Athletic sports, practised as they are now, are often attacked on the utilitarian ground that the skill acquired in sprinting, or hurdling, or running many miles on a cinder path in spiked shoes, is such as can be of no practical advantage in ordinary life. Without discussing the general question at present, it can safely be said that there is one branch of sport to which, if properly practised, the objection cannot possibly apply - we refer to walking. To learn to be a strong and fast walker must be of utility to almost everyone, and for walking matches there is therefore very much to be said. They lack popularity, doubtless partly because they are not exciting, and partly because it is still true, as was remarked by Charles Westhall the pedestrian twenty-five years ago, that 'walking is the most useful and at the same time the most abused of the athletic sports of old England.' Now, as then, the public does not care for walking races, because when they go to see an athlete walk the probability is that they will see him shuffle, trot, or run.

To the uninitiated observer it may seem absurd that men who take part in walking races should, while they run, pass muster as walkers; because running and walking are perfectly different modes of progression. Running is a succession of leaps, walking a succession of steps; in running the weight of the body is thrown upon the toe, in walking upon the heel. In running, therefore, the body must be more or less thrown forward; in walking it must be almost, if not quite, erect. How then, they may well say, can it possibly happen that a man can run in a walking race without being discovered and disqualified? The question is a pertinent one and requires careful answering, but the real solution of the mystery is in our opinion this - that athletes, professional and amateur, have never yet arrived at a satisfactory definition, founded on a rational basis, of what fair walking is.

Walking race.

Westhall, writing in 1862 and speaking of professional pedestrians especially, says the unsatisfactory state of walking races arises 'not so much from the fault of the pedestrians as from the inability or want of courage of the judge or referee to stop the man who, in his eagerness for fame or determination to gain money anyhow, may trespass upon fair walking and run.' As Westhall was not only a good critic but a fine exponent of the art of fair walking, we can hardly do better than add some further extracts from his little manual. 'The term "fair toe and heel" was meant to infer that as the foot of the back leg left the ground and before the toes had been lifted the heel of the foremost foot should be on the ground.' (We might here observe that the more usual expression now is fair 'heel and toe' walking, meaning that the walker places his heel to the ground before the toe.)

'Even this apparently simple rule,' Westhall proceeds, 'is broken almost daily in consequence of the pedestrian performing with a bent and loose knee, in which case the swing of his whole frame when going at any pace will invariably bring both feet off the ground at the same time, and although he is going heel and toe he is not taking the required succession of steps, and he is infringing the great and principal rule of one foot being continually on the ground. The same fault will be brought on by the pedestrian leaning forward with his body, and thereby leaning his weight on the front foot, which, when any great pace is intended or the performer begins to be fatigued, first merges into a very short stride and then into a most undignified trot. .. To be a good and fair walker the attitude should be upright or nearly so, with the shoulders well back, and the arms when in motion held well up in a bent position, and at every stride swinging with the movement of the legs well across the chest, which should be well thrown out.

The loins should be slack to give plenty of freedom to the hips, and the leg perfectly straight, thrown out from the hip boldly and directly in front of the body, and allowed to reach the ground with the heel, being decidedly the first portion of the foot to meet it. The movement of the arms will keep the balance of the body and bring the other leg from the ground.'

To these practical directions should be added another, which is implied in Westhall's description, but not explicitly stated, that at each stride the hip should be twisted well round, the right leg being stretched out a little to the left, and the left leg in the next stride to the right, so that the walker's feet step almost in a direct straight line. By this twist round, each stride is lengthened a few inches and a corresponding increase of pace acquired.

Probably no one will disagree with the foregoing description of what the style of a fair walker should be. He should walk with a perfectly straight leg, he should step not spring, and he must never have both feet off the ground for an instant at the same time. Unfortunately, however, the judges of walking for a great many years have seized upon the last essential, that of one foot being always on the ground, as if that, and that only, were the only characteristic of fair walking. As long as a man can get over the ground in such a way that daylight cannot be seen under both his feet at once, the judge of walking is willing to 'pass' him, and he goes on his way to the end of the race in whatever style he likes. The evil, which has now grown to a great height, can hardly be ascribed to the fault of any one or more particular judges, and certainly to none of the judges of the present day, who have had to take the system as they found it; and if ever they have boldly interfered to disqualify a shifty walker, have seen their action criticised for weeks in the columns of the sporting papers, and the whole question of their sentence debated in acrimonious controversy.