Romantic Motorists, Romantic Cyclists

Abstract

Chapter 4 investigates how and why the motorcar attracted George Dixon Abraham, James John Hissey and other early motorists, and explores how they adopted and adapted the poetics and aesthetics of Romantic writers, including Wordsworth and Shelley, in describing their new mobilised perceptions and bodily sensations as they hurried through changing weather and scenery, attempting inaccessible mountain passes and dizzying descents. As motor cars gradually replaced horse-drawn vehicles, and the speed of travel increased in the pre-War period, the pursuits of a more leisurely literary tourism gradually declined. At the same time, motorists were finding their own ways of enjoying the country roads, free movement and self-reliance, which was impossible for railway passengers. Likewise, intrepid bicyclists, such as Fitzwater Wray, relished their mobility and self-dependence as they toured in the Lake District in the early twentieth century. The chapter reveals how the Romantic ethos of oneness with nature, freedom of wayfaring and personal independence were revitalized in early motorists’ and cyclists’ poetics of the road.