2025-03-04 – Health – www.theguardian.com
4 March 1895: The popularity of cycling among the aristocracy is remarkable as the bicycle used to be looked upon as the poor man’s horse
The increasing popularity of cycling among the ‘aristocracy’ is remarkable. Among recent recruits may be mentioned Lord Zetland, Lady Havelock Allan, Sir Joseph Pease, the Earl of Camperdown, the Duke of Westminster, and two of the daughters of the late Earl of Iddesleigh. Heretofore the only objection urged against the pastime has been its vulgarity. The bicycle was looked upon as the poor man’s horse, and those who patronised it were considered very ordinary people. The utility of the bicycle as a means of conveyance, its capacity for causing harmless and elevating pleasure, and its undoubted health-giving qualities were all ignored at the dictates of the fashionable world. The said fashionable world have suddenly discovered the virtues of the cycle, and, ignoring the fact that even butchers’ boys may derive pleasure from the same…