Rudolf Erich Raspe: Gulliver revived, London 1786 (R5)

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MY first visit to England was about the beginning of the present King's reign. I had occasion to go down to Wapping, to see some goods shipped, which I was fending to some friends at Hamburgh: after that business was over, I took the Tower Wharf in my way back. Here I found the sun very powerful, and I was so much fatigued that I stepped into one of the cannon to compose me, where I fell fast asleep. This was about noon; it was the fourth of June: exactly at one o'clock , these cannon were all discharged in memory of the day: they had been all charged that morning, and having no suspicion of my situation, I was shot over the houses on the opposite side of the river, into a farmerʼs yard, between Bermondsey and Deptford, where I fell upon a large hay-cock, without waking, and continued there in a sound sleep till hay became so extravagantly dear (which was about three months after,) that the farmer found it his interest to send his whole stock to market: the cock I was reposing upon was the largest in the yard, containing above five hundred load; they began to cut that first. I waked, (with the voices of the people who had ascended the ladders to begin at the top) and got up, totally ignorant of my situation; in attempting to run away, I fell upon the farmer to whom the hay belonged, and broke his neck, yet received no injury my self! I afterwards found, to my great consolation, that this fellow was a most detestable character, always keeping the produce of his grounds for extravagant markets.

R 5, S. 174-176.

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