the weight to be propelled by a rider was more than he could manage, except for a short time. But when the suspension-wheel was invented, it was found that the weight of the frame and rider could be suspended from that part of the felloe which was uppermost as the wheel revolved, and be evenly distributed over the upper part of the wheel, the remainder of the periphery serving only to keep the wheel from buckling. The introduction of hollow steel felloes, wire spokes, and indiarubber tyres, can now be combined in a machine so light that a racing bicycle for a man of eleven stone need not weigh more than twenty-seven pounds. Of course that is an extreme light weight, fitted only for a cinder-path: a machine to run over an ordinary highroad would be made a good deal heavier.

He

Mr. James Starley, an inventive genius and manufacturer, of Coventry, who died in 1881, after living long enough to acquire a fortune by his success, was the designer of the modern bicycle. boldly discarded the old Draismene type, which until then had been sufficient for the moderate demand, and designed the really beautiful. piece of mechanism by which such wonderful resuits are now attained.

It was not till the bicycle had acquired its latest development1880 or thereabouts-that any attention was devoted to the development of the tricycle. Then it was found that all, or nearly all, the great improvements which had been made in the bicycle could be adapted to a new form of carriage, which should be free from certain disadvantages which the bicycle possessed. The bicycle, though light, swift, and graceful, could not by any stretch of imagination be called an elderly gentleman's mount: it was difficult to ascend to the saddle, and not over easy to remain there when seated; you could not stop or stand still upon it for a moment. It would carry very little luggage, and was so high that if you did come to grief, your grief was likely to be unmitigated. So the merchant and the tradesman, the aristocrat, the professional man, and the parson, pronounced bicycling undignified, or at the best only fitted for boys. The beneficent genius who designed the tricycle changed all this. Seventy years was required to evolve the bicycle out of the hobby-horse; two years were enough to mount middle-aged respectability on his tricycle. The strong love of hard exercise implanted in the mind of all Britons asserted itself; the British householder mounted, and rode away into fairyland. So did his wife; and so too did his young ladies. It was better, as they soon found, to wander away far into country lanes than to play at lawn-tennis day after day on the same square of turf, and far better to come home hungry and tired from a ten-mile run, than to dawdle over a novel under trees in the garden.

No one who likes to see people enjoying themselves can help being pleased at the amount of pleasure which has been thus thrown open. Station yourself at Kew Bridge or Richmond on a Saturday

afternoon in summer. Dozens, nay hundreds, of young men fly by, with a Saturday to Monday' bag slung to the backbone of their mounts, bound forty miles away, to some place in the pure country air. How many of these ever got a sniff of any air fresher than that of a city billiard room, before the days of the bicycle? How many of the middle-aged clerks and tradesmen who pass you, accompanied by wife or daughter, would get a sight of the country were it not for the tricycle? But the enjoyment is not confined to them: many a man of a richer class takes his exercise by preference on wheels, and feels far better for it than if he had chosen a more luxurious mode of conveyance. Within the five years that the modern tricycle has been in existence, a change has taken place in the attitude of mind with which the upper and middle class of society regard cycling. It is no longer looked down upon or thought vulgar. Bicycling, at first confined to very young men, who were without the leaven of mature judgment and restraining public opinion now afforded by a large body of older riders, had no doubt its full share of loud and obtrusively vulgar exponents; but public opinion soon materially altered that for the better. Aunque la mona se vesta de seda, mona se queda,' says the Spanish proverb: which may be Englished, Though a vulgar fellow should mount on a bicycle, he will still be a snob;' but such men are rarer nowadays than they used to be. All ranks of society took up cycling, more or less warmly. Royalty led the way. Almost every crowned head in Europe has a tricycle; some of them have a great many, whether for personal use or not I cannot say. The rising generation of royal princes career about on the iron steed. Nor is its popularity confined to European potentates. The Khedive of Egypt has one of the most gorgeous description; so covered with silver plating that one can hardly see the black enamel underneath.

