On the 15th of April 1812, Lieut. Groats undertook for a wager of two hundred guineas to go seventy-two miles in twelve hours. He went from Blackfriars road to Canterbury, and thence back to Stroud. He performed the first fourteen miles in two hours. When he had gone sixty miles he was much fatigued, but by the aid of refreshment and rubbing, he was enabled to proceed, and accomplished the distance within six minutes of the time allowed.
Six miles per hour, for any distance from twenty-four to forty miles, must be considered as very superior walking, although several of the most celebrated pedestrians have exceeded that rate.—Mr. Pearson performed thirty-seven miles in five hours and twenty-seven minutes, for a wager of one hundred guineas. He started from Pimlico to go to Datchet-bridge near Windsor, and return, at three o’clock in the morning of the 11th July 1807. He went off on a shuffling walk, and stopt at Honslow at a quarter past four, where he refreshed. He halted again at Colnbrook, at twenty-five minutes past five, and reached Datchet-bridge in fifteen minutes; half the distance having been performed in two hours and forty minutes. As he had only gained a few minutes on time, bets were three and two to one against him; but in returning, he quickened his pace, and arrived at Honslow, at twenty-seven minutes past seven o’clock, much fatigued.
On the 13th of January 1810, William Staniland walked fifty-four miles in seven hours and three-quarters, for a wager of eighty guineas. He set off from Driffield at seven in the morning to go to Hull, where he arrived at half-past ten, and having gone round the statue in the market-place, he returned to Driffield at a quarter before three, being fifteen minutes within the time allowed.
Mr. Yardly accomplished forty-two miles in six hours and ten minutes, which was nearly at the rate of seven miles an hour on the average. He started in the morning of the 12th of June, and went twenty-one miles in three hours; nineteen miles and a half in the other three hours; and the remaining mile and a half in ten minutes.
Thomas Miller, of Cowford in Sussex, on the 7th of July 1795, walked from the market-house at Horsham to Westminster Bridge—a distance of thirty-six miles—in five hours and fifty minutes, with apparent ease.
John Jones, a Welchman, and William Williams, a Lancashire man, ran thirty miles on the Hereford road, on Monday the 12th of June 1809, for a wager of five hundred guineas. Williams had the better of his antagonist for the first twenty miles; but Jones soon after passed him, and won the race in three hours and three-quarters.
Spence, a chairman in Paisley, went from the cross of Glasgow to Edinburgh—a distance of forty-two miles—in seven hours and twenty minutes, without much apparent fatigue.
Mr. Ensor, clerk of Highgate Chapel, undertook, in September 1806, to walk twenty-six miles in four hours, for a bet of fifty guineas. He started from the first mile-stone at Hammersmith, at seven o’clock, and went the first seven miles within the hour, and accomplished the whole distance in three hours and forty-three minutes.
On the 26th of October 1805, Mr. King, an optician, undertook to walk the same distance in the same time, for a bet of thirty guineas. He started from the first mile-stone at Hammersmith, and reached the 17th, beyond Colnbrook, in one hour and fifty minutes, and returned to the place whence he had started seventeen minutes within his time, performing the whole distance in three hours and forty-three minutes.
A bet of fifty guineas having been made between Captain Hare and Mr. Cortey of Wigmore Street, that the latter should not go from Sevenoaks to Blackfriars Bridge, in two hours and forty minutes, on the 17th of April 1809;—the pedestrian started on the day appointed, and although the weather was extremely unfavourable, he did nine miles in the first hour, and eight miles and a half in the second. He had now forty minutes to perform the remaining five miles and a half; the whole distance being twenty-three miles. But the weather was so extremely severe as to beat him to a stand-still a mile from the Bricklayers’ Arms, when he resigned.