We’ve been swooning over the Pashley Sovereign Princess ever since gorgeous Fleur de Guerr wrote about them in this post of her blog, Diary of a Vintage Girl, last summer. Not realizing it at the time, this is also the bike we’d long admired in the pages of Victoria magazine in the 1990s. Until fairly recently, there weren’t any shops distributing them in the vicinity. 
But one was finally located, and a Regency Green Pashley will be arriving here in August!! We can finally imagine we’re in St. Mary Mead, home of Miss Marple, or Tilling, the home of Miss Mapp, and later Emmeline “Lucia” Lucas, in E.F. Benson’s books - all time favorites around here. It’s in the last book of the series, Trouble for Lucia (1939) that Lucia starts a fad for bicycling:
"The bicycles arrived a week later, nickel-plated and belled and braked; Lucia had the borough arms of Tilling brilliantly painted on the tool bag behind her saddle. They were brought up to Mallards after dark; and next morning after breakfast the two rode about the garden paths, easily passing up the narrow path into the kitchen garden, making circles round the mulberry tree on the lawn (‘Here we go round the mulberry tree’ lightly-heartedly warbled Lucia) and proving themselves adepts. . . At the shopping hour they mounted and bumped slowly down the cobbles of the steep street into the High Street, ready to ring their bells.
This one appearance of Lucia and Georgie doing their shopping on bicycles had been enough to kindle the spark of admiration in the breast of the more mature ladies of Tilling. It looked so lissome, so gaily adolescent to weave your way in and out of traffic and go for a spin in the country, and surely if Lucia could, they could also.
It became fashionable to career up and down the High Street after dark, when traffic was diminished, and the whole length of it resounded with tinkling bells and twinkled with bicycle-lamps. . ."
“‘Now we can put on the pace a little Georgie,’ said Lucia and she shot ahead. All her practicings had been on the level roads of the marsh or on the sea-shore, and at once she was travelling much faster than she had intended, and with eyes glued on the curving road, she fumbled for her brake. She completely lost her head. All she could find in her agitation was her bell, and incessantly ringing, she sped with ever increasing velocity down the short steep road towards the bridge over the railway. A policeman on point duty stepped forward with the arresting arm of the law held out to stop her…”
(Above: "Miss Sally Emerson and Miss Jean Williams question Park Policeman Arthur Dolan as to why he arrested them 1933 Golden Gate Park" From the San Francisco Public Library historical photo collection.)
Cycling was popular for women in the 1930s for fitness and leisure. Attire for country or resort-area rides was casual - a pair of high-waist shorts or skirt and a blouse, with or without coordinated knee socks; or a sports dress. Culottes (also worn for golf and tennis) or divided skirts were practical for those that wanted freedom of movement but couldn’t – or wouldn’t – wear shorts. Shown below, a 2-piece bicycling costume of pink linen, 1935, consisting of divided skirt with a scarf for the waist and another for the collar, in turquoise stripes. The shirt has a long tail to keep it from pulling out. White calf bicycle shoes with leather heels that are quite flat.
For Town, a dress, perhaps of silk or linen, was a more likely ladies’ choice. Phoenix Hosiery, in this 1934 ad, emphasized the durability and stretching capacity of their product, with the ladylike cyclist in mind.
Color image above: from the Lake Pepin 3-Speed Tour website, http://www.3speedtour.com/. A divine-sounding tour around Lake Pepin, Minnesota, 1930s style. Top image, Coca-Cola ad, 1934.
No comments:
Post a Comment