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BEATA KIERSNOWSKA1 DOI: 10.15290/CR.2022.39.4.04
University of Rzeszów, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9810-8148

Cycle Touring and the
Middle-Class
Consumption of Nature.
Anti-urbanism in H. G.
Wells’ The Wheels of
Chance and Cycling
Press Reports of the Late
Nineteenth Century

Abstract. The article aims to discuss the cultural significance of cycle touring for the Victorian urban mid-

dle class in the context of the growing significance of leisure and recreation to Englands̓ working popula-

tion and the burgeoning mass tourist industry. Cycle tourism in the countryside is presented as a leisure

activity reinstating an organic link between man and nature that was severed by the progress of industrial

capitalism in Victorian cities. The remarkable popularity of bicycle tourism in the last decade of the nine-

teenth century was induced mainly by its perception as an essentially rural recreation, allowing cyclists to

immerse themselves in the unspoilt nature of England's pastoral countryside. As such, the activity corre-

sponded with Victorian attitudes to nature, their idealisation of the country, nostalgia for the wholesome-

ness of rural existence and denunciation of the city. The discussion of the phenomenon is illustrated with

references to numerous press publications promoting cycle touring in the countryside and extolling its

benefits, and Herbert George Wells' bicycling novel The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll (1896).

Keywords: bicycle, touring, cyclist, nature, country, tourism, landscape, Herbert George Wells.

1 Address for correspondence: The Department of English Studies, The Institute of Modern Languages,
University of Rzeszów, Al. mjr. W. Kopisto 2B, 35-315 Rzeszów, Poland. E-mail: bkiersnowska@ur.edu.pl

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9810-8148


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Introduction
The article discusses cycle touring in the countryside in the cultural context of anti-ur-
ban feelings in late Victorian Britain, cherishing rural beauty, and acknowledging its
beneficial influence on urban residents. The onset of industrial capitalism brought
about profound economic, technological and social transformations in Victorian Britain,
and engendered the cultural climate of the period perceptibly characterised by polar
attitudes to the consequences of industrial progress for human beings. On the one hand,
it produced a fascination with scientific and technological advances, which transformed
the nature of work and penetrated every sphere of human existence; on the other, it
evoked concern about the detrimental effects of industrialisation on urban populations.
The latter view was expressed by the growth of anti-urban attitudes and appreciation of
rurality and unspoilt nature. Noticeable changes in peoples̓ mindset resulting from
these conflicting tendencies revealed themselves in their attitudes to work and leisure,
and the growing realisation of the importance of recreation for the well-being of human
beings. These changes, combined with the arrival of the railway and working hours legal
regulations, proved conducive to the development of mass domestic and overseas
tourism. One of the inventions of the period which played a pivotal role in Britains̓
burgeoning tourist industry was the bicycle. As “one of the technological marvels of the
Victorian era” (Rubenstein 1977: 48), the bicycle in a unique way fused both of the above-
mentioned opposite attitudes, simultaneously satisfying the Victoriansʼ thirst for techno-
logical progress and becoming an instrument of physical and psychological liberation
from the relentless effects of industrialisation in the city. This means of personal trans-
port offered possibilities for unrestrained movement and enabled its users to vent pent-
up longing for the wholesome pastoral atmosphere of the country and natural scenery.

The present paper has been informed mainly by scholarly works on social history and
leisure studies of the Victorian period, particularly those examining the role of cycling
and tourism, as well as Victorian attitudes to the country and nature. References to
numerous press cycling reports and Herbert George Wellsʼ bicycling novel of 1896, The
Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll, demonstrate the indubitable popularity of cycle
tourism in Britain in the last decade of the century. They support the argument that this
mode of tourism fitted into the anti-urban mood of the period and corresponded with
the appreciation of the country as the antithesis of the city.

Pastoral values of the country admired by cycling tourists augmented rural sympa-
thies and helped urban residents rediscover nature. H. G. Wells, himself an enthusiastic
cyclist, often ventured on cycling trips in the home counties2 (James 2008: 41). The

2 I.e., the counties surrounding London: Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Berkshire. The term is also ap-
plied to the counties of Kent, Hertfordshire and Essex.



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author s̓ personal experience and familiarity with the region were translated into
insightful and affectionate literary descriptions of pastoral landscapes through which
the main protagonist s̓ itinerary led, their impression on him, and the felt psychological
and emotional effects of cycling in the country. The implicit nostalgia for unspoilt
nature and idyllic rustic scenery perceptible in Wellsʼ novel evinces the novelist s̓ “deep
love of rural England” (Hammond 2001: 87). Similar affection for rural England and the
beauty of the English countryside can be inferred from the study of press reports of
cycling trips in the countryside and articles promoting cycling. The authors of these
pieces fervently recommend cycle touring in the country to city residents, regarding it
as a hobby which, by subjecting cyclists to the beneficial effects of nature, could bring
relief from the frustrations of existence in late-Victorian cities.

