Vol 3, No 21
Articles in this issue
- Report from the Gazette's Midlands correspondent on the Birmingham C. and F.C. meeting at Aston, defending the accuracy of provincial timekeeping against London scepticism. Palmer beat Moore in the One Mile Open final in 2 min. 51 sec., Cortis took the Three Miles Handicap, and in the Ten Miles Scratch Cortis got his wheel a foot in front of Bennett on the tape in 33 min. 39 sec., with lap-by-lap leader times appended.
- A ten-mile money race for tricycles over the soft, rain-soaked Lillie Bridge running path, contested by only eight entries on wildly different machines, Jackson's home-built chain-and-multiplying-gear tricycle, Farley's bicycle-derived cranked-axle machine, Buller's lever-driven "Coventry" by the Tangent and Coventry Tricycle Company, Hutchings's Starley and Sutton "Meteor" and Hawkins's "Excelsior". Garrard of Uxbridge, on one of his own diminutive chain-driven "Gnats", beat Thresher by six yards in 44 min. 46 sec., his spring breaking as he passed the post.
- Messrs. Botterill (South Norwood), H. L. Cortis (Wanderers) and W. B. Tanner (West Kent) waited on the Crystal Palace directors on 20th July with a memorial signed for 28 clubs and upwards of 1,350 members. The directors agreed to lay a good cinder track round the Southern Basin, and Cortis afterwards went over the ground with Major Flood Page to discuss how the path should be laid.
- Notice of a book compiled by a committee drawn from several clubs, listing close on a thousand hotels in about eight hundred towns with their tariffs and their distances from London. The Gazette doubts the value of the recommendations, inns constantly change hands, but expects the tariff list to be of great use to touring riders.
- Tabulated district meets for the coming Saturdays across the N.E., N.W., W., S.W. and the Croydon and Blackheath Divisions of the S.E., Lea Bridge Road and Syborn's Corner for Hertford and Epping, "Jack Straw's Castle" for Cookham and Rickmansworth, the "Griffin" Kingston for Mickleham, Old Lewisham Church for Chelsfield and Caterham. August 21st is marked as an all-districts run to Harrow-on-the-Hill.
- An unofficial S.E. run to East Grinstead with eight members and a member's brother over muddy roads and into a head wind, the evening enlivened by music and the jokes of the Knight of the Bath; three members rode up on Monday through torrents of rain. A following note records that W. Johns will take the Croydon Division meets while the District Captain is out of town.
- Two members of the Canonbury Bicycle Club left Land's End on 12th July and reached John O'Groat's on the 24th, covering the intervening 900 miles at an average of seventy miles a day. The Gazette records it as the first time the journey has been accomplished by bicycle.
- Full text of the new bye-laws for the West Riding of Yorkshire, made by the Justices in Quarter Sessions on 5th April 1880 and confirmed by the Local Government Board on 26th June. Bicyclists must not ride on footways, must carry a lighted lamp between sunset and sunrise, must sound a bell or whistle before overtaking and pass on the off-side, and must dismount on request if a horse becomes restive; the fine is two pounds, signed by John Hamerton, Clerk of the Peace.
- Mr. William Large of Clapham Road and his brother Mr. Edward Large were summoned for riding bicycles between sunset and sunrise without lights, Sergeant Smith having seen them in High Street, Wandsworth. They pleaded that the lamps were burning when they left Wimbledon; Mr. Shiel held that the police were bound to notice the absence of lights but let them off on payment of the costs of the summons.
- Members may now direct their tailors to obtain the club uniform cloth from Mr. Angus, 13, Knightrider Street, E.C., who is prepared to supply it in two thicknesses.
- Four meetings listed: Lewisham B.C. at the Crystal Palace on 7th August, the Crusaders B.C. at the Clapham Rink Track on the 21st, and on the 28th both the South London Harriers B.C. one-mile open at Stamford Bridge and St. James's B.C.'s third annual meeting at Surbiton.
- The writer, staying at Waldshut, is invited to join the guns at the grand "Triebjagd" on St. Hubert's Day, roused at dawn by a huntsman with a many-twisted horn. Sixty butchers, bakers and students in green shooting-coats and plumed Jager hats assemble under a chief Jager who fines any man half a thaler for pointing a loaded gun or ten groschen for calling a fox's brush his tail; after a whole day's beating the bag is two foxes, and the party is met at the level crossing by torch-bearers and a brass band.
- First instalment of a description of the Shropshire mere district around Ellesmere, the ruined castle site given in frank marriage to Llewellyn by King John, the 116-acre mere with its swan-haunted islets, and the six lesser meres of Blackmere, Kettle Mere, Whitemere, Newton Mere, Colemere and Crosemere. The writer laments the spread of the weed Anacharis alsinastrum, brought in with Canadian timber to Baggy Moor, explains the summer "breaking" of the water, and condemns the trimmers and the netting of undersized jack.
- Gossip signed L'Homme qui Rit: the Treasurer's Deputy plans to hand the list of defaulting members to the Treasurer himself, the Lea Bridge Road Tramways Bill is dropped, and the Times announces C. C. Fitch's marriage at Stoke Newington. Further paragraphs deplore bugle-blowing bicyclists startling Sunday Bedford, doubt J. Butler of Wokingham's claim of 12 miles an hour for the omnicycle, and substitute Hong Kong for Paris after reading the Treasurer's letter.
- Two free small advertisements: a nearly new half-nickel-plated 48-in. "Club" with accessories at £12, to be seen by appointment with H. T. Crosby of Gordon Square, and a 56-in. "Club" of 41 lbs. with patent hollow felloes and a new Salsbury hub-lamp at £8 10s. from John Scott of Wells Street, Gray's Inn Road.
- Two letters on the General Meet at Ewell. F. M. Williams, South-East District Captain, explains that his district began tea early under pressure from the landlord and following last year's precedent at the same place, and refuses to answer the anonymous "An Old Member"; Theo. Godlee, Captain, takes the blame for arranging a meet at a house where forty men cannot sit down at once.
- A single reply: "Peace and Plenty" is told the Editor does not think it desirable to insert his communication.
- Standing notice that contributions must go to the Editor at 35, Eastcheap, E.C., bear the author's name, be written on one side of the paper only, and reach him by Wednesday morning for immediate insertion. Messrs. Darling supply badge-stamped portfolios for unbound copies at 2s., a few 1878 covers remain, and back numbers cost 1d. each.