Alan stayed overnight at the best hotel in Blandford Forum – an expedient that would hardly have been approved by his father. (Alan had to account for every penny that he spent: no mere figure of speech, for his letter ended 'Sending back ￡1-0-1 in ￡ note and penny stamp.') But the proprietors only charged a nominal amount and saw him off in the morning. Then:

艾伦在布兰德福特最好的旅店过了一夜，假如他父亲知道这件事，保准不会同意。（艾伦必须要计较每一便士，这毫不夸张，比如他会在信的结尾写着：「请寄回1英镑1便士：1英镑钞票和1便士邮票」）幸好旅店老板只是象征性的收了他一点钱，而且早上还特地为他送行。然后：

Just near Blandford some nice downs and suddenly merely undulating near all the way here but the last mile was all downhill.

布兰德福特附近有些很好的下坡，整个路上只是有点颠，最后一英里全是下坡。

From West Hill he could see his destination: the little Georgian town of Sherborne and the school itself by the abbey.

他从一座小山顶上，望见了他的终点：乔治王风格的小镇，和大修道院旁的舍尔伯尼公学。

For a boy of his class to improvise a solution without a fuss was not at all the expected thing. The bicycle journey was regarded with astonishment, and was reported in the local newspaper.13 While Winston Churchill called for the 'unconditional surrender' of the 'enemy' miners, Alan had made the most of the general strike for himself. He had enjoyed two days of freedom outside the usual system. But they were over very quickly. There was a book14 about life at Sherborne, The Loom of Youth by Alec Waugh, and this described the sensations:

这样一个小男孩，面对大罢工时，能不慌不忙地拿出一套应急方案，并且成功地解决了问题，这是很不简单的。当地的报纸，报道了艾伦这趟单车旅行，人们都觉得很吃惊。当温斯顿.丘吉尔向那些「敌人」高呼「无条件投降」时，艾伦却利用罢工，享受了两天自由。这件事很快就过去了，接下来的日子，正如一本描写舍尔伯尼的书，艾力克.沃《青春的织机》里面回忆的：