C 158 ]
to five or six every year; a shocking number con- sidered abstractedly, but not so striking when com- pared with the army employed about the Duke of people. We trembled, as our gu'de recounted to us the circumstance of a casualty that occurred about eighteen years ago, on the very spot where we stood, looking at the shaft by which the coal was rising from the lowest to the second level. A party of three or four gentlemen from Manchester were visiting the mine, and on their return from the extremity of the middle level, when one of them, a fine youth of eighteen, in order to sport with the fears of the company, whose imaginations had been powerfully wrought upon by the gloomy cir- cumstances of the place, ran before them to con- ceal himself in some nook, and surprise them as they passed. The company continued their inves- tigations, but presently missing their friend, they called loudly upon him several times, without re- ceiving any answer. Alarmed beyond measure at his silence, they proceeded onwards, when ap- proaching the shaft they heard distinctly a melan- choly moaning from below. They instantly de- scended to the lowest level by means of the bucket, and to their utter horror and grief beheld the la- cerated body of their young friend, who had un-
�� �
