Vol 6, No 3
Articles in this issue
- The incoming Editor's first leader explains its enigmatical title: this number is the first feeble cackle of the new-born Editor and the last official utterance, like the swan's sweetest at death, of Mr. F. M. Williams. After burlesque tributes in the manner of the Saturday Review and the Daily Telegraph, it thanks Frederick Monier Williams plainly for his year's work on the Gazette, and defers the second head of the subject, editorial views on spelling and punctuation, to a future number.
- At the meeting of Monday 12th February five members were elected, among them Walter Chas. Oswald of Duppas Hill, Croydon and Harold C. Pigott of Mill Hill Park; D. T. Nops's resignation was accepted with regret and S. P. Smith elected in his place. A Race Committee of Beck, H. G. A. Brown, G. P. Coleman, Godlee, S. P. Smith and O. Thorn was appointed, F. M. Williams's motion to encourage tricyclists to join the Club was carried with a sub-committee to consider the rule changes, the University meeting was fixed for Dunstable, and the opening run for 17th March.
- Captain Ashley Barrett recites the Annual General Meeting's resolution referring a Tricycle Road Trial and the whole question of tricyclists' position in the Club to the Committee, and reports that a Sub-Committee now has the matter in hand. With the time before the Special General Meeting very short, he asks members who have considered the question, and especially those who favour the three-wheeler, to forward their views at once on what encouragement should be offered and whether a road trial should be organised.
- Captain Ashley Barrett will be glad to meet a large party of members at the "White Lion," Bath, on Sunday 25th March, for the annual run up to town the following day.
- District Captain Theo. Godlee hopes members of the "Little District" will turn out on 17th March, the run is short and easy and the destination comfortable, so that the average attendance at meets may come nearly as large as the average at Committees.
- District Captain Palmer Dalton asks members to make an effort to attend the first run of the season, to Shenley, which is not a long one and will see them back by nine o'clock.
- District Captain R. G. Francis announces two preliminary runs from Croydon Central Station at 4.15, Downe on 3rd March and Bletchingley on the 10th, before the opening run to Orpington on 17th March, when the Blackheath and Croydon divisions join company at five o'clock on Farnborough Common. Stephen P. Smith has again consented to take charge of the Blackheath division.
- District Captain R. M. Gruggen announces the opening run on 17th March to Sunbury to meet the West, and warns that no member going in for the Bath Trial should neglect the meets before that date. The circular run of Saturday 31st March goes by Surbiton lanes, Long Ditton Church, Claygate, Oxshott and Stoke D'Abernon to tea at the "Red Lion," Cobham.
- At a meeting of members of the Western District held at Dr. Langmore's house on Thursday 22nd ultimo, Mr. H. C. Pigott was unanimously elected District Captain in place of D. T. Nops, resigned.
- The concert will be held at the "City Arms," St. Mary Axe on Thursday 15th March, with glees, solos and instrumental pieces by the Club's most musical members, recitations, and a novel conjuring performance by a member well known in athletic circles. Tickets are 1s. and limited to 200, from O. Thorn of 11, Ladbroke Square or A. Lloyd of Walthamstow, and Mr. Dutton, who sang at the Dinner, will help again.
- A mock legal instrument in which the new Editors, appointed by a General Meeting "of great collective wisdom," call upon W. R. Sewell, R. G. Francis, Theo. Godlee and Ashley Barrett, their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, to furnish copy forthwith. T. E. Scrutton undertakes to do all the fighting for the paper, American fashion, and to accept responsibility for anything not in a foreign language, while Arthur Lloyd disclaims all responsibility, absolutely refuses to fight, and takes in all the literary matter, given in their Den at 35, Eastcheap on 1st March 1883.
- A full report of the Society's second performance, at St. George's Hall on Tuesday 20th February, of H. J. Byron's comedy "One Hundred Thousand Pounds" preceded by F. W. Broughton's comedietta "Withered Leaves." It prints the officers, both casts, the Orchestral Society's programme under conductor Frank Jolly, and an act-by-act synopsis of each piece, with particular praise for Miss Ivan Bristow, Miss Lucy Roche and Mrs. Hodgkinson as Mrs. Barlow.
