A BISHOP ON BICYCLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 42

A BISHOP ON BICYCLING.

In the course of an interview with a representative of the Bristol Times and Mirror, the Right Rev. Dr George Wyndham-Kennion, Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, gives an interesting account of his cycling experiences, from which we select the following: " I have never," he says, " met with any unfavourable criticism. It is quite jnossjble, ho-vyever, for there are persons who criticise anything of the kind which a bishop may do ; but it has not reached my ears, and if it hod I don't think that it would have made vory much difference to me. I am quite sure that cycling has done me an immense amount of good, and that I am stronger and healthier for it. Secondly, I have no hesitation in saying it has been a very great enjoyment to me to ride a bicycle. It is a kind of motion which I thmk is exhilarating in itself, and the ease with which one can mount one's bicycle at any spare moment enables me to get half an hour's ride or so, when, under other circiunstances, I should probably have to go without any amusement at all. Thirdly, I have found it a great advantage in bringing me into conversation, and that of the most friendly character, with persons of all classes of life. For instance, I remember standing at a railway station in an out-of-the-way place, holding my bicycle, waiting for the train, and there were several engines standing in the station and one of the. drivers coming up to look at my machine, two or three others joined him, and we had a long conversation, beginning with machinery and ending with a most interesting talk about the church and the lives that men should try and live. Now, I have very little doubt that, had I been simply parading up and down the platform in a shovel hat and apron, these same men, however civil, would nover have emerged from their shell or talked to me so freely as they did ; but that is only one instance of many others that I could give. I think cycling is, besides what I have already stated, of great use to clergymen in enabling them, in country districts especially, to get from houso to house and from school to church, and the like, without loss of time. A number of clergymen are thus enabled to do their duties far more pleasantly since taking to bicycling than was previously the case."