ABSTRACT
See headnote to No. 84. Written at Lynmouth in August 1812, a period when S. was distributing propaganda, including his prose Declaration of Rights and The Devil’s Walk (No. 83), by all available means. In the fifth of the lectures given by the peripatetic science lecturer Adam Walker at Syon House Academy and at Eton (White i 22–4, 40), S. had received instructions for making the type of hot-air balloon introduced by the Montgolfier brothers in 1782, using a paper bag and a sponge soaked in spirits (A. Walker, A System of Familiar Philosophy (1799) 241). John Moultrie, who entered Eton just after S. had left, records his launching of such balloons, among traditions of his school exploits: oft at eve the fire-balloon, Inflated by his skill, would mount on high