Perception of nature and anti-urbanism
in Victorian England
Historically, ruralism has been a salient factor in English culture, affecting the percep-
tion of human-nature relations, moulding the nation's lifestyles and pastimes, and
leaving an imprint in the country s̓ literary tradition. The pastoral ideal, having its roots
in classical times, found its various manifestations in English literature, which since the
sixteenth century frequently utilised the pastoral convention in poetry, drama and the
novel. For centuries, the country ethos was also cultivated by the landed elite, whose
income was intertwined with land ownership, who took pride in their country mansions
and estates, and enthusiastically pursued rural recreations such as horse-riding and
hunting. A cultural turn in the perception of what natural rustic beauty and pastoral
ideal consisted in occurred in the eighteenth century, when the English aristocracy,
under the influence of the popular Grand Tour and landscape painting, were persuaded
to adopt a new standard of natural beauty. It resulted from a close relationship between
art and nature, and was convincingly translated into a new, more informal and natural
gardening style—the English landscape park. Starting in the 1720s, when William Kent
introduced an Arcadian ideal of a more naturalistic composition in garden designs, until
the early nineteenth century, when Humphry Repton applied ideas of the picturesque
and the sublime in his Romantic landscapes, the skills and artistic genius of English
landscape architects and gardeners helped transform numerous country estates into
seemingly natural representations of perfect rural scenery. English landscape-park style
reached its most excellent refinement around the mid-eighteenth century when the
most renowned landscape gardener, Lancelot ʻCapabilityʼ Brown, started creating mini-
malist natural ʻgardenlessʼ landscapes surrounding Englands̓ finest country houses and
estates (von Trotha 2009: 7-9; Jarrett 1978: 10-15). Browns̓ designs established a lasting
model of natural rural scenery that the Victorians and future generations regarded as
the essence of English scenic beauty.



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In his lecture on the cultural significance of land and landscape, Jonathan Bate argues
that the perception of the countryside, the characteristics and values ascribed to it, are a
cultural product—the result of certain circumstances, beliefs and ideas (2002: 47). The
Victorians largely owed their appreciation and understanding of the natural world to the
Romantics, whose perception of nature as a dwelling place of God, a purifying but
mysterious force inspiring awe and solace, gave a new dimension to the pastoral ideal
long embedded in the English cultural and literary heritage. The Romantic legacy
underscored the vitality of retaining an organic human-nature link (Kaur, “God and Reli-
gion”; Kiersnowska 2020: 55) and aroused awareness of the positive influence of nature
on man. Such beliefs were fundamental to nineteenth-century sensibility and social
thought, prompting ameliorationist civic reforms and campaigns for establishing recre-
ational grounds, public parks, and open spaces in industrial cities.

In Victorian times, idealisation of the country, where the beneficial effects of nature
on humans were fully manifested in the simple, wholesome life of country folk, and
where landscapes retained their pre-industrial unspoilt beauty was at the root of an
antagonistic dichotomy between the city and the country. The ʻnaturalʼ country
perceived through the prism of a rural ideal possessing a divine element and offering
moral and physical benefits to man was the antithesis of ʻmans̓ creationʼ—the town, with
all the social and moral inadequacies resulting from industrial capitalism (Bate 2002:
48). Such ideas engendered a climate of anti-urbanism discernible in social and intellec-
tual thought, which permeated the public discourse (Kiersnowska 2020: 55). Arguably, a
significant contributory factor to the growth of rural sympathies was the rapid progress
of urbanisation attendant on the advance of industrial capitalism.

The development of manufacturing production in towns combined with economic
changes in the countryside induced a massive migration of the impoverished rural
population into new urban industrial centres. In consequence, by mid-century, the
urban population exceeded the rural one, and England became the first urbanised
country in the world (Williams 1973: 2; Thompson 2016: 28-31; Kiersnowska 2020: 54).
However, the progress of urbanisation came at a social and environmental cost. Recur-
ring epidemics of cholera and other contagious diseases afflicting urban communities
crammed in dirty, narrow and poorly ventilated streets, air pollution, environmental
degradation and industrial ugliness resulting from haphazard urban development came
in for criticism from the enlightened members of society. While social problems result-
ing from abject poverty and dire living conditions in industrial cities created wide-
spread concern and apprehension for the future, the wholesomeness and simplicity of
the rural lifestyle were increasingly appreciated. The observations of a well-known
physician and social reformer, doctor James Philips Kay-Shuttleworth, based on his
visits to Manchester slums and published in The Moral and Physical Condition of the
Working Classes Employed in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester (1832), made a direct



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link between the poor physical and moral constitution of working-class city dwellers
and the deploring living conditions in England's manufacturing cities. They were
further corroborated by the publication of an official report, The Sanitary Condition of
the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842), by Sir Edwin Chadwick, an influential
secretary to Poor Law commissioners. Both publications reinforced the anti-urban
argument and triggered a national debate on improving the quality of life of city resi-
dents by promoting urban green areas conducive to healthy outdoor recreation and
propagating outdoor leisure activities in out-of-town locations. Although anti-urban
attitudes reached their climax in the 1840s, when the deplorable conditions of life in
industrial cities were most acutely manifested, the deprecatory stance on towns and
town life persisted until the century s̓ end (Machlow 1985: 97-98; MacMaster 1990: 118-
119; Burchardt 2002: 47; Kiersnowska 2020: 55).

Cycling revolution and mass tourism
Cycling began in England in the late 1860s when the velocipede, the ancestor of the
bicycle, entered England from France. The first machines were produced in 1868 by
Josiah Turner and James Starley in their Coventry Sewing Machine Company. Their
business decision established Coventry as the cradle of British cycle manufacturing in
the nineteenth century and inadvertently prepared the ground for a bicycle mania that
swept across the country in the mid-1890s (Reid 2015: 247; Norcliffe 2016: 8). The first
bicycle was a heavy contraption with wooden wheels, a solid metal frame, and metal
tyres that promised the user a comfortless and bumpy ride; hence, it was rather appro-
priately nicknamed the 'boneshaker' (Mackintosh & Norcliffe 2007: 157). However,
continuous technological advances combined with high market demand fuelled the
rapid evolution of the bicycle as manufacturers regularly launched improved, lighter,
safer and faster models. It is tenable to argue that the introduction of the 'safety' bicycle
fitted with two equal-sized wheels, Dunlops̓ pneumatic tyres and pedal-and-chain drive
in the 1880s was a milestone in cycling progress. It helped transform the machine from
a costly fashionable sporting contrivance for risk-loving individuals into a more
manoeuvrable and easy-to-use device universally adopted by casual riders, both men
and women (Dauncey 2012: 12).

