Local best-selling fantasy author Alan Garner is publishing his Where Shall We Run To?: A Memoir in August 2018. The book “remembers his early childhood in the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge”. Pre-ordering now.

The strong arm of god, in Stoke circa the 1860s…

“It was very rarely that the Rector of Stoke employed physical force: perhaps the mere sight of his sturdy form and powerful limbs was enough for most people. One instance of his doing so is, however, remembered. It was on a Sunday, and he was on his way home from his Bible class, his robe case being carried by one of the members. They were just passing through a rather low district when they came upon a fight in process. Sir Lovelace at once went up to stop the men, and found that one of the two was an old Sunday-school boy. This fellow seemed ashamed of himself and was persuaded to go home. The other man, however, who had been getting the best of it, began hustling Sir Lovelace. The latter began by saying, “Go away, my good man: go back, I tell you!” Words, however, were of no use, and then quick as thought the Rector’s left arm went back and out there was a big thud on the man’s chest, and down he went. He lay there for a longish time, but at last lifted his head and said, “Is that parson gone? By gum! if he’d given me another one he’d have had to bury me!”

Frederick Douglas How, “Early Years at Stoke: Education”, in A memoir of Bishop Sir Lovelace Tomlinson Stamer, 1910.

Charles Roach Smith‘s booklet The rural life of Shakespeare, as illustrated by his works, drawing together all the evidence Shakespeare gives for rural ways and folk-ways. Effectively an anthology, with a limited amount of comment from an expert collector and antiquarian.

Brian Hudson, “Transport and travel in the world of Arnold Bennett”, Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2017. The full-text PDF is in public open-access. Update: dead PDF link fixed, November 2020.

“He was also a cyclist during the 1890s and early years of the twentieth century when this activity became popular. It was a time when developments in bicycle design and the introduction of pneumatic rubber tyres together with road improvements made cycling more attractive. Bennett’s journals frequently mention both of these activities, recording his observations and thoughts as he travelled about by his own physical effort. Walking and cycling, alone or with his French wife Marguerite, were among the pleasures enjoyed by Bennett when the couple lived in Fontainebleau between 1908 and 1911. They walked and cycled in all kinds of weather, sometimes taking with them food and wine for roadside picnics, sometimes stopping in villages along the way for refreshment.”