Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/84

 in the morning this Sarcophagus burst into crackers and guns."

Lieutenant Jones, who published a book on fireworks in 1765, in his preface makes the following remarks:

"I own I cannot help reflecting with some kind of chagrin that whenever we have had occasion for these sort of diversions to be exhibited in England we have almost always had recourse to foreigners to execute them; if this has been owing to the ignorance of our own people on this subject I shall be very happy if it is in my power to correct it; if it is only owing to that prevailing fondness we entertain for everything foreign I know no remedy for that evil but time and experience."

To a certain extent his complaint seems justified; as we have seen, the Aix-la-Chapelle celebrations were conducted by foreigners—Ruggieri and Sarti. Later in the century, Morel Torré, who, as previously mentioned, collaborated with Ruggieri in pyrotechnic displays for Louis XV, and several other pyrotechnists came to this country and conducted displays. At the same time, however, there were undoubtedly many capable pyrotechnists of English nationality, who found scope for their abilities in the exhibitions given in the pleasure gardens of London and the provinces in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

A history of pyrotechny would not be complete without a survey of these popular places of amusement, and we propose in the following chapter to give a brief summary of the better known places of resort.