Until the 1890s, the bicycle tended to be perceived as a class-related status symbol
because the prohibitive price of both new, and second-hand machines made cycling
virtually inaccessible to the lower-middle and working classes. Like many other forms
of leisure and recreation at the time, it was characterised by strong social and gender
delineations (Norcliffe 2016: 4-5; Kiersnowska 2019: 88-91). Nevertheless, despite the
high prices, the number of cyclists on the roads and bicycles sold in Britain prolifer-
ated. In 1889 alone, more than 300,000 new bicycles were sold (Reid 2015: 248). In the
mid-1890s, when the safety bicycle became the dominant model, a growing market in



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much cheaper, older second-hand models made cycling available to the less affluent
(Flanders 2007: 454).

The cycling mania which erupted in England in the 1890s owes as much to the Victo-
rian Britonsʼ fascination with modern technological achievements as to the increased
leisure time and the rise of mass participation in recreation observable in the last
quarter of the century. Higher wages, larger disposable income, a shorter working
week, holidays—including paid bank holidays from 1871—and an expanded railway
network were conducive to the development of the mass tourist industry in the British
Isles (Reid 2008: 753-756; McNee 2021: 62). The primary beneficiaries of these develop-
ments and social changes were skilled manufacturing workers and the lower middle
class. Shop assistants, warehouse workers, domestic servants and bank and office clerks
could join the ranks of the well-off tourists and travel, visiting different parts of the
country (McNee 2021: 62). The expansion of popular tourism and outdoor recreation
was also spurred by the growing awareness of the recuperative powers of rest and
healthy outdoor exercise to improve the city population's physical condition. It gave rise
to numerous initiatives such as establishing public parks in towns and cities, campaigns
and legislative measures to preserve green areas, and public footpaths in the neighbour-
hood of metropolitan centres. Such policies were intended to provide urban residents
access to healthy recreation such as rambling in the open (Flanders 2007: 437; Daunton
2008: 50). Railway companies taking multitudes of manufacturing workers and lower-
middle-class employees from industrial cities for inexpensive day trips to the burgeon-
ing seaside resorts also fitted into the atmosphere of promoting open-air recreation and
accelerated the expansion of the tourist industry (Poole 1983: 81; Churchill 2016: 43).
Package tours to famous sites in the British Isles and overseas, pioneered by Thomas
Cook, became the kernel of the flourishing mass tourism. Amidst these changes, in the
last decade of the century, the bicycle became a significant instrument of tourism, and
cycle touring climbed to a prominent position among these modes of mass recreation
and healthy outdoor leisure.

Pleasure and freedom of riding
As cycling became more accessible and affordable in the final decade of the nineteenth
century, it began to lose its class-related status and was increasingly popular with a new
group of less affluent users—young men from the lower middle class—as a cheap and
sociable form of recreation (McNee 2021: 67). In H. G. Wellsʼ cycling novel The Wheels of
Chance: A Bicycling Idyll (1896), the main character, Mr. Hoopdriver, represents this new
and quickly growing group of lower-middle-class bicycle users—office clerks, teachers
and shop assistants—who have sufficient funds and leisure to go cycle touring. Hoop-
driver works as a draper's assistant in Putney, London, and decides to spend his holidays
travelling along the South Coast. To this end, he purchases a second-hand bicycle—"a



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machine with a past", "an antiquity", "perfectly sound, if a little old fashioned"—and
starts practising the skill of riding (Wells 1913: 29-30). On the first day of his holidays,
dressed in his fashionable cycling apparel of a brand-new brown woollen Norfolk jacket
and thick chequered stockings, and equipped with a change of clothes and "a Road map
of the South of England" (Wells 1913: 15), Hoopdriver sets out on his journey.

As cycle mania swept across the country, some novice cyclists joined numerous exist-
ing cycling clubs and, as members, participated in organised excursions; others, like
Mr. Hoopdriver, undertook longer cycling holidays or just short out-of-town trips on
their own. Longing for the respite and pastoral pleasures the country offered, weekend
and day-trippers ventured from the cities by their thousands, riding the latest models or
much cheaper second-hand machines. The popularity and ubiquity of cycle touring are
evidenced in numerous press accounts from that period, such as the weekly cycling
reports in the Manchester Weekly Times, whose correspondent offers the following obser-
vation from one of his bicycle excursions: “Away down the familiar road to Altrincham
there were hundreds of cyclists travelling in both directions. Machines of all sorts of
types, and riding of many styles, were in evidence” (May 17: 1895).

Like the railway, which transformed the Victoriansʼ geographical experience, the
bicycle was also a “geographically liberating” machine (Norcliffe 2001: 23), playing an
instrumental role in altering the relationship between the hitherto distant country and
the city (Choi 2015: 252). It was unsurpassed in enabling the late Victorians an inexpen-
sive means of escaping from the city and taking refuge in the country. Urban topogra-
phy, with its network of streets lined with high buildings, dark backyards and narrow
alleys, was physically and psychologically confining. The townscape, juxtaposed with
the wide-open countryside offering limitless possibilities of moving about, appeared to
restrict man's physical mobility and the ability to experience a full range of emotions
and achieve spiritual welfare. Thus, the bicycle as a unique means of personal transport
harboured the potential of offering much-needed freedom and release from the oppres-
sion of urban life—its noxious atmosphere, frantic pace of life and industrial produc-
tion, human and traffic congestion, demanding work schedules, and coercive class divi-
sion. Cycling advocates emphasised the wholesome character of riding a bicycle,
arguing that it was “a sedative and refreshment to jaded nerves and spirits” (Cycling
June 12, 1897), and helped offset the adverse physical consequences of sedentary work.
Therefore, the activity was particularly recommended to “men who are tied to a desk or
confined to a warehouse all day” (Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser
June 28, 1890), and to tired city residents who were looking for a way to relieve the daily
stress of urban life: “This is change, this is rest, this is a holiday; and the tired man who
hungers for a laze will never find a better means to this end than his cycle” (Cycling
August 4, 1894).



