Mr. Rimmington, a farmer at Holt near Dorchester, in October 1811, walked five hundred and sixty miles in seven days, at the rate of eighty miles a day, for a wager of two hundred guineas. He was much emaciated by this extraordinary exertion, and became very lame towards the close.
Lieutenant Halifax, of the Lancashire militia, walked two miles an hour for one hundred successive hours, near Tiverton in Devon, in March 1808. This was a great performance, as he could not have more than fifty minutes rest at one time, during four days and nights. He was much distressed: his legs were swollen, and his whole frame was exhausted. His courage, however, never failed him; and he completed the task amidst the shouts of the multitude that this extraordinary experiment had attracted.
Thomas Savager, who died in 1809, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, was a noted pedestrian, although only five feet and four inches in stature, and lame from his youth. In 1789, he undertook to walk four hundred and four miles, in six days. The scene of his performance was on the turnpike road from Hereford through Leominster to Ludlow; and he won his wager within five hours of the time allowed. When the superfluous ground over which he walked to his lodgings at Hereford, Ludlow, &c. was added, it was found that he had walked not less than four hundred and twenty-nine miles in five days and nineteen hours.
On the 18th of September 1811, Mr. Mealing, a gentleman of fortune in Somersetshire, started to go five hundred and forty miles, at the rate of thirty miles a day, for eighteen successive days, and to perform the distance in eighteen different counties, which he accomplished, and won five hundred guineas. He was reduced from fourteen stone eight pounds, to twelve stone four pounds.
To walk one hundred miles within twenty-four hours may be considered an extraordinary 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, in July 1811, walked one hundred 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, in the meantime, shall take notice of the feats of such pedestrians as have evinced uncommon strength and agility, and who have been distinguished by walking a long distance in a short time.