PELOTOME

1869

Manuel du Vélocipède.

Written in French by Richard Lesclide, under his nom de plume, Le Grand Jacques -this charming little illustrated book is packed with fictional bicycling stories. A pioneer in sports journalism and the future secretary to Victor Hugo, Lesclide would found the influential bi-weekly magazine, Le Vélocipède illustré in the same year -which notably organised the first city-to-city cycling race in history: the famous Paris-Rouen, on 7th November, 1869.

• by Le Grand Jacques (Richard Lesclide).
• illustrated by Emile Benassit.
• published in French by Librairie du Petit journal, Paris.

November 1869 – Published 1872.

Théorie vélocipédique et pratique.

“ou Manière d’apprendre le vélocipède sans professeur” (“Velocipedic theory and practice, or way of learning the velocipede without a teacher”) was a helpful non-illustrated 26 lesson guide on how to ride by Rémy Lamon, a Lieutenant in the 12th battalion of Mobiles de la Seine, and member of the Compagnie Parisienne des Vélocipèdes.

12 months after being hit by shrapnel in his leg at the Battle of Le Bourget, during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War – adding to an injury he had suffered when taking a bullet in the left hand, at the Battle of Magenta during the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859 – Lamon had finished 14th out of 323 riders in the first ever Paris-Rouen race of 1869, taking home the bronze medal for a wooden machine. Among other races, the book gives a full account of the race and also points out that he was the only competitor to actually make the return journey the following day.

• by M. Rémy Lamon.
• Published by the author, Paris.

1870

Le Tour du Monde en Vélocipède.

“Around the World by Vélocipède” is the earliest known cycle touring book ever published. Released a year after his charming “Manuel du vélocipède”, this fictional account, written in French – under the nom de plume, Le Grand Jacques – and also serialised in the author’s bi-weekly magazine, Le Vélocipède illustré, it follows an eccentric American millionaire and a “freak show” giantess on their bespoke Vélocipède from Paris to Siberia, crossing Russia into Alaska and Canada, before making their way down through Panama to Cape Horn, sailing on to the Cape of Good Hope and then heading back to Paris through Africa.

• by Le Grand Jacques (Richard Lesclide).
• with illustrations by Felix Regamey.
• published in French by Librairie de la Publication, Paris.

August 1871 ~ Published in 2023.

La Savoie et l’Isère à bicycle.

“Voyage d’Adrien de Baroncelli, d’août à septembre 1871” (Journey of Adrien de Baroncelli, from August to September 1871) is a little French book which compiles the account of a journey which first appeared in Le Vélocipède illustré (published over six issues between 15th August and 10th October 1872). Considered to be the first French-language bicycle travelogue, it was made by the future Provence travel guide writer Adrien de Baroncelli, who was then just nineteen years old, on his faithful “veloce” Frou-Frou, exploring the roads of Savoy and Isère from Geneva to Grenoble and Aix-le-Bains. He also offers detailed advice on how to dress and carry luggage for a five day trip.

• by Adrien de Baroncelli (edited by Jean-Yves Mounier).
• Produced by Gilbert Jaccon & Jean-Yves Mounier.

1872 – published in 1877

Bonn to Metz per Bicycle – in Six Days – 1872.

A “most interesting book” of how two English men, 20 year old London-born Charles Frederick Casella and his friend, Fritz, travelled in April 1872, the 800 km from Bonn in Germany to Bingen am Rhein and onwards to Metz – which, following the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, had only just become part of the German Empire a few months earlier (although now lies in France once more), – “on bone-shakers made by Snoxell”; one of which “rejoiced in rubber tyres, as at that time this great luxury was just coming into vogue.”

• by Charles F. Casella.
• printed by Spottiswoode & Co., London
• (illustration of a Snoxell velocipede, left, not from book).

1874

Bicycling; Its Rise and Development.

“A text book for riders” aimed to cater for the rapidly developing bicycle movement by filling the void, after early books about the wooden wheeled machine had become valueless. With numerous illustrations to assist the beginner, the book is packed with informative chapters on routes in England, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, The Battlefields of 1870, Upper Rhine, Belgium, Germany, Holland, and France – each highlighting the points of interest, hotels, museums, mileage, gradients and road conditions along the way,

The section on France comes with a warning by the French government that “it is ordered that velocipedes. in the day-time, shall carry bells loud enough to be heard at a distance; must be lighted at night-fall with a lamp or lanterns, like those of cabs; must be numbered, if to let, and bear the name and address of their owner. Persons not attending to these rules will have their bicycles forfeited and will be prosecuted.” A road tax was also payable of 10% of the bike’s value.

