hills, caught our crippled craft, 
 and sported with it in rudest horse-play. First it hurled 
 us to earth with a crash that strained our groaning wicker 
 basket in every twig and broke my right arm above the 
 wrist. Next it dashed us, all sideways, in maddest steeple- 
 chase across the sloping gully in which we fell, our 
 grapnel bounding impotently and furrowing long tracks 
 in the grass behind. An eight-stranded barbed -wire 
 fence was our first obstacle ahead, and a murderous one 
 it looked. " Duck down in the basket ! " cried Mr. 
 Spencer, and we ducked low as the wires snapped and 
 
 267 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 coiled about our shoulders. But one strand went over 
 the top of the car, and I heard my father cry : " I am 
 badly torn in the leg ! " Of course I promptly pictured 
 him as bleeding to death, but there was no time to in- 
 vestigate the damage, for the next instant, with a crash 
 and lashing of leafless branches, we were in the top of a 
 weather-beaten oak tree, and the moment later we had 
 carried the whole top away in our rigging and were rolling 
 with the big torn branches among gorse bushes in the 
 next field. The silk was flapping and tearing in the gale 
 with a noise like thunder, but in the root of the splintered 
 oak the anchor held, and our course was stayed. 
 
 Soon in the distance came the sound of excited voices, 
 calling to each other, but in an unknown tongue, and a 
 little group of dark-eyed men came panting up, but 
 halted at a respectable distance from the struggling, toss- 
 ing monster. " Come and help us ! " shouted my father ; 
 then as they still did not move : " Come and help, you 
 fools ! Don't stand gaping there ! " But never before 
 in the memory of man had so strange an object fallen 
 from a cloudy sky on the outskirts of the town of Neath, 
 and for a few moments longer the cautious Welshmen 
 refused to approach. The hurried arrival of the land- 
 owner and neighbouring residents, however, soon inspired 
 them with confidence, and never surely was a more hos- 
 pitable welcome accorded to wayworn travellers. It was 
 half-past two when we stepped at length from our basket 
 world upon terra firma, after what Mr. Spencer declared 
 was the roughest landing of all his long experience. Our 
 voyage then had lasted for ten hours, and terminated but a 
 mile and a half from the sea, towards which we were di- 
 rectly heading when we fell. Five minutes more, therefore, 
 would have seen us over the Atlantic, wildly rough, so 
 we learned, at the time. So long and perilous a voyage 
 
 268 
 
DISTRESS MESSAGES THROWN 
 
 FROM BALLOON 
 
 See page 266 
 
 THE DESCENT AT NEATH : SHOWING BROKEN BOUGH 
 
AFTER THE "LEONID" VOYAGE 
 
 Page 269 
 
A Perilous Voyage 
 
 constituted an undoubted record for ballooning in the 
 British Islands, for danger and for length of time aloft. 
 Early next morning a happy, but utterly disreputable- 
 looking, pair presented themselves proudly at Printing 
 House Square ; the writer with bandaged arm in sling, 
 Bacon in borrowed hat and borrowed trousers his own 
 nether garments were torn completely to rags the back 
 of his coat one plaster of mud which he absolutely refused 
 to have brushed away. I think the editorial staff were 
 a little impressed with our appearance; certainly the 
 interview was gratifying and flattering. Out in the 
 streets our exploit was already on posters and headlines, 
 passers identified us, policemen grinned recognition. 
 For days the papers were full of the adventure, and, Silas 
 Wegg like, the " Globe " dropped into poetry and perpe- 
 trated a verse described as the composition of " a humble 
 Cockney acquaintance": 
 
 " I'm thinkin' no rasher excursion's been tiken' 
 Than that Meteor hunt by balloon of old Eicon. 
 As it dived towards the earth, getting nigher an' nigher, 
 I reckon he thought, ' 'Ere's the fat in the fire ! ' 
 And when he got chucked, an' lay battered an' shiken, 
 I bet that he felt just a bit afride Eicon ! " 
 
 269 
 
XV 
 
 THE AMERICAN ECLIPSE SOME 
 NARROW ESCAPES 
 
 THE ensuing winter brought Bacon many lecture 
 engagements from all over the country. As a 
 popular lecturer he was scoring a big success. His 
 natural eloquence, his power of lucid explanation, his 
 fine voice and fascinating personality, combined with 
 the novelty and adventurous nature of his subject and 
 the unique interest of his illustrations to render him 
 extremely popular upon the platform. For himself 
 lecturing was a real delight, both for its own sake and 
 because it brought him many delightful acquaintances, 
 and not a few close friends, in all parts of the kingdom. 
 With the spring of 1900 came fresh occupations and dis- 
 tractions. 
 
 On the 28th of May was to take place another Total 
 Solar Eclipse, visible this time in Spain, Portugal, and 
 Northern Africa, and also along a narrow track crossing 
 certain of the Southern States of America. The British 
 Astronomical Association was again rising to the occasion, 
 and organizing expeditions of its members, of whom the 
 greater majority naturally preferred to observe the 
 eclipse at the nearer stations of Spain or Algiers. Some 
 few there were, however, ourselves among the number, 
 who elected to cross the Atlantic ; and accordingly to 
 Bacon again fell the task of conducting a party who had 
 
 270 
 
The American Eclipse 
 
 the honour to form, in fact, the only English Eclipse 
 Expedition to America. The task of arranging for his 
 followers proved an easier one than in the case of the 
 Indian Eclipse, partly because the distance was so much 
 less, but more because of the extreme friendliness and 
 hospitality of American officials and astronomers. These 
 gentlemen seemed to vie with each other in deeds of 
 kindness and offers of assistance to the little English 
 party coming in their midst, and many letters of intro- 
 duction opened the doors to delightful acquaintances 
 in the American scientific world. Bacon had only one 
 child to accompany him this time, for by now his son 
 was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 Among other members of his party were Mr. Nevil Maske- 
 lyne and his wife, the former bringing with him the 
 famous animatograph, much improved in the interval, 
 to which he was determined, this time, that no mishap 
 should occur. It seemed, however, as if the stars in 
 their courses fought against that unlucky machine, for 
 on arrival in New York it was discovered that, through 
 the failure of a carrier, the box of apparatus had never 
 been put on board ! 
 
 Fortunately on this occasion the mischief proved not 
 irremediable; the essential part of the machinery was 
 not in the box but in Mr. Maskelyne's private luggage, 
 and therefore still to hand. New York was able to supply 
 the necessary lenses, etc., and there was yet time, before 
 the eclipse, for Mr. Maskelyne, though only with intense 
 and unremitting labour, to rig up a stand and other ap- 
 purtenances which, though only makeshift, were sufficient 
 for his purpose. 
 
 The outward voyage on the Atlantic Transport's then 
 new boat the " Minneapolis " had proved a delightful 
 one, and once again a letter, in diary form, from Bacon 
 
 271 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 to the Secretary of the Guildhall Club is at hand to de- 
 scribe it : 
 
 Minneapolis,' Sat., May 12. 
 
 " DEAR FORSTER, 
 
 " We are having our usual luck dry, bright wea- 
 ther ; smooth, oily seas ; long, slow rollers ; our one grief 
 the lack of news. No papers reached ship ere we left 
 Tilbury, but Archie Maskelyne stood among the crowd 
 on the dock with a * Daily Mail.' We threw him a rope 
 and got it on board, the only copy ! * Nevil Maskelyne and 
 self are scheming special experiments, during his holiday, 
 with wireless telegraphy, with which he has made great 
 progress. A balloon, and perhaps more than one, will come 
 into it, but further details must develop. The ' Chief ' 
 is going to fit up a vice, bench, etc., on the cattle deck, 
 now empty, for N. Maskelyne to complete work on his 
 instrument, now much improved. 
 
 " Monday. 
 
 " Still the same ideal passage. Our ship scorns 
 all lesser waves and winds, and well she may, being, I 
 learn, the third largest afloat in the world ! Her engine- 
 room, which we have thoroughly explored, recalls 
 Woolwich Arsenal. Greater comfort, luxury, and good 
 discipline throughout cannot exist anywhere. We find 
 ourselves regarded as quite a distinguished party on 
 board, and nearly every one we talk to has read all about 
 the ' Leonid ' balloon ascent from Newbury. 
 
 " Tuesday. 
 
 " A rough wet day at last, with big waves, but our 
 boat behaves splendidly, and has made its record run 
 
 * Excitement as to the fate of beleaguered Mafeking, the news of 
 whose relief greeted our arrival at New York, explains this craving 
 for news. 
 
 272 
 
The American Eclipse 
 
 of 388 miles. We have learned a little of North Caro- 
 lina (our destination) from a fellow-passenger. Puff- 
 adders and rattlesnakes abound, the country is wild, with 
 boundless pine forests, and if we are lucky we shall get 
 the natives to build us a birch-bark hut. This should 
 help out the photography. 
 
 " Wednesday. 
 
 "Thick fog and intensely cold. Off the banks of 
 Newfoundland, and icebergs thought to be about. Going 
 half -speed with hooter every three minutes. Fine acous- 
 tical effects, but monotonous ! 
 
 " Thursday. 
 
 " Colder yet, but bright and fresh, with a fine wild 
 sea. None of us have been the least ill on the voyage, 
 which we expect to end to-morrow night. 
 
 " Friday. 
 
 " Fogs are putting us back again, and we can't 
 get in at least before to-morrow morning, and may miss 
 the Cunard mail home. Writing will be somewhat dim- 
 cult in future, but I will try and send some tidings in 
 another week. Sharks are round us, and one bit off our 
 running log yesterday. Remember us to all. 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " JOHN M. BACON." 
 
 Arrived at New York, Bacon fell of course, as did in- 
 deed the whole party, into the clutches of the American 
 reporter, flash-light camera and all, and gained a little 
 insight into the unique methods of the " yellow " jour- 
 nalist. Every other person asked him how he liked New 
 York, but he had no time there sufficient to form an un- 
 biased opinion, for it was necessary to push on with all 
 speed to our destination, Wadesborough, in North Caro- 
 lina, whither we journeyed almost immediately ; pausing, 
 s 273 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 however, a few hours at Washing ton, for Bacon to examine 
 the far-famed acoustic properties of a hall in the huge 
 marble Capitol. Concerning the celebrated echo there 
 Bacon writes later : 
 
 " I have spent a long morning in this hall studying 
 the matter critically, and having obtained due permission 
 have photographed the various groups of visitors while 
 being placed in chosen position by the guides, and by 
 them put through ' the show.' This is a regular perform- 
 ance, and well rehearsed, but scarcely scientific. The 
 stations on the floor, marked out with such strict exact- 
 ness, are the apparent secrets of the professional showman, 
 and are invested with an air of mystery, which, however, is 
 practically dispelled when you and a competent colleague 
 experiment on your own account. Moreover when the 
 guide retreats to a distance to whisper, you may observe, 
 on approaching him with due caution, that his whisper 
 is decidedly of the ' stage ' sort, and calculated to carry 
 with great distinctness, which it undoubtedly does. The 
 chief acoustic peculiarity of the chamber is clearly due 
 to the fact that the roof, which is partly domed, is not 
 symmetrical with the floor, so that much complex rever- 
 beration is the consequence." 
 
 Our stay in New York, short though it had been, was 
 enough to emphasize the contrast between that intensely 
 up-to-date city and the quaint little Southern township 
 where the next happy week was passed. It was the com- 
 ment of an American lady, visiting Wadesborough for 
 the first time, that it seemed like a page out of " Martin 
 Chuzzlewit," only it was an altogether delightful page, 
 with all the disagreeable people left out, and scores more 
 charming ones put in. Far from the rush and roar of 
 
 274 
 
The American Eclipse 
 
 the great cities, buried amid cotton plantations and the 
 endless pine forests of the south, the little townlet of about 
 1000 inhabitants, the greater part blacks, descendants 
 of the former slaves, pursued its peaceful sleepy existence, 
 nor fretted itself unduly about the minor worries of life. 
 " Take it easy " should surely have been the borough 
 motto inscribed upon the white front of the Court House, 
 the one substantial building of the place, on whose out- 
 side steps, smoking in the sun, would sit for hours the 
 Mayor and the portly ' Judge,' local magnate of the dis- 
 trict. It is unusual in England to encounter the chief 
 magistrates of a town sitting on the Town Hall steps, 
 but in Wadesborough it was quite de regie ; for did not 
 the shopkeepers pass their days lolling on much-tilted 
 cane-bottom chairs on the pavement chewing the 
 while awaiting their leisurely customers ; the innkeepers 
 sit in the road outside their hotels ; the editor, in shirt- 
 sleeves, outside his office ; and even the minister pass the 
 time before his congregation arrived seated on the steps 
 of his little church ? 
 
 Nevertheless, sleepy and behind the times in many 
 respects as they undoubtedly were, in one point at least 
 the townsfolk of Wadesborough were immensely ahead 
 of them. We had heard much previously, of course, of 
 the hospitality of the Southern States, but not enough 
 to prepare us for what was coming ; since we found that 
 our little Southern town attached quite a new interpre- 
 tation to the word, a broadening, heightening, and deep- 
 ening of its signification out of all recognition. Fitting 
 terms indeed are lacking adequately to express the 
 warmth of the welcome extended to us, the entertain- 
 ments, parties, and picnics lavished upon us, the countless 
 acts of kindness and assistance rendered us, even to the 
 length of two carriages and pairs (one of black, and one 
 
 275 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 of "calico," i.e. piebald steeds) waiting all day long 
 outside our hotel to drive us, gratis, to and from the 
 camp or whither we listed. 
 
 || Nor was it only the townsfolk who thus overwhelmed 
 us with favours. Careless of the proverb concerning the 
 wisdom of trusting too many eggs to one basket, there 
 had congregated at Wadesborough the eclipse expeditions 
 of all the great American universities and observatories, 
 and the town was packed with the astronomical leaders 
 of a continent. From Yerkes Observatory came Pro- 
 fessors Hale, Barnard, and Ritchey ; from Princeton, 
 Professor Young ; from the Smithsonian Institute, Wash- 
 ington, Professor Langley each with a large and scarcely 
 less distinguished following which, with lady astronomers 
 from Vassar, and many other scientific celebrities, formed 
 a shining galaxy of intellect unrivalled in the annals of 
 shadow-seeking. The instrumental outfit of this great 
 gathering was in proportion to its importance, covering 
 acres of ground, and constituting by far the most im- 
 portant and valuable collection of astronomical apparatus 
 ever brought together in one place to observe an eclipse. 
 Amid such a concourse Bacon was indeed in his element, 
 and never for him did days pass more quickly and 
 happily. The astronomers had caught the infection of the 
 Wadesborough open-hear tedness, and lavished unending 
 kindness upon the English party ; chief among them the 
 veteran Professor Young most charming and courtly 
 of scientists who took us under his special protection, 
 shared with us his camping ground and guard, and allowed 
 us to use his elaborate and specially erected observatory 
 and dark room. On the roof of this building, by the 
 way, we found flying, beside the Stars and Stripes, a 
 silken Union Jack, procured at much trouble in our 
 especial honour. 
 
 276 
 
THE GREAT REFRACTOR, YERKES OBSERVATORY 
 
 Page 277 
 
The American Eclipse 
 
 Too much space has already been devoted to descrip- 
 tions of eclipses to allow of more than the brief statement 
 now that, on the momentous day itself, weather con- 
 ditions were perfect, and the spectacle proved no less 
 gloriously impressive than before. Bacon's own de- 
 scription (he was Special Correspondent for "The Times ") 
 may be looked for elsewhere. Suffice it to say the ob- 
 servations were all (or almost all) successful. Valuable 
 photographs were taken, and Mr. Maskelyne defeated 
 Fate by securing a fine animatograph picture (the first 
 ever produced) of the whole length of totality. Bacon 
 and his expedition were triumphantly happy, nor did 
 their astronomical treats finish with the striking of the 
 camp at Wadesborough. By most hospitable invitation 
 of its chiefs the whole party were enabled to visit the 
 great Yerkes Observatory on Lake Geneva, 75 miles 
 distant from Chicago, where they became the personal 
 guests of Professor Barnard and his charming English 
 wife, the Bacons and Maskelynes actually staying in 
 their delightful house. 
 
 It may be doubted whether the few days here spent 
 were not the cream of the whole expedition. The vast 
 observatory, complete in every detail of library, labora- 
 tories, dark rooms and workshops, containing within its 
 go-ft. dome the giant 40-in. refractor which is the 
 greatest telescope of the world even as the whole build- 
 ing is the finest observatory was the princely gift of 
 Mr. Chas. T. Yerkes to the University of Chicago. It 
 forms, surely, the finest single contribution of wealth to 
 science ever offered. It was a great privilege indeed to 
 be enabled to visit it, a greater privilege still to be allowed, 
 as we were, for a whole hour and a half, to explore the 
 wonders of the heavens revealed as never before 
 through the mighty eye of the great refractor. Greatest 
 
 277 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 privilege of all to be the guests of the famous discoverer 
 of the fifth satellite of Jupiter, of comets, and other 
 celestial marvels past enumeration, the most distinguished, 
 but withal the most modest, simple-minded, kind-hearted 
 and delightful of astronomers, American or otherwise 
 Professor Barnard. 
 
 A short stay in Canada, and a visit to the Falls of 
 Niagara, where Bacon of course explored the Cave of 
 the Winds, completed our American travels ; and on 
 the i6th of June the party sailed for Liverpool from 
 Montreal, on the Allan Liner " Parisian." It was on the 
 voyage home that Bacon made the acquaintance of that 
 distinguished naval officer, Admiral Sir Edmund Fre- 
 mantle, G.C.B., and discovered that despite the varied 
 and exciting experiences afloat and ashore, in war time 
 and in peace, " in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the 
 sea," of a long and active life, he yet hankered after a 
 fresh achievement and desired to embark, in a new craft, 
 on the only ocean he had not yet explored the ocean 
 of air. In other words, he was keen to go a balloon 
 voyage. He readily fell in with Bacon's proposal that he 
 should form one of the aeronautical party in the next 
 scientific ascent that summer ; and the sequel provided 
 the gallant sailor with an adventure of quite novel in- 
 terest even to him. 
 
 The ascent was from the Newbury gas-works on a July 
 day when heavy storm-packs lay banked in frowning 
 masses on the horizon, and sudden squalls, coming ap- 
 parently from nowhere, from time to time hid the sky. 
 The start was delayed hour after hour in hopes of better 
 weather, and a number of pilot balloons were sent up in 
 advance to test the doubtful trend of upper currents. 
 These as they vanished into distance disclosed the fact 
 that aloft two fast currents, blowing one to the west the 
 
 278 
 
__ 
 
The American Eclipse 
 
 other to the north-west, struggled together in the air for 
 mastery, and formed eddies where they mingled. 
 
 It is common in summer-time for storms to cease sud- 
 denly towards evening, even though they may return 
 again at night, and presently, the clouds clearing, the 
 eager party cut their moorings, and embarked into the 
 sky, confident that in so doing they ran small risk of a 
 drenching, since naturally any cloud arising might be 
 expected to follow with the same wind on which they 
 had already a good start. All the same, the friends they 
 left behind them, watching the great balloon, like a drop 
 in the air, slowly recede from sight and melt into the 
 sky, presently perceived, with no little alarm, a frowning, 
 ominous thunder-pack, dark and closely compacted, rise 
 against the wind full in the path of the aeronauts, whom 
 they now anticipated would beat a hasty retreat from so 
 perilous a position and effect a forced descent. To their 
 astonishment and concern, however, the balloon con- 
 tinued its course, and was slowly enveloped in the ap- 
 proaching storm, clearly a very heavy one, whose distant 
 artillery could even then be heard in faint but ever- 
 increasing rumblings. 
 
