Caricatures of visitors to Vauxhall Royal Gardens The bottom right figure is the scientific man mentioned above

Secondly, the author writes as if present on some of the balloon flights. After the flight on 25th June he notes that the balloonists were “invited by Mr Roche to Sir William Ellis’s and sat down to supper with 11 or 12 invited nobility at one of the most splendid mansions in England – the residence of Lucien Buonaparte [Napoleon's brother] during his stay in England – Denham Court.”

Likewise on 17th July the note says that “Marshall Soult came on the ground to the Balloon start and seemed to be well pleased. Descended 3 miles beyond Kelvedon… were left by our companions de voyage who appropriated our Post Chaise and were obliged to accept an invitation to sleep at the hall the seat of Lord Western who entertained us in the most hospitable manner possible.” Clearly the person who wrote this must have been more than just a junior member of staff.

The occupants of the balloon on this occasion are listed in An essay on aerial navigation, pointing out modes of directing balloons, by Joseph MacSweeny (1844) as “Messrs. Green, Power, Carnegie, Tennyson, Hughes, Gye and Parbury”.

The only identifying mark in the book is that the image of R. Banford is initialled ‘F.G. Aug 27th 1839’. As the account book was donated to the London Museum by a member of the Gye family, the finger of suspicion points to either Frederick Gye himself or, perhaps more likely, his son, Frederick.