a flaw in the upper rim of the parachute, in
which Mr. Cocking refused to see justification
for postponement of his enterprise when the
great day was come, when all the world was out
to witness his success, and when his life's dream
at last seemed to be coming true. I do not know
how these things really were; I blame nobody,
and least of all the hero of that misadventure.

The parachute that came down from the
Monument, we saw and heard much of at our
drawing lessons in the studio that was now become
wholly a school of aërostatics. Not seldom
while we drew, our friend was delicately
chipping and carving with a penknife upon little
morsels of wooden ladies and gentlemen, who
were to be more company among the miniature
spectators of his balloon ascent in a miniature
Cremorne. I do not remember what gardens
they were, but— small enough to stand under a
glass shade of moderate proportions— it had
been one of the pleasures of our friend to
produce a lively miniature of the popular spectacle
of a balloon ascent from Cremorne or whatever
gardens, smaller than Vauxhall, were the
Cremorne of thirty years ago. He painted the
tiny walks, modelled the tiny supper-houses,
cut out of wood and painted to the life the
tiny company of the garden, eating and
drinking, walking, talking. I think there were one
or two hundred of daintily cut figures, forming
groups various in life and character; and above
all there was an exquisite model, plank for plank,
of the stage on which the balloon was inflated,
and from which it was to rise. There were the
men at work, there was the aëronaut directing,
there was the half-inflated balloon itself: a silken
miniature into which he had put some real gas,
swaying in the hold of miniature ropes. We
saw the last arrivals of company whittled,
scraped, painted, and provided with places in
these little gardens. After poor Cocking's death
the model was sold (to Mr. Monck Mason— I
think) for a hundred pounds. I am sure that,
on its own merits, it was worth the money.

As the fatal day drew near, while the
parachute was in course of construction at Vauxhall,
and while we heard more about gores than ever
in our lives before or since, the eyes of the
enthusiast were at last gladdened with the sight of
a glorious placard in red and blue, without a hint
of mourning black in its face. Thus it read:

"ROYAL GARDENS, VAUXHALL,
GRAND DAY FETE,
On Monday, the 24th of July, 1837.
Extraordinary Novelty and Combined Attraction!
ASCENT IN THE ROYAL NASSAU BALLOON
BY MR. GREEN,
AND DESCENT IN A NEWLY INVENTED
PARACHUTE
BY MR. COCKING.

"The proprietors of Vauxhall have the
satisfaction to announce that they are enabled to
present to the Public another grand
improvement connected with the Science of
Aërostation; viz. a PARACHUTE of an entirely Novel
Construction, by which a perfectly safe and easy
descent may be made from any height in the
Atmosphere attainable by a Balloon.

"Mr. Cocking, a gentleman of great scientific
acquirements, having, many years since,
witnessed the descent of M. Garnerin (the only one
ever made in England), was forcibly struck with
the danger to "which that gentleman was
exposed on account of some error in the
construction of his machine; and, after several years
spent in numerous experiments, he has
succeeded in discovering the faults in M. Garnerin's
instrument, and also in producing
AN ENTIRELY NEW PARACHUTE,
which is allowed, by all who have seen it, to be
constructed on unerring principles. The form
is that of
AN INVERTED CONE, 107 FEET IN
CIRCUMFERENCE!
which, during the Descent, is quite free from
oscillation; and as it will be in its proper form
previous to the Ascent, it is not liable to the
objection of falling several hundred feet without
expanding, which was the case with the
Parachute of the old form.
MR. COCKING WILL MAKE HIS FIRST DESCENT
ON MONDAY NEXT, JULY 24.

"The great power of the Royal Nassau
Balloon has afforded the means of making an
experiment with the above-named machine, which,
from its great weight, would be impossible with
any other balloon hitherto constructed.

"The plan adopted by M. Garnerin was to
ascend alone and detach the parachute from the
balloon, which, having no person to conduct
it, fell in some very distant part, and was either
lost or destroyed; but Mr. GREEN has
undertaken to ascend in the Nassau Balloon, and to
liberate the parachute himself, a feat never
before attempted by any aëronaut.
THE PARACHUTE WILL BE EXHIBITED
PREVIOUS TO ITS ASCENT."

The admission was half-a-crown, the ascent
was to be at five, and there was to be the usual
Vauxhall entertainment in the evening. I did not
go to the gardens. Living close to them, I
was where the essential thing, the perilous
descent, could be seen in its whole course from a
terrace on the house-top, undisturbed by crowds,
and with nothing whatever to impede the view.
Though influenced like others by long contact
with his tone of perfect confidence, I dare say
I was more nervous about the parachute than
poor Cocking himself that afternoon; certainly
none of his friends could have been in the mood
to hear the Vauxhall comic singer, and the
scraping of the bands. Quietly, then, as one of a
household of his friends, I saw the balloon, with
the parachute attached, go up into the summer
evening air; saw the poor fellow wave his last
adieu to this world; wished that he had not
rashly floated so far and gone so high before he
detached himself; and then saw him descend
in wreck, so instant, that the pulling of the
trigger of a pistol pointed to his brain could not
have seemed to slay him more immediately. The