WALKING AS EXERCISE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19906, 28 September 1926, Page 15

WALKING AS EXERCISE

BECOMING LESS POPULAR. LURE OF THE MOTOR. CHARMS OF COUNTRY LOST. In addressing the boys of Epsom College a few weeks ago. Viscount Grey of Falladon, who now in his sixty-fifth year, briefly alluded to some of the remarkable developments that have occurred during his lifetime. When he was a boy there were no aeroplanes, no wireless, no telephones, no kinemas, no motor cars, no electric light, and no bicycles. All these things have become part of the life of the community, but Lord Grey expressed doubt whether they are all unmixed blessings for mankind. “I would warn you to bear two - things in mind,” he said to the boys. “Do not let improved means of communication, such as motor cars and the ease of getting about, deprive you of the use of your legs; and do not lot the easy forms of entertainment provided by wireless and moving pictures and so forth deprive you of the habit of reading for yourself.” Lord Grey laid down as a test of physical fitness that a man up to the age of SO should be able to walk 20 miles. How many men of 50 could pass that test of fitness to-day? How many young men of the present generation have ever walked 20 miles in a day? The habit of walking for the pleasure of walking has almost died but. The young men of the present generation are keen motorists, but keen motorists hate walking, and also dislike the people who walk. Motorists would like to see pedestrians entirely abolished, so as to leave the roads clear to those to whom speed is the chief joy in life. One hears on all sides of people planning motor tours, but never of people taking Walking tours. For those who are unable to make tours in their own cars, there are the char-a-bancs running to almost every holiday resort. Many of the Australians who visit England on holiday make motor tours through the country lasting for several weeks. The tourist agencies throughout England conduct motor tours by char-a-banc for those who cannot afford to hire cars. These char-a-banc tours range from half-day trips from London to the Surrey and Rent hills, at a cost of 6a per head, to 15 days’ touring through England and Scotland as far north as Oban and back to London, by a different route, at a lost of £3O per head. There is no part of England, and few parts of Scotland and Wales, that are bevond the reach of the tourinf char-a-banc. In fact, the ordinary motor bus services in English towns are linkeu up to such an extent that it is possible to travel by bus from the south coast to the Tweed, and from the east to the west coast. It is said by enthusiastic motorists'that there is no better way of seeing a country th n by car. But tnis boast means only that the car opens up vistas that are invisible to the train traveller, whose view is limited to the strip of country within range of the carriage window. But how much of the countrysit can be seen by the motorists speeding along the road at 30 or 40 miles an hour? The motorist gets none of the real joy of ti.e countryside, and sees none of the real glories of Nature. When the aeroplane displaces the motor for those who love speed, we will be told that the ideal way to see a, country is to fly oyer it. We shall hear our friends planning aerial tours and dilating on the delights of seeing a country at the rata of 100 miles an hour from a .height .of 6000 ft. Major Lester D. Gardner (director of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America) has just finished “doing” Europe by air, and his tour may bo taken as an indication of how air tourists of the future will see the world. He travelled over every air route in Europe, and his flight extended, cot only from one end of Europe to the other, north,south, east, and west, but included parts of Western Asia and Northern Africa. He flew 21,000 miles in 63 days, and during that time he saw 28 countries. He travelled with 65 pilots of different nationalities, at an average speed of 90 miles an hour. And all he has learned about the 28 countries he saw could i probably be compressed into 28 lines of print. Forty years ago, when Lord Grey was a young man, people took long walks because walking was not only the easiest way of getting about, but also because walking was regarded as a healthy, joyous form 0! exercise. The beauties of the countrvside are seen at their best Only by the walker, because his path is not limited to the road, and because he takes his leisure. He can follow the stream rippling under leafy shadows, Or rest in the shade of the fern-clad gully where the sun’s rays scarcely penetrate. No motorist could pdssibly be a lover of Nature, and no lover of Nature has over been a motorist. Most of the outstanding figures in English literature have been good walkers. Of Shakespeare’s habits we know little, but it is fairly certain that when he left Stratford for London in 1856, ho walked the greater part of the 100 miles between the two places. Walking was the common mode of travel in those days, for people of small means, although horses could be hired at cheap rates. But the greatest walker among Englishmen of letters was George Borrow. His books, which have retained their Charm for 60 years, are tributes to (he joy of walking. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Do Quincey, and Meredith were all great walkers, Dickens and Macaulay also belong to this category, though It was mainly about the streets of London that they walked, and chiefly at night, when the streets were empty. Walking was such a general thing before the era of the motor car began that people who did not walk were then regarded as peculiar. _ For instance, the late Joseph Chamberlain was noted in his day for three things—i.e., for wearing a monocle, for wearing an orchid in his buttonhole, and for never walking a yard_ when ho could get a hansom’ cab to ride in. Sir William HarCourt. another distinguished politician of the latter part, of the Victorian era, hated walking. If he strolled to the bottom of his garden and back he thought he had taken sufficient exercise for the dav. Will the habit of walking return, or will the next generation do even less walking than at present? If walking is to become a lost habit some changes in man’s structure will inevitahlv follow in the course of thousands of years. Man will eventually lose his legs if_ ho ceases to use them, just as he lost his tail. In the far distant, future men will consist of body and head, and will ho carried by mechanical means from one room of his liouae to another.