FORSTER POWELL,

THE CELEBRATED PEDESTRIAN.

M

R. POWELL was born at Horseforth, near Leeds, in 1734. He came to London and arti. cled himself to an attorney in the Temple, 1762. After the expiration of his clerkship, he remained some time with his uncle, Mr. Powell of New Inn, and at his decease, he was successively in the employment of Mr. Stokes and Mr. Bingley, both of the same place.

Previous to his engagement with Stokes, he undertook, but not for a wager, in the year 1764, to go fifty miles on the Bath road in seven hours, which he accomplished within the time, having gone the first ten miles in one hour, although encumbered with a great coat and leather breeches.

It is asserted that he visited several parts of Switzerland and France, and gained much praise there, though his fame, as a pedestrian, was not as yet publicly established; but, in the year 1773, he travelled on foot, it being the first time, as it is imagined, for a wager, from London to York and back again, a distance of 402 miles, in five days and eighteen hours. 7 In 1778, he attempted to run two miles in ten minutes for a wager; he started from Lea Bridge, and lost it by only half a minute. In 1786, he

undertook to walk 100 miles on the Bath road in 24 hours-50 miles out and 50 miles in-he completed this journey three quarters of an hour within the time.

In 1787, he undertook to walk from Canterbury to London Bridge, and back again, in 24 hours, the distance being 12 miles more than his former journey; and he accomplished it to the great astonishment of thousands of anxious spectators.

The following year, 1788, he engaged to go his favourite journey from London to York, and back again, in six days, which he executed in five days and twenty hours. After this he did not undertake any journey till the year 1790, when he set off to walk from London to York, and back again; he was allowed six days to do it, and accomplished it in five days and eighteen hours.

In 1792, he was determined to repeat his journey to York and back again, for the last time of his life, and convince the world that he could do it in a shorter time than ever, though now at the age of 58 years. Accordingly he set out, and performed the journey in five days, fifteen hours, and one quarter. On his return he was saluted with the loud huzzas of the astonished spectators.

In this same year he walked for a bet of twenty guineas, six miles in fifty-five minutes and a half, on the Clapham road. Shortly afterwards he went down to Brighton, and engaged to walk one mile and run another in fifteen minutes-he walked the mile in nine minutes and twenty seconds, and ran the other mile in five minutes and twenty-three seconds, by which he was seventeen seconds within the time allowed him.

Having undertaken a journey to Canterbury, by unfortunately mistaking the road from Blackheath to London, which considerably increased it, he unavoidably lost the wager; yet he gained more by this accident than by all the journeys he accomplished; for his friends, feeling for the great disappointment he experienced, got up a subscription for his benefit.

Powell despised wealth; and notwithstanding his many opportunities of acquiring money, forty pounds was the largest sum he ever made by any of his feats.

In 1793, he was suddenly taken ill, and died, April 15th, at his apartments in New Inn, in rather indigent circumstances; for notwithstanding his wonderful feats and the means he had of obtaining wealth, poverty was his constant companion. The Faculty attributed his sudden dissolution to his great exertions in his last journey to York. In the afternoon of the 22d, his remains were brought, according to his own dying request, to the burying-ground of St. Faith, St. Paul's churchyard. The funerai was characteristically a walking one, from New Inn, through Fleet street, and up Ludgate-hill. The ceremony was conducted with much decency, and a very great concourse of people attended.

HIS venerable person is another instance of metropolitan longevity, having lived nearly the whole of his long life in London. But his grea age must no doubt be ascribed partly to a sound constitution, and partly to his systematic temper ance. He was born at the village of Markley, in the county of Worcester, and was baptized, as appears by the register, in January, 1700. His parents were natives of Shropshire, and were themselves examples of unusual longevity, his father dying at the age of 97, and his mother at 108. In the year following that of his birth they removed with him to London, where he resided ever afterwards.

In the early part of his life, he followed for many years the business of a liquor merchant in Upper Thames street. Although wines and spirits. of every description were thus plentifully at his command, he never drank any fermented liquor, during the first fifty years of his life, his chief beverage being milk, milk and water, coffee and tea. This business he was at length obliged to relinquish in consequence of some heavy losses which he experienced.

Laugher remembered most of the principal occurrences of the last cen tury, but latterly, from his extreme age, his memory occasionally failed him; his other faculties he enjoyed in a surprising degree. His residence

was in Kent street, in the Borough, from which he walked every Sunday morning, when the weather permitted, to the Rev. Mr. Coxhead's chapel, in Little Wild street, Lincoln's-inn-fields.

To all appearance he had been a remarkably well-made man in his youth, and rather above the middle stature, though towards the close of his life he was somewhat bent by the weight of years. Having lost his teeth, he faltered a little in speaking, but his lungs appeared to be very strong and sound. It is not less surprising than true, that after a severe fit of illness, at the age of eighty, he got a fresh head of hair and new nails both on his fingers and toes; a contraction, which took place at the same time in the finger of each hand, never afterwards left them. His hair was thick and flowing, not thoroughly white, but gray on the outside and brown underneath. The colour of the eye-brows exhibited the same peculiarity.

During the latter part of his life he was supported by the donations of charitable and well-disposed persons. From a spirit of independence, he used for several years to sell laces for stays, garters, and other little articles of that nature, for which he found customers among his friends, who always encouraged his industry.

Laugher had a son who died some years before himself at the age of eighty. This son, whom he called his "poor Tommy," had the appearance of being considerably older than his father, which occasionally produced curious mistakes. The following anecdote is well authenticated. Walking one day together in Holborn, the difficulty which the son found to keep up with the father drew the attention of a gentleman, who went to old Laugher and began to expostulate with him for not assisting his father. When informed of his mistake, he would not give credit to the old man till convinced by some person, who knew them both, of the truth of his testimony.

This inversion in the order of nature was attributed, by the old man, to his son's having lived rather too freely in his younger days. He was often heard to say, "If the young fool had taken as much care of his health as I have always done, he might now have been alive and hearty."

As far as his memory served, the old man was, at all times, extremely willing to answer any questions that might be proposed to him by strangers, and never exhibited any of that austerity and peevishness which so frequently accompany extreme old age. He used to be much pleased to hear anecdotes of Old Jenkins and Old Parr, and dwelt with self-complacent garrulity upon the circumstance of his family having come from the same county as the latter. His inoffensive manners and uninterrupted cheerfulness gained him the respect both of old and young in the neighbourhood of his residence.

HE life of Mr. Elwes furnishes an example, as memorable as any recorded in history, of the inconsistency of man. It shows that the most sordid parsimony may be combined with the most extravagant negligence and profusion, and that principles of the purest honour may be associated with a degree of meanness that is utterly degrading to the human character. But we need not anticipate the reflections that cannot fail to occur to every intelligent reader while perusing the following sketch of this extraordinary compound of frailty and excellence.

The father of Mr. Elwes, whose family name was Meggot, was an eminent brewer in Southwark. He died when his son was only four years old, so that little of the penurious character by which the latter was afterwards distinguished, can be attributed to his father. The precepts and example of his surviving parent doubtless exercised more influence; for though she was left a hundred thousand pounds by her husband, she starved herself to death. But another cause, which will presently be noticed, must also have contributed to instil into the mind of Mr. Elwes that saving principle by which he was so eminently distinguished.

At an early period of life he was sent to Westminster School, where he remained ten or twelve years, and became a good classical scholar; yet it

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