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Unlike railway passengers or package trip tourists, cycle travellers were unencum-
bered by timetables, itineraries or fixed routes (Withers and Shea 2016: 3-4; Chen 2017:
610). The joy, excitement and pleasure resulting from unrestrained movement across the
country on ones̓ two wheels were frequently emphasised in cycling journals and the
press of the period to weigh in favour of cycle touring. For instance, readers of the tourist
section in Cycling could find the following argument highlighting the superiority of indi-
vidual cycle touring over other forms of tourism, such as a guided package trip: “one of
the charms of a cycle tour is that one is not bound to do anything, or be anywhere, at any
fixed time, but to scorch, loaf, or change ones̓ route at ones̓ own sweet will or at the
command of a stiff head wind” (May 8, 1897). On that account, cyclists were not merely
passive consumers of mass tourism but autonomous creators of their touristic experi-
ence. They enjoyed complete liberty to roam and explore the countryside and had full
command of the choice of their destination and the pace of their movement.

The pleasure that cycling provided was one of the chief incentives for adopting it as a
hobby (Horton et al. 2007: 6). The feeling may have stemmed from different aspects of
riding a bicycle—satisfaction from mastering the machine, developing cycling prowess,
appreciation of the fine scenery, or the sensation of speed and freedom. In the anti-ur-
ban discourse of the late Victorian period, these emotions were frequently quoted to
promote the beneficial effects of experiencing and exploring rural settings in an
unmediated way. The exponents of anti-urban opinions tended to identify cycle touring
as the best way of discovering the beauty and merits of the country, providing the urban
cyclist not only with much needed physical exercise but also with a positive emotional
release and sensory input. Press accounts of bicycle trips and articles praising the joys
of cycling highlighted pleasure and freedom as the singular sensations experienced by
the cyclist when touring the country on a fine day:

How sweet a thing it is to turn out in a fair and bright, but breezy, day and turn one s̓
front wheel to the wind already faintly laden with Maytime fragrances. As the long
rhythmical sweep and roll of the machine bears the rider onward, he and his wheels
cleave the opposing air, and it rushes past him with a swish that is pleasant to his ears.
(Manchester Weekly Times May 17, 1895)

Similarly, an article in Cycling (August 4, 1894) highlights a range of sensations experi-
enced by a cyclist during different stages of their ride: “the exhilaration experienced in
rapidly passing through beautiful scenery”, the “gaiety” of halting in towns one passes
through, and the “quiet and repose” of resting in a country inn. Ultimately, all of these
emotions filled one with a sense of excitement and pleasure inextricably connected
with the freedom of moving across rural scenery. Thus, the bicycle not only facilitated



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movement through the country but also enhanced the tourist s̓ delight in perceiving the
surrounding scenery.

The sense of pleasure gained from cycling in the country is also evinced in Wellsʼ
descriptions of Hoopdriver s̓ movement across southern England in The Wheels of
Chance. As soon as he leaves London, the young man is filled with relief and captivated
by the charming rustic landscapes and rich vegetation, which are entirely new and
refreshing to him: “the hedges and trees and the open country were all glorious to his
town tired-eyes" (Wells 1913: 38). The superiority of cycling to provide excitement when
enjoying rural scenery is attested to further in the novel, for example, when Hoopdriver
converses with a fellow cyclist during a chance meeting at Ringwood. The latter, a cler-
gyman on a tricycle, enthusiastically declares: “I can imagine that, with a properly oiled
machine, there can be no easier nor pleasanter way of seeing the country” (Wells 1913:
281). All the emotions that cycling in the country and being surrounded by nature
provide are in stark contrast to the humdrum of city life, its boredom and confinement.
Unsurprisingly, then, riding to the South Coast becomes for Hoopdriver an exhilarating
break from his regimented life in London and an exciting adventure engendering the
feeling of “joie de vivre!” (Wells 1913: 28).

Hoopdriver s̓ cycling trip is a literal and symbolic escape from the city. As soon as he
leaves the city behind, he feels liberated from his repressive London existence and his
poorly paid, dead-end job in the draper's shop. In London, he has little control over his
life and highly supervised work, in which the prospect of ever rising in the professional
hierarchy seems elusive. When his cycling trip commences, he feels that: “All the
dreary, uninteresting routine drops from you suddenly, your chains drop about your
feet. All at once you are Lord of yourself” (Wells 1913: 17). The further away Hoopdriver
rides from the city, the more self-confident and independent he becomes, both as a
cyclist and a man. He enthuses at the sudden realisation that he can go wherever he
pleases and is in complete control of his actions and choices: “call none Sir or Madame,
have a lapel free of pins, doff your black morning coat, and wear the colour of your
heart, and be a Man” (Wells 1913: 17). Riding through the vast expanse of the open
country enables Hoopdriver to be freed from his constricting social and mental frame-
work, as if all the constraints that restrained him in London suddenly disappeared,
allowing him to develop a new, more mature identity. A servile draper s̓ boy “bowing you
out with fountains of civilities” (Wells 1913: 4) is supplanted by a daring, adventurous
cyclist, a countryside explorer, and a chivalric knight errant who goes to great lengths to
rescue a fellow cyclist—the young impressionable Jessie Milton (the Young Lady in
Grey)—from the predicament she found herself in, and boldly defend her honour. At a
deeper level then, the cycling trip becomes for Hoopdriver a symbolic rite of passage
into manhood, which might have been much delayed in the urban environment.



