Keats and the history of Cycling
I cycled to Keats House Museum in Hampstead, London today for a meeting and spoke to one of the staff who was kind enough to alert me to Keats' reference to a Velocepede. He wrote 3 March 1819:
'The nothing of the day is a machine called the Velocepede - it is a wheel-carriage to ride cock horse upon, sitting astride and pushing it along with the toes, a rudder wheel in hand. They will go seven miles an hour, a handsome gelding will come to eight guineas, however they will soon be cheaper, unless the army takes to them'
The note reports that it was invented by Count Drax in Baden, introduced to Britain by a tradesman in Long Acre, 1819 and 'put down' by the Magistrates of Police because of the crowded state of the metropolis.
'The nothing of the day is a machine called the Velocepede - it is a wheel-carriage to ride cock horse upon, sitting astride and pushing it along with the toes, a rudder wheel in hand. They will go seven miles an hour, a handsome gelding will come to eight guineas, however they will soon be cheaper, unless the army takes to them'
The note reports that it was invented by Count Drax in Baden, introduced to Britain by a tradesman in Long Acre, 1819 and 'put down' by the Magistrates of Police because of the crowded state of the metropolis.
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