| Citation |
SCGCJ.772.098
27 Oct 1772:22 (361)
London, August 31. By letters from Liverpool we learn, that
on Monday night last, when the Theatre Royal was extremely
crowded, a sudden alarm of fire was spread among the
audience, which, though very ill founded, (the lamps only
having set fire to the oil in the tin pans between the stage
and the orchestra) occasioned such a confusion among the
spectators, that to several the most fatal consequences
ensued; many ladies were thrown into fits, and one died of
the fright. The people in the gallery finding it impossible
to get out at the doors, were seized with a temporary
frenzy, and many of them dropt from thence into the pit, by
which many arms, legs, ribs, &c. were broken, and the
midshipman of a sloop which lately arrived in the harbour,
was trodden to death.
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