The air is the only element which remains to man to conquer for his own use and enjoyment. Consequently air ships are in the air, both in conversation and in fact; ballooning is the newest sport of the smart, balloon parties are the latest social departure, and membership of the Aero Club is sought alike by chic woman and scientific man. Balloons of great tourist tonnage are being devised. M. Santos Dumont meditates an air-ship on the lines of an Atlantic steamer, warranted to waft its passengers from Havre to New York within two days.

Meanwhi1e, the Aero Club, of 119, Piccadilly, exists to encourage ballooning in all its branches, from scientific war-waging aerial machines down to delightful balloon trips for members and their guests, starting from picturesque Ranelagh, or the inaccessible Crystal Palace. Ladies are chivalrously admitted to all the privileges of the Aero Club, save the use of the Club house, which forms part of the Automobile Club premises at 119, Piccadilly. Rumour hath it that the Aeroists themselves would not deprive their soaring sisters of the privilege of their Club house were it not for the well-known monastic tendencies of the Automobile Club, which relegate the woman motorist to some sort of Car Cloisters, and deny her entrance Piccadilly, either mobilist.

Few women have so far developed a taste for sky-sailing. But all who take a trial trip in the clouds become confirmed “balloonatics,” for there is no other sensation at all like it. No other pursuit or sport is quite so delightful as floating sky-high in a new atmosphere, discovering all sorts of lovely new scenery and cloud effects, and gazing down with a sense of superiority on the fussy small world below, which looks like a pitiful little Noah’s Ark farmyard set out for the amusement of grown-up Liliputians.

The main objects of the Aero Club are to encourage all branches of aeronautics, and to organise cloud excursions for the benefit of members who care to take part in these fascinating trips. The Club at present owns a membership of nearly three hundred, has an aerial stud of three balloons, and intends to largely increase its sailing stable as its list of members grows. All congresses, races, contests, and exhibitions of aeronautic subjects and machines are held under its auspices; the Club also acquires grounds from which ascents may be made, and arranges for all the paraphernalia needed to inflate balloons with hydrogen gas, etc. Doubtless all sorts of delightful aerial tournaments will be held under its aegis within the next few years.

A picturesque feature of this Club consists in the training of carrier pigeons to act as messengers between the clouds and the earth. In wartime such ballooning pigeons would serve a very useful purpose in carrying cipher messages to beleaguered towns and far-off troops. Indeed, ballooning, with its hundred sporting and pleasurable possibilities, is only in its tender infancy. And perhaps this is why it is so interesting, for who does not enjoy conquering a totally new world in this blase twentieth century, whose boast is that everything is played out?

Ballooning, anyway, is not blast nor played out. It is fresh and young and fascinating; and the writer recommends it from personal experience as an ideal and alluring pastime.

The Hon. Lady Shelley is a member of the Aero Club, and is ardently interested in ballooning. She is a daughter of Lord Llangattock, and sister of the famous motor racer, the Hon. C. S. Rolls, and is herself a keen motorist. Mrs. Templer, another lady aeroist, is particularly interested in military ballooning. Her husband, Lieutenant-Colonel Templer, has for many years commanded the War Office Balloon Factory, and has had most thrilling adventures in the air in India and many other parts of the world. He took charge of the balloon manoeuvres during the South African War, and the adoption ot military ballooning and the progress made in this direction in the British Army is entirely due to Colonel Templer.

If you want to go a-sailing heavenwards, the first step is to find your balloon—not always an easy matter. There is only one private balloon-owner in the United Kingdom, Mr. Leslie Bucknall, the ardent aeronaut, who keeps balloons as other men keep hunters. Vivienne I. has gone to the St. Louis Exhibition, and Vivienne III. is just brand-new, and has only lately taken her maiden trip. Mr. Bucknall baptizes his balloons after his pretty little daughter Vivienne, who delights in ballooning, but so far has only been allowed to take her flight in a “captive.”