 Possibly the four in the balloon (young Bacon was of 
 the party) were too much occupied with their experi- 
 ments and the exhilaration engendered by their situation, 
 to pay much attention to their surroundings. Certainly 
 they were not in the best position to observe the sky, 
 hidden as it was by the great mass of the silk, drawn 
 closer over the car than usual by the shrinking of the 
 cordage in a recent shower. The pace was rapid, and 
 the Kennet Valley, green and beautiful, slipped quickly 
 by. Yet presently as they gazed down upon the fertile 
 pastures they saw the wide view grow indistinct, veiled 
 with a blue-grey mist that deepened and broadened, 
 
 279 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 apparently the while creeping ahead of them, though in 
 reality in process of formation by the settling down of a 
 colder upper air. Presently upon the silk aloft came the 
 rattle of hailstones, and looking ahead they saw the 
 sky already blotted out by a dense black pall, whose 
 advancing fringe had formed about them with great 
 suddenness, and had thus hidden until now the depths 
 of the vast threatening masses piling around. 
 
 Then almost before the situation had dawned upon 
 them there came a wild shriek in the air above, and a 
 minute later they were swallowed up in a pitiless on- 
 slaught of hail, whipping their faces and battering down 
 on the seams of the balloon with furious patter. An ice- 
 cold down-draught came with the hail, and a wild con- 
 flict of opposing currents raged round them. Then the 
 thunder broke, the lightning flashed on one side and 
 another, as batteries opening in quick succession on a 
 beleaguered city, while the answering crashes, not long 
 prolonged as on earth but smarter and sharper, followed 
 each other from all over the sky with the briefest inter- 
 mission. 
 
 It is an interesting question, frequently discussed by 
 meteorologists and aeronauts alike, whether a free balloon 
 aloft in a thunderstorm can really be struck by lightning.* 
 From its position it has every likelihood of entering the 
 " path of least resistance " and coming in the direct line 
 of the flashes. On the other hand, it has no connection 
 with earth, and silk is a non-conductor. It is a nice point, 
 and one that the scientific world would gladly see settled ; 
 but Bacon unhesitatingly avowed afterwards that the 
 aeronautical party on this particular occasion were of 
 
 * The late deplorable accident on the Continent, when a military balloon 
 was struck by lightning, with fatal results, is not a fair answer to this 
 question, since, I understand, the balloon bore a quite unusual amount 
 of metal. 
 
 280 
 
The American Eclipse 
 
 opinion that it was an experiment that might well be 
 postponed for another occasion. For the moment the 
 thought of the 50,000 cubic feet of gas above them, in close 
 proximity to the electric fires, distracted their attention, 
 and militated against close scientific observation. In 
 fact they had but one desire, and that was to descend 
 with all speed. But this proved at the moment the very 
 thing they were unable to attempt. Their course had 
 now brought them to the edge of Savernake Forest, 
 whose whole long length of waving tree- tops now stretched 
 beneath them in impenetrable phalanx. For a few minutes 
 more long and anxious minutes they proved in truth 
 they were perforce detained aloft in the very heart of the 
 storm, until a small clearing appeared among the trees, 
 to drop in whose narrow bounds called forth the aero- 
 naut's best skill and judgment. Rustic harvesters re- 
 ceived them heartily, startled for once a little from their 
 habitual stolidity. For from the ground the peril of the 
 party had appeared much greater than from aloft. 
 Lightning had simply surrounded the balloon, which 
 appeared as if framed in fire, and every moment the 
 spectators had expected to behold its utter destruction. 
 As a matter of fact the storm proved one of the worst for 
 years in that neighbourhood, brooding for five hours over 
 Devizes, spreading damage right and left, one house being 
 struck and burned to the ground not far from where the 
 balloon fell, and two soldiers killed on Salisbury Plain, 
 just over the near ridge of hills. 
 
 Admiral Fremantle accompanied Bacon on another 
 balloon voyage some six weeks later. The occasion was 
 the meeting of the British Association at Bradford, and 
 the ascent was made from Lister Park. The special pur- 
 pose in view was a further demonstration of the wire- 
 less telegraphy trials inaugurated at Newbury a year 
 
 281 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 before. Mr. Nevil Maskelyne had charge of the trans- 
 mitting instrument on the ground, and constant com- 
 munication was continued with the balloon during its 
 whole journey, which terminated near Sheffield. When 
 three or four miles distant in the sky the aeronauts 
 " wirelessly " exploded a mine in the grounds whence they 
 had started. 
 
 This year also brought Bacon another " storm " ex- 
 perience, of a somewhat different but no less exciting 
 nature. Towards the end of November always a 
 favourite month for aeronautical enterprise an inter- 
 national experiment for meteorological purposes, in- 
 volving the simultaneous ascent of many balloons from 
 different great cities, was organized upon the Continent. 
 This was still before the days when ballooning in this 
 country had become a fashionable pastime, and it was 
 only through the single-handed efforts of that well-known 
 enthusiast, Mr. Patrick Y. Alexander, that England could 
 furnish one properly equipped balloon, and so participate 
 in the proceedings. The post of scientific observer for 
 this voyage was offered to Bacon, who gladly accepted 
 it. The ascent was from the Crystal Palace, and the 
 morning broke foul and stormy. Conditions indeed were 
 entirely unfavourable from an aeronautical point of view, 
 but under the special circumstances it was evident the 
 ascent must be made at whatever hazards. 
 
 Hour after hour the party waited, hoping for an im- 
 provement in the weather, the balloon but partially 
 filled and moored close down to the earth with many 
 restraining bags of ballast. The wind, however, con- 
 tinued to blow gustily with unabated violence, and in 
 addition heavy clouds, blowing up blacker and blacker, 
 soon overspread the sky with inky grey, across which 
 ominous scud blew low and fast. 
 
 282 
 
f 
 
 The American Eclipse 
 
 The currents were setting towards high elms to east- 
 ward of the filling ground, and the balloon, when inflated, 
 had to be dragged as far as possible in the opposite direc- 
 tion in order to avoid fouling them. The final prepara- 
 tions and affixing of the car were effected with much 
 difficulty ; the monster, maddened by the gusts, surged 
 and tore at her moorings, men at the ropes were swept 
 off their legs, until at length the crowd lent their assistance 
 and hung on to the cordage, as many as could catch on 
 at a time, and even then were dragged hither and thither 
 about the ground. Coolness and skill triumphed, how- 
 ever, and, taking advantage of a lucky moment, the balloon 
 was released, and with but a slight brush through the 
 topmost branches of the elms attained the upper air. 
 
 Here, of course, in the free sky, travelling with the 
 wind, she was safe enough for the time but what a wind 
 it proved ! Describing this voyage later, Bacon writes : 
 " We were chiefly concerned that day in taking the read- 
 ings of our instruments, and just after making the first 
 entries and noting it was only five minutes from the start, 
 my eye caught far down the outline of a domed building 
 and enclosure which was strangely familiar. What place 
 was it so close to the Crystal Palace grounds that lay 
 below ? I looked again, and it was no longer below but 
 already in our wake and fast receding ; and then the truth 
 flashed upon me. We were even at this time far from 
 the neighbourhood of the Palace, and that was Greenwich 
 Observatory, five miles from the great glass roofs and 
 towers already far in the distance, showing we were flying 
 at the startling speed of sixty miles an hour." 
 
 On the wings of this furious gale they sped, over the 
 suburbs, over the river, out over Essex in the direction 
 of Chelmsford. Above the lower scud it was bitterly 
 cold, and the thermometer sank below freezing-point. 
 
 283 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 It was obvious that at their present wild rate the voyage 
 must prove a short one, and ere an hour was past a creamy 
 line in the distance showed they were already nearing the 
 coast of Essex. It would be unwise to approach that 
 line too nearly, since the roughest of landings, entailing 
 probably a long dragging across country, was inevitably 
 before them. The balloon was accordingly brought low, 
 the long trail-rope dropped to fullest extent, and a suitable 
 landing-place awaited. 
 
 Open ploughed fields were beneath, and in one of these 
 the car came slanting down with a crash, only instantly 
 to rebound again and clear a copse before she once more 
 touched earth. This time the impact was harder, and 
 there followed a few moments of ugly dragging, the heavy 
 anchor trailing useless behind, leaping from field to field ; 
 the battered aeronauts, gasping with each fresh shock, 
 holding on with might and main to the ropes and breath- 
 lessly awaiting developments. Fortunately this furious 
 chase was not of long continuance : " Ere long we found 
 ourselves plunging into a couple of stout young trees, 
 a holly and an oak, growing in a thick hedgerow close 
 together. We charged those trees literally with the speed 
 of an express train. The holly, I recollect, was prickly ; 
 the oak was tough, very tough yet bough after bough 
 gave way as the gale, catching the emptying balloon, 
 pulled harder and harder, until at last the car stove in 
 and then turned upside down among the boughs, spilling 
 us into the quickset hedge below, from which we were 
 glad enough to emerge little the worse save for a few 
 scratches." 
 
 The end of this year saw the publication of Bacon's 
 first book, "By Land and Sky," on which he had been 
 engaged the greater part of the summer. Early in 1900 
 Mr. William Canton, at that time sub-editor of the " Con- 
 
 284 
 
A CALM DESCENT 
 
 A ROUGH DESCENT 
 
 Page 284 
 
The American Eclipse 
 
 temporary Review" (to which Bacon had often con- 
 tributed), and Manager for Messrs. Isbister and Co., 
 wrote suggesting to my father that his unique experiences 
 and scientific investigations might well form the contents 
 of an interesting volume. Bacon, who had not until then 
 aspired to authorship, was immediately taken with the 
 idea. Writing, in facile, lucid style, came easy enough 
 to him. To recall his adventures was to live again many 
 delightful hours. He enjoyed every moment of his task, 
 from the commencement to the final correcting of the 
 proof-sheets, and his pleasure culminated on the day 
 when his new-born child lay before him, fresh from the 
 press, in all its glory of red cloth and gold lettering. The 
 book dedicated, by the way, to Sir Edmund Fremantle 
 was very favourably received by the critics. The comment 
 of the "Literary World" reads almost prophetic : " Mr. 
 Bacon writes with almost contagious enthusiasm, and so 
 charmingly describes the fascinations of ballooning that 
 unless millionaires have hearts of stone or horrible 
 thought ! never read books like ' By Land and Sky,' some 
 man of redundant wealth will surely establish an Institute 
 of Ballooning and finance the enterprise of budding aero- 
 nauts." In view of recent events this sentence reads 
 curiously. It may not have fallen to " Land and Sky " 
 to effect that revolution in public taste which has since 
 made ballooning the sport of the wealthy, and flying the 
 aim of the inventor thirsting for great awards. Never- 
 theless, it was Bacon who, in this country at least, set the 
 fashion, raised aeronautics from its fallen state, pointed 
 the course years ahead of everybody else, and himself 
 led the way. 
 
 285 
 
XVI 
 
 ACOUSTIC MYSTERIES AN EXCITING 
 DESCENT 
 
 THE lecture season of 1900-1 led Bacon far afield, 
 to Scotland, Ireland and Wales. He had the usual 
 experiences that attend the popular lecturer, some amus- 
 ing, some trying. Once, realistically describing a balloon 
 inflation, he gave the aeronaut's order, " Turn on the 
 gas ! " with so much effect that the hall-keeper took 
 it to himself, and the room was immediately flooded with 
 light, to the astonishment of audience and lecturer. 
 Another time, stepping quickly backwards on a high and 
 improperly protected platform, he fell down behind, and 
 suddenly disappeared completely from view of his startled 
 and much alarmed hearers. Minor discomforts of long 
 day and night winter j ourneys fog-delayed trains, lanterns 
 that refuse to shine, lanternists who refuse to listen, 
 chairmen who refuse to cease, and the like of course befell 
 him, as they do all frequenters of the platform. But with 
 them he shared to the full the joy of having a' vast audi- 
 ence hang upon his words, of feeling the subtle sympathy 
 which links the speaker, moment by moment, to the 
 hearers whose minds he grips, of holding thousands as it 
 were in the hollow of his hand and playing upon them 
 as upon an instrument. All descriptions of audiences 
 fell to his lot : cultured, critical audiences in the famous 
 old established institutions of London, Edinburgh and 
 
 286 
 
Acoustic Mysteries 
 
 the northern towns ; dock labourers of Liverpool sitting 
 with their caps on, sailors on men-of-war, soldiers in 
 garrison towns ; fashionable afternoon audiences too re- 
 fined for anything but the gentlest murmur of approba- 
 tion ; vociferous Welsh miners, who roared the roof off ; 
 stolid rustics, hearty schoolboys, keen mechanics he 
 knew and loved them all. Pleasantest of all experiences, 
 perhaps, was the hospitality and kindness lavished upon 
 him in all quarters and from every class, the delightful 
 acquaintances made, the lasting friendships cemented, 
 the fresh ideas exchanged. No wonder Bacon loved his 
 lecturing and looked forward to it from one winter to the 
 next. 
 
 This winter he read papers on his work before the 
 Society of Arts, the Royal Astronomical Society, the 
 Aeronautical Society, etc., and exhibited his balloon 
 photographs of which he had now a quite unique col- 
 lection before the Royal Photographic Society and the 
 Camera Club. After his winter's work he took a brief 
 holiday to the Scilly Isles, and here he turned his leisure 
 to good account by experiments on a new line. During 
 his last visit to this breezy archipelago he had occupied 
 himself chiefly with scientific kite-flying of late years a 
 very favourite and instructive occupation, from which 
 he had gleaned much information concerning the minor 
 currents of the air. This time he gave his attention 
 to a simple apparatus of his own devising for test- 
 ing the amount of matter in extremely fine division 
 in suspension in the atmosphere. This work he 
 continued, in all sorts of different places, throughout 
 the year, and some of his results were sufficiently 
 curious. 
 
 As might be expected, the breeze blowing straight from 
 the Atlantic on to the granite rocks of St. Mary's, Scilly, 
 
 287 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 contained the minimum amount of impurities, and yet, 
 curiously enough, a sample secured on another side of the 
 same island proved the most dust-impregnated of Bacon's 
 whole series. A fresh wind was blowing directly off St. 
 Agnes an islet only a mile across and more than a mile 
 distant but it was at the season of the spring flowers, 
 and the pollen off the millions of blooms with which the 
 tiny land was carpeted loaded the air in such quantity as 
 actually to stain the spirit in the test bottle that formed 
 part of the apparatus. The same experiment trans- 
 ferred to London showed that from the height of the top 
 of Tower Bridge a gentle west wind following the stream 
 was very dust-free. Air collected on the top of a 'bus in 
 Highbury was most palpably laden with particles from 
 off the broad thoroughfare. This was what might have 
 been expected, though it is more curious that air tested 
 from a balloon flying 2000 feet over Kingston-on-Thames 
 should have proved almost equally impure, the fragments 
 in this case too being of relatively large size, resembling 
 small shreds of straw or chaff, which were fluttering about 
 like thistledown, which penetrates sometimes to very 
 lofty regions. Most unexpected of all was the discovery 
 that the air of Aldersgate Street Station on the Metro- 
 politan the most choking and stifling of stations in 
 the sulphurous days of yore proved on examination to 
 be almost the freest from matter in suspension that Bacon 
 had ever tested. The simple explanation doubtless was 
 that the volumes of steam from the passing trains served 
 to entrap and cleanse out the dust, but the Press affected 
 to find something humorous in Bacon's statement. The 
 poetical " Globe " (I think it was) again produced an 
 effusion (which my father much appreciated at the time) 
 under title " Our Health Resort," which, after urging all 
 invalids to " come with me to Aldersgate and tour along 
 
 288 
 
Acoustic Mysteries 
 
 the c Met, 5 " continued, as I trust I may be pardoned for 
 quoting : 
 
 There you find the purest air in all our great Metropolis : 
 Though you mightn't think it, yet the atmosphere is sweet. 
 If your brain is reeling, and your reason like to topple is, 
 Half an hour of Aldersgate will put you on your feet. 
 There you never see the railway porter lounging wearily, 
 " Matter in suspension " there is practically nil t 
 Smith's young representative is singing loud and cheerily : 
 No one down at Aldersgate is ever feeling ill. 
 
 Talk of breezy Brighton and of far away Davozes is 
 Idle, silly chatter, and essentially unsound. 
 Aye, the only method now to cure tuberculosis is 
 Just to take an airing on the London underground. 
 Even Christian Scientists could do no greater miracle ; 
 Sweet and balmy Aldersgate was never known to fail. 
 Put aside all thought of trust in remedies empirical 
 Come and buy a " season " on the subterranean rail ! 
 
 Other experimental work of 1901 was partly suggested 
 by the national event of the year. Queen Victoria died 
 in January, and on February the ist there boomed out 
 from Spithead the minute guns of a mighty fleet in such 
 thunderous volume as only a naval engagement or the 
 obsequies of a great sovereign can call forth. Bacon, 
 mindful of the anomalous hearing of the noise of great 
 guns in times of battle in the past history is full of such 
 instances and knowing that half England on this occa- 
 sion would keep watch and record of the fact, took 
 special measures to investigate the carrying of the sound 
 to all quarters of the south of England. The result 
 proved not less striking than of old. The windows of 
 Sutton and Richmond Hill rattled to the shock, as did 
 also those of Tunbridge Wells and Ashford, in Kent. As 
 far away as Cambridge and Peterborough the firing was 
 unmistakably detected. Yet in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood that is to say in places distant but from ten 
 T 289 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 to forty miles of Spithead the guns were ct "almost or 
 quite inaudible ! " 
 
 Clearly here was scope for much investigation, and 
 through the coming summer Bacon made many experi- 
 ments bearing on the subject of the hearing of loud noises 
 across wide stretches of country. The cotton powder 
 fog-signals aforementioned, carried aloft by powerful 
 rockets and exploded when high in air, made as much noise 
 as it was possible or advisable (!) for him to produce. 
 He generally fired them in the still hours of evening or 
 night, when their effect could be heard to best advantage, 
 and had it not been that he lived in a remote and open 
 part of the world, and that his vagaries were well known 
 and condoned with in the neighbourhood, there might 
 have been complaints made of the manner in which he 
 disturbed the peace of the countryside. As it was, his 
 acoustic efforts sometimes produced untoward results. 
 One night's experience proved too much for the nerves 
 of a friend's aged pony. The first rocket, bursting in 
 wild uproar in the sky, startled him from his accustomed 
 calm, the second set him trembling, with back-set ears 
 and quivering flanks, the third started him galloping 
 madly round his narrow paddock. Round and round 
 he went, furiously and wildly, and though the firing now 
 ceased it seemed still to echo in his frenzied brain, for he 
 never abated for a moment in his mad career. His 
 owner was wakened by the sound of charging hoofs, and 
 at intervals during the night he woke again, always to 
 hear the rhythmic beat of that endless chase still going on. 
 Only with daylight did the pony regain possession of his 
 nerves, when he had to be parted with as broken- winded ! 
 On another occasion the rockets were fired by special 
 permission of Lord Carnarvon from the summit of 
 Beacon Hill, a lofty point of the Hampshire range. It 
 
 290 
 
Acoustic Mysteries 
 
 seemed as if in so exposed and desolate a spot no damage 
 could possibly ensue, but on the slopes of the hill was a 
 large sheepfold from among whose hundreds of woolly 
 occupants the shepherd had with great care chosen 
 out the twenty best to be taken to the local sheep-fair 
 on the morrow. This select party were penned in a corner 
 by themselves, but, alas, the events of the night proved 
 too many for them, and the disgusted shepherd found next 
 morning that they had all leapt the hurdles and mixed 
 themselves up again hopelessly with the crowd. His feel- 
 ings (and language) are better imagined than described. 
 
