Page:Account of the dreadful accident and great loss of lives which occurred at Kirkcaldy, on Sunday the 15th June, 1828.pdf/3

3 the precarious and uncertain tenure of human existence. The principal facts, which have been xiously and industriously collected upon the ot, may be very shortly told.

Being the Communion Sabbath in Kirkcaldy, the parish church, as generally happens on such occasions, was fuller than ordinary throughout the early part of the day; and it being understood that the Rev. Edward Irving, of the Caledonian Chapel, London, the son-in-law of the clergyman and formerly a resident in Kirkcaldy, was to perform the evening service, a great additional crowd, impelled by curiosity or other motives, flocked to hear that celebrated person. The consequence was, that after the doors were opened, and the bell had rung for about ten minutes, every part of the church was filled, and numbers ere standing in the passages; but it was not "crowded to suffocation," as has been erroneously stated. At this moment, however,—that is about two or three minutes before the service was to commence, and close upon six o’clock,—the ole of the north-western range of galleries, the right side of the pulpit, extending to ra more than fifty feet in length, yielded to unusual pressure of the multitude it supported, and fell, with a tremendous crash, upon the  more hapless assemblage underneath. The indication of the catastrophe was given by  Spear’s gallery, which is the centre division he range; and a gentleman who occupied it, just remarked that he felt the gallery sinking, when, instantly, the whole mass was precipitated