178 CONCUSSION. 



highly-prized privilege of seeing the first 

 gentleman in the land sitting at the 

 head of the table, gnawing a bone like 

 a rustic. 



It was not long after this that a 

 most awful and melancholy accident 

 occurred, involving the death of five 

 poor creatures. A detachment of some 

 regiments of infantry had disembarked 

 from Ireland, and had brought with 

 them as much as eight or ten barrels 

 of gunpowder, which were temporarily 

 deposited on Point Beach. I was sitting 

 having my hair cut in a hairdresser's 

 shop at the bottom of the High Street, 

 when a tremendous concussion in the air, 

 that seemed to shake the whole fabric, 

 roused me from my seat, and, with the 

 operation half performed, I rushed from 

 the back of the house to the street, when 

 I saw men and women running in crowds 

 to the supposed scene of some great 

 disaster. Some cried one thing, some 