 One August night of this summer Bacon instructed 
 volunteers from the Guildhall Club to fire more rockets 
 from Beacon Hill, while he and two assistants repaired 
 in the little motor to the other Beacon Hill near Ames- 
 bury, highest point of Salisbury Plain, eighteen miles 
 W.S.W. as the crow flies. Detonating rockets were fired 
 from both stations at prearranged times, their flashes 
 being seen in the sky, but not even with the paraboloid 
 " ears " could a suspicion of a sound be heard from either 
 station, though the breeze was but light at the time. 
 The ears were of use in another way, however. The Wilt- 
 shire Beacon Hill is in close proximity to Bulford Camp, 
 and as Bacon was preparing to fire his own signals he 
 was astonished to see another, much lesser rocket, climb 
 feebly into the night, somewhere below the hill, followed 
 by the mild popping of Roman candle stars. Was it 
 some " Tommy " from the camp, who had chosen this 
 occasion for a firework display ? No voices could be 
 detected, but on turning the big paraboloid in the direc- 
 tion of the firing the emphatic words, " Get out of the 
 
 way, d you ! " clearly distinguished, left no doubt 
 
 that a British officer was engaged in an exhibition of his 
 own pyrotechnic efforts. The rest of the events of this 
 
 291 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 night, when the little motor-car got off the track in the 
 darkness and was lost, hopelessly, at midnight, in the 
 wilds of Salisbury Plain, proved somewhat interesting 
 at the time. Here it may suffice to record as a curious 
 fact that, the same acoustic experiment being repeated 
 shortly afterwards, a Captain of Royal Artillery, standing 
 on the Wiltshire Beacon, heard without difficulty the 
 signals from the Hampshire Beacon, in spite of a stiff 
 breeze blowing at right angles to the line joining the 
 two stations. 
 
 As a corollary to these tests of the travel of sound 
 through air arose experiments as to the audibility of 
 signals made and received beneath the surface of water. 
 The importance, from a utilitarian point of view, of 
 knowledge on this point is obvious, when one considers 
 how the noise of wind and wave militates against the 
 hearing of warning bells, etc., at sea ; warnings which 
 might still, with proper appliances, be received without 
 interruption through the medium of the water itself. 
 Bacon followed up this interesting side-issue with con- 
 siderable thoroughness, and after providing himself with 
 carefully thought out apparatus for the purpose, spent 
 a week with his son experimenting on the Norfolk Broads, 
 After long and careful investigation with bells and so forth, 
 the effect was tried, on the last day, of a cotton powder 
 detonator, exploded some ten feet below the boat. Acous- 
 tically the result was most instructive, but other wholly 
 unforeseen results also ensued. Shortly after the ex- 
 plosion there rose to the surface of the lake the body of 
 a dead fish, followed by another and another, until the 
 water was speckled with the white undersides of rising 
 corpses. The massacre was too wholesale and extensive 
 to be regarded with equanimity, and the experimenters 
 beat a hasty and horrified retreat. 
 
 292 
 
Acoustic Mysteries 
 
 Bacon's most interesting scientific balloon voyages of 
 the year were two ascents made, one by day and one by 
 night, in August, from the Stamford Bridge Athletic 
 Grounds, Fulham. In the first he was accompanied by 
 Sir Henry Truman Wood, Secretary of the Society of 
 Arts, and the balloon passing directly over the best known 
 parts of London (the voyagers exchanged greetings with 
 workmen on the roof of Buckingham Palace), and the air 
 proving singularly clear and free from haze, photo- 
 graphs were secured of the very heart of the great city, 
 which eventually turned out to be some of the most in- 
 teresting of all Bacon's collection. Careful testings were 
 made of the conditions of the upper atmosphere, revealing 
 its floating impurities to be mainly of afibrous, or, as Bacon 
 described it, a " fluey " nature ; while bombs were fired 
 above the housetops, the records of the hearing of which, 
 carefully plotted on a map, again revealed the curious 
 point that the sound travelled farther at right angles 
 to the balloon's course than either up or down the wind. 
 
 The termination of this voyage was marked by a small 
 yet laughable incident over which the voyagers chuckled 
 for many a long day. Their landing-place was near Wood- 
 ford, in Essex, at the back of the Clay bury Lunatic Asy- 
 lum, in one of whose fields they actually fell. The staff 
 of the establishment proved hospitable, and tea was 
 partaken of in the Doctor's apartments. Arrangements 
 being then made for the disposal of the balloon, a fly was 
 sent for to drive the aeronauts to the nearest station. 
 Their departure was from the front of the building, where, 
 owing to their novel method of arrival, they had not 
 before been seen, and, as they might have expected, a 
 somewhat astonished porter stopped them at the lodge. 
 
 ; ' Where are you going to ? " commenced the cate- 
 chism. 
 
 293 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 " To the station." 
 
 " And where have you come from ? " 
 
 " From the Asylum. We have been there to tea." 
 
 The porter's face darkened and stiffened. " But I never 
 saw you arrive. How did you come ? " 
 
 " Oh, we came in a balloon," was Bacon's innocent and 
 airy answer. But it proved altogether the wrong reply, 
 for the janitor, very stern by now, remarked that it was 
 just what he had expected, that he had heard that tale 
 before, and other icy witticisms of a like nature, the 
 while the gate remained obstinately closed. Until due 
 explanations had cleared the air, and the path, the aero- 
 nauts could not but feel that those facetious friends who 
 dubbed them " balloonatics " were nearer the mark than 
 they supposed. 
 
 In the night balloon voyage of a couple of days later 
 Mr. C. W. Wyllie, the well-known artist, occupied a seat 
 in the car a fact permanently recorded by a fine black- 
 and-white drawing of the star-spangled metropolis, its 
 bridges, streets, and buildings outlined in myriad spark- 
 ling gems, lying in the stillness of its uneasy slumber as 
 an enchanted city of a magician's dream. It was a 
 matchless scene indeed over which they passed, revealed 
 but to a very few elect, and not less impressive was the 
 beauty of the dawn when, seen from an altitude of 5000 
 feet, the sun peeped golden above the rose-red banks of 
 stratus clouds, while over the fair fields of Kent below, 
 the winding ribbon of the Medway, and the pale moat 
 which circles the ancient pile of Leeds Castle, the shadows 
 of night yet brooded. 
 
 Aeronautical work the following year opened as early 
 as the middle of April with a scientific ascent from Wool- 
 wich. The hearing of signals over long range of land and 
 sky was again the object of research, and on this occasion 
 
 294 
 

 
Acoustic Mysteries 
 
 Trinity House and Greenwich Observatory lent assistance. 
 Military authorities also displayed their interest, and by 
 the kind permission of the officer in command, Col. H. T. S. 
 Yates, in whom Bacon was delighted to claim an old school 
 friend, partner with him and Lord Francis Douglas in the 
 most unauthorized of the pranks at " Pritchett's " forty 
 years before, the ascent was made on the parade-ground 
 of the Royal Artillery Barracks, and a party of artillery- 
 men were told off to give their skilled assistance in the 
 preparations. It was unfortunate for certain of the 
 experiments contemplated that the day proved misty and 
 thick, so that five minutes after the balloon had started 
 she was lost sight of entirely in the fog ; but from an 
 acoustical point of view the presence of this heavy haze 
 was not uninstructive. Through partial rifts in the 
 white rolling vapour we, the aeronautical party on this 
 occasion Bacon had both his children aloft with him 
 caught fleeting glimpses of the docks, the river, and the 
 crowded mean streets of East London ; after this, at a 
 height of 5000 feet, dense cloud, piled crater-like around 
 the balloon, effectually hid everything else from view. 
 A dull continuous rumble punctuated with shrill whistles, 
 arising from all the railways of the metropolis, formed the 
 ceaseless accompaniment, through which broke at times, 
 even at the height of a mile, the raucous yells of street 
 hawkers and the barking of high- voiced dogs. Sirens 
 and steam hooters, of course, were audible, but though 
 the city was crossed just at the hour of noon, and care- 
 ful watch was kept, no trace of that uproar of clocks and 
 bells, so noticeable in the streets, could be detected. 
 The tenor bell of Woolwich Church, which, by arrange- 
 ment, was rung at the time of the ascent, was also wholly 
 inaudible, although a bugle blown from the barrack 
 field was heard for a long time after the start. 
 
 295 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 After some interval, occupied by the firing of aerial 
 bombs and so forth, the balloon swooped low beneath 
 the cloud, and soon the long trail-rope, after skipping 
 some telegraph wires, caught itself up in the branches 
 of an oak tree and held fast. No amount of pulling 
 sufficed to free it, and the very effect of such efforts on 
 our part was to bring us to earth, which we touched, 
 gently as a feather, in a ploughed field which excited by- 
 standers informed us was not far from Hertford. A 
 small station was hard by, and a railway porter, more 
 active than the yokels who soon surrounded us, climbed 
 the tree and unhitched the rope while we were still de- 
 liberating on our next action. Our liberation decided 
 it. A glance overhead showed the silk still fully inflated ; 
 a glance at our watches, that the day was yet young. 
 Immediately we scrambled back into the basket and 
 commenced to throw out ballast in order to rise 
 again. 
 
 But the gas of the balloon had become chilled in the 
 few minutes we had spent upon the earth, and when all 
 the sand, even to the last grain, had been exhausted, we 
 still rested, though lightly, on the ground. Whereupon 
 Mr. Spencer, hauling out his pocket-knife, cut adrift the 
 long heavy trail-rope, and left it coiling like a huge brown 
 snake across the field. " Rail it back to London," he 
 shouted to the porter below, as, lightened of its weight, 
 we sprang upwards into the cloud, and this time, so 
 energetically did we rise, shot through it altogether and 
 emerged into bright sunshine above. 
 
 Then at last our balloon got a chance of showing what 
 she could do. The sunshine was drying her sodden silk 
 and expanding the chilled gas, the cloud floor fell lower 
 and lower beneath us, and the tell-tale aneroid marked 
 off a fresh thousand feet in every five minutes : 13,000, 
 
 296 
 
DESCENT NEAR HERTFORD 
 
 Page 256 
 
Acoustic Mysteries 
 
 14,000, 15,000. " Nearly three miles ! " cried Bacon 
 delightedly. " By far the highest I have ever been ! " 
 
 At about 15,000 feet the height of Monte Rosa on 
 the mountain, and indeed for some people far lower, 
 mountain sickness makes itself very evident to the climber 
 exhausted with exertion. We four, squatting at ease in 
 the corners of the steady car, felt, or declared we felt, 
 no inconvenience. Nevertheless, our faces were greenish- 
 white, our ears sang, and another thousand feet would 
 surely have had effect upon us. As it was when Mr. 
 Spencer suddenly declared he could hear the lowing of 
 a cow we were inclined to attribute the statement to a 
 little temporary aberration, for we had passed a mile and 
 more beyond the range of such gentle noises, and only an 
 occasional railway- whistle, faint and far, broke the utter 
 silence of the sky. Nevertheless a moment later we all 
 heard the same sound, feeble but unmistakable an 
 extraordinarily " long shot," an acoustical " freak," 
 ascending through one of those " chimney shafts " of 
 audibility among the air-currents that every investigator 
 sooner or later encounters. 
 
 Another curious fact noted that day was that at about 
 10,000 feet high a biting east wind unpleasantly invaded 
 the basket. This was remarkable, since aloft, no matter 
 the speed of onward motion, no breath of air is ordin- 
 arily felt. We were obviously not travelling with this 
 easterly breeze, and could only suppose ourselves tem- 
 porarily encountering a cross-current. By-and-by our 
 balloon began sinking cloudward slowly at first, then 
 with ever-increasing velocity, so that presently the ex- 
 perienced aeronaut thought fit to call our attention to a 
 fact we had previously overlooked. The height we had 
 attained had been altogether unusual for an ordinary 
 voyage, and a great height is only reached at the expense 
 
 297 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 of much loss of gas, which pours from the open mouth. 
 Much loss of gas means a very rapid descent, in this case 
 to be further accelerated by the chilling of the dense 
 cloud floor below. A rapid descent can only be com- 
 bated by the plentiful discharge of ballast, and the use 
 of a long trail-rope to break the perilous shock of the fall. 
 Our sandbags lay empty of their last grain at our feet, 
 and our trail-rope we had left in the field at Hertford 
 an hour and a half ago. 
 
 Down we sank and down, fast and faster. Things 
 were beginning to grow exciting, but your sky sailor never 
 allows himself to become flustered. The balloon was 
 promptly " parachuted," that is to say the loose lower 
 part of the silk, already flapping ominously over our 
 heads, was released, and by the rapid downward motion 
 immediately collapsed into the upper portion, forming 
 a natural umbrella or parachute. It is this expedient 
 which has saved the necks of many aeronauts whose 
 balloons have burst in the upper air, but the area of our 
 parachute was vastly too small, considering our weight, 
 to ensure us an easy landing, and presently, as our speed 
 increased and increased, quicker and quicker, we grew 
 anxious as to what might lie beneath the masses of the 
 cloud floor now surging up dark around us. 
 
 It would be impossible in any way to pick our ground 
 or influence our course, so that a river beneath us must 
 mean a ducking, a wood a swinging crash into the tree- 
 tops, a town worst thought of all the trying of un- 
 pleasant conclusions with the chimney-pots. All avail- 
 able articles, such as empty sandbags, had already gone 
 overboard, but more must surely go. In a corner lay the 
 battery of dry cells used to explode the detonating sound- 
 signals. They weighed twenty pounds at least, and 
 what about possible heads below ! We could see nothing 
 
 298 
 
Acoustic Mysteries 
 
 through the clouds, but needs must under certain cir- 
 cumstances, and over they went, while a moment after- 
 wards the clouds broke and disclosed a prospect of brown 
 fields and green meadows beneath. But we had no time 
 to take in their details. Ten seconds exactly from leaving 
 the cloud we struck the earth, our spent balloon lifting not 
 an inch from where she fell. The shock was severe, but 
 the grass was soft and marshy. We lay for a moment 
 breathless in the car in the middle of a large deserted 
 pasture, and then there slowly strolled up a solitary 
 labourer. He had been in an adjoining field with some 
 sheep when our dry cells fell from the cloudy sky with 
 terrific impact almost beside him. A little natural ex- 
 citement might have been pardoned him under the cir- 
 cumstances, but he seemed barely interested. The rustics 
 of Oundle, in Northamptonshire, within three miles of 
 which we fell, are undoubtedly of a peculiarly phlegmatic 
 turn of mind. 
 
 299 
 
XVII 
 ACROSS THE IRISH SEA 
 
 TWICE this summer of 1902 Bacon spent a happy 
 night sitting up in the Ball of St. Paul's, listening 
 to the acoustic effects of the sleeping city's restless slum- 
 bers, testing minor air drifts, ascending and decending 
 currents and the like, with tiny paper parachutes or 
 delicate anemometers, and taking photographs with a 
 couple of hours' exposure unique pictures they proved 
 of the strange and beautiful scene. The last occasion 
 was the night of the Coronation illuminations, when 
 fairyland itself seemed revealed to the watcher aloft. 
 One noteworthy observation recorded was the far greater 
 audibility of distant sounds carried along the reaches of 
 the river. It seemed made clear that the penetration of 
 sounds across water is influenced by conditions of atmo- 
 sphere, of which wind is not always the chief. It was 
 for the following up of these lines of investigation that 
 Bacon sought and obtained permission, another time, 
 to pass a night in the upper rooms of Tower Bridge. The 
 whole central building, both towers, with the connecting 
 galleries, were placed at his entire disposal, and, wholly 
 unmolested (for he and his daughter were locked in and 
 left by the night watchman), he prosecuted his experi- 
 ments out on the leads or in the great dusty, deserted 
 chambers under the roofs. 
 
 As an honoured guest at civic dinners, scientific 
 soirees, conversaziones, meetings, and the like, Bacon 
 
 300 
 
LUDGATE HILL 
 
 LOOKING UH THE RIVER 
 LONDON BY NIGHT, FROM THE BALL OF ST. PAUL'S 
 
 Page 303 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 was coming personally more into touch with the leaders 
 of the scientific world, while his work, original and pic- 
 turesque as it was, was daily attracting more general and 
 widespread attention. I think it was Judge Bacon who 
 first informed him of his popular nickname of " Bacon- 
 in-the-Air," a happy counterpart to " Bacon-under- 
 Water," the illustrious Captain Bacon of submarine 
 fame. The idea of a clerical balloonist a veritable " sky 
 pilot," as it was pointed out seemed to appeal to the lay 
 mind, and not only were articles from his own pen fre- 
 quent in the daily and monthly journals, but interviews, 
 portraits, biographical sketches, and the like, testified to 
 the general interest his labours and personality excited. 
 As a natural result of so much notice directed to it, the 
 science of aeronautics was becoming a much-talked-of one, 
 and ballooning, after lying many years in abeyance, was 
 rapidly rising into fashion. 
 
 The events of the recent South African Campaign had 
 brought to the front again the all-momentous question 
 of the use of the balloon in warfare. Military history 
 has shown, over and over again, but most strikingly in 
 the story of the siege of Paris, of what great service a 
 balloon may prove in time of war ; and, ardent aeronaut 
 as he was, it could not be doubted that Bacon's interest 
 would be keenly aroused in this branch of his art. As 
 has been told, he had already experimented in methods 
 of signalling, for military purposes, from a free balloon, by 
 means of a collapsing drum, wireless telegraphy, and the 
 like, and this summer, in conjunction with his friend 
 Mr. Maskelyne, he began work with a hot-air military 
 balloon of their joint invention of which more anon. 
 Meanwhile other ideas were occurring to him. 
 
 Conditions of warfare have altered tremendously in the 
 course of thirty years, yet the sieges of Ladysmith, Kim- 
 
 301 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 berley , and Maf eking could not fail to suggest comparisons 
 with the siege of Paris, and invite speculations as to what 
 chance a free balloon, rising from a beleaguered city, 
 would have of escaping from the guns of to-day, or of a 
 pursuing enemy mounted on cycles or motor-cars. Re- 
 flection on this point eventually led Bacon to the sug- 
 gesting of a pretty and instructive little experiment, 
 which was immediately welcomed with popular enthu- 
 siasm. A balloon ascent was arranged from Stamford 
 Bridge, representing for the nonce a besieged town, one 
 August Saturday afternoon ; and, through the Press, a 
 challenge was issued to the various military cycle corps 
 of the Home District, inviting them to impersonate the 
 enemy, and try and catch the balloon and secure the 
 dispatches it was supposed to be conveying. The com- 
 petition was approved by the Commander-in-Chief, and 
 a fine muster of men from the 26th Middlesex, the Tower 
 Hamlets, the Artists' Corps, and others, in uniform, 
 supplemented by many civilian cyclists, vaulted on to 
 their bicycle saddles in hot pursuit as the balloon rose 
 majestically above the shouting crowd, filling the Athletic 
 Grounds, and drifted south-west over Fulham. 
 
 The arrangement was that the balloon should come 
 to earth within twenty miles of London, when every 
 effort would be made by Bacon, as bearer of the dis- 
 patches, to escape by any means from his pursuers. The 
 course was purposely maintained close above the ground, 
 out of consideration for the cyclists threading their way 
 at a disadvantage through crowded streets, and the light 
 breeze drove it forward at a speed of some twelve miles 
 an hour. 
 