6

The tricycle has established itself as a necessary of daily life. The number of country houses where it is to be found is very great, and rapidly increasing; and although in houses where there are plenty of horses and carriages cycles will of course not assume the position of paramount importance which they occupy in more limited establishments, the presence of one will soon be the rule rather than the exception. Even where plenty of horses are kept it is popular. Wherever there are active lads and healthy young ladies there are sure to be tricycles; but young ladies and gentlemen have their horses and ponies, and to them cycling is only an additional means of amusement. To others, in such houses, it is of more importance. The butler rides off on his tricycle to visit tradesmen or friends in the neighbouring town, or some active young footman is only too delighted to save the groom the trouble of saddling a horse, and will bring back an answering note in less time than would be occupied by a mounted messenger. When one thinks of the sedentary and confined lives necessarily led by domestic servants, he sees how much improved

health and cheerful service are promoted by cycling, and will do his best to promote it. In the establishments of hard-worked professional men it is very welcome. To country doctors especially it has been found a boon. One of them, with a wide district to look after, and gifted with an athletic frame, has ridden over three thousand miles per annum for some years past, in the pursuit of his avocations. Clergymen use them for their rounds. I, who live by the seashore in summer, know more than one young curate, who dwells miles away inland, and who gets his morning dip in the breakers and is back in his parish before breakfast. A pianoforte-tuner rides pleasantly from one house to another; a weary tramp used to be his lot, now his longest journeys are nothing more than a healthful spin over the country roads. A music-master with whom I foregathered in a country lane recorded with glee his gain in health, time, and shoeleather since he took to the tricycle. He could give half as many lessons again as before. Another rider travels from farm to farm selling yeast to the farmers' wives. He has a carrier tricycle, and economises the keep of a pony. Still lower in the social scale, the labour-saving result is even more observed. It is now by no means uncommon to see, in the neighbourhood of towns, mechanics making their way home from their work on the bicycle. Who shall overrate its importance to these men? In the first place, it means, under the most favourable circumstances, the saving of a daily railway fare; in many it is more than that. It means the possibility of living in healthy country air instead of a deadly city slum, lower rent, healthy wife and children. And in every such instance it means sobriety as well; for nobody who had to make his daily way home on a bicycle would handicap his chance of arriving safely by too long a visit to the public-house. In the country district that I know best, agricultural labourers live far away from their work, and ride morning and evening to and fro. A mechanic can easily do eight or ten miles as his daily journey, when his walking power would be limited to three or four. In the neighbourhood of towns, plasterers, glaziers, and carpenters, with their tool-baskets at their backs, may be seen, at the close of work-hours, making their way through the suburbs to their country homes. In Coventry, which may be looked upon as the home of the cycling industry, and in many other towns, tricycles are almost exclusively employed to carry messages, and workmen habitually ride home in the dinner hour.

In August 1883 a vehicle called the carrier tricycle' was invented by Mr. G. Lacy Hillier, lately a famous racer on the wheel, and now an indefatigable writer on the same subject. I believe Mr. Hillier still holds what is called the record' for 150 miles, having ridden that distance in some incredibly short time; but his invention is likely to be even more useful than his prowess as a rider. The new vehicle is already a common object in the London streets. H

VOL. XVII.-No. 95.

The Post

Office has adopted it for the parcel post; one may often see the redpainted machine hurrying through the streets. This particular form of tricycle is fitted with three trays one above the other; the upper one is over three feet in length, and the whole forms a most convenient means of distributing the multifarious articles that pass through the parcel post. Several of the daily papers are distributed to the shops and railway termini by this machine, and it is beginning to be largely used as a medium of advertisement. Where narrow lanes and short cuts have to be taken, as in the traffic-encumbered streets of the Metropolis, the carrier beats the horse and cart easily. Mr. Hillier tells me that his invention is adopted on the other side of the Channel, and that the French newspapers are now delivered in Paris in the same way as in London. In fact, there is no end to the economic possibilities of these carriages when once the mode of utilising them has been suggested. Mr. Hillier has not patented his invention, but presents it as his freewill offering to the public good.

