the Knowes in Kelso. He made the first successful hydrogen balloon flight from Scotland to England. 23 November 1785 The Glasgow Mercury newspaper ran adverts the following month announcing Lunardi's intention to 'gratify the curiosity of the public of Glasgow, by ascending in his Grand Air Balloon from a conspicuous place in the city'. The weather was fine at about 14:00 on 23 November 1785 when The Daredevil Aeronaut 'ascended into the atmosphere with majestic grandeur, to the astonishment and admiration of the spectators' from St. Andrew's Square in Glasgow. The two-hour flight covered 110 miles and passed over Hamilton and Lanark before landing at the feet of 'trembling shepherds' in Hawick near the border with England. 5 December 1785 A couple of weeks later, in early December, a local 'character' called Lothian Tam managed to get entangled in the ropes and as the balloon ascended—again from St. Andrew's Square in Glasgow, Tam was lifted 6 metres before being cut loose and falling—with apparently no serious injury. The weather was worse on this flight—which had to end after just 20 minutes, with the Grand Balloon landing in Milton of Campsie—just over 10 miles from Glasgow. His landing, on 5 December 1785, is commemorated by a small plaque in the village. 20 December 1785 However, the next flight on 20 December 1785, was a disaster, though Lunardi survived. Seventy minutes after the ascent from the grounds of Heriot's Hospital in Edinburgh, Lunardi was forced down in the sea. He spent a long time in the North Sea until rescued by a passing fishing boat that docked at North Berwick. The diary of the Rev John Mill from Shetland states: 'A French man called Lunardi fled over the Firth of Forth in a Balloon, and lighted in Ceres parish, not far from Cupar, in Fife; and O! how much are the thoughtless multitude set on these and like foolish vanities to the neglect of the one thing needful. Afterwards, 'tis said, when soaring upwards in the foresaid machine, he was driven by the wind down the Firth of Forth, and tumbled down into the sea near the little Isle of May, where he had perished had not a boat been near who saved him and his machine.' A short time later, Lunardi published An Account of five Aerial Voyages in Scotland (1786), written as a series of letters to his guardian, Gherardo