* * * * *
“You probably have by this time heard and read accounts of the opening of
the railroad, and the fearful accident which occurred at it, for the
papers are full of nothing else. The accident you mention did occur, but
though the unfortunate man who was killed bore Mr. Stephenson’s name, he
was not related to him. [Besides Mr. Huskisson, another man named
Stephenson had about this time been killed on the railroad]. I will tell
you something of the events on the fifteenth, as though you may be
acquainted with the circumstances of poor Mr. Huskisson’s death, none but
an eye-witness of the whole scene can form a conception of it. I told
you that we had had places given to us, and it was the main purpose of
our returning from Birmingham to Manchester to be present at what
promised to be one of the most striking events in the scientific annals
of our country. We started on Wednesday last, to the number of about
eight hundred people, in carriages constructed as I before described to
you. The most intense curiosity and excitement prevailed, and though the
weather was uncertain, enormous masses of densely packed people lined the
road, shouting and waving hats and handkerchiefs as we flew by them.
What with the sight and sound of these cheering multitudes and the
tremendous velocity with which we were borne past them, my spirits rose
to the true champagne height, and I never enjoyed anything so much as the
first hour of our progress. I had been unluckily separated from my
mother in the first distribution of places, but by an exchange of seats
which she was enabled to make she rejoined me, when I was at the height
of my ecstasy, which was considerably damped by finding that she was
frightened to death, and intent upon nothing but devising means of
escaping from a situation which appeared to her to threaten with instant
annihilation herself and all her travelling companions. While I was
chewing the cud of this disappointment, which was rather bitter, as I
expected her to be as delighted as myself with our excursion, a man flew
by us, calling out through a speaking trumpet to stop the engine, for
that somebody in the directors’ car had sustained an injury. We were all
stopped accordingly and presently a hundred voices were heard exclaiming
that Mr. Huskisson was killed. The confusion that ensued is
indescribable; the calling out from carriage to carriage to ascertain the
truth, the contrary reports which were sent back to us, the hundred
questions eagerly uttered at once, and the repeated and urgent demands
for surgical assistance, created a sudden turmoil that was quite
sickening. At last we distinctly ascertained that the unfortunate man’s
thigh was broken.
“From Lady W—, who was in the duke’s carriage, and within three yards of
the spot where the accident happened, I had the following details, the
horror of witnessing which we were spared through our situation behind
the great carriage. The engine had stopped to take in a supply of water,
and several of the gentlemen in the directors’ carriage had jumped out to
look about them. Lord W—, Count Batthyany, Count Matuscenitz, and Mr.
Huskisson among the rest were standing talking in the middle of the road,
when an engine on the other line, which was parading up and down merely
to show its speed, was seen coming down upon them like lightning. The
most active of those in peril sprang back into their seats; Lord W— saved
his life only by rushing behind the duke’s carriage, Count Matuscenitz
had but just leaped into it, with the engine all but touching his heels
as he did so; while poor Mr. Huskisson, less active from the effects of
age and ill health, bewildered too by the frantic cries of ‘Stop the
engine: Clear the track!’ that resounded on all sides, completely lost
his head, looked helplessly to the right and left, and was
instantaneously prostrated by the fatal machine, which dashed down like a
thunderbolt upon him, and passed over his leg, smashing and mangling it
in the most horrible way. (Lady W— said she distinctly heard the
crushing of the bone). So terrible was the effect of the appalling
accident that except that ghastly ‘crushing’ and poor Mrs. Huskisson’s
piercing shriek, not a sound was heard or a word uttered among the
immediate spectators of the catastrophe. Lord W— was the first to raise
the poor sufferer, and calling to his aid his surgical skill, which is
considerable, he tied up the severed artery, and for a time at least,
prevented death by a loss of blood. Mr. Huskisson was then placed in a
carriage with his wife and Lord W—, and the engine having been detached
from the directors’ carriage, conveyed them to Manchester. So great was
the shock produced on the whole party by this event that the Duke of
Wellington declared his intention not to proceed, but to return
immediately to Liverpool. However, upon its being represented to him
that the whole population of Manchester had turned out to witness the
procession, and that a disappointment might give rise to riots and
disturbances, he consented to go on, and gloomily enough the rest of the
journey was accomplished. We had intended returning to Liverpool by the
railroad, but Lady W—, who seized upon me in the midst of the crowd,
persuaded us to accompany her home, which we gladly did. Lord W— did not
return till past ten o’clock, at which hour he brought the intelligence
of Mr. Huskisson’s death. I need not tell you of the sort of whispering
awe which this event threw over our circle; and yet great as was the
horror excited by it, I could not help feeling how evanescent the effect
of it was, after all. The shuddering terror of seeing our
fellow-creature thus struck down by our side, and the breathless
thankfulness for our own preservation, rendered the first evening of our
party at Heaton almost solemn; but the next day the occurrence became a
subject of earnest, it is true, but free discussion; and after that was
alluded to with almost as little apparent feeling as if it had not passed
under our eyes, and within the space of a few hours.”