I have before me a sort of illustrated encyclopædia, compiled and issued as an annual by Mr. James Sturmey, of Coventry; it describes and gives woodcuts of no less than three hundred and twenty-four different kinds of tricycle, all, if advertisements are to be believed, possessing some special form of merit, and taking rank as a separate type of machine. A similar compilation to that of Mr. Sturmey's has been made for the bicycle. There are twice as many different types of bicycle as there are of the three-wheel machine. It need hardly be said that not all, or even a large proportion, of these machines present any real point of superiority, or are really original. Many merely copy established patterns, and add, perhaps, some small invention not necessarily an improvement, in order to justify their claim of novelty. Nor are all makers equally reliable. Some of the cheap machines would be dear at any price, and are positively dangerous. It may be safely laid down as a rule that in no kind of purchase is it more necessary to go to the best and most highly reputed firms. Paint, enamel, and a little electroplating make one machine to outward seeming very like another; but in no class of work is strictly honest attention to minute detail more necessary. The parts of a good machine are reduced even to attenuation to secure lightness; it is therefore of vital importance that the iron and steel of which it is composed should be absolutely without flaw. It is only the largest firms who can afford to establish the expensive tools required, to change or supersede them as new improvements come in. Failure in a nut or a rivet may entail severe personal injury; no wise person, then, will hesitate to employ the best maker when he orders a machine. The first-rate firms are well known, and the novice will have no difficulty in getting proper advice. It is to be hoped, for his own sake, that he will follow it.

The increased popularity of cycling soon suggested the advisability of some sort of organisation. The two principal institutions in England are the National Cyclists' Union and the Cyclists' Touring Club, more familiarly known as the N.C.U. and the C.T.C. respectively. These extensive organisations have reached their present position through tentative stages and by legitimate development. They were framed by the hard method of trial and failure, and are not copied from any existing model. The National Union was commenced in the days when as yet tricycles were not. It was satisfied at first to afford the means of concerted action among clubs which everywhere sprang up and were then, as now, the unit of formation. Almost every town or large village has its club, some have several. They are formed according to the exigencies of local society, and flourish in proportion to the enthusiasm of the members and the tact and energy of the elected captain' and honorary secretary. Called into existence by local requirements, each club, provided its rules are in accord with the model rules formulated by the National Society, has the right to join the Union, and to send one or more representatives to its Council. The Council meets at stated intervals, and forms a very real and workable parliament for cycling affairs. It is too numerous for the efficient discussion of detail; an Executive is therefore elected from among them, which meets weekly at Headquarters. Before this body are brought, in the first instance, all complaints, appeals, and projects of wheeling legislation. The system, order, and business-like rapidity with which this body examines and disposes of a large amount of detail excites admiration, to which I may give utterance without egotism, because the president of the N.C.U., fortunately for him, is not expected to preside over the meetings of the Executive, which has a very efficient chairman of its own.

The objects of the Union are to ensure a fair and equitable administration of justice as regards the rights of cyclists on the public roads; to watch the course of any legislative proposals, in Parliament or elsewhere, affecting the interests of the cycling public; to consider the relations of the cyclists and the railway companies, to secure security of conveyance for machines; to examine the question of bicycle and tricycle racing in general and to frame definitions and rules on the subject; to arrange for annual race meetings, at which the amateur championships of bicycling and tricycling are to be decided.

Every duly constituted club is entitled to a representative; clubs with more than fifty members have a representative for every additional fifty. The delegates thus selected are members of the Council, with whom rests the selection of the president, vice-presidents, and secretary; they also select the Executive of nineteen members. The Union thus rests on the broadest basis of publicity, and commands general allegiance and support. At first, it had to encounter divisions