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The bicycle journey to the South Coast in Wellsʼ novel is also a kind of escapism from
the class-ridden urban community, where Hoopdriver s̓ inferior social status moulded
by his economic circumstances is evident, into the world of cyclists, where seemingly
one s̓ social class is irrelevant. He is acutely aware of how insignificant and “how little
he was noticeable” (Wells 1913: 2) in the London draper s̓ shop. By the time Wellsʼ novel
was published, bicycling had democratised and almost lost the aura of social exclusivity,
yet some of its early associations with a sport for the socially privileged lingered. It is
probably this aura of social exclusivity that once surrounded cycling that appealed to
Hoopdriver and made him believe that this hobby could be a means to discard his lower-
middle-class status, even if momentarily, and become equal to gentlemen cyclists. Thus,
dressed in his brand-new fashionable cycling costume and adopting a fake accent,
which in his opinion disguises his humble social background, Hoopdriver joins the
ranks of the men of leisure: “The draper Hoopdriver, the Hand, had vanished from exis-
tence. Instead was a gentleman, a man of pleasure” (Wells 1913: 26).

In the late Victorian period, the availability of reasonably-priced mass-produced daily
and recreational clothes—for example, special bicycling outfits—to the lower social
classes made class-related dressing codes less readable (James 2008: 40-41). Therefore,
Hoopdriver s̓ projection of an elevated social status deludes some people he encounters
during the journey—the heath-keeper, Jessie Milton, and a ʻscorcherʼ he meets in Esher.
The young man smugly registers that the last one speaks to him “as his equal” (Wells
1913: 47). The fact that they all take Hoopdriver for a gentleman boosts his self-esteem
and increases his confidence. The only ill-fitting element of Hoopdriver s̓ gentleman-cy-
clist image is his old battered bicycle, the most expensive component and the one that
may reveal its owner s̓ true social standing. This is what happens during a chance
meeting with Bechamel, the proud owner of an expensive, top-of-the-range ʻsafetyʼ
complete with pneumatic tyres. Bechamel rudely responds to Hoopdriver's greeting and
projects an aloof and superior attitude throughout the encounter. He instantly sees
through Hoopdriver's façade and reads his true identity as a “Greasy proletarian” (Wells
1913: 49). To him, Hoopdriver is an imposter, an encroacher into the realm of what some
still regard as a gentlemanly recreation. As mentioned earlier, cycle touring had
achieved a degree of egalitarianism by the end of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless,
some old class prejudices were still in evidence, as exemplified by the incident
mentioned above. However, the social character of this recreation, bringing into direct
contact cycling aficionados from different rungs of society, prompted some modern
scholars researching Victorian modes of leisure to view cycle touring as a sort of social
bridge (Kern 2003: 216; So 2006: 39). Away from the pervasive professional and class divi-
sions affecting all forms of social contact in an urban environment, cycle touring in the
country arguably created ample opportunities for informal class interaction. Seemingly,



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it wiped out class distinctions as all bicycle users were simply fellow cyclists united by a
shared passion.

At the peak of bicycling popularity in the 1880s and 1890s, bicycles were so ubiquitous
on British roads that a cyclistsʼ recreational subculture developed. Demonstrating a
mass-participatory character, the brotherhood of cyclists united cycling devotees over
class and gender divisions. Many bicycle users congregated in bicycling clubs to tour the
countryside or race. The first clubs appeared as early as 1870 (McCrone 2006: 181), and
the rise in their number was so rapid that in the 1890s London alone had 300 active bicy-
cling clubs (Huggins 2004: 38). By that time, many cycling clubs had also relaxed their
restrictive admission rules and had discarded their gender and class exclusivity
(McCrone 2006: 181; Norcliffe 2016: 12). Like many subcultures whose members are
identified by a unique style, jargon and ritualistic behaviour, Victorian cyclists also
manifested certain attributes of belonging to a specific cultural group. Their shared
passion, experience, clothing style and manners were powerful bonding factors and
identity markers, providing a sense of belonging. In conversations with fellow wheel-
men or entries in visitors' books in pubs and hotels, cyclists would use a specialised
argot characterised by phrases like: “ʻroad scorchers,̓ ʻfellow wheelmenʼ and ʻmud-plug-
gingʼ through ʻbeastly wetʼ conditions” (McNee 2021: 67), which to them was perfectly
natural and understandable. Maintaining certain rituals when passing a fellow cyclist
was expected and conducive to sustaining an invisible bond uniting all cyclists. That is
why when Hoopdriver passed Bechamel, throwing a greeting and a due remark on the
quality of the road surface, he felt “a pleasing sense of having duly asserted the wide
sympathy that binds all cyclists together, of having behaved himself as becomes one of
the brotherhood of the wheel” (Wells 1913: 49). In the Victorian period, urban popula-
tions—often migrant and lacking cohesion—were believed to be deprived of community
spirit; therefore, the bond that united cyclists was unique and appreciated. It was remi-
niscent of pre-industrial, rural, close-knit communities that used to be united by
common goals, needs and experiences.

