galton.org 15
Bodily Qualities
15
successful in these became the hero of a large and demonstrative circle of
admirers, and it is to be presumed that the best boxer, the best pedestrian,
and so forth, was the best adapted to succeed, through his natural physical
gifts. If he was not the most gifted man in those respects in the whole
kingdom, he was certainly one of the most gifted of them. It therefore
does no injustice to the men of that generation to compare the feats of
their foremost athletes with those of ours who occupy themselves in the
same way. The comparison would probably err in their favour, because
the interest in the particular feats in which our grandfathers and great-
grandfathers delighted are not those that chiefly interest the present
generation, and notwithstanding our increased population, there are fewer
men now who attempt them. In the beginning of this century there were
many famous walking matches, and incomparably the best walker was
Captain Barclay of Ury. His paramount feat, which was once very familiar
to the elderly men of the present time, was that of walking a thousand
miles in a thousand hours, but of late years that feat has been frequently
equalled and overpassed. I am willing to allow much influence to the
modem conditions of walking under shelter and subject to improved
methods of training (Captain Barclay himself originated the first method,
which has been greatly improved since his time); still the fact remains that
in executing this particular feat, the athletes of the present day are more
successful than those who lived some eighty years ago.
I may be permitted to give an example bearing on the increased stature
of the better housed and fed portion of the nation, in a recollection of my
own as to the difference in height between myself and my fellow-
collegians at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1840-4. My height is 5 feet
91 inches, and I recollect perfectly that among the crowd of
undergraduates I stood somewhat taller than the majority. I generally
looked a little downward when I met their eyes. In later years, whenever I
have visited Cambridge, I have lingered in the ante-chapel and repeated
the comparison, and now I find myself decidedly shorter than the average
of the students. I have precisely the same kind of recollection and the
same present experience of the height of crowds of well-dressed persons. I
used always to get a fair view of
