The power of walking great distances without fatigue is an important
matter, in which the English have of late excelled. A good walker will
do six miles an hour, for one hour, on a good road.[3] If in perfect
training, he may even do twelve miles in two hours. Eighteen miles in
three hours is a much more doubtful affair, though some are said to
have achieved it.
[3] Seven miles in one hour are said to have been done by some.
A Cork paper, of recent date, describes a match of ten miles in 120
minutes, on the Mallow and Fermoy road, by Captain John T. G. Campbell,
of the 91st (Argyleshire) Regiment, accoutred in heavy marching order
of a private soldier, viz., with knapsack and kit, great-coat and
mess-tin, musket, bayonet, and sixty rounds of ball cartridge: total,
fifty pounds’ weight. Heavy bets were pending on the issue. The captain
started at eight o’clock, A.M., and performed this undertaking in the
short time of 107 minutes and a quarter, thus winning the match, and
having twelve minutes and three quarters to spare.
At the rate of five miles an hour, pedestrians of the first class will
do forty miles in eight hours, and perhaps fifty in ten.[4] At the
rate of four miles an hour, a man may walk any length of time. Robert
Skipper walked 1000 miles in 1000 successive half-hours, on the same
ground Captain Barclay walked 1000 miles in 1000 successive hours.
[4] A clever writer in Blackwood’s Magazine says, “There can be no
doubt that, out of the British army, on a war establishment, ten
thousand men might be chosen, by trial, who would compose a corps
capable of marching fifty miles a day, on actual service, for a whole
week. The power of such a corps is not to be calculated: it would far
outgo cavalry.”
In the art of walking quickly, the circumstance perhaps most important
is, to keep the knees somewhat bent and springy.