London Library rediscovers Cycling as a Cause of Heart Disease

Victorian pamphlet to be reissued alongside other lost treasures including Unprotected Females in Norway and On Corpulence

“Directly you are in motion you will feel quite helpless, and experience a sensation of being run away with, and it will seem as if the machine were trying to throw you off,” wrote Charles Spencer in 1877, in his practical guide to cycling on the “modern” bicycle. The 19th-century handbook is just one of a series of texts the London Library has dug out from its 17 miles of shelving, as part of celebrations to mark the venerable subscription library’s 175th anniversary.

Founded in 1841 at the instigation of Thomas Carlyle, the library has counted among its members writers from Charles Dickens and George Eliot to Virginia Woolf and Bram Stoker. When it opened, its stock numbered just 5,000 books, used by 500 members. Today, 7,000 members can call on more than a million titles. Nothing is thrown out, so any subject section will feature titles from the 17th century to today.

The only use of a gentleman in travelling is to look after the luggage, and we take care to have no luggage

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