Abstract
The amusing quotation above is taken from an account of an athletic feat undertaken in 1815. In the twenty days from 20 November to 9 December, John Stokes, who had begun pedestrian excursions to counter a tendency to ‘excessive corpulency’, walked a total of 1000 miles, covering the ground at a rate of 50 miles in 12 hours each day. The Editor of the Bristol Journal referred to his accomplishment as ‘the climax of what this age of Pedestrianism has afforded’.1
One day, during the progress of Mr. Stokes’s feat, a rustic was heard to exclaim, but with no greater asperity of manner than might have been produced by the fatigue of his expedition, — ‘I be a comm’d a matter o’ aightean miles to zee thicky theng caal’d a PEE-DES-TREE-UN; an aater aal, I only zeed a Mon a waalkin!’
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Notes
Anne D. Wallace, Walking, Literature, and English Culture: The Origins and Uses of Peripatetic in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993)pp. 8, 9.
William Coxe, Travels in Switzerland and in the Country of the Grisons, in a Series of Letters to William Melmoth, Esq. 2 vols. (Paris: James Decker, 1802) vol. I, p. 1.
Frida Knight, University Rebel: The Life of William Frend (1757–1841) (London: Victor Gollancz, 1971 ). Knight’s biography contains an interesting account of Frend’s tour.
Joshua Wilkinson, The Wanderer; or Anecdotes and Incidents, The Results and Occurrences of a Ramble on Foot, Through France, Germany and Italy, in 1791 and 1793 2 vols (London: L.J. Higham, 1798) vol. I, p. 32.
John Stewart, Opus Maximum: Or, the Great Essay to Reduce the Moral World from Contingency to System (London: J. Ginger, 1803) p. xviii.
Michael Kelly, Reminiscences of Michael Kelly 2 vols. (London: Henry Colburn, 1826) vol. I, pp. 247–8.
J. Hucks, A Pedestrian Tour Through North Wales, in a Series of Letters (London, 1795; rpt. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1979)pp. 2, 5.
Rev. W. Bingley, A Tour Round North Wales, Performed during the Summer of 1798, 2 vols. (London: E. Williams, 1800) vol. I, pp. 216–49, 375–82.
Rev. R.H. Newell, Letters on the Scenery of Wales; including a Series of Subjects for the Pencil, with their Stations Determined on a General Principle: and Instructions to Pedestrian Tourists (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1821)p. 2.
Thomas Nugent, The Grand Tour; or, a Journey through the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and France, 3rd ed., 4 vols. (London: J. Rivington et al., 1778) vol I, p. xi.
Thomas West, A Guide to the Lakes in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire 3rd ed. (1784; rpt Oxford: Woodstock Books, 1989) p. 1.
Philip S. Bagwell, The Transport Revolution from 1770 (London: Batsford, 1974)p. 43.
John Thelwall, ‘A Pedestrian Excursion through Several Parts of England and Wales during the Summer of 1797’, Monthly Magazine, VIII (1799) 784.
Leigh Hunt, ‘Coaches’, Selected Essays, ed. J.B. Priestley (London: Dent, 1929)pp. 126–7.
Eric J. Leed, The Mind of the Traveller: From Gilgamesh to Global Tourism (New York: Basic Books, 1991)p. 2.
Charles P. Moritz, Travels, Chiefly on Foot, through Several Parts of England, in 1782, trans. by ‘a Lady’ (London: G.G. & J. Robinson, 1795)p. 122.
Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater [1856 revision] (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971)p. 185.
John Bristed, Aνθρωπλανομεοζ; or A Pedestrian Tour through Part of the Highlands of Scotlands, 1801 2 vols. (London: J. Wallis, 1803) vol I, p. i.
P. Stansbury, A Pedestrian Tour of Two Thousand Three Hundred Miles, in North America (New York: J.D. Myers & W. Smith, 1822) p. x (my italics).
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© 1997 Robin Jarvis
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Jarvis, R. (1997). The Rise of Pedestrianism. In: Romantic Writing and Pedestrian Travel. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230371361_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230371361_1
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