 Nevertheless, the " enemy " quickly found that balloon 
 hunting through South London suburbs was a harder 
 task than they had anticipated. It was a case of each 
 
 302 
 
RISING ABOVE FULHAM 
 
 See page 302 
 
 CAPTURING THE DESPATCHES 
 BALLOON v. CYCLE RACE 
 
 Page 303 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 man for himself, and while some followed new roads 
 running apparently in the direction of the balloon's course, 
 only to find themselves confronted by boundaries and 
 blank walls, others hauled their machines over fences, 
 crossed fields and market gardens on foot, and hoped to 
 emerge on more likely tracks where they could mount 
 again. One party, coming to cross roads and a sign-post, 
 decided on a road which, after a seven-mile ride, brought 
 them back to the sign-post again. Another became so 
 entangled in brickfields that when they at length emerged 
 all hope of successful pursuit was at an end. Not until 
 too late did the wheelmen realize that the wiser course 
 would have been to have carried maps, to have noted at 
 the outset the general direction that the balloon was 
 taking, and having drawn a line in this direction to have 
 followed it as the true guide to the best route. 
 
 It was a game race, for a shifting wind caused the 
 balloon from time to time to tack back and forth, doub- 
 ling on her tracks like a hare. Wimbledon was passed, 
 and Epsom, and the aeronauts saw the streams of crawling 
 black ants on the white roads thin out and fall farther 
 behind, until at last, when ground was touched in a har- 
 vest field a little off the road between Leatherhead and 
 Bookham, not a cyclist was in sight. They were close 
 at hand though, and quick as possible Bacon was out of 
 the car, across the field, and had effectually hidden him- 
 self inside a corn-shock, before the first panting and per- 
 spiring pursuer burst shouting through the hedge. Others 
 were quick upon his heels, until the field was full of the 
 enemy, but it was the fourth man in who disinterred Bacon 
 from his hiding-place and seized his dispatches, for which 
 feat he was awarded the prize of a handsome pair of field- 
 glasses. 
 
 On all hands the chase was voted a great success ; hare 
 
 303 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 and hounds were equally delighted, and the party were 
 already dispersing with mutual congratulations, when, 
 like a bolt from the blue, a sudden and terrible disaster 
 converted the pleasure of the day in a moment to saddest 
 tragedy. The race had been over an hour and more, 
 the last cyclists had long ago arrived, and Bacon and his 
 party were already directing their steps towards the 
 station, when a cry arose from the still crowded field 
 that the balloon was loose ; and in a moment it sprang 
 up above the heads of the crowd, rapidly rising, with 
 three or four startled people, one a mere child, standing 
 horror-stricken in the car. As it rose it dragged up after 
 it its long trail-rope lying on the ground, and at the shout, 
 " Hold on to the rope ! " first one man and then another 
 laid hold in the hope of restraining the fugitive craft. 
 Had they only all got their strength on together all would 
 have been well, but, as it was, one by one they were lifted 
 from the ground, and dropped off at greater or less height, 
 falling over each other, until half a dozen people were 
 rolling on the field, of whom one at least was badly bruised 
 and shaken. 
 
 Shaking off its would-be captors, the balloon plunged 
 aloft, and the crowd shrieked with horror as they saw 
 that one man still clung to the trail-rope and now hung 
 dangling, many feet high in air. All too late he realized 
 his predicament, and, hand over hand, he slid down the 
 rope at a speed which must have ripped the skin from 
 off his palms. But before he reached the end of the cord 
 he was forty feet at least from the ground, and he fell 
 upon the iron-parched earth with a sickening thud which 
 those who heard it can hear still, and which, breaking 
 his neck, killed him instantly. 
 
 The cause of the accident was soon explained. The 
 balloon descended quietly, still full of gas, and out of 
 
 304 
 
f 
 Across the Irish Sea 
 
 pure good nature Mr. Spencer allowed the cyclists, and 
 the many harvesters and villagers who quickly crowded 
 to the scene, captive ascents in the car, letting them up 
 to the length of the trail-rope and pulling them down 
 again. There was no lack of helpers while the fun lasted, 
 and all went smoothly until Mr. Spencer announced that 
 it was time to cease and that no more rides would be 
 given. Forgetful of the result of so doing, the men who 
 were holding the basket, now that the fun was over, 
 let go their hold and turned on their heels, when, in a 
 moment, the balloon was off and away, bearing its un- 
 intentional passengers with it. Concerning their fate 
 there was much agonized apprehension among the crowd, 
 but in reality their position was not one of any danger ; 
 and one of them having the sense to pull the valve-line 
 they descended safely, though horribly scared, a few 
 hundred yards away. The man who lost his life was one 
 John Tickner, a farm labourer in corduroys and hob- 
 nailed boots, who either lacked the quickness to realize 
 his peril until it was too late, or, as we prefer to think, 
 while realizing it, imagined that by holding on he might 
 be saving the lives of those in the car, and so knowingly 
 risked his own in noble self-sacrifice. Alas ! he left a wife 
 and family, for whom Bacon immediately opened a sub- 
 scription, and, much sympathy being aroused, a hundred 
 pounds or so was quickly collected and placed in good 
 hands for their relief. 
 
 From a military point of view the result of the race 
 seemed to show that, granted a moderately calm day, 
 without low-lying cloud, cyclists should certainly be able 
 to follow and capture a balloon when the journey is short. 
 On the other hand, the pursuers were convinced that with 
 a strong wind blowing they would have had no chance 
 whatever, while for such a course as they had just run a 
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 cavalryman, lightly equipped and on a mount used to 
 cross-country work, would have had the advantage of 
 them. Moreover the balloonist, unless the cyclists were 
 very close up when he fell, might well hope to escape by 
 hiding, if the country were wooded. Pursuers and pur- 
 sued alike were keen for another trial, and so a fortnight 
 later a second race was organized, starting this time 
 from the Crystal Palace, and on a day when widely 
 different conditions prevailed. 
 
 For this time, although along the surface of the ground 
 the wind travelled but slowly, at the level of the clouds 
 it blew in strength ; and soon after the start a some- 
 what exciting one, for the balloon narrowly escaped 
 collision with the North Tower the heavy canopy of 
 vapour dropped earthward, and presently completely 
 hid the balloon from view! The cyclists, riding on this 
 occasion in military formation and under the direction 
 of officers, had profited by their previous lesson, and kept 
 to the broad main thoroughfares, following the wind. 
 But above the cloud the current sped swiftly, and when 
 the aeronauts descended again it was evident that they 
 had gained largely on the pursuit. Darkness was gather- 
 ing, and they desired to come down, but the country 
 over which they found themselves was thickly wooded, 
 and not till near Godalming could they happen on a 
 suitable landing-place. They were then more than 
 thirty miles from their starting-point, and their escape 
 from capture was beyond question. Nevertheless a plucky 
 party of the King's Royal Rifles, with splendid deter- 
 mination, kept up the chase as far as Guildford, when 
 night closed down upon them. The lesson in this case 
 was obvious. Let an enemy be as vigilant as he may, and 
 possessed of the deadliest weapons known in modern 
 warfare, it should still be perfectly possible in any country 
 
 306 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 where overcast skies recur to make an aerial flight over 
 any hostile country soever. More than this, the balloon- 
 ists need fear no capture when they voyage on a dark 
 night. On the other hand, when cyclists chase a war 
 balloon they need not abandon hope of catching it when 
 the balloon is occasionally hidden from view by clouds, 
 so long as they can make sure of following its general 
 course. 
 
 On the whole, the balance of advantage would appear 
 to rest with the balloon in a race against wheelmen. 
 
 Military balloon hunting, thus happily inaugurated by 
 Bacon, became for a while very popular ; motor-cars 
 were substituted for bicycles, and several exciting races 
 took place after balloons piloted by Mr. Frank Butler, 
 the Hon. C. S. Rolls, Mr. Leslie Bucknell, and other Aero 
 Club leaders. Bacon, meantime, had bent his thoughts 
 in other directions, and now was meditating how his 
 beloved art could be made to benefit not the Army alone, 
 but might even be turned to the use of the sister service, 
 the Navy. 
 
 At first sight it might indeed appear that, however 
 useful a balloon may be to an attacking or defending 
 army on land, in naval warfare at least it can find no 
 possible place. But this is very far from being the fact. 
 It has long been recognized that objects under water, 
 such as shoals and sunken rocks, become visible, or more 
 visible, when viewed from a height, and it was on the 
 authority of Admiral Fremantle that Bacon learned 
 that it is customary at sea, when some sunken object is 
 suspected of lying in a vessel's course, but cannot be seen 
 from deck, to send a man aloft, when the higher he can 
 climb the mast the further will his vision penetrate be- 
 neath the waves. There is a recognized optical reason 
 for this fact, and were the sailor on the top of a lofty 
 
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 cliff he would see better still. Therefore, argued Bacon, 
 from a balloon at not too great an elevation his power 
 would be yet further increased, and he would be enabled 
 to see the bottom of a shallow sea in a way that could not 
 by any other means be obtained. It needs no pointing 
 out that in these days of submarines, sunken mines, 
 torpedoes, and the like, the possibility of seeing beneath 
 the waves becomes of the vastest naval importance, and 
 thus at once it becomes evident that, far from a balloon 
 being useless at sea, it might, under certain circumstances, 
 prove of the utmost value. 
 
 This granted, there immediately arise many other 
 points of much interest ; such as the feasibility of steer- 
 ing a reconnoitring balloon with a trail-rope across the 
 sea, and the maintaining of communication over great 
 distances say from the shore to a ship that has long 
 passed out of sight by means of balloon signalling. The 
 more Bacon thought of the matter the more convinced 
 he became that here lay a fresh field for most instructive 
 and useful investigation, and it further appeared to him 
 that for experiments of such a nature the Irish Sea 
 mainly bounded as it is by neighbouring coast-lines 
 offered obvious and special facilities. 
 
 It goes without saying that to Bacon it was an immense 
 attraction that from an aeronautical point of view the 
 Irish sea was practically if the phrase may be pardoned 
 a terra incognita, and that it moreover possessed some 
 certain element of danger. The crossing of the English 
 Channel by balloon has become, comparatively speaking, 
 a cockney performance, accomplished without risk times 
 beyond number, ever since the days when an American 
 doctor and a French aeronaut made the first aerial 
 passage a century and a quarter ago, less than two years 
 after the balloon was first invented. Only once, how- 
 
 308 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 ever, in the whole story of aeronautics, had a balloon 
 found its way over that treacherous stretch of water that 
 divides England from the Emerald Isle ; for here the 
 winds are proverbially fickle and headstrong ; and high 
 aloft there blows ever an upper current, sweeping in the 
 direction of the Channel's length, and offering great ob- 
 stacle and grave risk to a balloonist endeavouring to 
 reach either shore. No more adventurous voyage was 
 ever experienced than befell Mr. Sadler, when, in 1812, 
 he made the first and unsuccessful attempt to cross the 
 Channel. Twice the upper current bore him out towards 
 the Atlantic, until he was forced at length to descend in 
 the water and cling desperately to his sinking craft until 
 picked up by a passing vessel with the life scarce left in 
 him. It was his own son, five years later, who accom- 
 plished the feat, passing in five hours with a fair wind 
 and a low flight straight from Dublin to Holy head. 
 
 Clearly, for balloon experiments to be carried out with 
 anything like safety over such a dangerous sea, the 
 services of a vessel on the water, to " stand by " in case 
 of trouble, were imperative. For should the upper wind 
 bear the aeronauts irresistibly out towards the ocean, 
 their only possible chance would be to drop in the water 
 and fight it out with the waves until picked up. Even 
 then shoals, currents, and fickle breezes might render the 
 rescue anything but an easy one. The possessors of 
 private yachts to whom Bacon applied for help doubted 
 their capability for such a task ; the manager of a well- 
 known firm of shipowners replied that he had no spare 
 vessel, but could build one ! Finally, my father ever 
 more convinced of the importance of the work laid 
 the whole scheme before the Admiralty itself ; with a 
 result that the suggested trial was discussed, approved 
 of, and ultimately heartily taken up. A gunboat 
 
 309 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 H.M.S. " Renard," under command of Lieut. Sholto 
 Douglas, was placed at Bacon's disposal, and full in- 
 structions were issued to her officers to lend every 
 assistance in their power for the prosecution of the 
 experiments. 
 
 By this time it was November, a month curiously 
 associated with balloon enterprise, since its general ab- 
 sence of wind more than atones for the shortness of the 
 autumn days. The work was to take place immediately, 
 and Bacon repaired to Holyhead, where the " Renard " 
 lay, there to consult with the experts, both naval and 
 aeronautical, as to the plan of campaign. The first move 
 was to telegraph to the gas managers of a number of 
 seaports on the west coast of England and Wales, and on 
 the east coast of Ireland, regarding the feasibility of in- 
 flating a balloon in their towns. Next, guided by their 
 replies and by the probable direction of the wind, came 
 the task of selecting the most suitable starting-point. 
 After much studying of maps and discussion of pros and 
 cons, the choice fell on the Isle of Man, which, from its 
 position between the shores of England, Wales, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland, offered most latitude in the matter of 
 air-currents. A favourable answer was received as to 
 the gas-supply of Douglas, and it was decided to repair 
 thither the next morning. 
 
 With service-like despatch, the bulky balloon, its car 
 and appurtenances, were placed in the steam cutter of 
 the gunboat and conveyed on board, followed by Bacon 
 and Mr. Percival Spencer. They found the " Renard " a 
 smart craft of 800 tons, carrying a complement of ninety- 
 two officers and men. More than a third of these came 
 under command of the chief engineer, who answered 
 all anxious queries as to the capability of the " Renard " 
 to keep pace with the balloon with ready confidence, 
 
 310 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 since could she not, he said, produce fourteen knots if 
 desired, and probably more if put to it ? Two experts, 
 in the persons of an officer from H.M.S. " Vernon " and a 
 naval engineer, were on board as special representatives 
 of the Admiralty to report on the experiments. For the 
 rest, Bacon, who, of course, was in his element, writes 
 delightedly of the novel experience : 
 
 " Life on a British gunboat was a revelation to one 
 whose knowledge of sea voyages had been confined to 
 liners. Being put on board, it is needless to say that, 
 though the hour was early, all was in perfect order, with 
 spotless decks, and every inch of brass shining brilliantly 
 in the sunlight. Then the cutters, which had been ashore 
 for our bulky gear, were hauled up to the davits with the 
 sheer strength of seventy men, giving way together as 
 only sailors can. After this I was ' lionised ' everywhere 
 in the snug cabins of the Captain and officers, the 
 well-found and well-lit quarters of the men, that marvel 
 of culinary art the galley, down to the very stoke-hole 
 itself, if I cared for a descent to a miniature Tartarus. 
 Then came the grim reality of the thing. To climb the 
 companion you squeezed past a long evil-looking gun 
 pointing aft, technically known as a * 4.7.' Hard by 
 was a three-pound quick-firing recoil gun, as also a Maxim, 
 faced on the opposite side by a Whitehead torpedo of 
 newest pattern, the wicked working of which was shown 
 me with obvious pride. The sharp propeller blades 
 responsible for the loss of many a man's fingers were 
 set revolving, a charge in dummy inserted in one of the 
 pieces, and the safety pin removed, which then left the 
 discharge simply controlled by a press button in the 
 conning tower. But at noon a bugle-call turned the 
 general attention to a happier topic, and I had the grati* 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 fication of witnessing the ship's company attending, in 
 serious earnest, to the business of dinner in the various 
 messes right good fare was there, beautifully cooked, and 
 keenly relished. Of course there was the grog, the busi- 
 nesslike serving of which was as much a reality as in the 
 days of Marryat ; after which the crew dispersed to a 
 score of tasks, splicing where rigging had been damaged, 
 repairing canvas, even needlework of an apparently pri- 
 vate nature accomplished with a veritable sewing machine 
 brought on deck. The impression left on a landsman's 
 mind was that, when all is said and done, the British 
 Navy must surely be all that it ever was, and that Jack 
 at sea has by no means a bad time of it." 
 
 But before long Bacon had an opportunity of seeing 
 that life on a gunboat is not all the pleasant experience 
 it at first appeared. Ere the Isle of Man was reached that 
 afternoon, dark clouds had enveloped the November 
 sun, the wind uprose, the sea grew rough and rougher, 
 until heavy seas washed the deck with every frequent 
 roll. The " Renard " anchored off Douglas in a regular 
 gale, and with some difficulty Bacon and Spencer were 
 rowed ashore amid big sea mountains, momentarily 
 rising higher. To land the heavy balloon gear proved 
 absolutely out of the question, nor were matters any 
 better the next day, when the south-easterly gale con- 
 tinued to urge the tumultuous sea in heavy rollers into 
 the bay, and through the mist the "Renard" showed 
 barely visible a mile from the shore. This was Wednes- 
 day, and on Thursday Bacon wrote to the " Morning 
 Post," through whose columns he was communicating 
 daily, to an interested public, tidings of his doings : 
 
 " Calmer air and a rising glass have restored the hope 
 
 312 
 
g 
 
 Across the Irish Sea 
 
 of an early start, but it has been foul and contrary weather 
 of the worst type. The gunboat had a long rough night, 
 which kept the night watch busy if not anxious, and the 
 balloon gear had to be securely lashed to avoid its being 
 washed completely overboard. A big green sea invaded 
 the officers' quarters, and banished comfort for many 
 hours. One contrary and serious circumstance still 
 remains ; the wind veers treacherously about the one 
 quarter fraught with danger, which would carry us out 
 to the open sea through the North Channel. But opera- 
 tions are in full progress ; only unfortunately our re- 
 quirements are altogether beyond the power of man 
 whether spelt with a capital M or otherwise. We must 
 have it reasonably calm to render inflation possible, and 
 though the right weather has prevailed for a month, we 
 seem to have brought with us an east wind which the 
 weather-wise assure us will last a week. There is a strange 
 sense of isolation and helplessness about our position to- 
 day. Having come ashore last night to make necessary 
 preparations, we became cut off from our vessel by a sea 
 almost too wild for any boat to live in, and though the 
 flash-light from the masthead was sweeping the waves 
 up to a late hour of the night, to aid our return over the 
 black water if we cared to attempt it, there was no object 
 to be gained by our so doing. We have no course left 
 but to exercise all the patience we are possessed of. 
 
 " Friday Night. 
 
 " The same stormy weather prevails here, with the wind 
 impetuous in strength, and dangerous in direction. 
 Upper clouds are flying so fast that the gunboat could 
 not possibly overhaul us if in distress, and life-belts would 
 not long preserve life in this wild sea. A wind due north 
 or due south would suffice, and would be safe with any 
 
 313 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 point of west in it. North-east would also serve, but 
 veering as it does between south and east there would 
 be the gravest danger of being carried out to the ocean 
 through the North Channel. Moreover, the present 
 force of the gale renders inflation impossible. Our 
 sympathies are with our friends on the ' Renard,' who 
 have seas constantly sweeping their decks. While I 
 was crossing to the ship yesterday one of the sailors was 
 washed overboard and hauled out with a rope." 
 
