The Flying Mountains

Our current exhibition, Wonder, hosts whimsical categories of unexpected objects, including one on ‘Flights of fancy’. Along with a flying fish, a rabid-looking flying squirrel, and a very surprised owl, certainly one of the fanciest flights in this case is a long fold-out plate called ‘The Flying Mountains’, depicting the ‘first track-bound and wheeled roller coaster in the world’ [1].

The plate appears in Gaudia Poetica (1770) (The Pleasures of Poetry), a book by Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (1731-1771), who, as an admirer of Carl Linnaeus, dedicated his book to our namesake. The Society holds two (of only 10 printed!) copies of this book, both from Linnaeus’s library, with the one on display being the presentation copy for Linnaeus, with a dedication tooled on the front cover. 

It’s safe to say that Frederick Calvert was probably not a nice person and was described as extravagant and amoral by his contemporaries and ridiculed for his lifestyle. Although acquitted in a kidnapping and rape trial, his poor reputation in England forced him to leave for Europe, hoping his past would not follow him.

His travels took him briefly to Sweden, where he ‘heard a demonstration by Linnaeus’ and from then, considered Linnaeus to be ‘one of the most famous scholars in the universe’ [2]. Linnaeus responds that he ‘had not formerly met a rich man with so much wisdom’ [3]. It is early in their correspondence that Baltimore sends manuscript sections of Gaudia Poetica to Linnaeus, which are also held in the Society’s collections. During their brief three-year correspondence, both men heap much praise upon each other, showing that possibly, Baltimore did manage to escape some of his past. 

Baltimore travelled to Russia after leaving Scandinavia. It is there he encountered ‘The Flying Mountains’. This roller coaster was later described by John Glen King (1778) as being installed in the garden at Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar’s Village) by Empress Elizabeth of Russia (1709-1762) so that she could enjoy Russia’s favourite winter pastime of sledging down hills all year round [4]. Along with his travels in Europe, Baltimore also writes about the roller coaster in Gaudia Poetica, describing it as starting from a pavilion, travelling over five artificial mountains, and ending at the Imperial Palace. It was Catherine the Great who Baltimore (presumably) met, and he must have given Linnaeus an account of his time with her, as Linnaeus writes that he ‘has heard much about the generosity of the Russian empress [Catherine II] but nobody has given a livelier picture than Lord Baltimore’ [5]. As Baltimore found pleasure in poetry, Catherine the Great and her guests must have found pleasure in the Flying Mountains, and it was probably fitting to bring them to life in a great fold-out plate in Gaudia Poetica. 

If you would like to see 'The Flying Mountains' and other wonderful objects, Wonder is open Tuesday-Friday, 10am-5pm until 6 March.