The American bicyclist Thomas Stevens had passed…

The American bicyclist Thomas Stevens had passed the winter in New York and contributed sketches of his transcontinental trip to Outing, a magazine, that had made him a special correspondent and sent him to Liverpool on the steamer City of Chicago.

He had landed ten days later, on April 9, 1885.

Leaving his bicycle in the underground storerooms of the London and North Western Railway, he had gone by train to London to arrange his crossing of Europe and investigate conditions in Asia.

He had been helped by an interpreter at the Chinese embassy who has discouraged him from riding across Upper Burma and China.

Returning to Liverpool on April 30, 1885, he makes a formal start to his ride on May 4 at Edge Hill church, where several hundred people watch him leave.

It begins raining within minutes.