The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1888-11-24
LONG WALKING TRIP.


| An English Family with Six Children
Walk Five Hundred Miles.
| Mrs Adam Acton, an English lady
who has one residence in st. Johns
Wood, London, amt another in Ormi-
dale, Arran, is the heroine of the latest
| remarkable pedestrian feat-a walk
of five hundred miles in England and
Scotland, beginning in London and
ending in Glasgow, and performed,
not alone, but in the company of her
whole family of six children, the eldest
OF whom is twelve years and the young
est twelve months. The latter, 1t need
hardly be said, did not walk the whole
distance. being wheeled, in fact, to-
gether with his feeding bottle and
appurtenances thereto belonging, in a
baby carriage. Mrs. Acton, in the
course of conversation with Scotch
reporter on the experience of her trip,
remarked: "You must bear in mind
that we had no idea when we started of
doing any thing wonderful in walking.
We come up from London every year
| from our house here in Arran; and as
we went down by rail no less than
nine times last year, we thought we
would walk this year and see the coun-
| try, for, of course, you never see any
thing of it from the window OF q rail-
way car.
sour party consisted of six children,
the youngest in our famous baby coach,
which has been, oh, thousands of miles
on the Continent and in England and
Scotland, and my husband and myself
and two maids-ten in all. When we
started from st. Johns Wood we each
took small black bag in our hands;
but we soon had to give these up.
Afterward we had absolutely nothing
but a night-gown and macintosh
/ each. There was one brush and one
comb for myself and all the children.
We really couldn't carry more than
the least possible quantity of luggage,
you know. Tea-my husband is so
fond of cup of tea-so we carried
our tea all the way from London; and
we had kettle, too; one of those fat
ones to boil over a spirit lamp, and the
spirit lamp itself. And, of course, the
baby, being a young baby and fed on
the bottle, obliged us to carry tin
can of milk. We had very light fare.
AS soon as we got into the North of
England we always had porridge for
breakfast. We never had much meat
on the only two occasions when we had
really good dinner, we found that we
could not walk afterward. We had
eggs and milk, and bread and butter
to any amount. The meat we had was
almost entirely timed meat, which we
bought with bread in the town or viii
lage in the morning, and carried with
us till we came to suitable place for
dinner. We had dinner in the open
air always. Then for tea we had just
to call and get a kettle of water and
the use of tea things, which they were
always glad to supply us for shilling
twenty-five cents.)
"Of course the trouble was boots"
Mrs. Acton continued. 1--WE were
recommended all sorts of hygienic
soles, and every thing, and we tried
every thing, and we had to give them
all up. We gave up boots altogether and
took to sand shoes'-canvas shoes with |
India rubber soles. Those allow the feet |
to go any how they like; there is no
pressure and we found them admirable. |
We never got blisters or sore feet or
any thing. We used to soap our toes
and heels and the inside of our stock |
ings before we started; that is very
good thing. Then as to washing, we
could not possibly stop to have every
thing washed at the inns and places,
so the way we managed our washing |
was to have one thing washed every |
night. We found we could always get |
one thing washed and quickly got up,
and so we had clean things without the |
trouble of carrying any with us. We
carried no umbrellas. But though the ]
weather was very bad in England we |
did very well without. In the first |
part OF the time we walked in our |
and hats that the rain |
would not hurt. OF course it was very |
muddy, and, what with the mud and |
the rain and the sun, our dress got into
such state we were quite ashamed of
ourselves. And on Saturday nights we
had to stop somewhere and buy flowers
or some little frilling or something to
brighten up our hats to go to church
on the next morning. But we never
had colds, in spite of having no UNI
brellas, and, though we had great
deal of gray, cold weather that people
of, we found it splendid
weather for walking. Cor. Philadel-