Captain Agar also lately performed a very extraordinary undertaking. He matched himself for a bet of two hundred guineas to go three hundred miles in four days. He started from the Edgeware road on the 1st of June, and did ninety miles within the first twenty-four hours; eighty the second day; seventy-two the third; and fifty on the fourth day. He was much distressed during the last day’s performance.
Mr. Jaques, on the 3d of October 1807, walked fifty miles in eight hours, near Honslow Heath. He went nearly seven miles the first hour; thirteen, in two hours; twenty in three hours; and the remainder, in two hours. Half the distance was performed in three hours and fifty minutes; and Mr. Jaques won his match, quite fresh, although he appeared to be much fatigued when he had gone only thirty miles.
With the exception of Captain Barclay, Abraham Wood, of Mildrew in Lancashire, holds the first rank among pedestrians. He is a remarkably fine, tall, well-made man, and is not only a swift runner, but is also possessed of good WIND and great BOTTOM. In April 1802, he ran against John Brown of Yorkshire, four miles on the York course, for one hundred guineas, which he won in twenty minutes and twenty-one seconds. Wood was the favourite, and the bets were five to one on his success. Brown, however, five years before, (the 16th January 1797,) beat Wood in a race of four miles, near Knavesmire, by about a distance, having performed the whole in twenty-one minutes and thirty-five seconds. But some liquor having been given to Wood just before starting, he fell sick at the three-mile-stone, and, owing to this circumstance, it was supposed he lost the match. On the 23d of August 1802, he ran four miles for four hundred guineas, against William Williams of Ruglyn in Glamorganshire, over Lautrissent Course in Wales, which he won easily. Betting was even at starting, but after running two miles, twenty to one were offered on Wood.
On Monday the 14th of June 1806, a match for four hundred guineas was decided between Wood and Jonathan Powlitt, a famous Lancashire pedestrian, in favour of the former. The parties started to run five times round what is called the four-mile course at Doncaster; and for the first mile they ran elbow to elbow; after which, Wood took the lead for about forty yards, and continued so till nearly the four-mile winning post, when Powlitt made an exertion, passed him, and led for about ten yards, when Wood again took the lead, apparently with ease, and, passing his antagonist several yards, continued to leave him for the remaining three rounds.