From the
Oxford DNB biography of Robert Barclay Allardice [known as Captain Barclay] (1779-1854) -
Barclay's most noted feat was walking 1 mile in each of 1000 successive hours. This feat was performed at Newmarket from 1 June to 12 July 1809. His average time of walking the mile varied from 14 min. 54 sec. in the first week to 21 min. 4 sec. in the last, and his weight was reduced from 13 stone 4 lb to 11 stone. He was so little exhausted that he started for the Walcheren expedition on 17 July in perfect health.
He had previously accomplished many similar if less dramatic feats, starting at the age of seventeen, when he walked 6 miles within an hour on the London to Croydon road for a wager of 100 guineas. Another outstanding - and rewarding - achievement was to walk 90 miles in 21 hours in 1801 for 5000 guineas. He also competed in a 24-hour race against the professional Abraham Wood, an unusual match, from which Wood had to withdraw with injured feet after six hours.
Wagers and challenges aside, Barclay's own lifestyle was one of extraordinary vigour. In 1808, for instance, he started at 5 a.m., walked 30 miles grouse shooting, dined at 5 p.m., walked 60 miles to his house at Ury in eleven hours, then after attending to business walked 16 miles to Laurence Kirk, danced at a ball, returned to Ury by 7 a.m., and spent the next day partridge shooting, having travelled 130 miles and been without sleep for two nights and three days. In 1810-11 he rode twice a week 51 miles to hunt, and after hunting returned the same night. A year later he went 33 miles out and home three times a week for the same purpose.
Barclay died from a kick by a horse. Presumably now someone would be prescribing therapy for pedestrianism that involves forgoing sleep for two nights and three days.
