Vol 3, No 22
Articles in this issue
- A long defence of athleticism against the charges that it unfits University men for reading and injures the constitution, citing the seventy-nine of one hundred and ninety University oarsmen between 1829 and 1861 who distinguished themselves afterwards, and men such as Bishop Selwyn, Dean Garnier and Dr. Hornby of Eton. It argues that the townsman is heavily handicapped by irregular meals and confined offices, quotes Dr. Ralfe on the Bank-holiday man who suddenly attempts alpine heights, and lays down that exercise should stop short of fatigue and be regular rather than spasmodic.
- Conclusion of the tour of the Shropshire meres: Blackmere in its gloomy fir-ringed hollow, the rare Highland water-lily Nuphar pumila absent from Leighton's "Flora of Shropshire", the great crested grebe and the dabchick, the purse-like nests of the reed wrens at Colemere, and the green moss balls of Conferva aegagropila rolled up by the currents. The writer ends with a peregrine falcon and an osprey shot in the district.
- A yachting yarn told in the cabin of a five-tonner brought up in Holy Haven after a rough beat down from Greenhithe, with a visit to Beckwith at the "Lobster Smack" for the local news. Jack's tale of the hired ten-ton yawl Crocodile in '72 runs through a collision with an Admiralty buoy off Woolwich, a night aground on the Black Shelf, being swept under the Great Eastern's paddle-wheels off Sheerness, and losing the winch overboard on the Grain Spit; signed Ashley Barrett.
- Meets for the coming Saturday: Lea Bridge Road and Syborn's Corner for Epping, "Jack Straw's Castle" for Rickmansworth, Acton Church for Farnham Royal, Merton Double Gates for Addington, Central Croydon for East Grinstead and Old Lewisham Church for Caterham, with a note that all districts run to Harrow-on-the-Hill on August 21st.
- An essay signed Goethe urging members not to withhold accounts of their rides merely because the road is well known, and distinguishing two legitimate classes of report, the guide-book description of surface, turnings and hills for unknown country, and the descriptive account of how they rode and fell and missed their way. He asks District Captains to record the croppers, the tea and the joke of the afternoon rather than the roads, since the Gazette's object is to form a bond of union between members.
- Captain Theo. Godlee reminds members that the General Meet falls on the 21st and presses Southern members to attend a meet north of the river for once. There will be no N.E. meet at Syborn's Corner, the S.E. will probably join the W. and S.W. at the "Coach and Horses", Kew, and Harrow is worth the visit for the view alone.
- District reports for a thoroughly wet 7th August: two N.E. men rode to Hertford by the new route past the "New Inn" at Waltham Abbey and met the single N.W. representative at the "Plough"; Norman B. Morris covered the twenty-two miles from Hampstead in two hours without a dismount and was drenched by a water-spout. The S.W. pair chased an imagined member to the "Glyn Arms", Ewell, in vain, and the Croydon Division's run ended in a blank.
- Signed L'Homme qui Rit: one of the Whip's Cross stable, a respectable old "Sparrow", has gone to auction for an unstated figure, and wanderers to Aldboro' in Suffolk are recommended the "White Hart" for comfort and economy, with yachting and fishing on the river Alde worth dreaming of afterwards.
- F. Des Voeux of Finborough Road wants a closely built 52-inch "Roadster", Humber preferred; R. G. Francis offers a 54-in. "Timberlake" in thorough good repair at £5 10s., to be seen at William Keen's, Lower Norwood. "A Tourist" asks where to get steel hooks for his M.I.P. bag.
- Norman B. Morris, N.W. District Captain, drops his nom de plume to admit he was "An Old Member" and denies wishing to insult the S.E. district over the Ewell meet. "Sundry" encloses a £2 10s. 4d. bill for four men at the "White Hart", Maidenhead, and A. L. Gruggen corrects Mr. McCullum Hill's tour, pointing out that the Franciscan motto is "Deus meus et omnia", not "Fay ce que vous dray".
- J. W. Langmore is thanked for his communication, and "Sundry" is told he failed by accident to enclose his card.
- Standing notice that contributions must be addressed to the Editor at 35, Eastcheap, E.C., bear the author's name, be written on one side of the paper only, and arrive by Wednesday morning. Darling's badge-stamped portfolios cost 2s., a few 1878 covers remain, and back numbers are 1d. each.