Added 22 February 2021
IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION
A KITE WALK BETWEEN THE COMMONS, 1882
From The Boy's Own Annual.
(Click on image to enlarge)
(Click on image to enlarge)
"With a kite of forty-two inches high... one of our readers took quite a 'tour in Surrey' on a certain Saturday afternoon during last summer..."
"A Kite Walk"
Map of the kite-walk, which proceeded clockwise from the Cat's Back Bridge across the London-Brighton railway line, across to Clapham Common, and back again.
(Click on image to enlarge)
THE KITE SEASON is now coming on, and those of our readers who are thinking about making a kite of their own that will do them credit, and fly more easily and steadily than any bought in the shops, should refer back to Mr. Beard's article on "Fancy Kites" in the June part for the same year.
They will there find kites of all shapes and sizes - man kites, girl kites, frog kites, turtle kites, bat kites, balloon kites, butterfly kites, fish kites, crab kites, star kites - each with plans of proper framework and covering, and full directions, with illustrations, of how to cut and build them.
(Click on image to enlarge)
No steadier kite is made, however, than that of which diagrams were given in the account of the Kite Carriages in No. 94.
With a kite of forty-two inches high, made according to these sketches, but with only a single string, one of our "readers from the first" took quite a "tour in Surrey" on a certain Saturday afternoon during last summer.
A fresh south-westerly breeze was blowing at the time; and, letting up the kite from the College Park footbridge on Wandsworth Common [rebuilt a couple of time since to become today's Cat's Back bridge], he ran out to the full tether of the string, which was a mile and a quarter long.
Kite-flying becomes monotonous when the flyer remains stationary, and so our friend started on his travels; up along the mounds by the side of the railway until he was opposite Emanuel School. He then crossed the common into Bolingbroke Grove, and proceeded down the Wakehurst Road, across the Northcote Road, and up the hill by the Board School [Belleville].
Walking along Webb's Lane a little, he struck off across the estate, and came out amongst the trees on Clapham Common near Altenburg Gardens, and then bearing away to the right, was towed across Clapham Common, round the Island Pond, and on to Balham Hill corner. With the kite still a mile and a quarter in the air, he coolly skirted the south side of the common, and marched down Nightingale Lane.
An "at home" was in progress at one of the houses, and the string just cleared the cockades of the coachmen in charge of the carriages drawn up along the kerb, and owing to this and the lofty trees in the front gardens along the winding road, the navigation hereabouts proved rather intricate.
However, the string was kept clear, and turning off down the Rusham Road, the kite-holder ran down wind, but uphill, across the field to Wroughton Road, and thence he journeyed to Webb's Lane corner in Broomwood.
From Webb's Lane the walk was continued downhill to Swaby Road [now called Northcote Road], and then up Broomwood Road into Bolingbroke Grove, along which some distance towards the station [Wandsworth Common] had to be traversed before a break in the elms allowed the passage of the string.
Having cleared the avenue, a walk across Wandsworth Common to the footbridge where he began completed the round of the compass. The distance traversed, allowing for tacking, was four miles, and this for the most part uphill and downhill.
The Boy's Own Annual, 1883, p.437
