Post: Another short rant about Politics I am afraid, but a pleasant enough evening ride. Charlie is very conscious of his ‘place’ in society.
Wednesday, June 3 Belmont Moors
Ben and I started out for an evening jaunt around Lever Park tonight at 7pm. Horwich was soon reached, from where we entered the park and made a bee-line for the partly built ‘ruined castle’. Since the late Lord Leverhulme died, all work has been stopped indefinitely, all the beautifying which he had employed many men to do has been postponed, and now the whole lot – except the park itself which was a gift to Bolton – has to be sold, including the art gallery, the fine zoo of animals and the Bungalow gardens.
It seems to me the same old story. One capitalist spends part of the money he has ‘won’ from the public, for the public’s good, and then as soon as he dies, the successor (the son in this case) sells up so as to realise as much as he can on the estate – the old capitalist regime of ‘grab all I can’. Thank goodness that there are definite signs of the end of this rotten industrial system, and the beginning of a new and more Christian England – a system of Reward for those who Labour – a system of working for the common good – a system of real religion, not the present religion of money, but the religion of Socialism. Politics again! I promised once to keep this record clear of politics, but so closely are the lives of every thinking person today interwoven with politics, that it is absolutely impossible to keep it even out of the most care-free of pastimes.
The ‘castle’ was closed, so we carried on via Hall Barn to Rivington, where starts the long climb to the summit of Belmont Moors. In an enclosure we saw two zebra’s, the first I have seen for a long time. They are very fine looking animals, enhanced by the even contour of their stripes. Emu’s too were in the enclosure, and in another Llama’s, Indian Cattle and Deer.
The subsequent route to the summit gives some fine moorland scenery, and if the air be clear, an extensive view across the plains to the sea. The air however, is not always clear, for westwards stretch part of the great industrial area of Lancashire, with isolated townships helping to cloud the more northerly districts. At the highest point, we met a chap known to us who ‘rides a bicycle’, and helped him to mend a puncture, then the club, out on an evening spin, rolled up, and we joined them. A drop through that fine little pass (or cwm) brought us to Belmont, then down the main road and up the cart-way to the top of Scout Road. Another fine run in a slight rainfall brought us to Bob’s Smithy, and Doffcocker, and so into Bolton by Chorley Old Road. I think that we, in a great industrial centre, are indeed fortunate to have so near us such fine scenery as can be found amongst the moors East of Horwich.
22 miles
