DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0035
[ 21 ]
MIRACULOUS PRESERVATION.
Near the road leading from Cromford to Wirksworth,
in the county of Derby, is a mine called Godbehere’s
Founder, in which the following remarkable event oc-
curred at the commencement of the year 1797.—Two
miners, named Job Boden, and Anthony Pearson went
into the mine on the morning of the 13th of January,
and while they were at work, Boden at the depth of forty-
four yards, and Pearson at the depth of twenty, the
earth above them, together with a quantity of water,
suddenly rushed in, and filled the mine to the depth of
about fifty-four yards. The other miners immediately
began to draw out the rubbish in search of their lost
companions, and on the third day after, Pearson was
discovered dead, in an upright posture. The miners
would now have discontinued their exertions, as there
seemed little probability of their labour being of any
avail; but being encouraged to proceed, (chiefly by the
influence and persuasions of Charles Hurt, Esq. of
Wirksworth,) they at length discovered Boden, about
three o’clock in the morning of the twentieth; and
though he had not received any kind of nourishment
during the eight days of his confinement, he was still
living, but greatly emaciated. On being taken out, and
treated with proper care, he so far recovered, as to be
able to return to his work in the space of fourteen weeks,
and is now alive and well, having several children, one
of whom was born within a twelvemonth after the acci-
dent.
To render the particulars of this extraordinary escape
more intelligible, it should be observed, that the en-
tranceTo the "mine is by a perpendicular shaft, forty-four
yards deep, from the bottom of which extends a gait, or
drift, (a passage in an horizontal direction,) eight yards
in
MIRACULOUS PRESERVATION.
Near the road leading from Cromford to Wirksworth,
in the county of Derby, is a mine called Godbehere’s
Founder, in which the following remarkable event oc-
curred at the commencement of the year 1797.—Two
miners, named Job Boden, and Anthony Pearson went
into the mine on the morning of the 13th of January,
and while they were at work, Boden at the depth of forty-
four yards, and Pearson at the depth of twenty, the
earth above them, together with a quantity of water,
suddenly rushed in, and filled the mine to the depth of
about fifty-four yards. The other miners immediately
began to draw out the rubbish in search of their lost
companions, and on the third day after, Pearson was
discovered dead, in an upright posture. The miners
would now have discontinued their exertions, as there
seemed little probability of their labour being of any
avail; but being encouraged to proceed, (chiefly by the
influence and persuasions of Charles Hurt, Esq. of
Wirksworth,) they at length discovered Boden, about
three o’clock in the morning of the twentieth; and
though he had not received any kind of nourishment
during the eight days of his confinement, he was still
living, but greatly emaciated. On being taken out, and
treated with proper care, he so far recovered, as to be
able to return to his work in the space of fourteen weeks,
and is now alive and well, having several children, one
of whom was born within a twelvemonth after the acci-
dent.
To render the particulars of this extraordinary escape
more intelligible, it should be observed, that the en-
tranceTo the "mine is by a perpendicular shaft, forty-four
yards deep, from the bottom of which extends a gait, or
drift, (a passage in an horizontal direction,) eight yards
in