Thomas Baldwin's "Balloon Excursion from Chester, on the eighth of September, 1785." Baldwin had earlier been unable to fund by subscription the construction of a balloon (Thébaud-Sorger 47). On this occasion he was assisted by Lunardi, who provided the balloon, prepared it for flight, and was on hand for the ascent from Chester.
The primary subject of this image is Thomas Baldwin's "Balloon Excursion," from Chester to Warrington, which it depicts just 50 minutes after it began, as seen from "a high Field, at the End of Sutton-Causeway" (iv, 29).
Editor’s note: This, the earliest published version of Dorothy Wordsworth’s “Ullswater Excursion,” appeared in 1823 in the fourth edition of her brother’s Guide to the Lakes.
Editor’s Note: The notebook known as DCMS 51 includes, we suppose, the earliest extant version of Dorothy’s “Ullswater Excursion” plus fragments and draft introductions for the Ullswater text published in William’s Guide to the Lakes (1823).
Editor’s note: The following abridgment of Dorothy Wordsworth’s “Excursion up Scawfell Pike” became the earliest version to appear in print when her brother included it in the 1822 third edition of his Guide to the Lakes. William needed fresh material to expand what had previously been a supplementary essay into a stand-alone guidebook.
Editor’s note: The 13-page account of Dorothy Wordsworth’s “Scawfell Excursion” in DCMS 51 features edits in both pen and pencil. Previous editors have assumed that the pencil marks are William Wordsworth’s, noting that many of these changes appeared in the version published in the third edition of his Guide to the Lakes (1823).
