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    IN writing my reminiscences of police duty in Hyde Park, I feel I should not perhaps be altogether completing my undertaking to omit-if only a few remarks on the subject of the bicycling season, or rather the bicycle craze, as it was more appropriately termed, and which undoubtedly it proved to be; for, like the proverbial donkey's gallop, it was short and sweet. One brief season-and it vanished as quickly as it sprang up! As a matter of fact, I was somewhat undecided about referring to the event at all.
    However, for the little while it did exist it certainly caused no small talk, and looked at one time to even vie with the Row in popularity.
    The Ring Road, from the Achilles Statue, Hyde Park Corner, to the Magazine, was the selected track, - a nice level straight run of about a mile - and soon. after ten o'clock in the morning, cyclists - chiefly ladies - made their appearance from all directions, and by eleven o'clock that portion of the roadway was simply thronged with them; for carriage traffic or equestrians it was almost impossible to get through, at all events dangerous to attempt, consequently they were advised to proceed by other routes. At every crossing constables were posted to assist foot passengers over the roadway-no easy matter to accomplish, either for the policeman himself or for those he was escorting. To pass safely through those rapid, silent wheels-no putting one's hand up and promptly stopping them like the ordinary carriage, traffic-it was a case of getting over the best way one possibly could.
    I was fortunate enough to escape without getting knocked down myself, but I believe it was more by luck than judgment - judgment was out of the question, for in getting out of the way of one you were in that of another - it was sheer dodging to and fro. My post was at the crossing directly opposite the Achilles Statue, the turning point of the track, and the cutting and twisting and incessant tinkling of bells around you kept one in a state of fever heat. I have done duty on every conceivable crossing on the Row and carriage-way in the Park, and positively assert I would a thousand times rather do four hours of that duty in the busiest of the season than the one hour and a half or two hours amid those enthusiastic cyclists; and when twelve o'clock came-the limit of the time extended to bicycles in the Park then-and they began to disperse, it was a great relief to be able to breathe freely once again, at least, that is expressing my feelings on the matter. It is needless for me to state that bicycles are now admitted to the Park at any time, like any other authorised vehicle. And why the display did not become one of the Park's annual attractions is more than I can account for; it certainly justified the then general impression that it was "merely a craze."

Edward Owen, Hyde Park, Select Narratives, Annual Event, etc, 
during twenty years' Police Service in Hyde Park, 1906

    I had to do my picture over again, and was in great trouble to get a correct drawing of the wonderful new safety machine. Directly after its introduction, however, bicycling at once became not only of general utility to women, but also very fashionable. In the late 'nineties the great thing in London was to go and watch the bicycling in Battersea Park. After tea-time the Park was thronged with all the smartest women in London. I remember seeing the beautiful Lady Warwick there on one occasion, most exquisitely dressed, and countless others, if not equally beautiful, at any rate equally smart.
    But, of course, bicycling then was for the young in the same way as riding in omnibuses was not considered 'the thing' for a Society woman to do. She might--if she did not keep a carriage--go in a 'growler'.
    Fifty years ago any fashionable woman would have done so; more particularly as it was not thought decorous for her to ride in a hansom alone. The hansom was the height of smartness. Lord Shrewsbury and Talbot, the smartest man about town at that time, launched the hansom-cabs in London. They were called 'Talbots' for a long time. He himself drove a private one. It was painted canary yellow, and certainly was the smartest affair to be seen in the Park.
    But the fashionable Society woman drove either in her brougham, her victoria, or the family landau--with 'C' springs, if you please! In these she could do her shopping and pay her calls. After tea her business--and, no doubt, her pleasure--was to drive in the Park for an hour or more, up and down the Lady's mile. Everybody who was anybody had to be seen there at that hour.

Baroness Orczy, Links in the Chain of Life (autobiography), 1947

CYCLING IN BATTERSEA PARK

"Better late than never," cyclists said when Society took to riding bicycles on every possible occasion. Someone discovered that the roads in Battersea Park were excellent. and ere long the cycling parade there became quite one of the sights of the 1895 season. Rotten Row, in Hyde Park, soon became almost deserted by riders on horse-back, who preferred wheeling at Battersea. Scores of ladies and gentlemen belonging to the upper classes could be counted on any fine morning cycling at Battersea. Its popularity as a cycling ground, however, waned when the followers of the latest fashion were permitted to ride in Hyde Park up till mid-day. Our picture shows a few of the cyclists, one of whom, a lady, is evidently a novice.