Picturesque tourism and appreciation of nature
The expansion of mass tourism in Victorian Britain was conjoined with the landscape's
cultural importance inherited by the Victorians from Romanticism and its perception as
an essential constituent of national identity. Eighteenth-century philosophical treatises
on the 'sublime' and the 'picturesque' moulded aesthetic appreciation and sentiment for
domestic scenery. Edmund Burke's ideas of landscape's 'curiosity' and 'sublimity', articu-
lated in his essay A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful (1757), were complemented by the third aspect—the 'picturesque'—popularised
by William Gilpin, a pioneer of picturesque touring, in his essay On Picturesque Beauty
(1792) and Uvedale Price in Essays on the Picturesque (1794). The beautiful, the sublime,



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and the picturesque formed a famous triad against which scenery was aesthetically and
emotionally assessed in the Romantic period and Victorian times (Williams 2008: 21-25).
Price enhanced the picturesque mode of perceiving a landscape by identifying 'curios-
ity' as its vital element. Curiosity was both a chief reason for and the felt effect of survey-
ing picturesque scenery: “the effect of the picturesque is curiosity; an effect, which,
though less splendid and powerful, has a more general influence” (1810: 88). Voracity
for experiencing at first-hand the spectacular effects of foreign and domestic natural
beauty spots and historical sites was a key motive for the eighteenth-century
picturesque tourist and the Victorian individual and package traveller to venture to
foreign lands or explore domestic scenery.

Traditionally, the beauty of the scenery was associated with harmony, tranquillity and
smoothness. However, picturesque tourists expected more from the landscape they
viewed than just a brief satisfaction of their aesthetic needs. A picturesque site ought to
have the potential to bring about a strong emotional reaction evoked in the observer by
the roughness, irregularity and ruggedness of the perceived scenery. They sought land-
scapes that could stir up a kind of painterly experience. Implementing the technique of
looking at the surrounding nature promulgated by Gilpin, the Romantic tourists and
their Victorian successors would usually take a stance in a high vantage spot allowing a
broad birds-eye vista over the surroundings and enabling them to conceptualise the
scenery into a picture. This way of surveying the scene created the feeling of control and
mastery over nature, while at the same time having the impression of being its integral
element (Morgan 2001: 47, 59; Austin 2007: 633-634; Williams 2008: 26-28).

By the late nineteenth century, there had been a redefinition of what constituted the
essence of the picturesque. The category was not solely applied to vacant, rough and
rugged landscapes and awe-inspiring irregular monumental castles and ruins described
in the gothic novels, but also started to be used for isolated pastoral, rustic areas,
winding streets and irregular buildings in small towns and villages. Collective nostalgia
and a yearning for the simplicity and peacefulness of rural existence accumulated from
century-long intensive industrialisation were fed by the appreciation of such simple
picturesque scenery (Austin 2007: 644-645). Raymond Williams argues that it was quite
natural that “a feeling for unaltered nature, for wild land” (1973: 128) should develop as
a consequential response to the forces of the agrarian and industrial revolutions. This
new perception of the picturesque was reflected in the growing body of tourist guide
books, newspaper editorials, tourist columns, and literary works where 'green language'
was employed to describe rural scenery, the weather, lighting, the sounds of nature and
botanical and animal life.

Such a writing mode characterised many press accounts of cycle tours whose authors
appealed to the picturesque sensitivity of their bicycling readers. They promoted
aesthetic consumption of nature when riding in the countryside by applying Gilpins̓



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technique of looking at the scenery from an elevated spot. Numerous examples of such
a style can be found, among others, in a series of articles promoting cycle touring
around Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. They started to appear in the Manchester
Weekly Times in 1892, and in the summertime of 1895 became a regular weekly feature of
the paper, introduced to satisfy the growing demand of its cycling readership for reli-
able, professional information on roads and routes suitable for cycling trips. Extensive
reports, illustrated with sketches of historic buildings or picturesque spots, written by
an experienced cyclist, included not only much needed practical particulars on the diffi-
culty and length of recommended routes, surface quality, and pubs and inns providing
service for cyclists, but also detailed descriptions and the historical background of
places and landmarks passed on the way. The factual accuracy and historical details that
one would typically find in tourist guide books were supposed to provide wheelmen and
wheelwomen with some prior knowledge on the historic sites they would pass, stir up
their interest, and encourage them to stop for a visit. Thus, an account of a cycling trip
to Wharfdale in Yorkshire recommends cyclists to visit Adel Church near Leeds, "which
is admitted […] to be the most perfect miniature specimen of Norman ecclesiastical
architecture in England” (July 26, 1895). In a report recommending to Manchester
cyclists a long itinerary through several counties down to Somerset, there is a
compelling description of the history and the present state of Malmesbury Abbey in
Wiltshire, an edifice of “ancient grandeur” and a supposed resting place of King Athel-
stan (September 20, 1895). Similarly, cyclists who choose to travel in Cheshire from
Adlington to Macclesfield are informed that a stretch of marshy wasteland they will pass
on their way, known as Danes Moss, was the site of a fierce battle between the Saxons
and “their ruthless foes, the Scandinavian hordes” (May 12, 1893).

Detailed references to places of historical significance in the described routes
undoubtedly spoke to the antiquarian interest of a sizeable part of the educated Victo-
rian public. However, their inclusion in the cycling reports was likely aimed predomi-
nantly at provoking the curiosity of the less cultured cyclists, providing intellectual
stimulation, and maximising their experience of an out-of-town wheel journey. Thus, a
cycling trip promised a unique blend of athletic exercise in natural scenery and a desir-
able touristic effect produced by visiting places of historical and cultural significance.
Such a conjecture can also be made based on the fact that in The Wheels of Chance, Wells
included an educative stopover on Hoopdriver s̓ journey in the “charming old town” of
Guildford (1913: 63). An entry in the guidebook informs the young draper s̓ assistant that
the town has a “delightful castle” worth a visit, and a Tudor Guildhall, “very pleasant to
see” (Wells 1913: 63). His interest spiked, Hoopdriver ascends the castle tower and, from
this elevated spot, like a proper picturesque tourist, looks down and over at the town
and the surrounding scenery (1913: 65).