The routes listed in France are Dieppe or Havre – Paris; Rouen – Paris; The Loire; Across Brittany; and Paris – Cherbourg; plus the route covering the “Battlefields of 1870” from Mezieres to Strasbourg; and thence “Upper Rhine” from Strasbourg through the Alsace to Basel,

• Published by Tinsley Bros., London.

1874 – published in 1875

Paris to Vienna by Bicycle.

In this 32 page book, W. Saunders recounts Frenchman M. A. Laumaillé’s notable 760 mile, 12 day journey of October 1874, “the longest bicycle tour on record”, from the French to the Austrian capital on an English machine. The journey, “of upwards of 760 miles in spite of bad roads, disgraceful treatment by villagers, heavy rains, and many other discouragements” was also wildly reported in international medical journals at the time, due to Laumaille’s invention of a natural tonic made from liqueur de cocoa, which “supported him and gave him strength.”

• by W. Saunders.
• Published by Tinsley Brothers, London.
• image, left, proved by University of Bristol Library.

August 1881 – published in 1883.

Over the Pyrenees on a Bicycle.

Well known for his foreign tours in Bicycling News, under his nom de plume “Obadiah”, secretary of the Crichton Bicycle Club, Alfred M. Bolton’s “A Bicyclist’s Adventures Among the Spaniards; Médoc, Guienne, Gascony, Navarre, Guipuzcoa, Alava, and Castile” is an interesting account of his August and September 1881 cycle tour, with his friends Harold “Hal” Goodwin (of the same cycle club) and Gregorio Vignau de Lazcano (of the Cosmopolitan Bicycle Club of Paris), through the “comparatively unexplored” sunny “land of romance, dusky sierras, and historical associations”, on a “4 ft. 4 in. ‘Rucker’” with a “roomy and expansive ‘Clytie’ travelling bag”, armed with a small, handy pocket revolver and a huge dagger, in anticipation of encountering “lots of brigands and wild animals”.

• by Alfred M. Bolton.
• published by The Strand Publishing Co., London.

August 1883.

Au St Bernard en Tricycle.

Written in French, this rare, illustrated, humorous book details a tricycle journey by two friends, “Tonio” and “Blondin”, from Geneva to Flumet in the French Alps and back via the Grand St Bernard Pass in 1883.

• by Antoine Hornung & Albert Gos.
• illustrations by Albert Gos.
• published by Annuaire du Commerce Suisse, Geneva.

March 1884 – Published in April 1885.

500 Miles in France on Bicycles.

This humorous 58 page account of “seven days’ wanderings together on the wheel” by Herbert Montgomery Wright and his illustrator friend H.C. Nixon, two graduates of the University of Dublin, sees them cycle from Dieppe to Paris on 54-inch wheeled bikes in Spring 1884. It was recommended “to cyclists and others” in two reviews by The Irish Field who proclaimed, “they will not regret the extravagance.”

• by H. M. Wright and H. C. Nixon.
• illustrated by H. C. Nixon.
• Published by Forster & Co., Dublin.
• (image of an 1884 Climax Roadster not from book).

May 1885 – Published 1887.

Around the World on a Bicycle.

“From San Francisco to Teheran” was the first illustrated volume of 29 year old English immigrant Tom Steven’s pioneering ride around the globe. The book covers the first half of the novice rider’s journey on his fifty-inch Pope “Columbia” high-wheeler, with a handlebar bag containing socks, a spare shirt, a raincoat that doubled as a tent and bedroll, and a pocket revolver.

Leaving California, on 22nd April, 1884, he became the first person to cycle across America before sailing from New York to England, crossing the Channel from Newhaven to Dieppe, on 11th May, 1885, and making a “most interesting, and perhaps instructive” journey through France, taking in Rouen, Paris, Vitry-le-François, Nancy, and Blamont, on the border of Alsace – at the time. part of Germany, – where he continued onward through Phalsbourg and Strasbourg (today, both returned to France), crossing the Rhine and continuing through the Black Forest toward the Middle East, eventually arriving in Tehran, Iran, on September 30th, 1885, where he stopped for winter as guest of the Shah,

• By Thomas Stevens.
• Published by Sampson, Lowe, Marston, Searle and Rivington, London.

