The story ends happy, so to say. Though Doyle wrote about feminist issues, he did take a conservative stance on them. His writings suggest that women should be happy in marriage, assuming their rules as domestic servants. Doyle viewed women's issues as a hindrance to society, "[b]ut as a Knight of Britain, Doyle viewed domestic violence and divorce laws as a hindrance to national prosperity" (Moon 186). Though Violet is a model of a "New Woman," this is taken away when she marries at the end of the story. She is placed in a "safer, more natural" place in society, within the confines of a large house in the middle of the city. There, she has no need to ride her bicycle anymore, the symbol of the "New Woman" (Kiti-Mitakou).

Wikipedia: "The Midlands is an area of central England that borders the South East, South West, North West, East of England and Yorkshire and the Humber. Its largest city is Birmingham"

recovering from an illness or operation

In Doyle's writings, those who do wrong to woman always face harsh punishments, usually death (Moon).

This is suggestive of laws prior to the Married Woman Property Acts. Before these laws were passed, all property, income, and inheritance was passed on to the husband. The Married Women's Property Act of 1870 gave women their rights to their own property, income, and inheritance. The Married Women's Property Act of 1882 gave married women the same rights as unmarried woman. In 1839, Caroline Norton helped with the passage of the Custody of Children's Act, which gave married women rights to their children (Widening Sphere).

The gag is symbolic. It refers to a woman's inability to speak for herself in marriage. This is also referred to earlier in the story when Violet speaks of her husband using his thoughts and opinions instead of her own. “What if her muffled screams, though, reflect Miss Smith’s aversion to any of these parts she is called to play, even that of being reduced to being Cyril’s happy and voiceless wife?” (Kitsi-Mitakou 35)

one who takes care of horses or mules

a person who owns a pub

ecclesiastical means relating to the Christian church or its clergy

excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters

deserving or causing public disgrace or shame

"Pall Mall is a street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, Central London. It connects St James's Street to Trafalgar Square and is a section of the regional A4 road. The street's name is derived from 'pall-mall', a ball game played there during the 17th century" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pall_Mall,_London

There is only one time I recall Sherlock not taking a case himself and that is in Hounds..

Some research regarding class in Victorian England: The rich lived pleasant lives, men would often work in high jobs or earn their money through trade. Rich women didn't work, and it was seen as unseemly for them to do so. The model for rich women was to marry, have children, and raise these children to be respectable adults. To pass time, rich women would have parties, though these enabled strict rules. Certain dress would be required. Who and when to talk to and walk with would be enforced. http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2014/4/21/how-the-other-half-lived-rich-and-poor-women-in-victorian-britain#.XcM4bzNKjIU=

This was viewed as incident assault.The law was not very specific as to what this entailed, so many men were not charged. The maximum sentence was two years, though 31% served less than two months (Conley).

Victorian currency: http://www.anneperry.co.uk/miscellany/ephemera/victorian-currency/ http://logicmgmt.com/1876/living/money.htm

Violet is sort of subjective- her thoughts and actions are almost controlled by Cyril’s. Her desire to marry fits the standard of how woman should behave (Kits-Mitakou).

As far as I could figure out, this is in reference to the Royal Aquarium Theater (renamed so in 1879). It was located in Westminster, London and opened in 1876 and torn down in 1903.

During this time, men where the sole sources of income for the family. Women where encouraged to avoid "public spheres," politics, paid jobs, commerce, and public speaking. These were all seen as male spheres. Women where to focus on the domestic work: taking care of the husband, house, and child (widening sphere). The separate sphere was heavily regarded as proper, and idealized, this forced women to believe they had to isolate themselves in their homes and was conflicted with these ideas because she needed to incorporate herself in what she believed to be the “man’s sphere." The idea became proper women don’t work. Working women would be ignored in working world because of the idea of a proper woman (Curran).

After the death of her husband, Violet's mother would have been left with no income. Her options would be to remarry or rely on her child for income, though the trend of remarrying decreased as the decade went on. Widows would need to sustain themselves and their families, income and work necessary. Remarriage was a form of protection, have someone to rely on for income and other things (Curran). Common law denied a woman's right to her identity and property, so any contracts she would make were considered void. Husband assumed legal possession of all property upon marriage. Married women had no identity in law. They inherited little, because they didn't own what they had. If a woman inherited a business, she may not have been able to keep it for various reasons. She would not be accepted into business community, men would not associate with them. If she was forced to remarry, her new husband would take over business. Widows were cheap labor, they would work hard for little pay (Curran).

Town in Surrey, 34.5 miles outside of London.

Notice how he doesn't question her work . He just goes with it, noting that it is respectable for a woman to work in such a profession.

