Pedestrianism; or, An Account of the Performances of Celebrated Pedestrians During the Last and Present Century.: With a full narrative of Captain Barclay's public and private matches; and an essay on training.Thom, Walter
History
Pedestrianism; or, An Account of the Performances of Celebrated Pedestrians During the Last and Present Century.: With a full narrative of Captain Barclay's public and private matches; and an essay on training.
Thom, Walter
Walking
But Glanville, a Shropshire man, accomplished a more extraordinary
performance in the year 1806. He walked one hundred and forty-two miles
on the Bath road in twenty-nine hours and three-quarters. He started from
the 14th mile-stone to go to the 85th, and back, at seven in the morning,
on the 26th of December, and arrived at his journey’s end next day, at a
quarter before one o’clock in the afternoon. He went off at the rate of
six miles an hour, and reached Twyford at five minutes past ten, where he
took a basin of soup. He refreshed again at Marlborough, and arrived at
the 85th mile-stone at ten minutes past eight in the evening. This part
of his journey was performed at the average rate of nearly five miles and
a half an hour. He returned a few miles on his way back, and refreshed
himself on a bed for an hour and a half, and reached Reading at a quarter
past six in the morning of the 27th. He had now twenty-five miles to
go in five hours and three-quarters, and appeared to be much fatigued.
After remaining twenty minutes, he renewed his task, and arrived at
his journey’s end at a quarter before one o’clock--winning, with great
difficulty, by a quarter of an hour.
This performance is the most extraordinary upon record, and bets
were seven to four, and two to one against him; but his strength and
perseverance overcame every difficulty, and thus enabled him to
accomplish the astonishing exploit.
On Friday, the 20th July 1804, John Bell, Esq. engaged to walk from Brook
Green to Hammersmith--a distance of fifty-eight miles--in fourteen hours,
for a bet of two hundred guineas; which he performed, with apparent ease,
in thirteen hours, and forty-five seconds.--A distance of sixty miles
was performed on the 18th of September, the same year, by a butcher
of Whitechapel, in eleven hours and a quarter, for a bet of seventeen
guineas.
On the 14th of August 1807, a distance of sixty-nine miles was performed
near Lyndhurst, in twelve hours, by Wall, a hawker, on the Bath road. He
was matched against Campbell of Dowton, Wilts, a man of local notoriety.
The pedestrians started about four miles from Christ Church, at eleven
o’clock, morning. By four, Wall had gone thirty-five miles. He was at
the same time passed by Campbell; but having rested for half an hour,
he overtook his opponent by nine o’clock. A severe struggle now ensued,
and they kept together until ten; when Wall made an extraordinary push,
and went nearly eight miles in the last hour, beating his adversary
by a mile and a half. In this match, the winner walked five miles and
three-quarters per hour on the average, including the time he refreshed,
which, allowing for the distance, must be considered a very extraordinary
effort.
In August 1809, Captain Walsham, of the Worcestershire regiment of
militia, walked the distance of sixty miles in twelve hours, with
ease; and afterwards rode thirty miles on two curricle horses, in two
successive hours, for a wager of one hundred and twenty guineas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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