 Trying as this forced detention was, the time was being 
 turned to good account on the island. Preparations 
 were going forward apace, with a celerity and ease un- 
 precedented, in fact, for the Manxmen had extended a 
 welcome to the aeronauts which fairly astonished them. 
 How hearty a Manx welcome may be the King and Queen 
 had experienced only a few weeks earlier, while on their 
 summer cruise ; but it may be doubted whether even 
 their Majesties were hailed with greater enthusiasm, 
 since kings and queens, though rare, are not unheard 
 of in Mona's Isle, while never before in history had its 
 narrow shores witnessed the ascent of a free balloon. 
 From the moment of Bacon's arrival the good folk of 
 Douglas vied with each other in their efforts to assist the 
 experiments by all means in their power, and in truth the 
 balloonists were scarce over-modest in their demands. 
 The first requirement was a suitable spot for inflation, 
 which should be at once central, open, and in proximity 
 to the largest gas-mains of the town. Such conditions 
 indeed were admirably fulfilled by the quadrangle at the 
 southern end of the Parade, one of the principal open 
 spaces of the town, in front of the chief hotel and flanking 
 the approaches to the harbour. No place, in fact, would 
 be better for the purpose, but then, as Bacon pointed out, 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 who in their senses would dream of suggesting to the town 
 authorities a request which would be equivalent to a 
 demand for Piccadilly Circus or Trafalgar Square, in 
 which to inflate a balloon ? 
 
 Nevertheless, the gas manager raised no sort of ob- 
 jection, provided the consent of the police was obtained. 
 To ask the superintendent of police in an important town 
 for leave to break up and obstruct the chief highway 
 might seem a bold proceeding, yet the favour was im- 
 mediately and right graciously granted, with the one 
 proviso that the Harbour Commissioners must first be 
 conciliated, since the busy traffic to and from the boats 
 must necessarily be impeded. But the Commissioners 
 made light of the matter, said that the traffic could go 
 another way, and merely pointed out that the Peveril 
 Hotel would be the principal sufferer, since its whole 
 front entrance would be absolutely blocked. However, 
 after the hotel proprietor had smilingly assured them 
 that his customers would be quite as delighted to come 
 in at the back, the matter was considered settled, the 
 thoroughfare was fenced off with barriers, and workmen 
 dug down and unearthed the gas connections. 
 
 On the Friday Bacon writes in his note book : " Our 
 detention continues, but the whole place is doing its 
 very utmost to make our stay not only tolerable but en- 
 joyable. Our hotel is the centre of attraction in the 
 island. Residents from a distance drive up to the newly 
 erected barrier outside, peep down the ' filling pit,' and 
 drive off again, or in many instances pay us a formal call 
 and offer every hospitality. The Club is thrown open 
 to us, boxes at the theatre placed at our disposal ; little 
 acts of genuine courtesy, gracefully and naturally ren- 
 dered, greet us at every turn. A pint of varnish was 
 needed and obtained for a patch in the balloon, but the 
 
 315 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 tradesman would on no account accept payment for what 
 he regarded as but a friendly service. A message was 
 required to be sent to a neighbouring bay. Well, there 
 was a boat, and the rowers were idle ; they would go for 
 the mere gratification of making themselves of use. As 
 some slight return, it is arranged that should we be here 
 over to-morrow night I am to give a lecture in the Town 
 Hall on my past aeronautical experiences and the work 
 now in prospect. I take it that at this period, when the 
 season is completely over, and the thousands of visitors 
 have drifted back to Lancashire and elsewhere, one sees 
 the Manxman at his best, and certainly I have never 
 been more favourably impressed with a people anywhere." 
 
 Saturday morning broke wild as ever, and the "Renard" 
 at daybreak flew the negative signal as an indication 
 that the balloon voyage was considered inadvisable. As 
 the day wore on the gale increased, and presently the gun- 
 boat, tired of her continual buffeting, weighed anchor 
 and steamed away to Holyhead, there to lie in shelter 
 until the weather should moderate. The proposed lec- 
 ture was given in the Douglas theatre that night, and 
 repeated again on Sunday evening, by which time the 
 storm seemed to have blown itself out. Monday broke 
 fair and sunny, with subsiding sea and only a moderate 
 wind from the south. Clearly the chance had come at 
 last, and almost before sunrise the empty balloon was 
 laid across the roadway in preparation for the inflation, 
 which was immediately commenced when a wire came 
 from the " Renard " announcing that she had started from 
 Holyhead, and by midday would be lying in readiness 
 twenty miles to leeward. 
 
 Then indeed the excitement of the past week culminated. 
 The news was flashed round the island, and by special 
 trains and trams and all manner of vehicles the Manxmen 
 
 316 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 in their thousands came pouring into Douglas. By noon 
 15,000 people at least were crowded into the space before 
 the Peveril Hotel, swarming like bees upon the roofs, 
 the piers, the beach, everywhere where a glimpse could be 
 caught of the swelling balloon towering up into the air, 
 and bearing on one side the big white sail with which 
 it was proposed to steer it when open water was reached. 
 Many were the speculations as to the probable course of 
 the voyage. Originally the aeronauts had hoped for a 
 breeze which would bear them to Ireland, but in this 
 they were clearly doomed to disappointment. Early 
 in the day all indications seemed to point to Cumberland 
 being their destination, so much so that on the mainland 
 friends went to the coast and watched for their arrival. 
 But as the morning advanced the wind seemed veering 
 round to the west with troublesome little gusts and scuds 
 that, in that draughty corner, drove the restive silk in 
 dangerous proximity to sharp angles of buildings and 
 pointed lamp-posts. Shortly after noon, while the 
 willing boatmen helpers laboured to restrain the heaving 
 monster, a ringing shot boomed out across the sea and 
 echoed round the bay, telling that the "Renard" was 
 already at hand. Preparations were pressed forward, 
 and at 1.30 Bacon and Spencer, on whom enthusiastic 
 islanders had pressed provisions for the voyage, button- 
 holes, lucky Manx coins, and all imaginable tokens of 
 good will, jumped into the basket, and rose into the air 
 as the roar of 15,000 voices rent the sky in a deafening 
 shout. 
 
 At the start an ugly collision with a corner of the hotel 
 roof caused a moment's alarm. No damage, however, 
 was done, but what caused the balloonists some real 
 anxiety was the discovery, quickly made, that the upper 
 currents were bearing them markedly to the left of their 
 
 317 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 anticipated drift, and in unpleasant proximity to that 
 north-eastern course leading through the dread North 
 Channel and out over the ocean, with no land ahead 
 short of Greenland. Moreover the wind aloft was proving 
 a rapid one, and in the event of a forced descent in the 
 water, to avoid the Atlantic, no vessel built, save possibly 
 a destroyer, could overhaul them in time to be of any 
 service. 
 
 Meantime the view below was unfolding in ever greater 
 beauty and interest. Douglas Bay gleamed fair as that 
 of Naples, its myriad ripples reflecting the sunlight. On 
 its shores clustered the dark masses of the people with 
 white upturned faces. Every detail of the Parade re- 
 vealed itself, and then the bold promontory of Derby 
 Castle with the electric railway twisting along the coast, 
 and the waves foaming at the foot of the cliffs. After 
 this the course was inland over the rugged heart of Man, 
 the village of Laxey with its giant wheel, romantic glens 
 and watercourses, and then the lofty mountain- tops, 
 some bare, some cloud-capped, to avoid which the balloon 
 had perforce to rise higher in air. The long trail-rope, 
 already free, slithered over the summit of Snaefell, the 
 highest peak of the island, and immediately after the 
 course seemed to change, veering again to safety and 
 the eastward, and bearing the balloon over Ramsey, where, 
 warned by telephone from Douglas, the inhabitants had 
 poured out into the streets to watch its advance over 
 the wooded hills. On the left lay the Point of Ayre, the 
 extreme tip of the island. Above this they passed at a 
 height of 4000 feet, and then out over the open sea. 
 
 Where was the " Renard " ? Bacon's gaze wandered 
 over the wide expanse of sparkling water, from that 
 height apparently of glassy smoothness, and lighted on 
 a tiny craft like a child's toy, rounding a distant headland, 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 and churning up in its rear a just perceptible line of creamy 
 foam. Was this indeed the gunboat, and could it be 
 possible to be in communication with so minute an object ? 
 With the collapsing drum, slung beneath, he signalled 
 in Morse code, "Whistle," and immediately uprose 
 faintly a double blast from the ship's steam hooter. 
 Clearly the sailors of air and water were perfectly in 
 touch, yet probably not for long, since it soon became 
 evident that the boat, despite its efforts, was falling be- 
 hind. Nor could this be helped, since, though the faithful 
 engineer was getting his fifteen knots out of the engines, 
 was not the brisk upper current urging the aerial craft 
 forward at a good thirty ! 
 
 The steering experiments must be carried out at once, 
 and, the sun breaking through clouds which occasionally 
 enveloped it, Bacon lowered his other signalling apparatus 
 a bright heliographic ball which seemed to hang like 
 a star beneath the car, and telegraphed, " Shall trail soon." 
 Down came the balloon with a swoop, barely avoiding 
 a ducking. The trail-rope now dragged a long length 
 through the water, and the big sail bellied out full and 
 straining. So the helm was put about, and immediately 
 the balloon's course came under control. 
 
 In his subsequent report to the Admiralty on the sub- 
 ject of the steering experiments Bacon writes : " Our 
 steering apparatus fully justified our expectations. The 
 possibility of diverting our course to a very useful extent 
 was clearly demonstrated, though we cannot commit 
 ourselves to any statement as to the actual angle of 
 divergence. . . . Practically it is an exceedingly difficult 
 matter to keep the balloon within the limits required for 
 steering manoeuvres. As soon as the trailing rope has 
 slowed down the balloon, the sail and silk, catch- 
 ing the wind, tend to lift the machine like a kite, 
 
 319 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 and if owing to this the rope rises clear of the water, the 
 sudden release means a fresh and a free start into the 
 sky. . . . Our contiguity to the waves was awkward in 
 our case, where we had other apparatus to take damage, 
 but I am convinced that the steering in question deserves 
 another trial specially devoted to it. It would probably 
 entail occasionally dipping in the water and again rising 
 clear out of it, but there need be no risk." 
 
 So presently the balloon plunged upwards into the sky 
 again, where it hung at varying heights, and then arose 
 the all-important question that they had come primarily 
 to settle the visibility of the bottom of the sea. Here 
 at least the answer admitted of no possible doubt. The 
 surface of the water was broken and ruffled with the 
 tossing waves that a week's wild weather had lashed to 
 anger. To peer from a ship's side even a few feet into 
 that troubled sea, over which the white horses were 
 careering, would have been absolutely impossible. Yet 
 from the balloon, although the sun's rays were reflected 
 dazzlingly from the rollers which seemed to cross and 
 intersect each other in curious criss-cross pattern, the 
 whole appeared of glassy transparency, through which 
 the sea-bottom showed with absolute distinctness. Not 
 only could it be seen with the eye indeed, but it was 
 clear enough to admit of being photographed, and, with 
 his ordinary five-guinea Kodak camera, Bacon secured 
 a record which was absolutely unique in the annals of 
 photography. 
 
 It was taken from a height of about 600 feet over shoal 
 water, ten fathoms that is sixty feet deep. How dis- 
 turbed the surface was at the time is plainly shown by 
 the ripple marks all over the picture, and which in one 
 corner, where the sun was reflected, cast a myriad white 
 speckles. Yet most clearly visible, despite these, appear 
 
 320 
 
FIRST GLIMPSE OF SCOTLAND-SUNDOWN 
 
 See page 322 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SEA-BOTTOM 
 
 Page 320 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 the broad, white, misshapen patches of sand at the 
 bottom, and bounding them the well-marked darker 
 masses of seaweed-covered rock among which they lie. 
 No one looking at this photograph can, for a moment, 
 doubt that should a submarine be lurking in such depths 
 it would be instantly and unmistakably revealed. 
 
 Bacon found that this visibility of the sea-bottom was 
 entirely a matter of height. For seeing was best at and 
 below 500 feet aloft, while at 1000 feet or higher, whether 
 the balloon were over deep water or not, the sea appeared 
 opaque. It seemed to him, therefore, absolutely established 
 by practice, and not only in accordance with theory, that 
 the secrets of the sea depths, which hide themselves 
 even from the trained eye of the sailor on board ship, 
 should become revealed to an aeronaut who will poise 
 himself in open space overhead, say ten times higher 
 than the maintop. 
 
 After these experiments ballast was thrown out, and 
 the balloon ascended till its occupants looked down on 
 the sea from the height of a mile and a half. Around 
 them was spread a sky-scape unrivalled " a far-reach- 
 ing sea of cloud, torn and fretted, and tossing wildly 
 aloft, while from the depth arose a strange, soft, musical 
 murmur which filled the air. Silver cloudlets sailing 
 through the void below served to make the deep gulf 
 look deeper, and far and faint, a mere dark, dim, wedge 
 of earth, the last of Manxland was fading out in distance. 
 And now, looking ahead, we scanned with eager curios- 
 ity a dark belt of lowering cloud that hung heavily across 
 the sky-line and barred our view. Somewhere beyond 
 and behind must lie our goal, and this, if the balloon held 
 its course, should be the Scottish coast, as yet some forty 
 miles away." 
 
 Long before land was reached the " Renard," hope- 
 x 321 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 lessly outdistanced, had become indistinguishable on 
 the now dark sea. Nevertheless, she loyally kept her 
 course until, in Kirkcudbright Bay, she caught a last 
 glimpse of the balloon disappearing far inland to the 
 south. For, as the day waned, the rocky Scottish shores 
 approached, and the coast line of the Solway Firth was 
 crossed eastward of Abbey Head. Then the balloon sped 
 inland with Castle Douglas on the left, and wild moors 
 lay beneath them in shadowy desolation as the daylight 
 faded. In place of the murmur of the sea rose the cry 
 of the grouse, and ever and again the roar of mountain 
 streams. Tiny pale blue lochs lay here and there, but 
 suddenly all was swallowed in a rolling Scotch mist into 
 which they plunged headlong, and while completely 
 hidden in its damping folds came a trembling and jerking 
 of the car, as the long trail-rope, skimming over a moun- 
 tain peak in whose " nightcap " they were then enveloped, 
 touched earth. Every vibration of the trail as it danced 
 up and down the mountain-side could be felt, but not a 
 thing could be seen until, with startling suddenness, they 
 emerged to find themselves over a broad valley, fertile 
 and dotted over with dwellings. 
 
 Here was the spot for the descent, and down they 
 came on the lee side of a pine plantation expecting to fall 
 in a field there. But they cleared the wood and found 
 immediately on the other side a trim country house, 
 towards whose front windows they were driving straight. 
 With horror they watched the trail-rope wriggle itself in 
 and out of the chimney-pots, a whole stack of which it 
 threatened to demolish. Happily it contented itself 
 with knocking down the coping of a wall in the next field, 
 and finally, in the long damp grass and bog of a neighbour- 
 ing deep glen, they found their resting-place, with day- 
 light gone and heavy wet settling in. " We looked 
 
 322 
 
Across the Irish Sea 
 
 around for sympathy and succour," wrote Bacon, " but 
 whence was it to come ? We listened, but heard no sound 
 save a dismal wail which came up the valley as a gust of 
 wind, charged with flying scud, swept past. It was a 
 wild, unpeopled spot, and the house with the chimneys 
 was out of sight. The night was coming up dark and 
 dirty, and the prospect was not cheering. . . . Presently 
 there were voices, both human and canine, and two men 
 appeared with three dogs between them. Then more 
 men and more dogs, the latter, however, always pre- 
 ponderating, and becoming increasingly obtrusive. Never 
 had I seen Scotch caution more strikingly displayed than 
 it was now by our present friends, and they were true 
 friends at heart, though they kept their hands in their 
 pockets and helped not a jot with the fallen balloon. 
 ' Was there a cart to be had ? ' ' WeU, they could na' 
 be sure.' But of course there was a cart, wouldn't 
 money hire it ? ' Well, maybe the horse was tired 
 
 and ' the dogs ended the argument. It had long been 
 
 brewing, and now a wild sea of lank collies and the like, 
 madly tearing and entangled, surged over the ground, 
 while their masters belaboured them with sticks." 
 
 It was Colonel Ewing, of Stroquhon, the owner of the 
 house they had passed over, and laird of the land, who 
 eventually appeared on the disordered scene and ex- 
 tended all help and hospitality in his power. Their 
 landing-place was the Glen of Glenesslyn, fourteen miles 
 from Dumfries and about eighty-five in a straight line 
 from Douglas, which distance they had covered in a rare 
 and historical sky voyage over land and sea never tra- 
 versed by balloon before. 
 
 323 
 
XVIII 
 THE BALLOON IN WARFARE 
 
 THE Admiralty were much interested in the results 
 of the cross-Channel voyage, and subsequently, I 
 understand, followed up the experiments, thus success- 
 fully inaugurated, for themselves in the Mediterranean. 
 The photograph of the sea-bottom especially excited 
 much attention, and subsequently led to two interest- 
 ing sequelae. In the spring of the following year, the 
 President of the Royal Society, then Sir William Huggins, 
 invited Bacon to exhibit his balloon photographs by 
 this time famous at the Royal Society Soir6e at Bur- 
 lington House. The Prince of Wales attended the func- 
 tion, and Bacon had the honour of being presented and 
 showing his pictures. His Royal Highness was greatly 
 interested, especially in the view of the sea-depths, which 
 naturally appealed to his sailor mind, and he asked many 
 questions and made many pertinent comments thereon. 
 
 The second occasion was a year later still, at the time 
 when public feeling was keenly aroused over the " regret- 
 table incident " of the Dogger Bank. In a letter to the 
 " Morning Post," Bacon, discussing the occurrence, and 
 citing his own experience, pointed out how, from a balloon 
 aloft over the sea, it would be readily possible to prove, 
 or disprove, the existence of that mythical Japanese 
 torpedo-boat which the Russian fleet declared had at- 
 tacked them, and which now lay sunk by their guns. 
 The papers rather took the matter up, and my father 
 
 324 
 
The Balloon in Warfare 
 
 was interviewed on the subject ; but he was scarcely pre- 
 pared to receive a letter from the Russian Embassy in 
 London, asking him if he would be willing, on their behalf, 
 to undertake the experiment he had suggested. 
 
 National excitement at that moment was running 
 perilously high, and Bacon felt that, while willing enough 
 to make the trial though of his success in finding that 
 torpedo-boat he could not but entertain the gravest 
 doubts he should first consult his own Government on 
 so momentous a step. He wrote accordingly to the 
 Admiralty, and also to Mr. Balfour, at that time Prime 
 Minister, explaining the position and asking what he 
 should do. Mr. Balfour answered as follows : 
 
 " Private. 10 Downing Street, 
 
 "November igth, 1904. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " In reply to your letter of the I4th, I think that 
 if the Russian Naval Attache desires to have your assist- 
 ance for any investigations bearing on the North Sea 
 Disaster, it would be only right that you should give it. 
 Anything which conduces to a knowledge of the truth 
 must be valuable. 
 
 " Please keep the Admiralty informed of what you 
 propose to do, as I think there should be an Admiralty 
 representative present. 
 
 " I remain, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 "A. J. BALFOUR." 
 
 The Admiralty replied in similar terms, stipulating for 
 a representative. So the course was cleared, but in the 
 few intervening days before these answers were received 
 the excitement had largely subsided, the political atmo- 
 
 325 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 sphere was brightening, and it was felt wisest on both 
 sides to let the matter drop. 
 
