CTC Gazette, Vol 1899, No 7
Articles in this issue
- Reviews the first Congress of the International League of Touring Associations at the Hotel Cecil, announces Friday 11th August as the revised date for the Majority Commemorative Dinner and Tour at Harrogate, reports the Denbighshire Lights Bye-law disallowed by Order in Council (Charles S. Murdoch, Home Office), and notes canvasser Septimus Smith's death and membership standing at 55,136.
- Chief Consular vacancies for Burma, Austria-Hungary and King's County with nominations including Dr. R. von Stern; the new Touring Bureau and Library; sales details for the Club Road Books, Companion to the Road Book, British and Irish Handbook and Continental Road Book; Belgian Cycle Passport deposit rules, Thomas Cook & Son tour discounts, and new District Associations for Birmingham and Warwickshire, Lancashire and Cheshire, Leicestershire, Lothians and Northumberland and Durham.
- Lord Advocate A. Graham Murray announces a committee of Kendall Burnett, O. H. Beatty, Professor Boys and J. K. Starley to raise a testimonial marking Secretary E. R. Shipton's service in the Club's 21st year, subscriptions capped at 2s. 6d. each.
- Minutes of the 3rd June 1899 Council meeting at the Hotel Cecil, chaired by W. Kendall Burnett, including Honorary Life Membership nominations for T. H. Holding and Rev. N. F. Duncan and formation of the Londonderry and Donegal District Association; appended Interim Reports of the Rights and Privileges Committee (the Ram Hotel, Newark, trade-mark case), the Foreign and Colonial Touring Arrangements Committee (reciprocity terms with the League of American Wheelmen) and the Map and Road Book Committee (interviews with Bartholomew, Johnston and Gall & Inglis over a new cycling map).
- Reports and July run schedules from Antrim and Down (Downpatrick ferry tariff), Lancashire and Cheshire (Preston's new Association, Eccles's cycle-carrying railway van trial), Liverpool Section, Leicestershire, Lothians (Midlothian lights bye-law deputation), Northumberland and Durham (Lord Scarbrough granting access to Lumley Castle), Notts, and the inaugural Warwickshire and Birmingham District Association meeting at Stonebridge.
- Revised arrangements for the 21st-anniversary dinner in a marquee at Harrogate on 11th August (5s. tickets, no evening dress), followed by A. W. Rumney's detailed day-by-day itinerary for the commemorative tour through Wensleydale and the Lake District (Keswick, Buttermere, Ullswater) by numbered Road Book routes, limited to 100 members.
- Reviews A. W. Rumney's own "Cyclists' Guide to the English Lake District" (assessed by an outside critic for accuracy of distances and strip maps) and Stephen Gwynn's "Highways and Byways in Donegal and Antrim", illustrated by Hugh Thomson; also reports a Fifeshire County Council complaint about hedge-clippings damaging cyclists' tyres.
- Specially reported account of the first Congress of the Ligue Internationale des Associations Touristes at the Hotel Cecil, 6th-8th June: the reception and delegates from thirteen national touring clubs, debates on Customs permits and uniform Danger Boards chaired by Kendall Burnett and Dr. Von Stern, the banquet marking the Club's 21st birthday with speeches by the Earl of Onslow and the Lord Advocate, and excursions to the Rover Cycle Company's Coventry works, Kenilworth and Warwick Castles.
- F. T. Bidlake describes a tandem test-ride to the Hindhead with Archibald Sharp to compare positive and negative pedalling effort, discusses long versus short cranks and Mrs. Kennard's seven-inch recommendation, and praises free-wheeling for traffic safety, with a note on Rumney's hands scarred by a fixed-wheel mishap.
- Constance Everett-Green recommends touring in Kent, laments the decline of fashionable cycling in Hyde Park and Battersea Park, urges a cycling gate between Stanhope Gate and Hyde Park Corner, and reports her own trial of carrying a violin case while riding.
- "A. Harold Smith" describes an April/May tour ('In Tulip-Land') to the Dutch bulb-farming district, visiting the Delft Potteries, Haarlem's Groote and Nieuwe Kerk, the Kraantjelek tree legend, Zandvoort's fish-sanding fishwives, and the ruined castles of Brederode and Heemstede.
- Reprinted Times leader (9th June) arguing the bicycle does more than commerce to dissolve national prejudice, citing the International Touring Congress, criticising British railway companies' cycle-carriage charges, and crediting cycling with social and economic change for clerks, doctors and tradesmen.
- Douglas Leechman reviews the Automobile Club's Richmond exhibition (17th-24th June), covering motor tricycles (de Dion et Bouton, Ariel, Accles) and light cars (Benz, Star, Endurance, Decauville, Daimler), and predicts the future of the light four-wheeled voiturette.
- Members' notices seeking touring companions for destinations including Normandy, Switzerland, Ireland, the Moselle Valley, the Isle of Man and Devonshire during July to September 1899.
- C. W. Brown reports a three-month trial of 9in. cranks on his "Centaur" (concluding they gave no real advantage), discusses rim brakes and free wheels, and reviews the "M.C." saddle support, the "St Crispin" saddle, the Automatic Grapho chain lubricator, the "Ace of Lamps" acetylene lamp and a patent pedal rest.
- Member letters cover the Harrogate Majority Dinner (Alex Hay), the Roads Improvement Association Incorporated (E. Dudley Ward on road surfacing), back-pedalling and muscular action (Archibald Sharp replying to Bidlake), hotel arrangements, the L.A.W. European tourists' thanks to C.T.C. members, faulty machines and pumps (Ross, Courtney & Co.; the Royal Premier), express cycle fares, Turner carriers, free wheels, and a correction to Miss Mellows's "In Chateau-land" article on the Chateau of Langeais.
- The July 1899 roll of new membership candidates arranged by English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish and foreign counties and countries, from Bedfordshire through to the United States of America.
- The editor's replies to members on machine recommendations, gear-case and tyre queries, and the "Clipon" oil can, plus a note on the £250 damages awarded to cyclist Barrington Meyer against Prince and Princess Dolgorouki's coachman.