If you belong to the Aero Club you may buy the pleasure of a prolonged balloon sail for the very small sum of two guineas, ascending at your “own risk,” and with no claim on the Club for any personal damage or injury resulting from the excursion. Of course, the possibility of accident is slight, but this is a necessary self-protective clause for the Club.

– The Lady’s Realm (1904)

There are large shooting parties and small shooting parties, shooting parties to which royalty is invited and shooting parties restricted to intimate friends or relations, but in either case the period is the same, three days’ shooting.
If a party is limited to five guns, seven ladies is the average number invited, the hostess relying upon a neighbour or a neighbour’s son to equalise the balance at the dinner table. The success of house-parties mainly depends upon people knowing each other, or fraternising when they are introduced or have made each other’s acquaintance. The ladies of a country-house party are expected, as a rule, to amuse themselves, more or less, during the day. After luncheon there is usually a drive to a neighbouring town, a little shopping to be done there, or a call to be paid in the neighbourhood by some of the party, notably the married ladies, the young ladies being left to their own resources.

At the close of a visit game is offered to those of the shooters to whom it is known that it will be acceptable. The head game-keeper is usually instructed to put up a couple of brace of pheasants and a hare. But in some houses even this custom is not followed, and the whole of the game killed, with the exception of what is required for the house, finds its way into the market, both the local market and the London market.

The first three weeks of September gives a hostess little anxiety on the score of finding amusement for the ladies of the party, as so many aids out of doors are at her command at this season of the year. This is a great advantage, as although some few ladies possessing great strength of nerve have taken up shooting as an amusement and pastime and acquit themselves surprisingly well in this manly sport, yet ladies in general are not inclined for so dangerous a game, and find entertainment in strictly feminine pursuits, while even those intrepid ladies who have learnt how to use their little gun would never be permitted to make one or two of a big shooting party, even were they so inclined.

Occasionally, when the birds are wild and sport is slack, a sort of picnic luncheon is held in the vicinity of a keeper’s lodge, under the shade of some wide-spreading trees, when the ladies join the party; but keen sportsmen despise this playing at shooting, and resent the interruption caused by the company of ladies at luncheon, and prefer to take it in the rough and smoke the while. Thus ladies generally have luncheon in the house at the regulation luncheon hour, and are not rejoined by the gentlemen until the day’s shooting is over, between five and six o’clock. Every day of the week is not thus given up to shooting, and there are few owners of manors who would care to provide five days’ consecutive sport for their guests, and two days’ hard shooting is probably followed by what is called an idle day.

On these off days in September the hostess often gives a garden-party, or takes her guests to one given by a neighbour at some few miles distant, or she holds a stall at a bazaar and persuades her guests to assist her in disposing of her stock, or she induces her party to accompany her to some flower-show in which she takes a local interest; or the host and one or two of the best shots start early after breakfast to shoot with a neighbour, and the remainder of the guests drive over to a picturesque ruin, where they picnic, and return home in time for the eight o’clock dinner. If the owner of a mansion has a coach the whole party is conveyed on it, otherwise all the carriages are brought into requisition, from the barouche to the T-cart, while saddle horses are provided for those who care to ride.

– Manners and Rules of Good Society: or, Solecisms to be Avoided by Member of the Aristocracy (1888)

A Perfect Ascot Week

It is not often in England that we are favoured with such a week of glorious weather as we were favoured with for Ascot, and the attendance and the frocks, therefore, at the famous meeting were, of course, even greater and more noticeable than usual. I must confess I enjoyed Ascot, or rather Ascot week, immensely. The garden-party meeting is such a splendid excuse for delightful house – parties, which necessitate a whole week’s absence from London. There is so little strain on one to know which horse is going to win, for at Ascot, of course, everyone knows that the favourite is a certainty (except when there are Bachelor’s Buttons and the like knocking out such national favourites as Pretty Polly), and, altogether, Ascot is such a thing of beauty that it seems just a little more of a joy each year.