 In the autumn of 1902 Bacon's second book, " The 
 Dominion of the Air," a popular history of aeronautics 
 from their first inception to the present day, was pub- 
 lished, and met with a favourable reception. Again a 
 busy lecture season filled the winter, and much literary 
 and other work kept the ever-active mind and facile pen 
 employed. With the spring Bacon recommenced his 
 experiments with the hot-air military balloon already 
 referred to, and to which due reference must now be made. 
 
 As has been already shown, it was from the invaluable 
 practical advice and willing personal assistance of Mr. 
 J. N. Maskelyne and his son Nevil that Bacon had ever 
 received most help in his aeronautical and other experi- 
 ments. With them, in their frequent meetings, he in- 
 variably discussed all details of his schemes, and the 
 result of certain of these consultations was the evolving 
 of an invention for the ready inflation of military balloons. 
 Every one knows that one of the greatest drawbacks 
 attaching to the employment of balloons on active ser- 
 vice a drawback which militates terribly against their 
 efficiency is the difficulty and cost of transport and 
 inflation. It is obviously impossible to count on ordinary 
 household gas supply in the field. Military balloons, 
 therefore which are of small size comparatively, and 
 made of gold-beaters' skin, an exceedingly expensive 
 material are inflated with pure hydrogen compressed 
 and conveyed in bulky and tremendously heavy steel 
 cylinders. The production of hydrogen is in itself a 
 lengthy and expensive process, and when, as in the South 
 African War, the cumbrous cylinders have to be carried 
 thousands of miles by sea, and then hundreds more by 
 land transport over difficult country, it needs no pointing 
 
 326 
 
The Balloon in Warfare 
 
 out what tremendous labour and cost is involved, and 
 how the inclusion of a balloon section may seriously 
 hamper the mobility of a column. Moreover, the con- 
 tents of a war balloon, once rilled, are too valuable to be 
 lightly wasted, and unless the silk can remain inflated 
 in most cases impossible only a very few captive ascents 
 can be taken. Small wonder the military balloon in 
 recent campaigns has met with but scant favour or 
 success. 
 
 Bacon and Maskelyne proposed to do away entirely 
 with the hydrogen gas, and inflate instead with hot air. 
 This method, of course, is not new, dating back to the 
 days of Montgolfier, and frequently employed at the 
 present time for parachute work. It was in the produc- 
 tion of the hot air that the secret of the invention lay. 
 Most of us are familiar with the little apparatus called 
 a " roarer," which house-painters use to burn old paint 
 off woodwork, and which, by the combustion of petroleum 
 under pressure, gives out a heat quite marvellous in com- 
 parison to its size. It was with a modified and greatly 
 enlarged burner of this description that Bacon and 
 Maskelyne planned to inflate their balloon, which more- 
 over should, if necessary, carry its burner aloft with it 
 in the sky even as Pilatre de Rozier carried his open 
 fire with him in the first aerial voyage a century and a 
 quarter ago. 
 
 Experiments must be made tentatively ; so to begin 
 with a small balloon of about 2000 cubic feet capacity 
 was obtained, and trials commenced on the open ground 
 of Bucklebury Common, beside Mr. Maskelyne's country 
 cottage. The results were eminently encouraging. 
 When details of inflation, burner, etc., had been satis- 
 factorily mastered, the tiny craft, made simply of the 
 closely woven cotton fabric from which balloons are 
 
 327 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 nowadays manufactured, would fill completely in the 
 almost incredibly short space of thirty-eight seconds, 
 and rise high in air not infrequently breaking loose 
 from its restraining cord and leading its pursuers a stiff 
 chase over springy heather and prickly gorse bushes. 
 This balloon, of course, could not support the big burner 
 which inflated it, but instead it carried a small box 
 camera slung beneath, which, by an ingenious electrical 
 arrangement worked through the restraining cable of 
 insulated wire, could be made to take a photograph at the 
 will of the operator below. By such a means as this it 
 was claimed that even so tiny a craft could be turned to 
 advantage in war time by allowing pictures to be taken, 
 without risk, of the enemy's country. 
 
 Encouraged by so successful a beginning, Bacon and 
 Maskelyne, having patented their invention, launched out 
 on more important trials. They bought a large hot-air 
 balloon nearly 70,000 cubic feet in capacity, 50 feet in 
 diameter, standing when filled 70 feet high, and weighing 
 in itself nearly 300 Ib. To inflate this monster they had 
 made a special burner of the nature described, fitted with 
 pump and oil receiver, which at full pressure was capable 
 of vaporizing 8 gallons of petroleum an hour. Then 
 they set to work on experiments which were carried out 
 on every available fine day throughout the spring and 
 summer of 1903. The procedure was as follows. Early 
 in the afternoon, Mr. Maskelyne being present, some 
 dozen members of the Guildhall Club would cycle out to 
 Coldash ideal assistants, quick and intelligent, giving 
 their services enthusiastically out of love for their Presi- 
 dent. By them the bulky balloon was carried into an 
 adjoining field and carefully hauled across a portable 
 wooden staging over which it was spread as a tent. 
 Next the burner was placed beneath and lighted, the heat 
 
 328 
 
MASKELYNE AND BACON EXPERIMENTING WITH BURNER 
 OF HOT AIR BALLOON 
 
 Page 328 
 
The Balloon in Warfare 
 
 generated being conveyed into the mouth of the balloon 
 through a long flexible and non-inflammable flue of 
 asbestos. 
 
 The next few minutes demanded care and attention 
 on the part of the helpers, for the heat from the burners 
 was tremendous, and unless the cotton folds of the 
 balloon were properly placed and adjusted there was 
 risk of their becoming scorched. However, the men 
 soon grew handy at the work, and in a very short time 
 the filling material had lifted itself out of danger. In 
 but nine minutes the great mass was slowly heaving 
 aloft, and displaying the scarlet gores and stars with 
 which it was ornamented. In a quarter of an hour it 
 was standing upright, and in twenty-five minutes only 
 from the start it was fully inflated and fidgeting to be 
 off and away. When full, the wooden staging was re- 
 moved, and a wicker car attached below the burners, 
 carrying the oil pump and reserve supply of petroleum, 
 and in which the aeronaut could take his place. Then, 
 at a given signal, the ropes being loosed, the whole soared 
 proudly aloft into the air, where it could continue, either 
 as a captive or free, for just as long as the supply of oil 
 lasted. 
 
 The advantage of such a form of balloon in time of 
 war needs no insisting on. The whole apparatus, balloon, 
 burner, staging, and all, was not more than could be loaded 
 into one wagon ; the cost of an hour's supply of petroleum 
 to the burners worked out at under five shillings ; while 
 the inflation, which could be made as often as desired, 
 was completed in less than half an hour from the begin- 
 ning. Naturally the experiments attracted considerable 
 attention and much favourable comment in aeronautical, 
 as also military circles. Many experts came to Coldash 
 to inspect the new design. Maj or Baden Powell, President 
 
 329 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 of the Aeronautical Society, was one of these ; also, Mr. 
 Patrick Alexander ; Mr. Chanute, the eminent American 
 aerial investigator; representatives of the War Office; 
 and, from the German Embassy, a military attache in the 
 person of Count von Schulenburg. One and all expressed 
 their heartiest approval of an invention which, had but 
 circumstances admitted of its completion, had surely a 
 great future before it. As it was, the work, stopped in 
 the midst by the approach of winter, was postponed to the 
 next season, which, when it came, found both Maskelyne 
 and Bacon too much engaged in other business to spare the 
 necessary time. So but little more was done, except to 
 lay plans for a grand revival of the proceedings in the 
 spring a spring which Bacon never lived to see. 
 
 My father met again the aeronautical friends just 
 mentioned, as well as other leaders with whom he was 
 well acquainted, as Sir Hiram Maxim, Mr. Eric Bruce, 
 Professor C. V. Boys, and Mr. Cody, at the International 
 Kite Competition of the Aeronautical Society, held on 
 Worthing Downs this June of 1903 an enjoyable and 
 instructive function. 
 
 Out of the voyages of this summer two merit particular 
 reference. One was another of the long series of scientific 
 ascents, undertaken especially for acoustic observation, 
 and again Bacon was to fire bombs from aloft and invite 
 reports of the hearing of them by observers on the earth 
 the results of similar trials being so curious and un- 
 expected as well to demand a repetition. The experi- 
 ment was to take place in the quiet of the night, the 
 voyagers starting in their balloon from the Crystal Palace 
 at ten p.m. ; but at the commencement they met with a 
 sad disappointment. It had always been Bacon's special 
 desire to make a long journey all night under a full moon 
 over sleeping England, travelling northward the whole 
 
 330 
 
The Balloon in Warfare 
 
 length of the country, with no fear of being carried out 
 to sea, even should cloud shut out all view of earth. At 
 last it really seemed as if the chance had come, for that 
 evening a due south wind was unmistakably blowing, 
 and all pointed to a course which would bear them to 
 the Midlands or even to York before dawn. All were 
 delighted, of course. Nevertheless, either the breeze 
 shifted just at the moment of ascent, or an undetected 
 middle current seized them, for as they rose from the 
 ground the balloon, floating away gently from the grasp 
 of its restrainers, suddenly made a sidelong dash for the 
 top of a tall poplar narrowly escaped and headed off 
 on a course of its own nearly due east, flying fast and 
 faster as it rose above the trees. The disappointed 
 aeronauts, consulting their maps, realized not only that 
 Yorkshire was not their haven that night, but that with 
 cruel perversity their craft was choosing, from out all 
 points of the compass, the one course most unpopular 
 with aerial travellers from the Crystal Palace ; for it 
 was that which brings them soonest to the water, Sea 
 Reach and Mucking, but thirty miles away, the course 
 from which lies straight down the estuary of the 
 Thames, with the whole breadth of the German Ocean 
 beyond. 
 
 It was very hard luck, but they could but make the best 
 of a bad job, and in the hour that followed Bacon fired his 
 detonators at six minutes' interval, with results which, 
 when the crowded post-bag came in next day, proved 
 sufficiently interesting and instructive. Again observers 
 who had taken up stations along the entire length of the 
 country traversed, as also far on both sides, recorded 
 that it was off the track, in regions lying remote from the 
 direction of the wind, that the aerial sounds were best 
 heard ; while those near at hand heard least, showing the 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 range of audibility scarce exceeded five miles, either up 
 or down the wind in the balloon's path. 
 
 More than this, those who heard the clearest at long dis- 
 tances across the wind were generally found to be in groups 
 i.e. within a mile or two of each other, as though the 
 aerial sounds were borne down to earth on certain favoured 
 patches. From the Brentwood direction, ten miles 
 away at least, came a good report from several observers ; 
 from Sevenoaks, fourteen miles south of the balloon's 
 track, better still. Outside this limited locality a wide 
 district apparently heard no sound, but Edenbridge, nine 
 miles beyond, heard excellently ; while from Dormans, 
 in Sussex, fully twenty miles away from the nearest 
 firing point, came the completest record of all. 
 
 All these reports, however, were put in the shade by a 
 most extraordinary communication from a country par- 
 sonage in Norfolk. Here three observers sallied forth to 
 listen at the appointed hour, one standing within the 
 shelter of an empty pit which might serve as sounding- 
 board, and all alike recorded the hearing of a faint sound 
 " resembling thunder " coming from the right direction, 
 and corresponding in time with the moment when the 
 last and nearest bomb was fired over Purfleet, in Essex, 
 eighty miles away. Was this mere coincidence, or 
 another wonderful instance of those phenomenal " far 
 shots " every now and again to be met with ? 
 
 The second ascent was a fortnight later, again from the 
 Crystal Palace, but under widely different circumstances. 
 Yielding to the wishes of many who had found the previous 
 hunts exciting and instructive, Bacon had once again 
 arranged a military race of cycles versus balloon, but this 
 time, to vary the proceedings, and lend a new interest, 
 he introduced a novel feature. On the former occasions 
 the balloon was presumably escaping with despatches 
 
 332 
 
The Balloon in Warfare 
 
 from beleaguered Paris, pursued by the Prussians without 
 the walls. This order was now reversed, and the aero- 
 nauts, starting from neutral ground, and taking every 
 advantage of upper currents, were to endeavour to drop 
 actually within the besieged city, thus carrying out a 
 manoeuvre discussed but never actually accomplished in 
 the war of 1871. Moreover, it was announced in the 
 papers beforehand, that, in order to render the illusion 
 yet more complete, a certain distinguished officer, one 
 General Jacqueminot, seeking to return to Paris, would 
 ascend in full regimentals in the balloon, and make a 
 sensational parachute descent as near his prearranged 
 haven of refuge as possible. The general would be the 
 bearer of despatches, secretly sewn inside his uniform, 
 which it would be the aim of the military cyclists, divided 
 into two parties representing friends and foes, to secure 
 intact. 
 
 The matter was well taken up on all hands, and not a 
 little discussion was evoked as to the identity of the 
 military passenger. His name was obviously French, 
 and presumably he was a veteran survivor of the great 
 siege. Newspaper men wrote to him for particulars of 
 his career, and requests for his photograph. These 
 Bacon was delighted enough to supply after the event. 
 " Judging from appearance," he wrote, " my friend is 
 about seventy years of age, with set features. He is also 
 somewhat stiff in the joints, and weighs only seventeen 
 pounds in full regimentals." The construction of the 
 " General " was indeed a source of much joy to the family 
 party then assembled at Coldash, as was also the pre- 
 paring of his dispatches, said to be in a species of cipher, 
 which read after this fashion : " Watteau. Elle bompe," 
 " Votre mre, sait-elle que vous etes sortis ? " " Main- 
 tenant nous ne serons pas longtemps," etc. etc. 
 
 333 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 The day of the ascent was fine and bright, with a breeze 
 so light that " Paris " had perforce to be declared at a 
 very moderate distance. There were a large muster of 
 military cyclists, mostly of the 26th Middlesex, whose 
 commanding officer had a seat in the balloon car, and, 
 the secret having been well preserved, the appearance of 
 the " General," as he was supported to the basket, his 
 livid face and limp limbs suggesting extreme nervousness, 
 was hailed with rapturous delight. Had he been or- 
 dinary flesh and blood his situation would indeed have 
 been a trying one, for during the voyage, the car being 
 full and his person somewhat cumbersome, he was slung 
 by the neck outside until, at the close of the journey, 
 " Paris " being considered reached, the parachute was 
 fastened to his shoulders and he was launched into space. 
 
 Not without some qualms of pity his terrified face 
 was so pathetically human, the aeronauts watched his 
 downward progress, and were relieved to see the white 
 parachute expand and support him gracefully and gently 
 earthward. Dropped from about 3000 feet, for full five 
 minutes he could be seen falling, his pendent legs just 
 visible below the sheet, until, lightly as a feather, he 
 alighted on a green grass meadow, and lay prone. His 
 fall had been witnessed from afar, and people came rush- 
 ing up on all sides, and many were the anxious inquiries, 
 " Is the poor gentleman much hurt ? " The cyclists, 
 however, were first on his track, and the despatches being 
 secured, he was placed across a bicycle and carried in 
 triumph back to the Crystal Palace, where they exhibited 
 him all the rest of the day. 
 
 The voyage was noteworthy to Bacon in another way, 
 because this day there accompanied him in the car for 
 the first time the young lady who a few weeks later he 
 made his wife. On the 7th of October, at his brother 
 
 334 
 
The Balloon in Warfare 
 
 MaunselPs church at Swallowfield, near Reading, he 
 married Stella, youngest daughter of the late Captain 
 T. B. H. Valintine, of Goodwood, niece of his brother's 
 wife. There was great dissimilarity of age between the 
 two, but so perfect were their mutual affection and accord 
 of taste, and so marvellously had Bacon preserved his 
 youthfulness of heart and mind, that the thirty years 
 which separated them seemed to both a negligible quan- 
 tity. Their romantic union was an ideal one, and the 
 months which followed so few, alas ! they proved 
 were of unalloyed and most intense happiness a gleam 
 of brightest sunshine at the end of a life which many 
 clouds had darkened. 
 
 After the simple marriage ceremony, from which the 
 bride drove herself and her husband away in the little 
 Benz motor referred to, a brief honeymoon was spent at 
 Cromer. The week before the wedding Bacon entertained 
 some hundred of his faithful friends of the Guildhall Club 
 to an outing it was the last at his home at Coldash. 
 A merry day it proved, for Bacon fairly outdid himself 
 in the originality of the entertainment he provided. 
 The young men prepared for anything out of the com- 
 mon arrived to find that half their party represented 
 shipwrecked mariners of the Robinson Crusoe variety. 
 Their " desert islands," marked out carefully with 
 shells and sawdust on the grass, were already prepared 
 for them in the field, and when stranded in groups of six 
 on their inhospitable shores, each party found for them- 
 selves there the rough material very rough indeed some 
 of it proved from which they were expected to build 
 a hut, plant a garden, light a fire, and cook a dinner in the 
 shortest possible space of time. All entered into the fun 
 thoroughly, and there was keen competition between the 
 rival islands, and much enthusiasm, which was, however, 
 
 335 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 rather damped when it was discovered that one of the 
 rules of the game was that the cooks should eat the meals 
 that they had elaborated ! Even this, however, was 
 accomplished, and when a chosen bard on each island 
 had sung an ode commemorating their achievements, the 
 other half of the club, arrayed as savages in feathers and 
 war paint, swooped down with cannibalistic yells on the 
 seamen, and a most realistic war, waged chiefly with 
 syringes and garden squirts, repelled by mad charges 
 under open umbrellas, brought proceedings to a close. 
 Bacon this day introduced his friends to his future wife, 
 and they in their turn presented the pair with a huge 
 silver rose-bowl and all heartiest good wishes. 
 
 336 
 
ABOVE A LONDON FOG 
 
 Page 337 
 
XIX 
 THE LAST 
 
 LATE autumn and winter this year brought back to 
 Bacon, as they had for several years past, a return 
 of interest in and a renewal of observations concerning one 
 of his pet subjects of investigation London fog. Per- 
 sonal experience alone would have sufficed to make the 
 matter one of much moment to him, for the state of his 
 lungs rendered him specially sensitive to the influence of 
 fog ; and many choking winter visits to the Metropolis, 
 when he could scarce draw breath, and many long, cold 
 journeys north, when the dark, reeking pall hung heavy 
 over the Black Country, were enough in themselves to 
 draw his special attention to our island's annual scourge. 
 But more than this was the experience of many of his 
 balloon voyages, when, ascending in misty weather, and 
 piercing in a few minutes to brightest sunshine aloft, he 
 had marvelled at the wondrous shallowness of the cloud 
 which was making life wellnigh intolerable below, and 
 gazed spellbound at the matchless beauty of the upper 
 surface of what we are accustomed to consider the em- 
 bodiment of all hideousness. So short a distance, he 
 found, separates the Londoner, wallowing and groaning 
 in midday night, from purest skies and a scene of loveli- 
 ness not to be matched in all the earth. 
 
 Bacon followed up the subject of the Fog Fiend, its 
 causes, its possible remedies and mitigations, until he 
 Y 337 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 became a recognized expert on the subject. He studied 
 its vagaries by day and night from high buildings in the 
 city the Ball of St. Paul's, the roof of the St. Pancras 
 Hotel, and so forth, as well as from the altitude of his 
 balloon. He worked out the past history of London fogs, 
 which goes back in unmistakable record hundreds of 
 years before the very word " fog " was known. He saw 
 that the great cause of offence has always been the 
 domestic grate, and only in part the much-abused factory 
 chimney. He advocated the scheme for manufacturing 
 London's gas-supply at the coal fields of the Midlands, 
 and conveying it over the intervening distance no in- 
 superable engineering difficulty so that the town might 
 be heated and lighted without defiling its skies with coal 
 smoke. Specially he insisted that a good wind service 
 is as essential to a city as a good water service, and that 
 too much cannot be done to ensure strong currents of air 
 through the streets and houses by widening thoroughfares, 
 clearing open spaces, and wiping away enclosed courts 
 and culs-de-sac. 
 
