Vol 3, No 23
Articles in this issue
- Captain Theo. Godlee sets out the complete arrangements for the Harrow meet: the N.E. start at 3.30 sharp from the top of Lea Bridge Road and ride via Wood Green and Hornsey to join the N.W. at "Jack Straw's" at 4.30, while the W., S.W. and S.E. muster at the "Coach and Horses", Kew, and ride by Hanwell and Greenford. Tea is provided at the "King's Head" at the top of the hill.
- The N.E. abandoned the registered route to Epping at Abridge for an unsignposted lane discovered on the spot, quiet, easy-gradiented and a valuable new direct route, and took tea at the "Thatched House", where members tried Lyne's "pony". The N.W. ran to Rickmansworth through Lord Ebury's Moor Park with fourteen men filling the coffee-room of the "Swan" after a bathe in the Colne; the W. joined them from Uxbridge, the S.W. Captain rode alone from Merton to Addington via Carshalton, and the S.E. divisions met at East Grinstead and Caterham.
- Norman B. Morris urges N.W. members to turn out for the General Meet at Harrow, the shortest run of the season and in their own district, adding that he knows some members only as names in the book and would like to meet them before the season closes.
- W. J. Williams's account of a Bank Holiday outing aimed at Chenies but diverted when every bed in the place proved taken. Riding out from Friern Barnet by Barnet Gate, Elstree, Bushey, Watford, Cashiobury Park and Loudwater, the party got quarters at the "Griffin", Amersham, at nine o'clock, attended the pitch-pipe service at Chenies church and explored the valley of the Chess, then rode home through Chesham and Berkhampstead in heavy rain, giving up Ashridge Park as unrideable mud.
- Two meetings: the Crusaders B.C. at the Clapham Rink Track on 21st August, and the South London Harriers B.C. one-mile open at Stamford Bridge on the 28th.
- W. G. George of Worcester (Moseley Harriers) beat W. Slade's one-mile record in the One Mile Amateur Handicap at Stamford Bridge, winning by hardly a foot from Stevenson in 4 min. 23.75 sec., a second and three-tenths inside record, despite a strong N.E. wind. The Gazette's representative, official timekeeper to the Bicycle Union, took the quarters with a marking chronograph and rebuts a report that he does not hold the appointment.
- Norman B. Morris, N.W. District Captain, proposes a fifth successive holiday abroad, starting from the South of France and riding the Riviera road into Northern Italy for Florence and perhaps Venice, leaving at the end of September or beginning of October. He and H. Jennings, the S.W. District Captain, would like to make up an "Italian Four" and have collected information on the roads and routes.
- The week's meets: Lea Bridge Road and Syborn's Corner for Upminster, "Jack Straw's Castle" for Radlett, Harlesden Green for Abbott's Langley, the Cross Road at the N.E. corner of Hanworth Park for Virginia Water, and West Wickham for the paper chase.
- Three days in Kent by the Northern Guide and the District Visitor, signed Soup Squares: Kensington to Maidstone by Mitcham, West Wickham, Pole Hill and Riverhead, putting up at the "Mitre" (B.T.C. headquarters); then past Leeds Castle through Lenham, Pluckley, Smarden, Biddenden and Cranbrook to Goudhurst, where the sexton claimed sixty-six church steeples could be counted from the tower. The third day brought Groombridge, shelter in a cottage let at 1s. 6d. a week, a charging sow near Forrest Row, and a soaking into East Grinstead where the L.B.C. room at the "Railway Hotel" supplied loanable clothing.
- The Gazette declines to encourage entries for the club's "Première Réunion Annuelle des Courses Vélocipédiques Internationales" because the races fall on a Sunday, the 29th, and Mr. Theo. Godlee will refuse permission for anyone to represent the L.B.C. at a Sunday meeting; it also notes the V.C.D.'s definition of an amateur differs from the Bicycle Union's. The club's eighteen articles of racing regulations are reprinted in French for the interest of the Race Committee.
- Signed The Man with the Muck Rake: a six-foot North-Easter on Lyne's "pony" beside the Captain on his 56-in. "Humber", puzzlement as to what the Lancet has to do with last week's article, and a warning that the Captain will not have members beguiled by descriptions of yachting. Also the new many-armed sign-post at Farnborough, Kent, one arm inscribed "Down Below", and notice that Cortis will attempt the ten-mile record at Surbiton on the 21st in the Connaught Rangers B.C. scratch race.
- A letter signed "Spider" on the bye-laws in the Midlands, where lamps are compulsory in Northamptonshire but not in Buckinghamshire. A policeman posted on the Ouse bridge at Stoney Stratford let eight riders pass but summoned a local bicycle agent, and the writer warns tourists on the London and Birmingham road to light up before crossing the county boundary, marked in places only by the Cranleigh Oak.
- 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 reach him by Wednesday morning. Darling's badge-stamped portfolios cost 2s., a few 1878 covers remain, and back numbers are 1d. each.