Vol 1, No 16
Articles in this issue
- C. R. Hutchings, solicitor to the Bicycle Union, reports that thanks to Sir Henry Jackson, Q.C., member for Coventry, and Sir C. Dilke, bicyclists escape Sir G. Jenkinson's ill-considered regulations; local authorities may still regulate bicycles, but only to a model framed by the Local Government Board, sparing riders “a whole arsenal of implements of noise,” though lamps and bells are now inevitable.
- Hon. Sec. C. R. Hutchings explains that the direction “by train” means only that members may travel by rail to the meet at the top of Lea Bridge Road; once there, further progress will be per bicycle.
- Report of the adjourned meeting at the Guildhall Tavern on the 5th, G. F. Cobb in the chair: the Temple Club's £8 4s. subscription, the Inter-Amateur-Professional race scheme collapsing when only McWilliam of the T.B.C. would accept, the Notts Amateur B.C. joining, Hutchings engaged for the new trial of “Laycock v. Johnson” at Northampton, and W. W. Rishworth elected Hon. Sec. in place of Mr. Beningfield.
- District reports: nine N.E. men rode to tea at the “Green Man,” Navestock, one leading Stassen running over a small pig on the way; the N.W. covered 37 miles to Little Berkhampstead and climbed its disused 100-foot tower; four Western men made Windsor and the “Bells at Ouseley”; and the S.W., Croydon (East Grinstead), Blackheath (Greenhithe and the training ship Chichester) and the Wednesday evening Western run are also described.
- W. A. Smith condemns F. Toynbee of the Western District, who rode from Acton to the Henley Regatta and ran down White Hill on a brakeless bicycle, feet over handles, a reckless example to less skilful riders that would probably have damaged him for life had the bridge been crowded with carriages.
- Pater Dalton and Buckler leave “Jack Straw's Castle” at 8.30 a.m. on Monday, June 3rd for a week's easy riding before the Bath race, going by Kew, Hounslow, Staines, Egham and Bagshot to the four-mile straight of Hartford Bridge Flats, then through Alton, East Tisted and Bramdean over the Downs into Winchester, where bicyclists must carry bells or walk. To be continued.
- “Facilis Descensus” rides Bath to Andover before the Whit Monday gale, having carried the racers' bag as far as Melksham; he stops at Devizes to admire the 25-lock flight of the Kennet and Avon Canal, proposes an “Asphaltic Bicycle-Path and Cheap Communication Company, Limited,” and is blown over the downs by Upavon, the “Crowns” at East Everleigh and the empty fair-village of Weyhill, 52 miles, with distances and surfaces tabulated.
- Correct answers to the acrostic have been received from F. des Voeux, Norman Carr, Le Dykere, E. F. C., Œdipus and Prussia.
- District meets for the July 13th General Meet at Chigwell by Epping Forest, and for July 20th (Upminster, Rickmansworth, Burnham Beeches, Westerham), July 27th (Ongar, Hatfield, Horseley Towers, Dorking, Sevenoaks) and August 3rd (Harlow, Watford, Amersham, Dorking, Reigate); Francis Godlee confirms that tea on the 13th is arranged at the “Thatched House,” Epping.
- Forthcoming events: the Pickwick B.C.'s two miles at the Alexandra Palace, the Temple B.C. mile at Stamford Bridge handicapped by John Keen, the Joint Stock Banks' Athletic Club four miles, the Brighton B.C. meeting, and the Stanley and Tower Hamlets meetings at the Alexandra Palace in August.
- Five machines offered at two insertions for 1s.: J. F. Marchant's 58-in. Stassen at £12, H. R. Boyce's 52-inch “Special Challenge” with Carter brake, Gilbert F. Beck's cheap 56-inch racing “Humber,” a 54-inch Stassen with eccentric brake, leg rests, bag, oilcan and spanner at £12, and C. A. E. Pollock's little-used 54½-inch Keen's Eclipse racer at £10.
- “Cactus” urges that the L.B.C. be raised above a “wheelgrinding-Saturday-afternoon-tea-society” by renting a large room in a first-rate City tavern for committee meetings, dinners, newspapers and maps, the Editor asking for facts on City tavern-keepers, and describes W. T. Thorn's walk-over bicycle race on the Honorable Artillery Company's lumpy grass. “A Member's Youngest Sister” protests at two youths dismembering their bicycles on the family tennis-lawn, and “A Grateful One” commends the Carshalton engineer who repaired a clumsy member's machine and asks the grey coats to call at Mrs. Haines' tobacconist's shop.
- A one-line note to A. S. Ister promising an answer next week.