London, Sept. 27. While Americans are looking with interest upon the decent little sprig of English nobility now in the United States. Americans abroad and Europeans also are looking with amazement and admiration upon the fair American aunt of that same duke, Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill, widow of Lord Randolph Churchill, and the fairest American that ever wedded a title, has sprung into new notice by skill in handling a bicycle.
Lady Randolph Churchill, since her marriage has distinguished herself in many ways. She worked hard in India, and in recognition of Indian political work the Queen conferred upon her the Imperial Order of the Crown of India. But this is only one of her many distinctions. As the wife of a great politician she took prominent part in all questions of the day, and in token of the general admiration felt for her by the whole Churchill family the late Duke of Marlborough, brother to Lord Randolph Churchill, said: “She is easily the first of her sex!”
“FIRST CYCLIÉNNE.”
“The first of her sex” is now winning laurels in fields little expected of her. She is gaining the name of “First Cyclienne” of England and France. Her speed upon the wheel, her grace, her new inventions and discoveries to aid cycling women who wheel for health and pleasure are attracting attention across the entire continent. At Aix-les-Bains, where she has been spending a month, crowds turned out daily to see her wheel, and at her home in Connaught place, London, there are always to be seen little groups of women waiting for My Lady to come out and take her place upon the wheel.
The interest which Lady Randolph Churchill takes in cycling is a surprise to her friends, because she has never been an athlete. Of fine, slender figure, she did not need to take violent exercise, and that she should now wheel persistently sends them shaking their beads and saying, “There's no knowing a woman.” But as Lady Randolph Churchill herself explained it to me, “My husband was not well enough for any outdoor exercise besides driving, and I would not go without him, otherwise I should have taken to the wheel two seasons ago.”
NEW WHEEL TRICKS.
The improvements which Lady Churchill has made in wheeling circles since she began to ride are important ones. One of the best is the ankle practice. She advocates and even instructs her friends in bending the ankle to make it supple. An hour's practice working the foot at the ankle joint each day will limber it up and make the member not only better in cycling, but also in walking. With a supple ankle the pedal need never be struck a violent blow after it has turned – as so many cyclers practice wrongly.
Another of the Improvements made by My Lady is in the matter of coasting. She has an Ingenious pose upon the wheel that takes the feet off the pedals, yet does not raise them too far to allow them to be quickly put in place again should obstacles arise. This is an ankle pose, quickly learned by lifting the feet and holding them in the air one, two and three minutes at a time, without either extending them or drawing them very close to the body.
The number of hours for cycling a day, the best time to ride, and the necessary rests have all been considered by Her Ladyship, who practiced with the Princess Louise in the Royal Gardens many hours a day at first. After much experience both ladles agree that the best times to cycle are in the morning and after the early 4 o'clock tea. At these hours there are fewer vehicles in the streets and the air is cooler, clearer and more removed from the distempering heat or the lassitude of midday. In the matter of exercise after eating, both ladles find that it is no harm to cycle immediately after meals, as the exercise of the limbs in no way interferes with digestion, while the variety of scene even aids this function.
Lady Churchill wheeled at first because of loneliness. Her husband was dead, and she debarred from the London season. The cycle seemed a rational and delightful way to exercise. A year before she had heard one of Frances Wlllard's remarkable cycle lectures, and she was secretly longing to “walk six inches above the ground.” Now she wheels for her health, her looks and her enjoyment.
TAKEN ON THE MOUNT.
A very delightful, scene was viewed the other day in the establishment of a photographer who makes a specialty of taking cycliennes. He has all-the-neccssary “scenery” of the road, and can stand the fair rider against a atone walk resting, with her wheel alongside, or even provide a smooth “studio road” for racing. But Lady Randolph Churchill only wanted a simple photograph of herself in cycling dress. The photograph was to send to friends in the United States who have been asking Mrs. Leslie and Mrs. Frewen, Lady Churchill's two sisters, now traveling in America, “Just how” Jennie looks and how she posses her time in social retirement.
The gown which Lady Randolph Churchill wore was her own creation, and very proud she was of it, or she would hardly have put it on the first cool day to have her picture taken in it. The gown is Lady Churchill's Invention, and is a model cycling suit the first one ever seen in London.
To have a picture of a suit and not know its material is aggravating, so it is only fair to say that heavy rough serge is the material, and the trimming is short Perslan lamb, cropped and close setting to the figure. The waist is double-breasted and lined with the fur. It buttons far on the side, so there is no possibility of its obstructing tbe workings of the handles.
Lady Randolph Churchill is very proud of this her own invention, and the probability is that it will be extensively copied in London this winter. Already “my lady's permission” has been asked to have a suit like it, and modistes are advertising themselves “Maker of cycling suits for Her Ladyship Lady Randolph Churchill.”
As to the social career of the bicycle, Lady Churchill thinks it will be a long and brilliant one. “The machine is not a cheap one.” said she, to a Journalist, interviewing her on the subject, “nor is it a common one. I know a duchess who is having a gold wheel made, with plating wherever the gold is not bard enough for her purpose. I, myself, like silver better!” Regarding the actual social status of riders. Lady Churchill thinks they will necessarily be of the best toned people, if not of the wealthiest class. “There will be no inducement for a person of doubtful tastes to ride a wheel, for the exercise takes one into the country, where nature is purest, and on a wheel a woman must attend to her business of pedalling along, without stopping to chatter or to elicit admiration from others, as she may do when riding or driving.”
When asked about the morale of bicycling that Ridiculous question raised by a few clergymen of a peculiar mind her ladyship would give absolutely no opinion, but the disgusted look upon her face and the contempt of her patrician lip gave its own answer.
It is claimed that bicycling gives entertainment to young and old, grandmothers and grandchildren. With a woman so beautiful as Lady Randolph Churchill all question of age is put aside. But when one comes down to cold facts, one finds she was born in 1853, and that, therefore, her years must be on the other side of forty. Never the less, she is now at this minute one of the most beautiful women in the world, and her great skill upon the wheel shows her to be as young in action as in looks.
In America the women of society have long since elevated the bicycle, even as they have been literally and figuratively elevated by it. But in London, while the streets have been full of cyclers, the royal ladies, who set the fashions here, have wheeled in their own private grounds or in the select parks. But Lady Randolph Churchill comes out openly. And a bonny sight she is upon her shining wheel. She is the fairest cyclienne of London, and that is saying much for a woman who has already earned the greatest titles that can be given to her in other fields.
Mrs. Grey-Canfield