Page:Account of the dreadful accident and great loss of lives which occurred at Kirkcaldy, on Sunday the 15th June, 1828.pdf/15

15 a moderate computation ; and it gives 250 individuals in the part of the gallery which fell. At a low calculation there must have been fully an equal number immediately underneath; so that, at the moment of the catastrophe, probably more than 500 human beings were buried in the ruin and havoc with which the rapacity of a needy or unprincipled contractor, and the unaccountable negligence of the legal conservators of the edifice are alone chargeable. From the appearances presented by the wreck it seems evident that the immediate cause of the accident was the yielding of the longitudinal beam into which the lower extremities of the joists were so slightly inserted ; in consequence of which they slipped out of the sockets, and the whole came down, with the exception of this beam and the front work attached to it, which seems to have instantly after recovered its vertical position. The church was originally calculated to contain 1600, and it is supposed that upwards of 1800 persons were within its walls at the time when the catastrophe took place.

The panic and consternation which prevailed in Kirkcaldy when the lamentable news first spread is indescribable; and the town continued in a state of great agitation throughout the whole of Monday. In the course of that day the Council Chamber was crowded with people claiming hats, shawls, trinkets, bibles, and other articles which had been lost in the tumult; and the Provost with a number of other gentlemen, were indefatigable in their endeavours to satisfy