 Most eagerly he followed up the idea, suggested by 
 experiments of Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Douglas Galton, and 
 others, that the unstable equilibrium of a fog might be 
 upset by sudden artificial atmospheric disturbance pro- 
 ducing rain, even as the firing of great guns, in battle or 
 at reviews, is said to break the clouds and change the 
 weather. He was specially anxious at one time to put 
 the project to a practical test - by ascending in a balloon 
 from London in a heavy fog, and firing numbers of his 
 powerful cotton-powder detonators aloft. Many times 
 he laid careful plans for so doing, and made all arrange- 
 ments ; holding himself in readiness at his home to repair 
 at once to London and begin the work as soon as a 
 sufficiently determined fog should warrant proceedings. 
 
 338 
 
CYCLE TRACK, CRYSTAL PALACE GROUNDS. FROM A BALLOON 
 
 LEAFLETS THROWN FROM A BALLOON 
 
 Page 339 
 
The Last 
 
 Is it necessary to say, in this contrary world, that at 
 those times when all was prepared London rejoiced in 
 unseasonably clear skies, and, after the fashion of the 
 watched kettle, a fog steadily refused to make its appear- 
 ance ? 
 
 Later experience convinced Bacon, or nearly convinced 
 him, of the hopelessness of the task. Ascents in fog time 
 showed him that the balloon is to the fog much in the 
 same proportion as the proverbial broom to the Atlantic. 
 There remain, however, many most interesting and valu- 
 able observations concerning the origin and nature of fog, 
 its acoustical properties, and so forth, for which a balloon 
 gives special facilities. It was mainly in the hope of 
 encountering a good " London Particular " that Bacon 
 gratefully accepted the offer extended him of making use 
 of certain balloon ascents, to be carried out over London 
 for advertising purposes, during the last days of 1903 and 
 the first of the following year. 
 
 I cannot find out from my father's notes on these 
 voyages that he obtained the results he desired. I believe 
 the hoped-for fog once more evaded him, but at least he 
 added to his collection of beautiful aerial photographs, 
 as also to his store of amusing balloon experiences. 
 Twice over he demonstrated the facility with which the 
 traveller by sky may make his way, without let or hind- 
 rance, into places which, under ordinary circumstances, 
 he might find the greatest difficulty in entering. On the 
 first occasion the balloon descended, all unwittingly, in 
 the middle of the great gunpowder factory at Waltham 
 Abbey. All Board of Trade regulations disregarding, 
 with matches in their pockets and all manner of forbidden 
 details, they plumped on the grass in the sacred en- 
 closure, and the surprised employes, who could by no 
 means say them nay, hailed their unauthorized appear- 
 
 339 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 ance with great amusement. The following day they 
 took a liberty of another kind. 
 
 Flying westward from London on an unfamiliar track, 
 their voyage ended in the grounds of a private house of 
 more than ordinary pretensions. They had no intention, 
 of course, of intruding on such a spot, but when a balloon 
 flies close to the ground, in a wind, at the close of its 
 voyage, it is not always possible to decide, within a field 
 or two, exactly where it shall fall. The park where their 
 craft alighted was obviously that of no ordinary person, 
 nor were the smart servants who came rushing up. Pre- 
 sently a policeman appeared on the scene, bristling with 
 importance. "Are you aware that you are trespassing ? " 
 "Perfectly," said Bacon, "but, as it happens, I can't 
 help it." 
 
 " Do you know where you are ? Do you know what 
 house this is ? " 
 
 " I haven't the slightest idea." 
 
 " Cumberland Lodge, the residence of His Royal 
 Highness Prince Christian ! " said Robert, expecting the 
 announcement to have terrific effect. But Bacon was 
 not at all abashed. Princess Christian, whom he had 
 had the honour of meeting, had expressed much interest 
 in his aeronautical experiences, and had graciously ac- 
 cepted one of his books and some of his balloon photo- 
 graphs. She herself was at that time from home, but 
 immediately Prince Christian heard of his unceremonious 
 visitors he sent to invite Bacon into the house, where he 
 talked with him some time, and offered him all hospitality 
 and assistance. 
 
 On the last ascent of this series Bacon's young wife 
 already an enthusiastic aeronaut accompanied him on 
 what proved a somewhat interesting flight, for, rising 
 from the East End, they crossed the whole length of 
 
 340 
 
The Last 
 
 London at a height so low that at one moment they 
 apparently only just escaped collision with the dome of St. 
 Paul's, which suddenly loomed up, a huge dark monster, 
 before them ; and later on they held animated conversa- 
 tion with an indignant policeman in Hyde Park. The 
 town being traversed, they shot above the mist into 
 magnificent cloud scenery, and eventually descended 
 in Buckinghamshire. 
 
 During the following spring Bacon's mind was full of 
 a scheme daring and original but which, had he lived, 
 it is certain he would have tried to put into execution. 
 This was nothing more or less than the exploration by 
 balloon of the unknown interior of Arabia. My father 
 was convinced that, rightly employed, a balloon could 
 be made to add vastly to our knowledge concerning in- 
 accessible countries, and that, in this direction, not suf- 
 ficient advantage had been taken of its unique assistance. 
 True there had been Andree's disastrous dash to the Pole, 
 but in his case the venture seemed doomed to failure from 
 the outset, and the circumstances such as afforded no 
 reasonably fair trial. All things wind, climate, country 
 were against him, and yet even then his last recovered 
 message, sent by carrier pigeon, showed that at the end 
 of forty-eight hours, the longest aerial voyage ever made, 
 the balloon was still going strong, and the party in good 
 hope of success. 
 
 Enough had not been made, Bacon claimed, of^the 
 constant current of air, blowing at all times from west to 
 east in the upper atmosphere, to which aeronauts and 
 meteorologists alike unite in testifying. Wise, the great 
 American balloonist, sixty years ago, was so convinced 
 of the existence of this drift, which he estimated at from 
 twenty to forty or even sixty miles an hour, that he 
 offered to trust himself to it, in a suitable balloon, for a 
 
 34i 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 voyage across the Atlantic. Green, in England, was of 
 similar opinion. Hundreds of records made by travellers 
 and scientific men point to the same thing, with, more- 
 over, the additional fact that the nearer the Equator is 
 approached the more regular do the winds become, even 
 such as blow at low levels ; while with respect to the sea- 
 board of Asia due to the great rarefaction of the atmo- 
 sphere over the centre of the Continent powerful and 
 long-lasting south-westerly gales, so unvarying as to be 
 foretold almost to the inside of a week, are a heritage of 
 the country. 
 
 These constant winds, it was contended by Bacon, 
 offer special facilities for balloon exploration of lands lying 
 in tropical and sub-tropical regions, such as the Sahara, 
 Central Asia, and Australia ; but, above all, of that 
 mysterious and fascinating terra incognita, not to be 
 reached apparently by any other means, the centre of 
 Arabia. In this " Happy Arabia " of the ancient geo- 
 graphers we have an unknown land as difficult of access 
 as the Poles, jealously guarded by fanatical Bedouins, 
 circled about by superstitious fears and tales of terror, 
 containing the sand-buried ruins of ancient civilization 
 lost these thousands of years, and described by Sir Henry 
 Rawlinson as the most romantic country in the world. 
 It is a country of saline oases, wild palm groves, of fer- 
 tile spots where are running streams and many springs, 
 of deserts vast and frightful, yet so far from unproduc- 
 tive that their mere red sand after rain becomes covered, 
 so says Mr. Wilfrid S. Blunt, with grass and flowers. 
 Here lies apparently no waste corner of the earth, but a 
 land which under European enterprise might be made 
 to yield the richest harvest, but which, under present 
 conditions, it is absolutely impossible for any European 
 even to attempt to enter. 
 
 342 
 
The Last 
 
 But here, to Bacon's mind, lay an unrivalled oppor- 
 tunity for the enterprising aeronaut. His carefully 
 thought out project was to inflate an exploring balloon 
 on the shores of the Red Sja. This would have to be 
 done on the western side, since on the east lies the sacred 
 province of the Medjar, where even the unrolling of a 
 map is resented by the jealous natives. The passage 
 of the narrow sea, however, would add but a few miles 
 to the aerial journey, which might be commenced even 
 at Aden, or on one of the many islands at the southern 
 end. Study of the map shows that, with the prevailing 
 winds, by the route from Aden the unknown centre 
 could be traversed and the Persian Gulf reached by 
 balloon in nine hundred miles. From a point a little 
 below Mecca a W.S.W. wind would carry an aeronaut 
 across the country in seven hundred miles. A due west 
 wind would add another hundred miles in the latter case. 
 With a north or south wind an important section of 
 Arabia could be passed over in five hundred miles, while 
 from Mascat a yet shorter, but useful, voyage might be 
 carried out. 
 
 To descend in a balloon on Arabian soil would certainly 
 be inadvisable, but once across to the Persian Gulf rescue 
 by boat should not be difficult, provided due provision 
 had been made. Fleets of pilot balloons previously 
 despatched could indicate the route with great exactness, 
 and wireless telegraphy apparatus would be carried aloft 
 by which the aeronauts would keep in constant touch 
 with their friends along the coast. Concerning the power 
 of the balloon, if properly constructed, to keep afloat in 
 air for the long period needed, Bacon had no doubts ; 
 pointing out that the constant sunshine to be absolutely 
 relied upon in this part of the world would replace the 
 vagaries of temperature which waste so much gas in 
 
 343 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 ordinary voyages, while the withdrawal of the sun's rays 
 at night would simply entail a steady subsidence of the 
 balloon to lower altitudes, where the heat radiating from 
 the earth would then maintain it, without waste of ballast, 
 at a safe, if varying, level. 
 
 Bacon's project, which he carefully unfolded this year 
 in the pages of the " Nineteenth Century " and elsewhere, 
 drew much comment at the time, and met with the sup- 
 port of experts familiar with the scene of the proposed 
 exploration, who pronounced his plans as feasible, and 
 assisted him with valuable information and advice. All 
 through his last months Bacon's thoughts and speech 
 were ever running on this theme, which daily grew more 
 attractive to him. Without doubt, had time and oppor- 
 tunity been spared him, he would before long have en- 
 deavoured personally to make the attempt. 
 
 There was but one balloon ascent this summer of 1904, 
 a night voyage from Newbury at the close of a hot 
 August day. The ascent formed part of a well thought 
 out and elaborate scheme, the most ambitious of Bacon's 
 scientific series, as it was also his last, for the testing of 
 sound-signals, and in this case of the power of warning 
 signal-lights. By the ready co-operation of many friends, 
 private and official, Bacon had arranged for a line of 
 helpers stretching right across the south of England, 
 from Bristol to Hampstead Heath. These assistants 
 were gathered in thirteen camps at an average distance 
 of about ten miles apart, all on high ground, and follow- 
 ing as nearly as possible the course of old-time beacons. 
 Dundry Down, seven hundred feet above Bristol, was the 
 first of these stations ; Lansdown, near Kelston, lay be- 
 tween that and Combe Down, Bath. The monument 
 at Cherhill, near Calne, came next ; while a science master 
 from Marlborough College, and an able staff of boys, 
 
 344 
 
The Last 
 
 occupied the neighbouring Martinsell Hill. Inkpen Beacon 
 and Greenham Common, next in order, were manned by 
 Newbury friends ; and the masters and boys at Clays- 
 more School, above Pangbourne, kept watch on their 
 lofty tower. Next came high ground at Sonning ; then, 
 by special permission, a watchman on the Round Tower 
 of Windsor Castle ; next, high ground at Uxbridge ; then 
 Harrow-on-the-Hill ; while Hampstead Heath completed 
 the series. To each of these stations, save the last, 
 were issued two kinds of signal rockets, supplied by 
 Messrs. Brock ; one a sound-signal capable of being 
 heard over a distance of twenty miles, the other a " para- 
 chute " rocket bearing a very brilliant light. Thus 
 each beacon had two means of passing its message on to 
 its neighbour across the country when, at ten o'clock 
 precisely on the appointed night, Bristol started the 
 alarm. At the same time, from Newbury, central station 
 of the line, Bacon's balloon climbed into the air, firing 
 detonating signals of its own at carefully fixed intervals, 
 the while listening to the signals on earth. Each signal 
 station had an elaborate list of questions concerning the 
 seeing and hearing of lights and bombs to fill in, while 
 independent observers all over the south of England 
 were invited to be on the watch for lights and sounds and 
 to record their observations. 
 
 The night proved admirable for the experiment ; all 
 went without a hitch, and the beacons bore their message 
 so satisfactorily that Bacon was convinced that it would 
 be readily possible by their means to convey a warning 
 signal from Bristol to London in five minutes, and not 
 only this, but through all the country intervening, a 
 result which would surpass any effort of modern tele- 
 graphy, with or without wires. Anomalies of sight and 
 hearing proved as remarkable and instructive as ever, 
 
 345 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 bearing out the curious results of previous similar ex- 
 periments. In the balloon, Bacon was accompanied 
 by his wife and daughter, with Mr. Percival Spencer in 
 charge, and, their signalling and observing work finished, 
 they floated dreamily all through the warm summer 
 night over fields and woods, sleeping villages, and shut- 
 tered houses, until the grey dawn broke slowly over the 
 peaceful scene, the sun lifted from the mists of the morn- 
 ing, and the scent of dew rose off the deserted Berkshire 
 downland. With daylight came a freshening of the 
 breeze, and the balloon sped faster, and then, nearing 
 the ground, her trail narrowly escaped impact with an 
 early goods train, snaking along the G.W.R., whose 
 driver whistled shrilly in astonished greeting. Eventu- 
 ally she descended in a grass field at Kidlington, five 
 miles beyond Oxford. It was Sunday, and not a soul had 
 yet risen in the village, so the voyagers, sheltered in their 
 car, turned sideways on the ground, had an hour's sleep 
 before finding their way to a neighbouring farm-house 
 in search of help and much needed food. The farmer and 
 his wife, though astonished, were hospitality personified, 
 and while they completed their toilet for they had 
 yet scarcely risen the balloonists sat on a hen-coop in the 
 farmyard, sipping new milk until a substantial breakfast, 
 to which they did amplest justice, was prepared for them. 
 
 This autumn the British Association, under the presi- 
 dency of Mr. Balfour, met at Cambridge. Bacon was 
 to read a paper on " Upper Air Currents and their 
 Relation to the Far Travel of Sound." In this he sum- 
 marized some of the results of his more recent balloon 
 voyages, and gave instances of the extreme complexity 
 of higher drifts causing the strange acoustic vagaries 
 he had so often experienced. 
 
 It is the pleasant custom at the British Association 
 
 346 
 
THE HOT-AIR BALLOON ALOFT 
 
 See pa^e 329 
 
 THE LAST VOYAGE. DESCENT AT KIDLINGTON 
 
 Page 346 
 
The Last 
 
 Meetings for the residents of the neighbourhood to offer 
 hospitality to the most distinguished of the members, 
 and Bacon and his wife were delighted to find themselves 
 the favoured guests of Canon and Mrs. Pemberton, of 
 Trumpington Hall, his host an old acquaintance of thirty 
 years before. All circumstances combined to make this 
 Bacon's last visit to his beloved University a specially 
 delightful one. It was keenest pleasure to him to show 
 his happy, bright, young bride the scenes of his early 
 joys and sorrows, to introduce her proudly in turn to 
 his old friends. Intellectual and social treats alternated 
 all through the days. The meeting was an unusually 
 brilliant one, and the great minds of all the world had 
 congregated together. His own fame had gone abroad, 
 and scientific friends and acquaintances were flattering 
 and kind. Every hour was enjoyable, and the whole 
 week one of the happiest of his life. 
 
 With the coming of autumn, the busy lecture season 
 began afresh. This winter Bacon had more engagements 
 than ever of the sort that he specially preferred. Of all 
 his audiences of every kind he loved schoolboys best 
 of all, and in addressing them he was ever in his happiest, 
 brightest vein. Masters testified enthusiastically to his 
 success. With the boys themselves he was immensely 
 popular, for not only was his adventurous subject such 
 as appealed particularly to their imaginations, but some 
 subtle sympathy seemed to exist between their young 
 natures and a man who, all through his life, had kept 
 his heart as young and fresh as theirs. Lectures at the 
 great public schools were his especial delight, and he 
 embarked on this season's programme with greater 
 pleasure and zest than ever. 
 
 All through my father's chequered life his indomitable 
 pluck and energy had risen superior to his bodily powers, 
 
 347 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 and now, at the close, it was still this courageous spirit, 
 this unconquered will, this utter absence of thought of 
 self, which blinded others, even those nearest and 
 dearest to him, to the change which was too surely taking 
 place in him. Not until his last brief illness was the truth 
 revealed, and then, indeed, doctors, nurses, and friends 
 alike stood amazed at the marvellous power of the daunt- 
 less mind over the frail body. The dread disease of the 
 lungs, for thirty years kept in abeyance and forgotten, 
 had, with declining years, reasserted itself, and all un- 
 suspected by others, and, it would seem, even by himself, 
 had been following its fell course for months, perhaps 
 for years past. Yet never for a moment in all this period 
 of decreasing power had Bacon relaxed his wonderful 
 energy, nor had his unfailing spirits flagged ; and this it 
 was which, at the time, hid those small tokens of failing 
 strength which, looking backwards when all was over, 
 became clear enough. How long and splendid had been 
 the fight may never be known, but now at length the 
 end was at hand. 
 
 On the 1 6th of November was born a daughter of his 
 happy second marriage Bacon's fourth child. The date 
 of her birth, as it happened, was the anniversary of that 
 never-to-be-forgotten meteor hunt above the clouds of 
 five years before ; and largely on this account, as also 
 after parent and grandparent, the name of Stella Mary 
 was bestowed upon her. Mother and child did well, and 
 Bacon continued his busy life of writing, travelling, and 
 lecturing as before. His last lecture was on the I4th of 
 December, at the famous Birkbeck Institute in London. 
 That night the delighted audience could trace no sign of 
 weakness in the beautiful voice, nor of diminishing power 
 in the spirit and enthusiasm with which he spoke, racily 
 describing his aerial adventures, and, as ever, bearing 
 
 348 
 
The Last 
 
 all away with him in his infectious ardour for the work 
 he had made his own. This fact is testified to in the 
 following letter from an unknown correspondent, received 
 a couple of days later, and which, under the peculiar and 
 pathetic circumstances, may here be quoted : 
 
 " LONDON, 
 
 " December i$th, 1904. 
 " SIR, 
 
 " Votes of thanks are not the order of the day at the 
 Birkbeck College, so I can only take this means of saying 
 how greatly I appreciated your lecture yesterday even- 
 ing. You contrived to give in a popular way a great deal 
 of information, your descriptions of certain voyages were 
 most realistic, and your lantern slides were delightful, 
 especially those of the clouds from above. 
 
 " I am not looking for a reply, and I am therefore 
 giving no address. Again thanking you for your lecture, 
 and hoping that you may be able to do the things you 
 have projected in the not far distant future, 
 " I am, yours sincerely 
 
 " HUBERT A. GILL." 
 
