DICKENS’ ESCAPE IN A RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5951, 23 March 1880, Page 3

DICKENS’ ESCAPE IN A RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

The fearful railway accident on the Tay bridge naturally brings to mind the description left by Charles Dickens of the one at Stapleburst in the summer of 1865 : “ I was'in the : only carriage [he writes} that did not go over into the stream. It was caught upon the turn by some of the ruin of the bridge, and hung suspended and balanced in an apparently impossible manner. Two ladies were my fellow-passengers, an old one and a young one. This is exactly what passed. You may judge from it the precise length of the suspense: Suddenly we were off the ground, and beating the ground as the car of a half-emptied balloon might. The old lady cried out ‘ My God !’ end the young one screamed. I caught hold of them both (the old lady sat opposite and the young one on my left), and said: ‘We can’t help ourselves, but wo can be quiet and composed. Pray don’t erv out.’ The old lady immediately answered: ‘Thank you. Bely upon me. Upon my soul I will be quiet.’ We were then ail tilted down together in a corner of the carriage, and stopped. I said to them thereupon: ‘ Yon may be sure nothing worse can happen. Our danger must be over. Will you remain here without stirring while I get out of the window F * They both answered, quite collectively,‘Yes,’and I got out without the least notion what had happened. Fortunately I got out with great caution and stood upon the step. Looking down I saw the bridge gone, and nothing below me but the line of rail. Some people in the twoother compartments were madly, trying to plunge out at window, and had no idea that there was an open swampy field fifteen feet down below them, and nothing else! The two guards (one with his face out) were running up and down on the down side of the bridge (which was not torn up) quite wildly. I called out to them: ‘ Look at me. Do stop an instant and look at me, and tell mo whether yon don’t know me.’ One of them answered: ‘We know you very well, Mr Dickens.’ * Then,’ said I, ‘my good fellow, for God’s sake give me your key, and send one of those labourers here, and I’ll empty this carriage.’ We did it quite safely, by means of a plank or two, and when it was done I saw all the rest of the train, exoept the two baggage vans, down in the stream. I got into the carriage again for my brandy flask, took off my travelling hat for a basin, climbed down the brickwork, and filled my hat with water

“ Suddenly I came upon a staggering man covered with blood (I think he must have been flung clean out of his carriage), with such a frightful cut across his skull that I couldn't bear to look at him. I poured some water over his face and gave him some to drink, then gave him some brandy, and laid him down on the grass, and he said, ‘ I am gone,’ and died afterwards. Then I stumbled over a lady lying on her back against a little pollard tree, with the blood streaming over her face (which was lead colour) in a number of distinct little streams from the head. I asked her if she could swallow a little brandy, and she just nodded, and I gave her some and left her for somebody else. The next time I passed her she was dead. Then a man, examined at the inquest yesterday (who evidently had not the least remembrance of what really passed), came running up to me and implored me to help him find his wife, who was afterwards found dead. No imagination can conceive the ruin of the carriages, or tho extraordinary weight!, tinder whioh tbo people were lying, or the complications into which they were twisted up among iron and wood and mud and water.”