July 1885 – Published October 1887.

Wanderings: On Wheel and On Foot in Europe.

Setting out from Glasgow on the 3rd July, 1886, and catching the steamer to Hamburg, Hugh Callan details his 1,500 mile, high-wheeler, 33 day journey “on wheel down Europe from the German ocean to the Aegean Sea”, in Greece, while the second part of the book is dedicated to his earlier July 1885 trip “on wheel up the Rhine Valley, from Amsterdam to Geneva, and back by Antwerp.” Taking in Strasbourg and Alsace (then Germany), he returns through Besançon, Epinal, Nancy, and Metz, crossing into Luxembourg.

Part Three follows his six week walking tour “‘on the tramp’ in Belgium and France,” in 1881, from Paris to Brussels.

• By Hugh Callan.
• Published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, London.

September 1885 – published in 1888.

Our Sentimental Journey.

“Through France and Italy”. Following on from “A Canterbury Pilgrimage“, London-based American tricycling couple Elizabeth and Joseph Pennell had continued their journey from Canterbury to Florence, on their honeymoon in the summer of 1885, although had not yet put it into writing before releasing the third part of the trip, “Two Pilgrims’ Progress” or “An Italian Pilgrimage”, a year earlier in 1887.

Belatedly, the second leg of their ride on a Humber tricycle – from Dover to Amiens, Nampont, Paris, Fontainebleau, Montargis, Moulins, Lyon, Vienne and Rives (where their trip abruptly ends prematurely, 100 miles from Italy), – is detailed in this wonderful 1888 book, inspired by the travels of Tristam Shandy in Laurence Sterne’s 1768 novel “A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy”.

• by Joseph and Elizabeth Rose Pennell.
• Published by Longmans, Green & Co., London.

August 1888 – Published 1895.

From the Clyde to The Jordan.

“Narrative of a bicycle journey” was the first illustrated account by a rider of a “modern day bicycle”, and followed Scottish clergyman Hugh Callan – the same author of “Wanderings on Wheel and on Foot Through Europe” – on his ride from Glasgow to Jerusalem, which had previously appeared seven years earlier as a series of articles in the Glasgow Herald in 1888 and 1889.

Charting the author’s progress on a “Singer” safety bicycle, he presumably makes his way to Calais by train, and after exploring the town, catches another train to Paris, where his ride actually starts, taking him “to Belfort, by Troyes and Vesoul,” through “the champagne country,” “and many a natural fortress like Chaumont and Langres;” “then come the Vosges and ‘the blue Alsatian mountains’.”

Turned back at the French-Alsatian frontier (then Germany) near Foussemagne, he instead crosses some fields and through some woods and makes his way to “Mulhausen” (Mulhouse), passing “no fewer than four frontier lines from France over Alsace into Basle, Switzerland”, making the comment which is just as pertinent today for post-Brexit British cyclists travelling on the Continent: “frontiers are indeed a barrier to all true progress in education and humanity, and I for one sigh for one government for Europe.”

• By Hugh Callan.
• Published by Blackie & Son, London.

May 1889 – Published 1890.

Round About The World on Bicycles.

“The pleasure tour of G.W. Burston and H.R. Stokes, Melbourne Bicycle Club, Australia,” follows George Burston and Harry Stokes on their 56-inch high-wheel bicycle journey around the world, setting off from Melbourne, on 1st November 1888, arriving back in Australia on the 14th December 1889.

The short French section of their journey was chronicled in The Australasian, on 25th January and 22nd March 1890,

Cycling from Freiburg, they crossed the Rhine into France (or what, at the time, was Germany, following the 1870 Franco-Prussian War), and explored “the famous” Strasbourg, “noted for the gallant defence by the French in 1870”, before continuing on to “the great German sanitorium of Baden Baden.”

They would return to France in July 1889 – leaving their bicycles in London – to visit the Exposition Universelle world fair, including its main attraction, the brand new Eiffel Tower (opened just three months earlier) – “The view was most extensive, but in reality the height was too great for Paris.”