- "A Candid Friend," writing from a gallery ticket he bought rather than received, thinks "Withered Leaves" a poor play and especially unsuited to amateurs with its long dialogues, and admits to hearing the prompter once or twice. The main piece he calls a greater success than "Cyril's Success": he praises Morris, Fitch, Naylor and Sachs, cautioning the first two against over-acting, singles out Naylor's Joe Barlow and Henry's bailiff make-up, and teases Gruggen for a Gerald Goodwin too scrupulously well dressed to look starving.
- The tabulated district meets for the coming Saturdays: Lea Bridge Road and Syborn's Corner for Chigwell ("King's Head"), "Jack Straw's Castle" and Tally Ho! Corner for Shenley, Savernake Cottage in Mill Hill Road and Kingston Station for Sunbury ("The Magpie"), Croydon Central Station for Orpington and Godstone, and Old Lewisham Church for the Blackheath division.
- "A. E. B." begins the account of a tour by Dr. Langmore, N. B. Morris, W. J. Williams and A. E. Buckler from Dieppe across France to Neuchâtel and on through Switzerland, each man carrying about 15 lbs. of baggage. Rain and greasy limestone dog them by Rouen, Mantes and Melun, where bugs drive the Captain out of his bed, and after training to Dijon they cross the Jura by Salins and Levier; from Neuchâtel they ride by Soleure, where two local riders on a "D.H.F." and an "Arab" join and are seen off, to Lucerne, a snow-bound night at the Rigi Kulm, the Brünig to Meiringen, and Interlaken to Grindelwald.
- On Wednesday 21st February the Cambridge club rode to tea with ex-Captain G. D. Day at his house at St. Ives. Three miles out, nearly opposite Girton, Captain J. S. Whatton snapped his treadle-pin and fell, bringing down another member, and had to tramp seven miles to Fenstanton where a spare treadle awaited him; a strong following wind and a full moon made the run home a great contrast, with E. H. Brown, L. C. Carr, W. H. Fox, G. N. Latham, A. W. Rumney and A. B. W. Whatton present.
- "The Front Wheel Hub" opens a new department of cycling news outside the Club: the B.T.C.'s poll has carried the change of name to the Cyclists' Touring Club by two to one, though only half the 6,000 members returned voting papers, and the club has taken central offices in London. The B.U. Council meets on 8th March at the "City Arms," St. Mary Axe with Mr. Todd appearing for the first time as Hon. Sec. in place of Mr. English; the year's Championship dates at Birmingham, the Crystal Palace and Cambridge are listed, and G. P. Coleman was re-elected Union Handicapper for London and the South.
- Under a motto from Sir Thomas Browne on the porcupine, a new anonymous gossip writer succeeds "Eavesdropper," "The Man with the Muck Rake" and "Rambler," claiming the usual licence for Club jokes and Club scandal. He corrects the Smoking Concert's start to 7.30, records H. R. Reynolds passing the Incorporated Law Society's Intermediate and T. E. Scrutton winning Cambridge's Yorke Prize, and retails Dramatic Society stories about Barker's hunt for the right tile, Mr. Sparkes the prompter, and Gruggen's six-foot board reading "No standing room in the balcony." Signed Porcupine.
- Two letters: Theo. Godlee on the revision of the attendance-prize regulations, and Alf. Barker, Hon. Sec. and Treasurer of the Dramatic Society, thanking members, the Orchestral Society and the stewards especially, for the success of the 20th February performance and asking that tickets be remitted for so the accounts can be closed.
- Theo. Godlee writes from Walthamstow that a small Sub-Committee has been appointed to revise the attendance-prize regulations and to give District Captains uniform rules for their reports, so that future returns are an accurate record of relative attendance between districts. He asks all present and past D.C.s to send him any difficulties they have met in the regulations and the method by which they have calculated the averages published in the Blue Book.
- Eight mock valentines signed "J. S. W.," each a classical or English tag aimed at a club topic, Horace's Olympic dust for the racing men, Victor Hugo for the new Tricycle Union, Euripides for Cortis in the twenty miles match, Horace for Mr. John Browning and again for riders wanting admission to the parks, Shakespeare's "false hearts should never have stout legs" for the suspended amateurs, and Virgil's "procumbit humi bos" for the writer leading a recent club run.
- Arthur H. Rolls, jun., is now at Hampden Mount, Caterham Valley, Surrey.
- Standing notice that contributions must be addressed to the Editor, L.B.C. Gazette, 35, Eastcheap, E.C., bear the author's name, be written on one side of the paper only, and be received not later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday the 27th March.