We descended at the village of Cryston; Robert Kaye, Esq., of Mill Brae, was present, rendering material assistance, and invited us to take refreshment at his house.
In a third trip from Glasgow, in which Mr. Maxwell again accompanied me, Duncan McIntyre was initiated into the enjoyments of ballooning; a few extracts of his own version of the scene will sufficiently bring it within view.
“After having witnessed the ascents made by Mr. H. Coxwell on the 9th and 13th of October, I had no hesitation in making arrangements for a trip with him on the 18th instant.
“Almost immediately on leaving, the aëronaut commenced a most entertaining lecture on aërostation, and described graphically, the beautiful scene which gradually opened out to our view.
“The tortuous winding of the Clutha, appeared like a small rivulet, dotted here and there with Liliputian steamers. Dumbarton with its ship-building yards and ancient Castle-Greenock, in the distance, with its forest of shipping, were all seen to great advantage, although on the same dwarfish scale. On ascending still higher, the country, to my inexperienced eye, assumed a somewhat concave appearance, reminding me of the plains of South America, and for miles there was not apparently an eminence of a foot high; but this deceitful appearance was fully explained by our enterprising captain, who pointed out many places and informed us of their height.
“Near to Garscube bridge, Mr. Maxwell left the car, as we wished to go much higher than we had been, and this time the captain took a variety of observations with his instruments, by which he told me of the degrees of cold, and our height in feet, a few of which I put down in my pocket book; for instance, just before we entered a cloud, though I had not observed it overhead, I was requested to button up my coat, as the thermometer had fallen fourteen degrees, and we were three-quarters of a mile high, and in another minute we should enter a cloud, and there it would be ten degrees colder still. I remember he said we were then more than a mile high.
“Our descent was made in a masterly style about half a mile west of Milngaire. It is worthy of remark that this is the same field in which Mr. Sadler, twenty-nine years ago, made his descent, and still more remarkable, it was the same man who caught the rope of Mr. Sadler’s balloon, who performed a similar service for us.”
After the three ascents already recorded, I made one more in conclusion, and it is no vain exaggeration to assert, that my first season in London, besides my numerous ascents previously as an amateur, did actually comprise a greater number of trips than any three balloonists had made, even in the preceding exhibition year.
1853.
During the summer months I maintained the interest in aërostatics by numerous voyages, and although they did not exceed twenty-two in number, still they furnished fresh experiences, and enabled me to take up more than fifty passengers.