Commenting that “Paris is the finest city we have seen,” they were “led about like a lot of sheep” on a Cook’s Tour to Versailles, before leaving for Brussels.

• “by G.W. Burston and H.R. Stokes.
• Published by George Robertson and Company, Melbourne, Australia “for private circulation only”

June 1890 – Published 1891.

Wheel Tracks in Foreign Lands.

“Recollections of a cycling tour through Europe during the summer of 1890” followed twenty riders of the “Elwell American Bicycle Party” on their safety bicycles as they peddled 1,500 miles around France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and England.

Arriving in La Havre from New York, on 5th june 1890, they passed through Saint-Romain-de-Colbosc, Caudebec-en-Caux, Rouen – “the ancient capital of Normandy,” Mantes-la-Jolie, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and Paris, where they spent a week exploring the city and Versailles.

Continuing on to Melun, Fontainebleau, Sens, Tonnerre, they celebrated the 4th of July “in true American fashion with a game of base ball,” in Dijon -“the ancient capital of Burgundy,” – before mounting their “steel steeds” again for Poligny and over the Jura mountains to Champagnole, Morez, and Les Rousses, “a French frontier fort,” riding over the Col de la Faucille to Geneva in Switzerland.

They briefly revisited France, cycling over the Col de la Forclaz from Martigny to Chamonix, where “the arrival of the bicyclists created a great excitement in the little village,” and they visited the Mer de Glace. and the long-since gone “Mauvais Pas.”

They also took in Strasbourg (then part of Germany) on their route north from The Black Forest to Baden-Baden.

• by James E. Wilkinson.
• Published by Hanzsche & Co., Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

July 1890 – Published in 1891.

A Summer’s Cycling Reminiscence.

“The story of a three months’ bicycling tour through Europe and an account of some of the impressions received” compiled a series of articles which first appeared in the Canadian “Cycling” journal in February 1891, following its editor F.F. Peard, “one of the party” of six members of The Torontos Bicycle Club, on their June 1890 trip of Europe (the author on a brand new 32″ Rudge Safety Bicycle).

After arriving in Dieppe on the steamer from Newhaven, they cycled south to Arques-la-Bataille, Rouen – the “ancient capital of Normandy,” – Pont-de-l’Arche, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where they made the “ascent of the gigantic hill” to Versailles and Paris, where they would spend ten days.

Here the group split: “McBride carrying out his original idea of visiting the Rhine, Langley taking a mysterious jaunt through the wilds of Germany, McLean and Peard returning to England” (by train to Dieppe, and catching the ferry to Newhaven).

C. Langley details “A 400-mile Tour on a Grand Old Ordinary” (Rudge penny farthing) from Paris to Mannheim, catching the train to Ozoir-la-Ferrière and cycling on to Gretz-Armainvilliers, Rozay-en-Brie, Courgivaux, Vitry-le-François, Void-Vacon, Nancy, and Moyenvic, crossing into what was then Germany near Bourdonnay and continuing through Héming, Sarrebourg, and Strasbourg, before entering modern day Germany at Kehl.

R.H. McBride’s “A Pleasant Memory” (on a Rudge ordinary) took him from Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, through Melun, Sens, Tonnerre, Montbard, and Dijon, where he caught the midnight train to Geneva, returning on train from Basel to Strasbourg (then Germany), and cycling over the Rhine to Rastatt.

• by F.F. Peard, C. Langley & R.H. McBride.
• published by Press of “Cycling“, Toronto, Canada.
• (illustration, not from the book, of an 1890 32″ Rudge Safety Bicycle, as ridden by F.F. Peard).

June 1891 – Published in 1892.

The Brownies in “Yurep”.

“Or, cycling beyond the sea” is an incredibly rare book, with only 32 copies ever printed. It follows the “Members of the Elwell Bicycle Tour of 1891” on their ride in Europe with “Papa” Elwell, complete with photographs, from England, “touring through sunny France, mid Switzerland’s snow-clad peaks and lakes of blue, and down the fabled Rhine” through Germany and Holland – the same guided tour taken by James E. Wilkinson in “Wheel Tracks in Foreign Lands” a year earlier.

• by Charles R. Cutter and F. R. Goodrich.
• published by Telegram Book Print, Youngstown, Ohio, U.S.A..
• (advert for Elwell’s Tour of 1891 in Life, 2nd April 1891).