A few examples may also be given of the many genuinely interesting matches which were brought off. As regards the alleged times, however, many of them are as obviously absurd as that supposed to have been done in the four-mile race in Woodstock Park, of which we have already spoken. An Italian is said to have run from Hyde Park Corner to Windsor in an hour and three-quarters. Another man walked from Bishops-gate to Colchester and back (102 miles) in twelve hours! In 1750 two well-known 'peds,' Abron and Temple, ran a four-mile match for 100 guineas a side, the former winning. In 1762 another man, for a wager of thirty guineas, walked seven miles just within an hour and five minutes on the Kingsland Road. Many of the matches (and these were the most popular ones) consisted of feats of endurance and long-distance matches against time. One Mr. John Hague, in 1762, walked 100 miles in 23 hrs. 15 min. How little notion the public had of the speed at which a good man could travel is evident from the nature of many of the matches which were made. A clerk, for instance, won a wager of fifty guineas by walking four miles in less than fifty minutes.

This bet was made in 1766, and four years afterwards we hear of another man winning a wager by running a mile through the streets between Charterhouse Wall and Shoreditch Church gates in 4 minutes. In 1777 we hear of a performance in Yorkshire which is possibly correct in time: Joseph Headley, a pedestrian, running two miles in 9 min. 45 sec. on the Knavesmire. The racecourse or the high road appears to have been about this period the usual arena of genuine pedestrian matches. In 1780 a pedestrian of Penrith walked fifty miles in 13 hours on the Newcastle racecourse. In 1785 one Woolfit, another pedestrian, walked forty miles a day for six consecutive days, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., on the high road. Soon afterwards a man named York ran four miles on the Egham racecourse in 24 1/2 minutes. In 1787 Walpole, a butcher from Newgate Market, ran a mile with a well-known pedes tnan of the name of Pope, along the City Road, and beat him in the time of 4 min. 30 sec. - a good performance if true. In 1788 there was enormous excitement over a race between a pedestrian named Evans and Father Time at Newmarket, Evans being backed to run his ten miles within the hour.

He is credited with covering the distance in 55 min. 18 sec, thereby putting 10,000l. or thereabouts into the pockets of those who backed him. In the same year another pedestrian, named Wild, ran four miles in 21 min. 15 sec. on the Knutsford racecourse. The next year witnessed a remarkable feat of endurance, one Savagar, a labourer, walking 404 miles in 6 days along the road between Hereford and Ludlow, and going over a hill two miles long three times every day. All the stipulated reward for this feat was a sum of ten guineas, and he would, doubtless, have preferred to have lived in the time when Rowell, and some other pedestrians, a few years ago, netted many thousands by their long 'go-as-you-please' contests.

In 1791 we hear of some aristocratic amateurs on the path. Lord Paget, Lord Barrymore, Captain Grosvenor, and the Hon. Mr. Lamb ran a race across Kensington Gardens for a sweepstake of 100 guineas. The spectators appear to have been numerous, and Lord Paget after a close race beat Mr. Lamb, Captain Grosvenor being third. In 1793 another amateur, Colonel the Hon. Cosmo Gordon, appears to have assisted his friends to a good thing, as he undertook for a wager to walk five miles along the Uxbridge Road in an hour. He, however, was himself a true amateur, as he engaged, if he won, to devote the stakes to a fund for the relief of the widows and children of soldiers and sailors. The gallant colonel walked his five miles from Tyburn to Ealing easily within the hour - as well he might.

The greatest interest which was excited over pedestrian feats at this time always arose from long-distance competitions, in which endurance rather than speed or skill was exhibited. The most eminent athlete of all in this line (at any rate until the appearance of Captain Barclay Allardice) was Mr. Foster Powell, a lawyer's clerk of New Inn, who may almost be said to have been the long-distance champion for a quarter of a century. He was born at Horseforth, near Leeds, in 1734, and was thirty years old before he performed his first celebrated feat, which consisted of running fifty miles on the Bath Road in seven hours, doing his first ten miles within the hour. After this he travelled abroad, exhibiting his feats of pedestrianism in Switzerland and France, and it was not until 1773 that for a heavy wager he performed the feat of going on foot from London to York and back in less than six days - to wit, in 5 days 18 hours - the distance being 402 miles. In 1777 he went from London to Canterbury and back (112 miles) in less than twenty-four hours, thousands of spectators watching him on the road and greeting his return.

Eleven years afterwards, being then fifty-five years of age, he ran a mile match against a Mr. Smith of Canterbury, who was too speedy for the elderly pedestrian, and beat him. At the age of fifty-seven Powell again went from London to York and back in 5 days 18 hours, and two years afterwards beat his own 'record' again by doing the same distance in 5 days 15 1/4 hours. It is hardly strange that so great a performer should have excited enormous interest, and the number of his recorded feats (the genuineness of which there seems no reason to doubt) would almost fill a book by themselves. 'Absurd as it may appear,' says an encyclopaedist in 1823, 'so desirous were people to have a sight of him that he was engaged at Astley's Amphitheatre for twelve nights, where he exhibited his pace in a small circle.' He died, however, soon after this, never having recovered from the effects of his last and most severe journey to York, and lies buried in the east corner of St. Paul's Churchyard. From the contemporary accounts of his appearance he seems to have been of medium height and spare of person.