AERONAUTS' SANGFROID.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 129, 30 May 1908, Page 15

AERONAUTS' SANGFROID.

DESCEND IN ST. JAMES" PARK AFTEK SCRAPING WHITEHALL ROOFS. Qnite a commotion was caused in St James' Park, London, between five and six o'clock on Thursday afternoon, April 9, by the sudden descent of a huge balloon, which, after closely scAping tire roofs of some of the Government offices in Whitehall, got its trailer in actual contact with the park treee. A heavy mist prevailed, and thick fo? was threatening, when the occupants, the Hon. Mrs. Assheton-Harbord. Sir Alfred Paget, Mr. A. Vincent. Mr. E. Hillhouse. and the Hon. C. S. Rolls, elected to descend in the open space between the lake and the Mall. ihey managed to accomplish this decidedly risky business very skilfully, and were immediately surrounded by an interested crowd. A park-keeper, producing a notebook and pencil in characteristic police-coos table manner, promptly sought information as to the aeronauts' identity, demanding to be Informed "what brought them into that private enclosure." '"Wind and a balloon," was the reply, given with becoming gravity, and the parkkeeper, scratching his head and murmuring somethina about balloons not being mentioned in the park regulations, at length agreed that the aeronauts' explanation was perhaps right, adding that, if it was the wind, he supposed they could not help it.

The balloon, which ascended some two hours previously from Messrs. Shorfs, s,* Battersea. was speedily deSated and packed up. and was then borne away on Ule roof of a cab.