|
Mail Coach Accident,
Penrith
...
At the Crown Inn at Penrith, Mr. Frederick Sneedorf, a
Danish gentleman, professor of history in the University of
Copenhagen, and a correspondent in this Magazine (see
p.491). On the evening of the 13th, the Manchester
mail-coach arrived at the usual time in Penrith, with four
inside passengers, viz. a lady and three gentlemen, and one
outside passenger, a man. About the first mile-post from
Penrith, the nearside leading horse, by some unaccountable
accident, got the bridle rubbed off its head; and at a time
when all four horses were walking very slowly, and being
rather spirited, made a sudden turn, to come back to
Penrith. The outside passenger and guard, who had both got
off the coach, to ease the horses up the hill, and the
coachman, who was perfectly sober, made every effort to
prevent the horses turning round, but without effect, having
no command of the nearside leader, on account of the bridle
being wanting. The coachman thought that by getting off his
box, he could, with the assistance of the guard and outside
passenger, stop the horses; but all would not do; they set
off at a gallop. Mr. Sneedorff, and another gentleman whose
name is not known, leaped out of the coach. The latter
escaped with a slight scratch on his face; the former, we
are sorry to say, in leaping out (it is supposed) pitched
upon his head, and received a concussion of the brain, of
which he lingered until one o'clock in the morning of the
15th, and then expired. The lady and gentleman who remained
in the coach received no injury; and, it is imagined, had
the other two
|