Vol 2, No 39
Articles in this issue
- Hon. Sec. Herbert R. Boyce, of 35, Warrington Crescent, asks members to send him at once notes of any tours they have made and of any distances over 100 miles ridden in one day, for insertion in the Club Report for 1879.
- At the meeting of 5 January, John Mark Cazenove of St. Mark's Vicarage, Reigate and John Adams jun. of Morden Road, Blackheath Park were elected and the resignations of C. W. Nairn and H. C. Pelly accepted. Mr. Theo. Godlee was recommended for Captain, Mr. Jennings for S.W. and Mr. Newman for N.W. District Captain, Messrs. H. Sharpe and Alfred Henry asked to audit the year's accounts, and the General Meeting recommended to continue the L.B.C. Gazette - with Rucker, Barrett and Stokes appointed a sub-committee to establish its exact cost - while a letter was read from Mr. J. Scott Stokes resigning his post as Editor.
- The business for the Annual General Meeting at the "King's Head Tavern", Fenchurch Street on 21 January: the Report and Statement of Accounts for 1879; The O'Reilly's motion to cancel or amend Rule 19, which bars members living more than 25 miles from London from belonging to any district, with W. A. Smith's motion that such members may choose their nearest district and A. W. Barrett's that men beyond 70 miles from Charing Cross become Country Members at half fees; the Committee's recommendation that the Gazette continue; and the full list of nominations, headed by the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer as President and Theo. Godlee as Captain.
- R. M. Gruggen's party, knowing no unpaved road from Versailles, take the train into Paris, quit a suburban boarding house for a hotel at No. 4, Passage de la Madeleine, and bathe at the Ecole de Natation, whose proprietor asks them to return at an appointed hour so he can advertise their machines in the Figaro. After parting from four Clapham B.C. men they rail to Etampes to dodge the paving, navigate by a coach-road map lent by Mr. D. A. Salamon of the Coventry Machinists' Co., and ride 101 monotonous sandy miles from Orleans by La Ferte St. Aubin, Vierzon and Issondun to the "Hotel de la Promenade" at Chateauroux.
- On the last day's riding, Rucker's injuries put him and Fred Williams on the boat with the party's baggage while five ride for Cologne, made to put out their pipes at the gateway as they pass wagons of gunpowder and looking back at the fortifications of Ehrenbreitstein from an avenue during a shower. They keep pace with a train for seven or eight miles, pass Hungarian gipsies with two bears, halt over beefsteak on a river balcony at Andernach, and run through Bonn - hoisting the L.B.C. colours in five cherry trees - into Cologne, some fifty-two miles in all.
- Norman B. Morris's diary for 16-22 September: the ride from Argeles up the Vallee du Gave to Cauterets, and the walk to the Cascade de Beausset, the Pont d'Espagne and the Lac de Gaube below the glaciers of the Vignemale; a spoke broken outside Cauterets and mended at a Luz blacksmith's by Hutchings's patent screw-spoke saddle; the run over the Pont Napoleon to Gavarnie and its Cirque; the great grind from Bareges over the 6,962-foot Col du Tourmalet to a squalid auberge at St. Marie de Campan; and a long wet day over the Col d'Aspin and the Col de Peyresourde into Bagneres de Luchon, ending with the drive up to the Hospice de France for the Port de Venasque.
- W. J. Muller, writing from 11, Kensington Gardens Square on 6 January, defends against Mr. Morris's correction his own description of the road between Eaux Bonnes and Arrens as a "mule track": Morris and his friends, he says, followed the well-marked tourist route, whereas he and Mr. Wilson did not.
- J. Scott Stokes explains that, with a sub-committee of Rucker, Barrett and himself named to consider whether the Gazette should continue in its present or a modified form, he has anticipated the end of his year of office by a few days so as not to exert any influence on the General Meeting's decision. He quotes the letter of a candid friend arguing that in a Club of two hundred and forty educated men it is hardly fair to keep some "mute, inglorious Milton" mute, and to "give the helm to Blank L.B.C."