A noble mount

Pedal power is the perfect way to get around the estate – or even to Parliament

- ALEC MARSH

Back in the early days of cycling, among the two-wheeled invention’s most notable fans was the 7th Earl of Albemarle, sometime war minister in the governments of Lord Salisbury and Benjamin Disraeli, and a forebear, of course, of the Duchess of Cornwall.

“England may be looked upon as the home of cycling,” Albemarle wrote in his 1887 book, Cycling. “The national habit of organisation which our countrymen possess in an eminent degree, and the national love for every form of strong personal exertion, combine to make it a pursuit in every way adapted to the taste of our people.

“The shady lanes of the south country, and the hilly roads of the north, appear to offer equal attraction; and now, though scarcely 10 years have elapsed since the first bicycle made its appearance, there are few districts in which some form of cycle is not a familiar object.”

So much has changed since Albemarle’s day but cycling continues to retain its blueblooded devotees. At the vanguard of its aristocratic cheerleaders today is the chatelaine of Highclere Castle, the Countess of Carnarvon, who says that a cycle around the 5,000-acre Hampshire estate is an essential part of her daily routine. “My life begins outside in the morning – and on a bicycle you can go that much further and faster with my beloved dogs, so it exercises us both,” she says.

Sometimes, Lady Carnarvon heads out on an old Pashley Princess – with a basket on the front – but her preference is for one of her cross-country bicycles, one that, “can cope with suddenly disappearing along a muddy track”.