I’ve always enjoyed reading about the explorations of travelers who came before me, and the internet makes this a whole lot easier than even a few years ago, when you had to buy their journals from an antiquarian bookseller (if you could find what you were looking for) or hope interlibrary loan would come through.
Now we have online resources such as the Internet Archive. The IA is an internet library, with the mission of offering a permanent storehouse of searchable, downloadable digital references which can be accessed by anyone—and it’s free. But there are other sources as well, such as the Cycling Museum in the UK. And that’s where you can find the fascinating works of Charlie Chadwick, founding member and first chairman of the UK’s Rough Stuff Fellowship.
Chadwick illustrated his journals with beautiful line drawings like the ones you see here, drawings of things like waterways, mountains, and tucked-away pubs, houses, and stone barns.
So what was—and is—the Rough Stuff Fellowship, anyway? Here’s what they have to say on their website:
The history of the RSF goes way back to its foundation in 1955, long before anyone had ever heard of Marin County. It was formed by cyclists who wanted to get away from roads and cycle on tracks, and byways.
Bikes then were a world away from their modern-day counterparts. Steel frames, no suspension, no disk or V-brakes and gearing to make your hair curl. That was only part of the story though. Clothing, too, has seen major advances in materials and design in the intervening years. Of course, some prefer the more traditional approach…
Check out the RSF website, and by all means, download a few of Charlie Chadwick’s works. You won’t be sorry you did.
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