When looking at this picture, I am a bit confused as to why she is drawn to look as if she is rich, as the story tells that she is not. Also, she is pictured riding the bike in her dress, which isn't typical and I think would be difficult, after all, bicycle bloomers became symbolic in the 1890s. Turns out, Doyle purposefully had her drawn this way. "The image of this feisty cyclist bears little resemblance to that of the refined, fragile almost, lady in the picture" (36). The drawings specifically emphasize her femininity, despite the fact that she is a "New Woman" (Kitsi-Matakou).

The specific mentioning of her not wearing gloves is interesting to me, so I looked it up. Gloves were an essential part of attire during the Victorian Era: https://vintagedancer.com/victorian/ladies-victorian-gloves/

The lack of gloves insinuates that she is poor: https://community.dur.ac.uk/4schools.resources/victoriandurham/home8.html

Violet Smith going gloveless could be a socially progressive statement in the 1890s, too, paired with Violet's athletic bicycling. Here are some passages on 19c women going gloveless in Ariel Beaujot's Victorian Fashion Accessories (2013)--the examples from the 1890s have to do with athletic women. https://books.google.com/books?id=uRk4AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA35&dq=women+gloveless+1890s&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwutPwg_3lAhVhnuAKHTZxD10Q6AEwAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=women%20gloveless%201890s&f=false

The image of the bicycle became so closley tied with the "New Woman" and feminist ideas that it became sexualized by opposers of the movement.

"There was indeed great concern in the 1890s (and beyond) that bicycle riding might be sexually stimulating for women: bestriding a saddle combined with the motion required to propel a bicycle was thought to lead to dangerous stimulation (Kitsi-Mitakou 38).

The way Holmes speaks to her about the act itself, as well as the special note to the state of Violet's shoes emphasizes this example. "Violet’s little trips to the station exhilarate Carruthers, who prefers to follow her on his bicycle rather than hire a coach to protect her;” (Kitsi-Mitakou 40). Instead of trying to protect her, he seems to take great pleasure in watching her during her activities, and partakes himself.

“The image of the New Woman became firmly associated with the safety bicycle, which was introduced by Kemp Stanley in 1884 and improved with the addition of John Dunlop’s pneumatic tyres in 1887" (Kisti-Mitakou 29).

Violet is the perfect example of the term, a "new woman." This term is an early one for the modern feminist. These women would defy the strict rules placed on them. These women educated themselves, preferred to have jobs, and even started wearing "men's clothes" as a more comfortable option. Another key factor of a "new woman" was the fact that she was athletic. The new woman was depicted near a bicycle on a German Art Magazine. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/daughters-of-decadence-the-new-woman-in-the-victorian-fin-de-siecle

Despite her being a perfect model for a "New Woman," she still seeks out help from men, taking some of her power away from her.

A fictional location: http://www.evo.org/sherlock/britain/charlington.html

A character from another Sherlock Holmes Story: https://bakerstreet.fandom.com/wiki/The_Peculiar_Persecution_of_Mr_John_Vincent_Harden

I was thinking how close Doyle would have been to the idea of feminism and "the new woman." I looked at other stories that deal with these issues, and apparently it was a common theme:

1. Speckled band
2. Scandal in Bohemia
3. The Sussex Vampire
4. The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

Those listed above are only a few of the Holmes stories that deal with women's rights. The story that has to take the cake though, is "The Adventures of the Cardboard Box," that specifically deals with domestic abuse and the murder of a wife by her husband.

This period of history is the end of The Victorian Era in England (1834-1901). The Victorian Era is known for progress in reform, social equality, and expansion of literature and the arts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era#cite_note-50

Published in 1903

Armstrong, Susan. “How Sherlock Holmes changed the world.” http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160106-how-sherlock-holmes-changed-the-world.

Moon, Jina. Domestic Violence in Victorian and Edwardian Fiction. 2016. University of Tulsa, PhD dissertation. ProQuest.

Surridge, Lisa. Bleak houses : marital violence in Victorian fiction. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005.

Kisti-Mitakou, Katerina. Gender Trouble in Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist.” 2017. Aristotle University.

Buzwell, Greg. “Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle.” British Library, https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/daughters-of-decadence-the-new-woman-in-the-victorian-fin-de-siecle.

Curran, Cynthia. “Private Women, Public Needs: Middle-Class Widows in Victorian England.” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, 1993, pp. 217-236. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4051453. Accessed Nov. 11, 2019.

Vicinus, Martha. A Widening Sphere: Changing Roles of Victorian Women, Ontario, Indiana University Press, 1977.

The Project Gutenberg. The Strand Magazine Bookshelf, 2014, https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/The_Strand_Magazine_(Bookshelf).

Most of the Sherlock Holmes stories were published in a magazine titled The Strand. The stories were wildly popular, even in America. The Solitary Cyclist was published after the infamous killing of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle's choice of killing off his famous Holmes sparked outrage throughout England and in America. Many people cancelled their subscriptions to The Strand, and the magazine almost went under. It is speculated that many men actually wore mourning clothes, and "Let's Keep Holmes Alive" clubs began in America.In 1901, Doyle gave into the public's demands, and published The Hounds of Baskerville.