Robert Barclay-Allardice (1779-1854) was a member of an ancient Scottish Clan, with their seat at Ury, in Aberdeenshire. He was descended from the famous apologist of the same name, who published a much reprinted defence of the Quaker faith in 1678.
He is best remembered for his prowess in long distance walking, and was known as the Celebrated Pedestrian. His greatest achievement in this sport was to walk a thousand miles in a thousand hours, for a wager of a thousand guineas. Perhaps having developed a taste for the headlines, he would go on to train and financially back both Tom Cribb, the English champion, and Tom Molineaux, his African American challenger, ahead of their much publicised fight of the century.
In the introduction to this work he acknowledges that unlike his feats of pedestrianism performed in his youth, he has “now ventured on a task of quite another kind–an endeavour to describe, and to suggest improvements in the rural affairs of a distant land.” This journey takes him through Boston, New York, Canada, Ohio and Virginia.
Sabin, 3368. Howes, B132.
