The May bank holidays have recently passed, and another one is coming up in August. Summer bank holiday weekends have been an opportunity to go on short holidays and excursions for as long as they have been around. One such excursion, recorded in the notebook of Walter Vernon Rivers (D/EZ228/1), is the subject of this highlight.
On Saturday, the first of August 1893, Walter Vernon Rivers and two friends set out from Reading on their bicycles, on a long-planned cycling holiday to the south-west.
Walter Vernon Rivers was a newspaper man, and the fact that a cycling holiday would not only be deemed an enjoyable holiday, but also a good subject for a newspaper article written almost two years after the fact, reveals a lot about the level of public interest in cycling at that time. This was written in a period known as the ‘bike boom’ when bicycles were becoming an increasingly popular and fashionable mode of transportation, fuelled in part by some significant improvements in their design.
Rivers notes that whilst his two friends made use of a ‘safety bicycle’, he made use of a '50 inch ordinary'. ‘Safety bicycles’ were a recent innovation that had a chain-driven rear wheel that was approximately the same size as the front wheel. It was called a ‘safety’ because, unlike the ‘ordinary’ (better known as a Penny-Farthing), it was possible for the rider’s feet to touch the ground, which made stopping, mounting and dismounting a significantly less risky undertaking. River’s characteristically self-deprecating explanation for this choice is that he 'prefer[red] to be higher up in the world'.
The first stretch of River’s journey is Reading to Southampton, and he describes passing the little village of Three Mile Cross, and a little later Swallowfield. After several more miles he reaches Basingstoke. He describes the town as 'dirty and smoky' and goes through it 'as quick as my bicycle allowed me'.
Then comes Winchester (more favourably received), and finally Southampton. While acknowledging its status as a “most important shipping town”, Rivers writes very little about it. His writing reflects a greater interest in the experience of travelling by bicycle and the beauty of the English countryside in summer, rather than the history, culture and people that populate this idyllic landscape. He describes his journey meticulously, commentating on the ease or difficulty of the terrain and the frequent lack of signposts.
Between this he sprinkles in flowery descriptions of the natural world around him, from the 'fish darting about in all directions' in a 'clear little stream' near Swallowfield Mill, to the 'new world' of the New Forest (encountered on a detour from Southampton), where he and his companions were surrounded by 'high and lofty trees' which served to protect them from a sun that had apparently spent the day 'pouring down its burning rays'.
The next day was to Bournemouth, through Poole, and on to Weymouth. This was a bank holiday Monday and, in time-honoured tradition, it rained.
The group spend a couple of days in Weymouth which, on the bank holiday at least, was 'crowded with excursionists'. Despite this, as well as River’s opinion that it seemed to be 'more of a place for children', they still seemed to have a good time, finding 'plenty to see and do'.
The next stop of note is Bridport, where the closest thing to a humorous anecdote occurs: needing to cool down after the last stretch of their journey, Rivers and his friends decide to go for a dip in the sea, and so each hire a 'bathing machine’ (essentially a little hut on wheels that allowed the swimmers modesty). Once in the water, however, they find themselves besieged by children, who 'climbed the wheels, peeped through the windows, as well as trying to force an entry through the door'.
[Transcription of above photograph:
18.
While our dinner was in course of preparation we decided to have a dip in the sea, which was much enjoyed, despite the fact that we were greatly interfered with as the following narrative will show:- Having engaged a bathing machine, and made ourselves secluded therein, we were soon surrounded by a number of children. This we did not particularly object to; but, when they climbed the wheels & peeped through the windows as well as trying to force an entry through the door, we felt as you may imagine,]
The journey continues over several more stops in the South West, finally ending in Bath. Rivers’ passion for the English countryside is clearly genuine and heartfelt, but not always articulated with a great sense of literary variety. Still, something of the pleasure of a self-propelled summer holiday is conveyed in his writing, and as a historical record it captures the period of the ‘bike boom’ in England, as well as a time when it was becoming possible for the middle classes to enjoy short excursions across the country, when bank holidays became not just a brief relief from work, but a time to actively seek out fun.