 The morning after this lecture, while still in town, 
 the news reached my father of the terribly sudden 
 death, from heart seizure, of his third brother, the Rev. 
 H. V. Bacon, then Rector of East Tisted, Hants. The 
 tidings of this wholly unexpected loss proved a very 
 severe shock, further lowering already exhausted vitality. 
 The December weather at the time was foggy and treach- 
 erous. Arrived at home that night he complained of 
 chill, and retired to bed, from which he never rose again. 
 For nine days only he lay in patient suffering. Almost 
 from the first, when medical examination revealed the 
 
 349 
 
The Record of an Aeronaut 
 
 extent of his malady, it was realized that there was little 
 hope ; but he himself, ever bright and cheerful, with no 
 word of complaint, thinking only of those around him, 
 fought out his brave battle for life, for the sake of those 
 he was leaving, to the bitter finish, and on Christmas 
 night, the struggle over, breathed his last, brave and 
 patient to the end. 
 
 Then, from high and low, rich and poor, far and wide, 
 poured in the testimony of those who loved and revered 
 him : scientists who deplored his loss to knowledge, 
 famous men who eulogized his work and aims, editors 
 and publishers who lamented the close of his bright 
 literary career, people who had never known him, but to 
 whom, by his writings and doings, he was familiar and 
 beloved ; others who, having merely heard him speak 
 or lecture, had come under the spell of his magnetic 
 personality, humble friends whom he had loved as dearly 
 as those of his own station, friends to whom he had 
 stretched out a helping hand in need, friends to whom he 
 had opened his brotherly sympathy in time of sorrow, 
 friends to whom he had spoken a word of advice in 
 season ; lighthouse friends on the Maplin, friends of his 
 aerial voyages, of his eclipse expeditions, of his lecture 
 experiences : all alike uniting in their sorrow, and in their 
 testimony of truest affection, admiration, and regard. 
 
 Four days later his body was laid to rest beside the 
 beautiful little church at Swallowfield, which but fifteen 
 months before had been the scene of his marriage. Six 
 chosen friends carried him, by his own desire, once ex- 
 pressed, to the grave two well-loved members of his 
 Guildhall Club (one the Bee Expert of bygone days), one 
 of the old Coldash Ringing Team, his favourite Coast- 
 guard, the aeronaut who had shared with him his greatest 
 peril, and his own faithful servant. Thus were drawn 
 
The Last 
 
 together at the last, as it were, the threads of a lifetime. 
 The brave eldest brother, Maunsell, who but ten days 
 before had buried one younger brother, now read the 
 burial service over another, while around the grave stood 
 Bacon's nearest and dearest, his best-loved friends, and 
 those who loved him longest and most truly. 
 
 Bacon was but in his fifty-ninth year, in the midst of 
 his new-found happiness, in the height of his labour aud 
 ambition. He might have been spared for many years 
 more of valuable work in the field of scientific research 
 and of domestic joy at home. And yet it cannot be 
 doubted that he died as he would have wished in 
 harness, with his mental strength yet undiminished, his 
 powers of usefulness yet unimpaired, his heart yet fresh 
 and young. In the recollection of the outside world his 
 memory will stand as the man of science, the original 
 thinker, the fearless aeronaut ; in the minds of those who 
 met him personally, for how much more ! To those who 
 knew and loved him best, it will ever seem that some- 
 thing of the vastness, the purity, the serenity of the 
 realms he so delighted in, had entered into his own soul ; 
 and that in the wideness of his outlook, the boundlessness 
 of his sympathies, the utter absence of all smallness of 
 thought, word, or deed, he came in tune with those mighty, 
 all beneficent forces whose nature he sought to trace. 
 
 Only a few weeks before his death he had been asked 
 to write as a message to some of his schoolboy friends 
 his favourite text or motto. He chose a text, the same 
 which now is on the plain granite cross marking his last 
 resting-place : 
 
 " THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD." 
 
 351 
 
INDEX 
 
 Academicians, anecdotes of, 18 
 Acoustic experiments, 215, 217. 
 
 220, 231, 234, 242, 244, 250, 274, 
 
 290, 292, 297, 331, 344 
 Adams, Professor, in 
 Aeronautical Society, 287, 330 
 Airy, Sir G. B., 103 
 Aldersgate Station, 288 
 Alexander, P. Y., 282, 330 
 America, visit to, 270 
 Andree, 72, 341 
 Animatograph for Eclipse work, 
 
 204, 207, 210, 212, 214, 271, 277 
 Arabia, exploring by balloon, 341, 
 
 342, 343 
 
 Ashdown Coursing, 53 
 Astronomical Association, British, 
 
 195, 202, 270 
 Astronomical Society, Royal, 167, 
 
 287 
 Astronomical work, 167, 199, 204, 
 
 207, 210, 254, 276 
 Atlantic, crossing by balloon, 342 
 
 Bacon, origin of name, 1 1 
 Bacon, Arthur, 182, 183 
 
 Captain, R.N., 301 
 
 Francis, 25, 80, 124 
 
 Francis, Lord Verulam, 12 
 
 Harry V., 25, 78, 349 
 
 John, R.A., 14, 18, 20, 38 
 
 John, younger, sculptor, 20 
 
 Bacon, John, Rev., 21, 23, 38, 72, 
 75, 84, 104, 109 
 
 Judge, 301 
 
 Mary, 22, 24 
 
 Maunsell, J., 25, 78, 105, 117, 
 123, 129, 335, 35i 
 
 Thomas, 13 
 
 Thomas, Rev., 21 
 
 Bacon, John Mackenzie, parents, 
 22 ; birth, 25 ; education, 78, 
 80, 85, 89, 91 ; at Cambridge, 
 91, 96, 103, 104 ; takes degree, 
 105 ; ordained, 108 ; marries, 
 109; children born, 118, 121, 
 131, 348 ; illness, 118 ; goes to 
 Coldash, 124 ; first balloon 
 ascent, 1 50 ; gives up clerical 
 work, 173 ; loses wife, 189 ; 
 goes to Norway, 196 ; to 
 India, 202 ; commences scienti- 
 fic ballooning, 215 (see balloon 
 ascents, acoustic experiments, 
 etc.) ; visits Maplin, 235 ; begins 
 lecturing, 240 ; literary work, 
 109, 240, 284, 326 ; visits 
 America, 270 ; experiments 
 with hot-air balloon, 301, 327 ; 
 marries again, 335 ; illness, 
 348 ; death, 350 
 
 Baden Powell, Major, 329 
 
 Balfour, Right Hon. A. J., 109, 
 no, 113, 188, 325, 346 
 
 Balfour, Professor F. M., 109, 
 
 Ball, Sir Robert S., 68, 196, 198, 
 219, 241 
 
 353 
 
Index 
 
 Balloon ascents, Bacon's, 150, 
 194, 215, 221, 223, 227, 229, 
 231, 242, 245, 251, 254, 278, 281, 
 282, 293, 294, 295, 302, 306, 317, 
 330, 332, 339, 344 
 
 Balloon ascent at Cambridge, 
 102 
 
 Balloon, exploration by, 341 
 
 hot-air, military, 301, 326 
 
 Nassau, 72 
 
 in thunderstorm, 279 
 
 versus cycle,. 302, 306, 332 
 
 in warfare, 301, 306, 326 
 Banks, Thomas, 19 
 
 Barnard, Professor, 276, 277, 
 
 278 
 
 Barrow, opening of the, 1 74 
 Barry, James, 19 
 Beacon lights, 344, 345 
 Bee culture, 141 
 Belgium, visit to, 193 
 Bell ringing, 83, 89, 95, 96, 138, 
 
 140 
 
 Benares, 205 
 Beresford Hope, 109, 118 
 Beynon, T. C., 10 
 Birkbeck Institute, 348 
 Blanchard, 73 
 Blunt, Wilfrid S., 342 
 Bombarding London, 242, 243, 
 
 293, 33i 
 
 Books, Bacon's, 109, 284, 326 
 Box, 77 
 
 Boys, Professor C. V., 330 
 British Association, Bradford, 281 
 
 Bristol, 227, 229 
 
 Cambridge, 346 
 
 Dover, 253 
 
 Brown, Miss E., 196 
 Browne, Harold, Bishop, 108 
 Browne, Captain, 237 
 Bruce, Eric S., 330 
 Bucknell, Leslie, 307 
 Butler, Frank, 307 
 Buxar, 203, 205, 206 
 
 " By Land and Sky," 284 
 
 Caffyn, 77 
 
 Cambridge, 91, no, 187, 346 
 
 Canton, W., 284 
 
 Cave at Coldash, 178, 181 
 
 Cayley, Professor, in 
 
 Cecil, Lords Arthur and Lionel, 
 
 109 
 
 Chanute, O., 330 
 Christian, Prince and Princess, 
 
 340 
 
 Christie, Sir W. H. M., no 
 Church, Dean, 182 
 Clarke, 77 
 
 Claybury Asylum, 293 
 Claysmore School, 345 
 Clerical Club, 169, 170 
 Clerical experiences, 31, 115, 116 
 Clerical work, 108, 114, 128, 134, 
 
 170, 173 
 
 Clifford, W. K., in, 167 
 Clouds, above the, 246, 259, 296, 
 
 337 
 
 Club, Coldash, 147 
 Club, Newbury Guildhall, 190, 
 
 210, 214, 215, 256, 258, 291, 328, 
 
 335. 350 
 Cody, 330 
 Coldash, 124, 126, 136, 174, 328, 
 
 335 
 
 Common, Dr., 196 
 Compo, Dr., 30 
 Cosway, Richard, 18 
 Cottage shows, 128, 136, 174 
 Coxwell, Henry, 151, 218 
 Craig, Rev., 100 
 Cricket at Hungerford, 76 
 Cricket from aloft, 159 
 Crimean War, 57, 62, 66 
 Crommelin, A. C. D., 196 
 Crotch, G. R., 112 
 Curse of Conventionalism," 170 
 
 354 
 
Index 
 
 D 
 
 D'Aguilar, Baron, 22 
 Dale, Captain, 151, 165, 194 
 Darwin, Professor G. H., no 
 Descents, rough, 163, 222, 226, 
 
 267, 284 
 Disraeli, 22 
 Dixon, G., 10 
 Dogger Bank, 324 
 " Dominion of the Air," 326 
 Dotheboys Hall, 87 
 Douglas, Lord Francis, 8 1, 91, 295 
 Douglas, Lieut. Sholto, 310 
 Douglas, Isle of Man, 312 
 Downing, Dr. A. M. W., 68, 196 
 Dundas, Admiral, 57 
 Dust in the atmosphere, 287 
 
 E 
 Earth currents, experiments, 180, 
 
 182 
 
 Echo, " lagging " of the, 244 
 Echo at Woodstock, 250 
 Eclipse, American, 270 
 
 Indian, 203 
 
 Norwegian, 195 
 Education of children, 149 
 Ellacombe, Rev. H. T., 83, 84, 
 
 89, 96 
 
 Ewing, Colonel, of Stroquhon, 323 
 Eyre, Henry, 154, 159 
 
 F 
 
 Parish, Professor, 115, 220 
 Fawcett, Professor H., in 
 Field, Rev., 116 
 Fire at Wymondham, 101 
 Firework making, 144 
 Flaxman, 19 
 Fog, 236, 337 
 Footprints, mysterious, 60 
 Forster, E. J., 10, 190,197,211,272 
 Frederick >n, Lord Bishop of, 21 
 Fremantle, Admiral, 278, 281, 285, 
 
 307 
 Fuseli, 19 
 
 Galton, Sir Douglas, 338 
 
 Gay Lussac, 218 
 
 George the Third, King, 15, 16, 17, 
 
 18 
 
 Ghost stories, 31, 52, 97 
 Glaisher, James, 218 
 " Globe " newspaper, 269, 288 
 Grant Allen, 241 
 Green, Charles, 72, 218, 252, 342 
 Gregory, Dean, 234 
 Gunpowder factory, descent in, 
 
 339 
 
 H 
 
 Hale, Professor, 276 
 
 Harston, 108 
 
 Hastings, descent at, 225 
 
 Headlam, Rev. A., 8$, 87, 89 
 
 Herschel, Sir John, 234 
 
 Hollond, Robert, 72 
 
 Hot-air military balloon, 301, 326 
 
 Huggins, Sir William, 219, 324 
 
 Hughes, Tom, 48 
 
 Huxley, Professor, 113, 166 
 
 Illness aloft, 247 
 India, visit to, 203 
 Irish Sea, crossing, 308 
 
 Jackson, George, 96 
 
 " Jacqueminot, General," 333 
 
 Jubilee, Diamond, 203 
 
 K 
 
 Kaufmann, Angelica, 19 
 Keble, 21 
 Kelvin, Lord, 219 
 Kingsley, Charles, 38, 54, in, 128 
 Kingsley, Maurice, 39, 110 
 Kirkpatrick, A. F., 1 10 
 Kite competition at Worthing, 
 330 
 
 355 
 
Index 
 
 Kite flying, 79, 80, 287 
 Knight, Stephen, 142, 350 
 
 Lachlan, Dr, R. 10, 221, 224 
 Lambourn Woodlands, 23, 27, 38, 
 
 57, 74 
 
 Langley, Professor, 276 
 Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 19 
 Leatherhead, accident at, 304 
 Lecturing, 173, 240, 270, 286, 326, 
 
 347, 348 
 Leonid meteors, balloon voyage, 
 
 254 
 
 " Levitation," 71 
 Lightfoot, Bishop, 94, 1 1 1 
 Littlecote Hall, 69 
 Lodge, Sir Oliver, 338 
 London, crossing by balloon, 159, 
 
 221, 293, 295, 340 
 London by night, 183, 184, 294, 
 
 300 
 Lousada, Mary, 22 
 
 M 
 
 Mackenzie, Sir James, 25 
 Maidstone, descent at, 232 
 Man, Isle of, 312, 314, 318 
 Maplin Lighthouse, 235, 238 
 Martin, Sir George, 53 
 Maskelyne, A., 272 
 Maskelyne, J. N., 192, 203, 219, 
 
 251, 301, 326 
 Maskelyne, Nevil, 203, 204, 212, 
 
 219, 234, 251, 271, 272, 277, 281, 
 
 326 
 
 Maunder, E. W., 196, 203 
 Maunder, Mrs. 196 
 Maxim, Sir Hiram, 330 
 Medley, Bishop, 21 
 Meyrick, Rev. E., 55, 78 
 Military balloons, 301, 306, 326 
 Military balloon race, 302, 306, 
 
 332 
 
 Milman, Bishop, 46 
 
 Monck Mason, 72 
 
 Morley, Arnold, no 
 
 Morley, John, 81 
 
 " Morning Post," 312, 324 
 
 Motoring, 250, 335 
 
 Myers, Rev. C. J., 103, 104, 109 
 
 Myers, Fred, 103,118 
 
 Myers, Gertrude, 104 
 
 Mynn, Alfred, 76 
 
 N 
 
 Nassau, balloon voyage, 72 
 
 Neath, descent at, 268 
 
 Nelson, Hon. and Rev. J. H, 134, 
 
 145, 190 
 
 Nelson, J. E., 190 
 Newbury, 124, 173, 190, 215, 251, 
 
 256, 278, 344 
 New York, 273 
 Niagara, 278 
 Night balloon ascents, 231, 257, 
 
 294, 330, 344 
 Nollekens, 19 
 Norfolk Broads, experiments on, 
 
 292 
 
 North Stoke, 1 24 
 Norway Eclipse, 195 
 
 Oundle, descent at, 299 
 Ouseley, Sir Frederick, 78 
 Owen, Professor, 60 
 
 Paget, Sir George, 119 
 Palmer, Professor E. H., 1 14 
 Paraboloid " ear," 220, 291 
 Parabolic sounding-board, 115, 
 
 220 
 
 Pemberton, Canon, 347 
 Ploughing match, 141 
 
 356 
 
Ind 
 
 ex 
 
 Popham, F. L., 71 
 
 Preaching, 135, 173 
 
 Prince of Wales, 324 
 
 Printing, 137 
 
 Pritchett, Rev. W. H., 80, 82, 295 
 
 Proctor, R. A., 121, 241 
 
 Queen Victoria's funeral, 289 
 
 R 
 
 Race, balloon v. cycle, 302, 306, 
 
 332 
 
 Ramsay, Professor, 219, 229 
 Rawlinson, Sir H., 342 
 Rayleigh, Lord, 219 
 "Renard," H.M.S., 310, 312, 316, 
 
 3i8, 321 
 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 14, 1 8 
 Ripping valve, 255 
 Ritchey, Professor, 276 
 Robin Hood, 176 
 Rolls, Hon. C. S., 307 
 Royal Society, 324 
 Russell, R.A., 19 
 Russell, Sir W. H., 62 
 
 Sadler, 73, 309 
 
 St. Helier, Lord, 192 
 
 St. Helier, Lady, 22, 192 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, experiments 
 
 in, 181, 234, 300, 338 
 Schulenburg, Count von, 330 
 Scientific balloon ascents, 215, 
 
 2l8, 221, 223, 227, 229, 231, 242, 
 245, 251, 254, 278, 28l, 282, 293, 
 
 294. 307, 33, 344 
 Scilly Isles, 241, 287 
 Sea-bottom, visibility of, 307, 320 
 Sea Reaeh, descent at, 331 
 Sedgwick, Adam, no 
 
 Shaw, 134, 135, 170, 215 
 Simpson, Thomas, 243 
 Snowstorm, great, 57, 131 
 Society of Arts, 14, 241, 287 
 Sound experiments, see Acoustic 
 Sounds, hearing of distant, 290, 
 
 297, 33i 
 Spencer, Percival, 195, 221, 225, 
 
 245, 297, 305, 310, 346 
 Spencer, Stanley, 221, 256, 350 
 Stanford, Professor C. V., no 
 Steering trials, 319 
 Stokes, Professor G. G., ill 
 Stonehenge, 187 
 Storm, balloon in, 280, 282 
 Swallowfield, 335, 350 
 Swinbourne, 232 
 
 Tees, river, 86 
 Tennyson, Hallam, in 
 Tent-making, 137 
 Terry, Stephen H., 10 
 Thatcham Church, 216, 231 
 Thomson, Professor J. J., 219 
 Thunderstorm at Woodlands, 76 
 Thunderstorm, balloon in, 280 
 " Times " newspaper, 254, 277 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, 89, 
 
 92,97, 187,271 
 Trinity House, 215, 217, 235 
 Turner, Professor H. H., 219 
 Tyndall, Professor, 217, 237 
 
 Vadso, 198 
 
 Valintine, Captain T. B. H., 335 
 
 Valintine, Stella, 335 
 
 W 
 
 Wadesborough, 273, 274 
 Washington, 274 
 
 357 
 
Index 
 
 Water, travel of sound through, 
 
 292 
 
 Webb, Thomas, 10 
 Welsh, 218 
 West, Benjamin, 19 
 Westbury, Lord, 84 
 Westcott, Bishop, in 
 Whewell, William, 92 
 Whispering gallery, St. Paul's, 234 
 Whitefield, 20 
 White Horse, scouring of the, 48, 
 
 49 
 
 Whorlton-on-Tees, 85 
 Wilberforce, Bishop, 41, 47 
 Wild Dayrell, 70 
 
 Winters, hard, 57, 59, 131 
 Wireless telegraphy from balloon, 
 
 251, 281 
 Wise, 252, 341 
 Wood, Sir H. T., 293 
 Woodstock, echo at, 250 
 " World " newspaper, 230 
 Wyllie, C. W., 294 
 Wymondham, 84, 100, 108 
 
 Yates, Colonel H. T. S., 81, 295 
 Yerkes Observatory, 276, 277 
 Young, Professor, 276 
 
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