30 July, 1897

English novelist and journalist and a keen observer of detail with a genial humorous streak which made him one of the most popular writers of his time. His Journals were first published after his death.

I started with Sharpe and Alcock to cycle to Halifax. The Ivel hotel at Biggleswade is kept by a man named Allbone whom Alcock called "the father of the North Road", a mild-mannered, well-built man of 35 or so, but with peculiar involuntary movements of the hands and head which seemed to indicate some sort of paralysis.

Alcock and he were exchanging reminiscences of racing inthe old cycling days, before the safety came into use. Theydecided that real racing belonged only to the past. In those daysa man would ride from London to Oxford, win a cup, and ride backthe same evening with the pot under his arm.

Now the crack cyclist, "trained to the minute" is taken to therailway station in a perambulator (so to say) and carefullyescorted from the carriage to the sports ground. He has one manto attend to tires, another to attend to bearings, another toattend to himself.