| Next came 'Amelia', the first of a series of Lanchesters: a 2-cylinder 10hp air-cooled model, delivered to the door by Frederick Lanchester himself: such was the size of the nascent motor industry. The two men became friends, spending hours speculating on the reasons for the latest breakdown, and swapping tales of the officious police. In 'Steam Tactics' (1904) Kipling conjured up some of the anxieties and uncertainties of those early days of motoring. |
'...He was driving her very sweetly, but with a worried look in his eye and a tremor in his arm.
‘She don’t seem to answer her helm somehow’, he said.
‘There’s a lot of play to the steering gear’, said my engineer. ‘We generally tighten it up every few miles.’
‘’Like me to stop now ? We’ve run as much as one mile and a half without incident,’ he replied tartly.
‘Then you’re lucky’, said my engineer, bristling in his turn ..... |
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These two cars appear, thinly disguised, in Steam Tactics ,together with an abducted policeman, lifted from one of Lanchester's own adventures. Lanchester lent Kipling experimental models for his valued (and archival) comments, such as the wire he sent to the works: | 'JANE DISEMBOWELLED ON VILLAGE GREEN AT DITCHLING. PRAY REMOVE YOUR DISORDERLY EXPERIMENT.' Kipling gave all his motors nick-names, usually well-earned. 'Jane Cakebread' was a notorious drunk and disorderly character of the time. |
