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[[handwritten]] Blanchard

[[image: two men in a balloon with double-ended oars, two flags, and two balloons in the distance; ballast is falling down from ballon toward a large crowd of people standing scattered on the roof of a three-story building; nearby roofs have scattered groups of people standing on their roofs also]] 

London Lab [[?]] by R. Wilkinson [[?]] N66 Cornhall 180? 1784

GRAND AEROSTATIC BALLOON
in which M. Blanchard on Sat. Oct. 16th 1784 ascended from the Royal Military Academy at Little Chelsea a fourth Time
into the Atmosphere accompanied by the ingenious M. Sheldon. ___ at Ten Minutes after Twelve, the two gallant adventurers preceded by two small Balloons as Signals after taking leave of their generous Host & a numerous circle of Nobility & Friends arose with the most majestic grandeur & wafted by the prayers & plaudits of upwards of Four Hundred Thousand Spectators in Eighteen Minutes were lost in Æther _____ after a number of astonishing maneuvers & Evolutions the Travelers made a stop at Sunbury [[?]] where for the expediting their Machine the gallant Sheldon (unwillingly)
descended & left his friend to pursue alone his Journey through the tractless void, who after passing over Guildford Farnham &c. about 3 o'clock in the afternoon finding
the day too far spent to cross the Channel to Brest after hovering a considerable Time over Portsmouth the Isle of Wight &c. &c. alighted at Rumsey near Southampton and
amidst universal acclamamations finished by far the most extraordinary Journey ever performed by a sublunary being.