The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-12-22
q REMARKABLE WALKING TRIP.
An English Family with Six Children
Walk Five Hundred Miles.
philadelphia Press. ]


Mrs. Adam Acton an English lady who
has one residence in ST. Johns Wood, Lon
don, and another in OrmidaIe, Arran, is the
heroine of the latest remarkable pedestrian
feat-a walk of five hundred miles in Eng
land and Scotland, beginning in London and
ending in Glasgow, and performed, no.
alone, but in the company Of her whole fam
lily of six children, the eldest of whom
is twelve years and the youngest
twelve months. This latter, it need hardly
be said, did not walk the whole distance. be-
ing wheeled, in fact, together with his feed
ing bottle and appurtenances thereto be-
longing. In a baby carriage. Mrs. Acton, in
the course Of conversation with Scotch re-
porter on the experience of her trip, remark.
ed: You must bear in mind that we had no
idea when we started of doing anything won
derful in walking. We come up from Lon
don every year from our house here in Ar
ran and as we went down by rail no less
than nine times last year, we thought we
would walk this year and see the country, for
~ course, you never see anything of 1t finn
the windows OF railway car.
"our party consisted of six children, the
youngest In our famous baby coach, which
has been, oh, thousands of miles on the Con-
tlnent and in England and Scotland, and my
husband and myself and two .na'ds--ten in
all When we started from St.John's Woods
VIZ OdSll gUUh u etudll DldCk Jag III our QaDuS.
but we soon had to give these up After
ward we had absolutely nothing but night
gown and macintosh each. There was
one brush and one comb for all the children.
we really couldn't carry more than the least
possible quantity of luggage, you know.
Fea-my husband is so fond Of cup of tea
so we carried our tea all the way from Lon
don and we had kettle, too, one of those
Hat ones to boil over spirit lamp, and the
spirit lamp ITSELF And, of course, the baby
n un1 rrf hnl .xru nd f1d . 10
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 por-
ridge 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 amr unit
The meat we had was almost entirely timed
meat, which we bought with bread In the
town or village in the morning. and carried
with US I'LL we came to a suitable place for
dinner. We bad dinner in the open air al
ways, Then for tea we had just to call and
get Kettle OF water and the use of tea
things, which they were always glad to sup
ply US Tor shilling twenty-five cents)
''Of course the trouble was boots" Mrs.
Acton continued. I'VE were recommended
all sorts OF 'hygienic soles' and we tried
everything, and had to give them all up.
we gave up boots altogether and took
anyhow they like; there is no pressure and
we found them admirable. We never got
blisters or sore feet or anything We used
to soap our toes and heels and the inside of
our stockings before we started: that is a
veiy good thing. Then as to washing, we
could not possibly stop to have everything
washed at the inns and places, so the way
we managed our washing was to have one
thing wasted 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 u.s.
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 mackintoshes and
hats that the rain would not hurt OF course
it was very muddy, and, what with the rain
ana the mud and the sun, our dress got into
such state we were quite ashamed of our
selves. And on Saturday nights we had to
stop somewhere and buy flowers or some lit
tie frllling to brighten up our hats to go to
church on the next morning. But we never
had colds, in spite of having no umbrellas,
and though we had great deal gray, cold
weather that people complained of. we found
1t splendid weather for walking