[dougal]

Cylinder mowers are ideal for cricket wickets, golf greens, smooth surfaces and *fine* grasses.
Ordinary grasses are probably better cut with a rotary.
A rotary can cut long & coarse stuff (and the fine stuff too) - but a cylinder is for good stuff *only*.

If you are wanting stripes, you need a roller on the mower.
There *are* rotary mowers with rear roller rather than 4 wheels.
But they aren't that common.
http://www.mower-magic.co.uk/acatalog/Rear_Roller_Rotary.html
If you aren't trying for pronounced stripes, then a 4 wheeler is better able to deal with an uneven surface than one with a roller.
I went into this recently... for my brother.

One such model family is the Hayter Harrier.
Its an upmarket machine (Royal warrant) that seems to be a special favourite of jobbing gardeners. Consequently it seems to be a machine where used examples have mostly had a lot of use, but its a machine that can take a lot of use much better than most.
Pay extra for the larger sizes, self-propelled ("autodrive") and the electric start option.
On eBay I found a decent condition 16 inch ("41" - the smallest model) with autodrive, but no electric start, a Briggs & Stratton engine, and complete with a good grass bag, in easy collection range. Think it ended up very close to £130 - which I believe is slightly below the going rate but not an outrageous bargain. Something rather beyond £500 new.
So far, Brother is quite delighted. Starts easily, really simple one handed height adjustment, and clear stripes on his lawn. Best of all (for him), is that his neighbour recognised what it was and expressed the aspiration to have "one of them"...
Service manuals are on Hayter's website. (nice) Small machine, powerful engine.
There is an older Harrier model, with a single stick handle - that's not what I'm on about. (And loads and loads of other Hayters...)

[dpack]

the way forward
or keep cavies ,or larger critters

[dougal]

While I have the greatest respect for Honda (particularly their engines and motorcycles), IMHO that Harrier is built to last longer... certainly longer than the Honda IZY that I'll be using this evening.
There's a great amount of *practicality* to the Hayter, like the friction coupling to prevent the shock of the blade accidentally striking solid ground damaging a directly coupled engine running at a few thousand rpm.
Seemed like good simple agricultural-inspired engineering translated to the garden.
There's an outwardly similar (lighter) aluminium framed model (Hayter Spirit) that is much cheaper.

While scythes and sheep are clearly more sustainable, they are a pretty difficult 'sell' to someone that was looking for a *cylinder* mower.

The amount of fuel used by a motor mower in its lifetime is going to be fairly trivial compared to the energy invested in the manufacture (and maybe even the delivery) of the machine.
Hence, IMHO, if looking for a machine to do the job, it makes a great deal of sense to select one not just on the basis of features and performance, but with at least one eye on durability and maintainability.
Hayter publish (free pdf download) their service manuals.
Lordy, do I wish Honda did!
And apart from their performance engineering, the other thing Honda are famous for is astronomical spare part pricing...