Noticeable Gowns

Most of the dresses, not embroidered with flowers which put Nature to shame, were inset, or incrusted, or whatever they call it, with lovely Irish lace, and judging by the quantity of this latter to be seen, I should think Ireland ought to be making a pretty penny by its manufacture. Gorgeous geranium pinks and emerald greens contrasted with the French gowns of black lace and smoke-grey worn by some of the most elegantly dressed women, while the white linens and muslins worn on the previous days were conspicuous by their absence. The King was looking simply full of health and spirits every day—and how lively and well he is looking.

The Blots on the Picture

The men, of course, as usual, had the distinction of throwing up, by their sombre attire, the fairy-like garb of the women. Few followed the King’s example by indulging in a while or grey high hat, and so they just suffered in dark frock coats and high hats, sustained only by the thought of their heroism, and borrowing sometimes the tiny fans which all the women carried. On Thursday, there was, to everyone’s relief, very little sun, though this did not deter the feminine portion from proving to the world that they had with them the very latest cry in petal-like sunshades, or Lord Rosebery from clinging to his blue glasses. So far as I could make out, there were no girls present on Cup Day! At last, only a stray one here and there, and even these were so submerged, as it were, by the flaunting magnificence of their married sisters, that they were scarcely noticeable. Most of the women, beautiful and elegant and exquisitely turned out as they were, looked what one might call experienced, and certainly none of the shy gaucherie of youth was to the fore. All the clubs, of course, dispensed hospitality right and left, the Ladies’ Army and Navy being not the least among them.

The Bystander, June 27, 1906

This year marks the three hundred year anniversary of the Royal Ascot, and incidentally, is also the one hundred and one year anniversary of the infamous “Black Ascot,” which commemorated King Edward VII, who died in May of 1910.

The history of the Ascot is traced back to 1711, when Queen Anne developed a taste for horse-racing and commanded that a racecourse be laid out over the Common at Ascot. Shortly thereafter, an announcement was made that the Queen would present a challenge plate worth 100 guineas. The London Gazette printed an official statement:

“Her Majesty’s Plate of 100 guineas will be run for round the new heath on Ascot Common, near Windsor, on Tuesday, the 7th August next, by any horse, mare, or gelding, being no more than six years old the grass before, as just be certified under the hand of the breeder, carrying 12 stone, three heats, to be entered the last day of July, at Mr. Hancock’s, at Fern Hill, hear the Starting Post.”

The races were actually postponed until the 11th of August, when Queen Anne inaugurated the Ascot with a drive in state from Windsor Castle. Ever since then, the royal influence on the Royal Ascot has been quite marked, and has made the races one of the highlights of the London season.

Beverley Glick recounts the rise of Ascot into what we see today:

The first four-day Royal Meeting took place in 1768 but Royal Ascot week as we now know it started to take shape with the introduction of the Gold Cup in 1807, when the roots of today’s Royal Enclosure dress code first emerged.

Regency dandy Beau Brummell, a close friend of the Prince Regent, decreed that men of elegance should wear waisted black coats and white cravats with pantaloons. Over the years, this evolved into the wearing of morning suits for men and equally formal clothes for ladies, who must still wear hats in the Royal Enclosure.

It was racing fan George IV who commissioned a two-storey stand with surrounding lawn to be built in 1822; access was by royal invitation only.

Three years later, the King introduced the Royal Procession, and the sight of the Royal party driving up the centre of the racecourse continues to be one of the defining images of Royal Ascot and the summer season.

The Gold Cup remains the feature race of the third day of Royal Ascot and is traditionally the busiest day of the week. It has been known as Ladies’ Day ever since 1823, when an anonymous poet described the Thursday of the Royal Meeting as: “Ladies’ Day, when the women, like angels, look sweetly divine”.

In the 19th century it was common for a small fortune to be spent by the most fashionable society ladies on dresses commissioned solely for Royal Ascot, with their most extravagant outfits saved for parading on the day of the Gold Cup.

