Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-01-02
LONG WALKING TRIP.

LONG WALKING TRIP.
IN x.giish Family with six Children
walk Five Hundred Miles.
Mrs. Adam Acton, an English lady
w1nH has one residence in St. Johns
Wbcd, London, and another in Ormi-
dAas@ Arran, is the heroine of the latest
washable pedestrian feat-a walk
e Eve hundred miles in England and
eksGland, beginning in London and
ending in Glasgow, and performed,
uaf alone, but in the company of her
whale family of six children, the eldest
ofwhom is twelve years and the young
asktwelve months. The latter, it need
Anrdly be said, did not walk the whole
distance. being wheeled, in fact, to-
&skz1er with his feeding bottle and
appartenances thereto belonging, in a
haAx carriage. Mrs. Acton, in tho
esurse of conversation with Scotch
SsPorter on the experience of her trip,
Hnarked: "You must bear in mind
tkak we had no idea when we started of
dafng any thing wonderful in walking.
We come up from London every year
hun our house here in Arran; and as
- went down by rail no less than
nine times last year, we thought we
wculd walk this year and see the coun-
Try, for, of course, you never see any
thing of it from the window of a rail-
way car.
SOUR party consisted of six children,
tae youngest in our famous baby coach,
which has been, oh, thousands of miles
en- 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;
hat we soon had to give these up.
Afterward we had absolutely nothing
but night-gown and a 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
fund of a cup of tea-so we carried
our tea all the way from London; and
we had a kettle, too; one of those fat
ones to boil over a spirit lamp, and the
spirit lamp itself. And, of course, the
baby, being 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 a 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 vii
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 a shilling
(twenty-five cents.)
'-Of course the trouble was boots"
Mrs. Acton continued. ave 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 nc
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 ave started; that is a 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 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 mud and
the rain and the sun, oupA1ress 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 a great
deal of gray, cold weather that people
complained of, we found it splendid
weather for walking. Cor. i'aiEadeE-
phaG Press.