Comely Gardens
Note: Some years ago I made this comment: "Comely Gardens do not exist today, or so it seems, so this map only gives a rough estimation of the location. If anybody could be kind enough to provide a more exact location, this advice will be most welcome".
In early 2017 I was kindly contacted by Taras Young who has given me a much more exact location. Many thanks. (My estimate was way out)
COMELY GARDENS: Temporary balloon launch site (FIRST EVER OFFICIAL UK BALLOON FLIGHT)
Location: In the area of Waverley Park NE of Holyrood, in Edinburgh
Period of operation: 7th & 25th, (some say 27th) and 31st August 1784
NOTES: I will make no apologies for this; the best account of the FIRST EVER flight in the UK in a balloon, that I have found so far, was on the inter-web and compiled by J K Gillon and I will reproduce the text in full.
Note: This illustration is taken from J K Gillons article.
JAMES TYTLER and the GRAND EDINBURGH FIRE BALLOON
James “Balloon” Tytler was a spectacular Jack-of-all-trades – surgeon, publisher, composer and poet – but his claim to fame is rooted firmly in the day he made aviation history. The “Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon”, which he invented, created a great deal of excitement in 1784 and ultimately resulted in Britain’s first manned aerial ascent. Tytler was an eccentric and luckless character described by Robert ‘Robbie’ Burns, no less, as an “obscure, tippling though extraordinary body”, and both his epic flight and his other great achievement – the eight years he spent compiling the 10-volume second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica – are both largely overlooked.
He worked as a surgeon and an apothecary, wrote numerous books and articles, published periodicals and a newspaper, invented a printing machine and a process for bleaching linen, and composed songs, poems and tunes for the bagpipes. (My note here: He must have been a nightmare to live with or be a friend of? Obviously a genius). None of these activities made much money – he was paid a pittance of 16/- a week for writing the Encyclopaedia – although a number of them made money for others, (My note again - can so little have changed since in publishing?), and he was outlawed as a debtor at least twice.
The successful flights of the Montgolfier brothers in France, in 1783, fired Tytler with an enthusiasm for ballooning and in June 1784; he exhibited the “Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon” in the uncompleted dome of Robert Adam’s Register House. The ‘Fire Balloon’ was barrel-shaped, 40 feet high and 30 feet in diameter, and powered by heating the air in the balloon with a stove. Weather conditions prevented the first attempt at a flight early in August, (my note: 7th August?), but on August 27, in COMELY GARDENS, an open area north-east of Holyrood in Edinburgh, Tytler tried again. Wearing only a cork jacket for protection, he seated himself in a small wicker packing case tied to the base of the balloon. When the ropes holding the balloon were released it soared to 350 feet, travelled half a mile, and landed in Restalrig village. Tytler found the flight “most agreeable with no giddiness” and he “was amused by looking at the spectators below”.
This first flight was made in front of a small number of people early in the morning, but news of his success ensured that the next appearance of the “Fire Balloon” four days later was a major public event. A large paying audience gathered in COMELY GARDENS, and the slopes of Arthur’s Seat and Calton Hill were crowded with people eager to witness this historic occasion. At 2 pm, the balloon was inflated for half an hour and, with Tytler again in the basket, rose to 100 feet, sailed over the pavilion and descended gradually on the other side. This “leap” was not particularly remarkable, (My note: Hello…I think it was!), but the spectators were delighted. However, all subsequent exhibitions of the “Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon” were disasters. One newspaper considered that enough time had been “trifled away on this misshapen smoke-bag”, and in the excitement of the flamboyant Vincenzo Lunardi’s successful balloon ascents in 1785 the unfortunate James “Balloon” Tytler was forgotten.
TYTLER FLEES TO IRELAND
In 1792, Tytler fled Edinburgh for Ireland, after being arrested for producing anti-government pamphlets, and three years later he emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts.“There, on a stormy night in January 1804, the first British aviator drowned whilst walking home.”
Hmmm! So not exactly the ideal sort of person we should celebrate our aviation heritage with obviously. By the same token can we take a candid look at those people we love to celebrate and examine their life-style and credentials? Let’s look at most of our Kings and Queens - not a pretty picture is it. Or many of our national heroes, for, here again a lot of their personal history is best brushed under the carpet by and large. But people who make history happen are not generally nice friendly neighbours or friends. By comparison to many dear old James “Balloon” Tytler seems a most congenial fellow to pass the time of day with. So, why haven’t we British erected a very big memorial to his memory. We really should feel thoroughly ashamed!
THE VAGARIES OF HISTORY
On another tact, why is it we feel so much more comfortable with attributing the first ever powered flight in the UK to an American, the great self-publicist Samuel F Cody, when he made no such claim? Any detailed research into our early aviation history apparently supports his view that other British aviators certainly achieved powered flight before he did?
History seems to have a wonderful secret ingredient embedded within to distort and fragment the truth soon after any notable event occurs. To swiftly camouflage the facts and leave the remaining fragments open to speculation. Official records can rarely be totally relied upon, but by neccessity I have mainly had to rely upon them. Or should I say mainly relying on others to trawl through these “so called” reliable records and hopefully deduce some truth from them - but where else do you turn to?
Another often fascinating aspect of doing this research is trying to fit some sort of time frame around many discoveries in order to give a sense of historical perspective. For example, when James Tytler launched his ‘Fire Balloon’ the Declaration of Independence establishing the USA had been signed just eight years before and the French Revolution lasting ten years didn’t start until five years later. For me the ‘block-buster’ discovery was that this flight took place before the French Revolution started. As per usual experts argue about when this started, so take your pick, 1787 or 1789 to 1799.
MORE NOTES
In 2009, several years after writing out the report and making the remarks above I discovered another highly creditable account claiming that Tytler did not “invent” his balloon at all, but it was instead a Montgolfier type which he’d managed to procure.
It would also seem very worthwhile to expand on the times when this ‘First Flight in the UK’ occurred, to put into a broader historical context. For example, this happened fairly near to the start of the ‘Industrial Revolution’’. Indeed, it can be argued the ‘Canal Age’ started in 1760, (with the Bridgewater Canal), just 24 years before. Therefore people had been regularly ascending in balloons for well over forty years before the first public railways of limited distance appeared in the UK!
On the 4th February 1784 the first unmanned balloon flight took place in Ireland. The composer Beethoven died in 1773, just eleven years before and the premiere of Mozart’s Sonata in B flat was performed on the 29th April 1784. On June the 7th 1784 Mme Thible became the first woman to ascend in a balloon, in Lyon, France and on June 23rd the first recorded balloon flight in the USA took place, carrying the 13 year old Edward Warren. Perhaps more astonishing when you visit HMS Victory in Portsmouth is the information that the Battle of Trafalgar took place on the 21st October 1805, twenty years after Tytler took to the air. And indeed, the Battle of Waterloo took place on the 18th June 1815, some thirty years later.
Or, to put it another way, it took over a hundred years before the ‘best brains’,(in itself an oxymoron concept?), in the British military realised the potential of the spotting and artillery ranging potential of balloons.
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