But feats more astonishing than those performed by the Indians, or any other nation, have been accomplished of late years in Britain. Captain Barclay walked one hundred and ten miles in nineteen hours and twenty-seven minutes; and Glanville went a hundred and forty-two miles in twenty-nine hours. In the pages of this volume, we have recorded many examples of the almost incredible strength, agility, and perseverance of modern pedestrians. And as EXERCISE, particularly on foot, is attended by so many advantages to mankind, the Author thinks, he cannot conclude this work with any observations more apposite to the subject than those of the amiable Christopher Christian Sturm. “Man, (says he,) in a state of civilization, does not know how much strength he possesses; how much he loses by effeminacy, nor how much he can acquire by frequent exercise. We cannot but regard with pity those indolent beings, who pass their lives in idleness and effeminacy; who never exert their strength, nor exercise their powers, for fear of injuring their health, or shortening their lives.”
“Let us, in future, therefore, exert all our powers and faculties for the good of our fellow creatures, according to our situation and circumstances; and, if necessity require, let us cheerfully earn our bread by the sweat of our brow; even then our happiness is greater than that of thousands of our fellow men;” and “the more happy we find our lot compared with [that of] the unfortunate victims of LUXURY, the more seriously ought we to apply ourselves to fulfil our duties.”—Sturm’s Reflections, Sept. XV.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
GENEALOGY OF THE FAMILY OF BARCLAY OF MATHERS AND URY, IN THE COUNTY OF MEARNS.
Robert Barclay Allardice, Esq. of Ury, in Kincardineshire, is descended from an ancient and honourable family. We can trace his progenitors so far back as to the third year of the reign of Alexander I. son to Malcolm III. king of Scotland; and the tenth of Henry I. son to William the Conqueror; or, to the year 1110.
In the time of William the Lion, there were four eminent persons in Scotland, of the name of Berkeley, or Berkelai, sprung from the same stock, and united by consanguinity, viz. Walter, William, Humphrey, and Robert. The two first were great chamberlains of the kingdom. Walter is so designed in a donation granted by him to the monks of Aberbrothwick, of the church of Innerkelder, in the county of Angus, which is confirmed by William the Lion, and still preserved in the Advocates’ Library of Edinburgh, and also in the Charter of Aberdeen, which remains in perfect preservation in the Record Office of that city. William is likewise designed chamberlain, in a deed granted by the king to the monks of the Cistertian order, which is copied from the original by Anderson, in his Independency of Scotland.
Walter de Berkeley was one of the pledges for William the Lion, to Henry the Second of England, as mentioned in Abercrombie’s history. He was appointed chamberlain in 1165, and was one of those who returned to Scotland with William, about the close of the year 1174[33]. Walter left two daughters only, one of whom, according to Nicols’ Peerage, was married to Seten of Seton, the predecessor of the Earl of Winton.
From these circumstances, it is a natural deduction, that the Berkeley family must have been settled in Scotland long previously to this period. They enjoyed the confidence of the king, and held the highest offices in the state, which would not probably have been the case with men of low extraction, or who had recently emerged from obscurity.
But it appears by charters of confirmation from William the Lion, that Walter de Berkeley of Innerkelder, was cotemporary with, and cousin-german to, Humphrey, the son of Theobald de Berkeley, the original of the family of Mathers, in the county of Kincardine. Theobald lived in the time of Alexander the First, and David the First, kings of Scotland, having been born about the year 1110; and he had two sons, Humphrey and John. Humphrey, being in possession of a large domain in the county of Kincardine, granted a donation to the abbot and monks of Aberbrothwick, from the lands of Balfeith, Monboddo, Glenfarquhar, &c. which is witnessed by Willielmo et Waltero Capellanis dom. regis, Willielmo Cummin, Willielmo Gifford, Phillipo de Moubray, Dom. de Arbuthenot, Phillipo de Mallevill, Johanne de Monfort, Waltero Scot, et Waltero filio suo, Agatha sponsa mea, cum multis aliis. This donation was confirmed by William the Lion, before these witnesses: Waltero et Willielmo Capellanis nostris, Will. Cummin, Phillipo de Moubray, Roberto de Lunden, Roberto de Berkeley, cum multis aliis; apud Forfar, XXVI. Martii.