Pedestrianism

MODERN PEDESTRIANISM. 55 ing, a gentleman of fortune in Somersetshire, started to go five hundred andforty miles, at the rate of thirty miles a day, for eighteen successive days, and to perform the distance in eighteen different counties, which he ac­ complished, and won five hundred guineas. He was reduced from fourteen stone eight pounds, to twelve stone fourpounds. To walk one hundred miles within twenty- four hours may be considered an extraordi­ nary exertion ; but that distance has been, performed in that time by several people: and a great deal more has been accomplished by some of our most celebrated pedestrians. Mr. Oliver, inJuly 1811, walked one hun­ dred miles in twenty-three hours and fifty minutes. He was much fatigued, but that he was not entirely exhausted, was apparent from his going the last ten miles in two hours. —Mr. Edward Millen, in July the previous year, accomplished the same distance in twenty-three hours and twenty-five minutes. —But we shall have occasion afterwards to record more difficult performances than these; and,