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
On the sixteenth day, however, he removed to new lodgings near the HORSE
AND JOCKEY, where he continued during the remainder of the time. He also
shifted his ground, and walked across the Norwich road up the heath for
half a mile out and return.
The difficulty of accomplishing this astonishing match may be conceived,
when it is known that the most celebrated pedestrians of England have
attempted it, and failed. The constant exertion, with the short time
allowed for sleep, must soon exhaust the strongest frame; and no other
man has been able to continue longer than about thirty days.
Mr. Howe started at Cliffe Common, Somersetshire, to perform the Barclay
match; but at the end of fifteen days he resigned the task, and thus
lost his stake of three hundred guineas, besides his health being much
injured.
Mr. Blackie undertook the match, but on the twenty-second day of his
labour, he became afflicted with swollen legs to a frightful degree, and
resigned on the twenty-third day, reduced from fourteen stones six pounds
to eleven stones.
Mr. Martindale failed on the 27th of May 1812, after having gone thirty
days. He wasted twenty pounds, and was much injured in his legs and feet.
When Capt. Barclay started, his weight was thirteen stones and four
pounds; but when weighed in Chiffeny’s (the jockey) scales, after
finishing, and resting seventeen hours in bed, his weight was reduced to
eleven stones,--thus losing, in the course of his performance, no less
than two stones and four pounds.
Towards the conclusion, the spasmodic affections in his legs were
particularly distressing; but it is an astonishing fact, that his
appetite continued to the end as good as ever. To this fortunate
circumstance, the accomplishment of the match may be ascribed. If the
digestive powers of the stomach had been injured by the excessive
fatigue, extreme debility must have ensued, and his labours would, no
doubt, have terminated in the same manner as those of the other gentlemen
who have attempted this match.
He breakfasted, after returning from his walk, at five in the morning.
He ate a roasted fowl, and drank a pint of strong ale, and then took
two cups of tea with bread and butter. He lunched at twelve; the one
day on beef-steaks, and the other, on mutton-chops, of which he ate
a considerable quantity. He dined at six, either on roast beef, or
mutton-chops. His drink was porter, and two or three glasses of wine.
He supped at eleven on a cold fowl. He ate such vegetables as were in
season; and the quantity of animal food he took daily was from five to
six pounds.
He walked in a sort of lounging gait, without apparently making any
extraordinary exertion, scarcely raising his feet more than two or three
inches above the ground.
His dress was adapted to the changeable state of the weather. Sometimes
he walked in a flannel jacket, and sometimes in a loose dark grey coat,
but he always used strong shoes and lamb-wool stockings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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