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While the touristic attractiveness of cycle touring in the countryside had its relevance,
it was the possibility of experiencing nature in its complete form that was crucial to the
cyclists. The bicycle provided an incomparably better way of admiring the landscape
and an unmediated perception of nature than any other means of transport used by
tourists in the nineteenth century. The railway undoubtedly offered unmatched speed
of covering long distances but, as Douglas Burgess argues, it detached the passengers
from the surroundings they were passing through (2016: 10). Enclosed in the confined
space of the carriage, the passengers could only passively gaze at the quickly changing
scenery without the possibility of pausing and reflecting upon it or relating to it
emotionally. The perception of nature on the part of cyclists was an act of volition, and
they adjusted their cycling speed accordingly, slowing down or even stopping to
contemplate a beautiful vista. Like Romantic picturesque tourists, the wheelmen and
wheelwomen often chose an elevated vantage point that offered a broad birds-eye
perspective.

Many press articles recommending particular cycle routes suggested where to stop to
take in the vast expanse of the surrounding area and gain the maximum effect of the
grandeur and beauty of the landscape. In a piece describing the Macclesfield to Buxton
itinerary, The Chronicle strongly advises pausing after a strenuous uphill ride at the Cat
and Fiddle pub, from where there is a magnificent view over the moorlands, the moun-
tains beyond them and the town of Buxton in the valley (June 9, 1899). Similarly, those
cyclists who decide to follow the Manchester Weekly Times’ recommendation and visit
Wharfedale ought to halt at an elevated vantage point, look down, and marvel at the
magnificent sight of: “The silver stream of Wharfe […] winding its way along the centre
of the valley for miles” and the “fine configuration of the distant hills towards Ilkley”
(July 26, 1895).

H. G. Wells, too, when describing the glories of southern Englands̓ landscape as seen
through the eyes of Hoopdriver, appears to frequently utilise William Gilpins̓ technique
of scanning the landscape as if from above. He allows the reader s̓ eye to gradually travel
from the shrubs and trees lining the road further and further away to distant hills,
woods, and other scenery features, creating the impression of a broad panorama. The
description of the landscape contemplated by Hoopdriver during the Cobham to Ripley
leg of his journey provides an apt illustration of this method. Wells directs the protago-
nist s̓ gaze first at the “fine mossy trees and bracken” on either side of the road, and then
beyond them at a stretch of “an open country […] covered with heather and set with
pines, and a yellow road running across it” (Wells 1913: 51). Similarly, when riding from
Haslemere towards Portsmouth, Hoopdriver observes with delight "the wide blue hill
views and pleasant valleys […] on either hand of the sand-scarred roadway" (Wells 1913:
91). This perspective of looking at the surroundings creates the impression of a vast
expanse of open land stretching before Hoopdriver s̓ eyes. Moreover, the character of



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landscape descriptions in the novel creates the impression that its bicycling protagonist
dynamically perceives the surrounding scenery. He first notices the nearby features,
and then, gradually, his gaze travels further to discover the more distant landscape
elements. Thus, the cyclist becomes an active and conscious consumer of the scenery
and one with the surroundings.

Cycling in the countryside enabled urban residents to rediscover nature, develop a
close relationship with it, and experience the animated and non-animated natural world
with all their senses, without an intermediary. This widely held belief was confirmed by
numerous press accounts of bicycle journeys, offering detailed descriptions of the
botanical and animal variety observed by the cyclists, and nature s̓ colours, smells,
sounds and beauty. For example, the regular cycling correspondent for the Manchester
Weekly Times adopts an almost poetic language to render the multi-sensory impression
that the road from Adlington to Macclesfield and the surrounding scenery left on him:

The air is sweet with the odours of the spring blossoms; the birds are twittering in every
bush and thicket; from the distant copse the soft dreamy note of the cuckoo tells us the
harbinger of summer has arrived […] and the poet lark rains down his melody from the
cloudless blue above. The fragrant hedgerows, on which the hawthorn bloom is
shadowing, separate the dusty road from the verdant meadows that stretch away on
either hand, their banks are studded with star-like blossoms of the wild hyacinth. The
flower-laden chestnuts are in the pride of their summer glory, and the bright green and
yellow of the limes and newly foliaged oaks present a marked contrast to the sombre hue
of the firs and conifers. (May 12, 1893)

In another press piece on country cycle touring, it is argued that the study of wayside
plants and bird and animal life enhances not only the recreational aspect of riding but
also develops one s̓ knowledge and the faculty of observing nature and storing "quaint
and curious information" about it (Cycling June 12, 1897). The reporter maintains that
the discovery of the natural world may turn into an enjoyable hobby whose pursuit will
give the urban cycling bourgeoisie purpose and a “raison d’être to [their] wheel excur-
sions” to the country (Cycling June 12, 1897). This argument is corroborated by one of the
characters in The Wheels of Chance, a middle-aged cyclist at Esher, who declares that he
rides not only for exercise, but to observe the scenery and “botanise” (Wells 1913: 42).

