Sig. L-n-rd-'s grand triumphal entry into Tottenham Court Road taken on the spot May 13 1785 (BM 1868,0808.5433)

A crowd surrounds Lunardi who is carried on the shoulders of a group of men: he waves his hat and smiles. On the extreme left a portion of his balloon is visible, obscuring the 'Adam and Eve' public house, indicated by its projecting sign of Adam and Eve with the apple, inscribed 'W. Shaw'. A tattered banner waves. A ragged chimney-sweep (?), holding a small boy before him, rides an ass. In the foreground are a milk-woman with a pail, a butcher, and a stout man holding up a courtesan to see Lunardi. Beneath the design is etched:

'An adventerous stripling so sweet Ovid Sings
Had the boldness to Soar once on two mighty Wings.
Unguided by Judgment and wandring too high
He met his Just fate and was plungd from the Sky
See first Voyage pag. 65.'
[A quotation from 'An Epistle to Sig. Vincenzo Lunardi' printed in his 'Account of the first Aerial Voyage in England', 1784. It continues:
'And all that the world from this tale have been able
To learn, was, to give false Ambition a fable. -
But from flights such as yours we've reason to hope
Philosophy one Day may gain wider scope, . . .] 13 May 1785

Etching