Edmund Reid

This sounds similar to Yuri Gagarin’s alleged quote, ‘I see no god up here’, made during his pioneering 1961
space flight. It is purely speculation, but could this have been the origin of Reid’s agnosticism? Having ascended
to the heavens and finding nothing there, did Reid abandon any idea of a Biblical Heaven, or did he have doubts
before then? He had been baptised at St Alphege Church in Canterbury city centre on 4th October 1846, but it is
not clear how seriously he took religion in his youth.
Lythgoe spotted a likely landing site by the railway station and the balloon descended at Shorne in Kent. Reid
‘saw the green grass grow into a wood, houses come up through the earth; people popped up out of holes, and
the earth came up and hit the bottom of the car… when the gas was all gone out of the balloon we all got out,
and then I said to myself ‘I have done it.’’ 16
They packed the deflated balloon into the empty car, loaded it onto a cart and went to the nearest pub for tea.
On the train back to London Bridge, Reid reflected on how much he had enjoyed the experience and thought that
‘if I had been blindfolded in the car, I should not have known that the balloon had started as I felt no motion.’ 17
Reid later wrote of another ascent he made from the Crystal Palace. He decided to amuse the crowds of
children who were in attendance:
I obtained a long piece of string and attached one end to the balloon car and laid the rest over the side
so that it should not be entangled, then I made a small hole in the brim of my straw hat, and when
everything was ready I tied the other end of the string to my hat and put it on my head, let go the
liberating iron, when down went the world with the people in it, and as they were going down, I took
off my hat and shouted ‘Hurrah,’ swinging my hat round and round, then let it drop down.
I heard a general shout of laughter and cries ‘He’s lost his hat.’ When the hat had reached the length of
the string I pulled the hat up and swinging it round again shouted ‘Hurrah,’ and I could hear the people
laughing again at the fun of the thing. 18
As Reid drifted over Chislehurst he shouted down to the residents, ‘You have got the grandest garden that I
have ever passed over.’ Reid explained that by speaking loudly and distinctly it was possible to communicate with
people on the ground from up to half a mile high. Over Hayes Common, Reid performed his hat trick again for a
group of school children, then passed over some fields where he dropped a bottle of water over the side of the
car, seeing it vaporise into a cloud of dust when it hit the ground.
He later dropped some ballast on a strawberry picker who had responded to Reid’s request for some strawberries
by saying, ‘Come down and break your neck.’ Reid eventually landed in a field in Westerham and bought drinks
for the locals who had helped him pack up his balloon. As they entered the Pig and Whistle pub one of the helpers
called out: ‘See what I have brought you, a gentleman from the clouds.’ 19
Reid made another ascent from the Crystal Palace at a police fete with two friends. He had secretly obtained
two bullocks bladders which he filled with gas and sealed with wax before fastening them with two pieces of
string beneath the balloon car. As they took off Reid looked down and saw ‘about seven thousand policemen, their
wives and sweethearts (or someone else’s).’ One of Reid’s friends had bought two pigeons, the first of which was
released when the balloon was about half a mile high and the other at a quarter of a mile above that. They both
fell some way before they were able to open their wings and safely fly off.
Shortly afterwards, the bullocks bladders exploded:
All of a sudden there was a loud report as of a cannon being fired off, when both my friends called
out ‘What’s that: what’s the matter?’ I replied ‘Oh, it’s all right,’ when bang went another, somewhat
louder than the first. That did it. They both looked as if they had been eating Whitstable oysters that
had been crossed in love.
I afterwards explained to them that it was only the two bladders burst owing to the expansion of the
gas, the same as the balloon would burst if the mouth was not left open to allow the expanded gas to
escape.
16 Whitstable Times, 11 January 1913.
17 Ibid.
18 Whitstable Times, 25 January 1913.
19 Ibid.
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