Conjoining cycle touring with the consumption of leisure and nature is given proper
relevance in Hoopdriver s̓ journey in The Wheels of Chance. As the main hero progresses
in his trip to the South Coast, Wellsʼ descriptions of the rural scenery become more
detailed, accentuating its serenity and picturesqueness. This creates the impression that
the further away from London Hoopdriver cycles, the more details of the landscapes
passed on the way he notices, and the more aware of nature and receptive to its



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influence he becomes. The protagonist s̓ riding pace becomes more leisurely, and he
becomes more observant of the scenery. He often pauses and loiters, “generally
ʻmucking aboutʼ” (Wells 1913, 93), to appreciate the idyllic pastoral landscape: cornfields
“glorious with poppies”, “surly dun oxen”, “little cottages, and picturesque beer-houses
with the vivid brewersʼ boards of blue and scarlet, […] a broad green and a church”
(Wells 1913: 95). Immersion in the vastness and tranquillity of the rural landscapes
exerts a powerful influence on Hoopdriver. He takes more and more pleasure in the
leisurely relaxing pace of his journey, enabling him to admire lush vegetation and enjoy
the greenery and peace of the country, which is in stark contrast to the constant haste,
harassment and nagging he was subjected to in the city. He dismounts his bicycle to
paddle in the clear water of a pebbly rivulet, gathers wildflowers, and like a self-discov-
ered botanist admires their different shapes and colours, and wonders at their names
“for he had never heard of any” (Wells 1913: 93).

Wellsʼ descriptions of soft, bucolic southern landscapes evoke a nostalgia for the
romanticised bliss of ʻOld Englandʼ rusticity and fit into the climate of idealisation of the
country as the antithesis of the city. Such ideas were given prominence in the late nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries as homely rurality, particularly associated with the
south of England, was viewed as the essential element of English culture and national
identity (Tebbutt 2006: 1125). Therefore, the ascendancy of cycle touring over other
forms of contemplating the countryside cannot be overestimated. Press accounts and
Wells' novel testify that it created unique opportunities for a fusion between the cyclist
and the surrounding nature. Press reports from cycle journeys often contained descrip-
tions of country scenery that had impressed their writers. They were detailed, offering a
broad perspective of a particular beauty spot. More often than not, they had a literary or
even poetic quality—clearly appealing to the readers' sensitivity and nostalgia for pre-in-
dustrial unspoilt rural landscapes, and entreating them to pause and experience nature.
Attention to the details of natural life in landscape descriptions in these press articles
and The Wheels of Chance also confirms the ubiquity and dominance of anti-urban
discourse in late-Victorian Britain. By aptly suggesting the psychological and physical
benefits of cycle touring in rural areas, Wells and the authors of the aforementioned
press pieces indicate the country's superiority over the city. Thus, they are the expo-
nents of anti-urban tendencies defining the social and cultural climate of the period.

Conclusion
Cycling in its leisure forms provided not only much-needed athletic exercise to the
sedentary urban middle class but was also an aesthetic activity continuing the
picturesque tourism tradition. Though essentially a machine of speed, the bicycle also
provided Victorian tourists with a valuable means of exploring the country freely and in
a manner that enabled the cyclist and nature to come together in a kind of fusion that no



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other means of transport allowed. Gentle and unhasty riding made one acutely aware of
the surrounding scenery, providing continuous stimulation to all senses. Press accounts
of cycling tours in the country undertaken by readers and reporters, and H. G. Wells'
literary references to the effect rural surroundings exerted on the novel's main charac-
ter corroborate the above view.

Picturesque expanses of rustic landscapes marked by various topographical features,
historic landmarks, and verdant nature were unfamiliar to the city cyclist and filled the
cycling tourist with wonder. While beautiful forms and colours of inanimate nature
provided visual aesthetic pleasure, the sounds of birds and the tranquillity of the rustic
scenery offered pleasing aural stimulus. This multi-sensory exposition to the surround-
ings engendered a unique experience and evoked an emotional reaction to it on the part
of the perceiver. Cycle tourism then induced a composite response to nature, elevating
the cyclist from a passive consumer of scenic beauty to a conscious actor involved in a
deliberate act of participation in sensual human-nature harmony. Recreational cycling
was not merely a way of sightseeing utilising technological advances of the period in the
burgeoning individual and organised tourist industry. It was a means of rediscovering
the country and restoring the link between man and nature that industrial capitalism
and urbanisation had severed.

Cycle touring reinforced the polarity between pastoral values traditionally associated
with the country, and the Victorian cultural construct of the city as the representation of
modernity and coercive dehumanised industrialism. It evoked nostalgia for the gone-by
bliss and serenity that had been wiped out by industrial capitalism in the city but could
still be found and felt in the rural environment. Thus, the activity fitted into the anti-ur-
ban mood of the epoch as it offered a welcome release from the stifling routine of the
urban work-life cycle, and provided one with all the health, physical and mental bene-
fits that direct contact with rurality and immersion in the natural world provided.

The bicycle as a 'vehicle of liberation' enabled a physical and symbolic escape from
the urban environment. It opened up the possibilities of almost unrestricted mobility,
not subjected to physical or temporal constraints beyond the cyclist s̓ control but ensur-
ing complete command over the range and speed of one s̓ movement. The sense of
freedom experienced by recreational cyclists in the country was the natural conse-
quence of leaving behind city topography's physical and psychological limitations and
stifling urban social circumstances. Societal rigours and constricting conventions
resulting from the conspicuous class structure in the city were particularly intensely felt
by members of the working lower-middle class, whose professional position often
involved servile, restraining conditions and induced a dependency-based relationship
with their superiors. At the end of the nineteenth century, the democratisation of
cycling created a sense of community uniting all bicycle aficionados, in which class divi-
sions appeared to have lost relevance. This development in bicycle culture was



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particularly appreciated by the urban middle class, many of whom experienced alien-
ation and anonymity in large human aggregates in Victorian metropolises.



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	BEATA KIERSNOWSKA DOI: 10.15290/CR.2022.39.4.04
	Cycle Touring and the Middle-Class Consumption of Nature. Anti-urbanism in H. G. Wells’ The Wheels of Chance and Cycling Press Reports of the Late Nineteenth Century