of copies of letters to and from Brown, transcribed in a neat, though minute, copperplate hand. The blue pages were carefully pencil-lined with a 1-inch margin. On a cursory examination the document appeared to be a typical Victorian letter-book; a collection of copied letters intended to form a running commentary of one’s activities, social or business. This initial belief proved to be erroneous.
Brown had inserted a smaller folio at the front of the document, and had inscribed it: Aeronautica – Correspondence of C. H. Brown. With Explanatory Notes etc. The last pages of the document recorded an extensive index. I concluded that the text was not a letter-book in the proper sense of the word. Clearly Brown had prepared and intended Aeronautica for publication; further reading confirmed this view. The manuscript, however, never made it to print, hindered perhaps in part by the fact that in 1838 Monck Mason had produced a popular work which was known to devotees by its main title, Aeronautica.
Among Brown’s letters there are instances of lengthy passages of time without any entered correspondence being entered. Notable family events such as births and deaths pass without record, but perhaps this was only to be expected in a document that evidenced such a singular focus, aeronautics, and was obviously intended for a particular readership.
It is likely however, that Brown did keep a letter-book: there seems to be no other reasonable explanation as to how he was able to reference such a diverse collection of letters from which to compile his Aeronautica. We can therefore presume he managed this compilation of selected extracts from a missing letter-book.
The correspondence covers the period from 1843 through to 1864. Any initial gaps in the letters recorded may well demonstrate that Brown was not aware that some of the correspondences were to blossom into long-term exchanges; or it may reflect nothing more than a young man’s less that assiduous attention of maintaining his letter-book.
There are also tantalising references to other material that in all likelihood would have helped build a greater understanding of Brown’s aspirations, both for himself and aerostation. He had written a book on ←4 | 5→ballooning and, in his aeronautical correspondence, he makes reference to having submitted this work to the London publishes, William Shorberl. The manuscript was rejected; not necessarily because of any deficiency on Brown’s part as a writer. It was a work which Shorberl read with ‘considerable pleasure’ – but, as was explained, the times were ‘very inauspicious to literary speculations’. There is now no trace of that manuscript. Later, in his letters, Brown makes mention of a number of manuals he had written on the subject of aerostation, some of which were privately published, but these documents too have vanished. All of this correspondence was entered into at a time when the craft of aerostation was beginning to exciting a degree of scientific interest outside of its coterie of enthusiasts.
We have only a few early biographical details of Brown and, in his Aeronautica, he does little to enlighten the reader as to his youth in Leeds. By reference to other sources we can identify his father, Benjamin Brown, a bookkeeper who married Hannah Higgins in St Peter’s Church, Leeds, in April 1823. The couples’ first child, Edwin, was born in June of the following year, with Charles Henry Brown arriving two years later, though apparently undocumented, registration of births not then being required by law, the task falling to the local clergyman – the matter dependent on his diligence.
Undoubtedly Brown received a sound education, a fact shown by his neat handwriting and his competent use of language. His father intended this son should follow a career as a clerk, ideally in a permanent and pensionable position. However, the young Brown was already in the process of building up an extensive library of aeronautical literature as well as a number of illustrations.
Conquest of the air had been demonstrated by the French brothers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. In 1782 they had sent aloft their hot air balloon. The first manned flight followed in 1783. Again it was two pioneer Frenchmen, De Rozier and the Marquis de A’landes, who made that balloon ascent. The title ‘aeronaut’ came to be applied to all such aerial adventurers.
Aerostation was introduced into Britain in September of the following year by an Italian, Vincenzo Lunardi. This novelty elicited a bevy of mixed responses; indifference, ridicule, through the new art was embraced by ←5 | 6→an enthusiastic few. Young Charles Henry Brown was a member of this last group.
Brown senior was passionately opposed to his son’s evident commitment to aerostation. He called upon his friend, William Russum, to help him persuade young Charles to give up his ridiculous idea. Russum, himself a well know aeronaut, had latterly fallen upon hard times and had become disenchanted with the calling. His negative assessment of aerostation’s future did nothing to dissuade the young Brown who declared, ‘I am determined I will be an aeronaut.’ We know little of Brown’s mother’s reaction to her son’s avowed intention to take to the air, though in later correspondence we are told she was curious as to his exploits in Australia.
By 1847 Brown had secured a position as a clerk in the postal services and on 5 September that year he married Eliza Hartley. The first and indirect mention of this lady occurs as late as October 1849, and then merely by a correspondent’s reference to Brown’s ‘good lady’. Nor do Brown’s six children receive any mention. Frederick (1850), Annie (1852), Eugene (1854), Herbert (1857), Vincent (1859) and Miriam (1862) all arrive without comment, and the particulars of Herbert’s infant death (1859) also passes unremarked. But as already suggested, Brown’s Aeronautica was not intended to serve as a domestic narrative.
The material in the correspondence introduces the reader to many aviation enthusiasts and prominent balloonists of the time. The people with whom Brown came to work and corresponded with were men who, like himself, had a vision for the future of manned flight: The Englishman, Henry Tracey Coxwell, the American, John Wise, the Irishman, Doctor Joseph Mac Sweeney and Brown’s early mentor, John Hampton, a Yorkshireman. Brown makes reference to his extensive library of works on aerostation, and he was constantly on the hunt for contemporary and historical material to enable him to expand his collection.
While those who actively practised ballooning proudly identified themselves as aeronauts, they were not a group without their petty rivalries and jealousies. There existed a marked disharmony between those who looked upon their craft as a science and others who viewed their undertaking as an entertainment. Notwithstanding these differences it becomes clear in the correspondence that both parties were mindful of a trinity of ←6 | 7→prerequisites: the need for a good location for their ascents, the prospect of a large and appreciative audience and good press coverage. The whole summed up as ‘place, population and press’. And there were the elite few who chose to add a fourth requirement, ‘purpose’, to that list.
It is evident that the aeronauts Hampton and Coxwell looked to Brown, as an enthusiast and competent writer, to act as a de facto agent, advancing their interests and editing their promotional material.
Although Brown’s correspondence reveals a great deal of the man himself, and not just his aspirations, we are left to imagine his wife Eliza either as compliant spouse, or an adventurous companion. Brown does record that Eliza ascended with him on a number of occasions. He also reveals himself as a man of spirit, endowed with a firmness of manner, so as not to be bullied by those he imagined were taking advantage of him. The reader discovers that on a number of occasions Brown, believing he had been unfairly dealt with, was prepared to deal with others as roughly as he imagined himself to have been treated.
The letters record two distinct phases in Brown’s aeronautical endeavours: his initiation into the craft in England and his subsequent venture in Australia. In the former he gives a clear indication of his desire to make a solo ascent and, in this regard, is encouraged by Henry Coxwell, and less effusively by John Hampton. Yet, for all his effort in England, Brown effectively became no more than Coxwell’s agent. In fairness to Coxwell he did later recommend Brown for the position of balloonist at the Melbourne Cremorne Pleasure Gardens. This engagement was first
