lady baring's servant in trying to recover his hat

Cartoon, ink pen (stylic art), "Lady Baring's Servant in trying to recover his hat fortunately for himself precipitated into a pond ", by C.A.S., a satirical comment on railway safety, depicting a man falling from an open carriage in a passing train, down an embankment and into a pond, about 1838 - 1843.

This is one of a series of cartoons satirising the early railways. This image shows a man leaping from a moving train in order to retrieve his lost hat. He is thankfully falling towards a pond, which will soften his landing. Stories of people climbing off trains were not uncommon in the early years of the railways. This was made easier by the fact that many early rail carriages were open top, a style of carriage that can be seen in the image. A similar hat-based story has been linked to the London Underground’s earliest lines. Reportedly, a man left a train travelling on the Underground after losing his hat on the journey. He was found hours later, having wondered lost through the dark tunnel network. The illustration is attributed to ‘C.A.S’. It is possible that C.A.S refers to Charles Alexander Saunders who worked for the Great Western Railway until 1863. The artist and the date of creation remain unknown.