In the 1860s, the Duchess of Marlborough found Ascot week “very tiring… fortunes were yearly spent on dresses selected as appropriate to a graduated scale of elegance which reached its climax on Thursday; for fashion decreed that saved one’s most sumptuous toilette for the Gold Cup day”.

The Gold Cup is Ascot’s oldest surviving race, and today’s winning owners still receive a gold trophy which becomes their property.

Another Royal Ascot tradition can be traced back to the very earliest meetings. In the 18th and early 19th centuries there are accounts of wealthy race-goers turning up with entire carriages devoted to champagne, wine and cigars and even portable ice-houses to transport them in.

The more modern tradition of the picnic in the car park came with the arrival of the motor car at Ascot in 1912. Even today you can catch sight of butlers, candelabra and silver service at some of the more lavish picnics in number 1 and 2 car parks.

The tradition of extravagant parties during Royal Ascot week continued until the First World War but the relative austerity of subsequent decades saw such lavish excess come to an end.

Sources:
The London Season by Louis T. Stanley
Homepage of the Royal Ascot

Jack Johnson

By the turn of the century, the color line in sports was firmly in place, but the charismatic and controversial Jack Johnson smashed this line with a firm one-two to the jaw. Though boxing had long roots, it was a fairly new sport to Americans in the 1880s, and though banned in many states, one law which was standard across the board was to deny black boxers the right to spar with white opponents. To circumvent this rule, many African-Americans traveled to France, where mixed-race bouts were not illegal, which is where solid contenders such as Johnson, Sam Langford, and Joe Jeannette built their reputations. This law was relaxed to an extent in the late 1890s, but black boxers were still barred from fighting for the world heavyweight championship. Jack Johnson refused to accept this restriction, and he worked hard to prove his mettle, winning at least 50 fights against both white and black opponents in 1902, and beating “Denver” Ed Martin over 20 rounds for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship in 1903.

These strides were thwarted by the the retirement of world heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries, who refused to fight a black boxer; but Johnson warmed up to his inevitable victory by fighting former champion Bob Fitzsimmons in July 1907, and knocking him out in two rounds. Johnson changed his target, stalking the current champion Tommy Burns around the world for two years, taunting and teasing him in the press for a match. Finally, in 1908, Burns agreed to fight Johnson in Australia for $30,000. The spectacular fight was watched by 20,000 people and lasted fourteen rounds before the police stepped in to halt the fight and award the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World to Johnson on a referee’s decision as a T.K.O.

The furor of Jack Johnson’s victory rang across the world, inciting Jack London to call out for a “Great White Hope” to take the title away from Johnson. For the next two years, Johnson was pitted against a bevy of “great white hopes,” whom he beat roundly and soundly. In response to the public’s demands, Jim Jeffries emerged from a six year retirement to be that “Great White Hope”:

“I feel obligated to the sporting public at least to make an effort to reclaim the heavyweight championship for the white race. . . . I should step into the ring again and demonstrate that a white man is king of them all.”

The fight took place on July 4, 1910 in front of 20,000 people, in a ring built especially for the match. The fight was fraught with racial tension, and newspapers across the world, and even movie cameras, were deployed to Reno to record the “Fight of the Century.” After fifteen rounds, during which Jeffries had been knocked down twice for the first time in his career, the match was stopped, whereupon Johnson was declared the victor and winner of a cool $65,000. This win, upon which so many blacks and whites had pinned their respective hopes, sparked enormous race riots across the country, though some “riots” were merely attempts by white residents to suppress the celebrations of black Americans over the victory. The footage of the fight was shown across the world, though some cities and states banned its showing, but ultimately, Congress passed a law banning the distribution of prizefight films across the state lines in 1912.

Further Resources:
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (PBS Film)
Jack Johnson Boxing Record
Jack Johnson (Online Exhibition)
The life and battles of Jack Johnson, champion pugilist of the world (eBook)