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The Harry Bensley Story

"The OTHER man in the Iron Mask!"

Also: "The Masked walker"

Conditions and Route

I have been fortunate enough to received a copy of a pamphlet that Harry sold on his travels. I would very much like to acknowledge the person who supplied it, but I'm afraid I don't have the original contact details any more. If you were that person, please contact me again and I will be more than happy to acknowledge your kind and very useful contribution to this site.

Included in the pamphlet are the conditions imposed upon Harry, and the suggested route he had to take. Though I believe the actual route was up to Harry himself, as long as each place listed below was visited at some point. I have extracted conditions and route details from the pamphlet below.

Conditions

1. To walk around the word, masked, pushing a Perambulator.
2. To remain masked and entirely unknown throughout the whole journey
3. To be allowed to sell Photographs and Pamphlets while on the journey.
4. To be allowed to expend any sum not exceeding One Pound (£1) for Photographs and Pamphlets for sale at start.
5. To start from Trafalgar Square, London, on the first day of January, 1908, at 10.30am.m sharp.
6. To call at the Capital and three other towns named in the appended list, in each County in England.
7. To obtain a document, signed by the Mayor, or any responsible person certifying that you arrived at the place mentioned therein and the date thereof.
8. To obtain the Postal Stamp of every town passed through on your journey.
9. All expenses of the journey to be defrayed by the sale of the Photos and Pamphlets above mentioned.
10. To ware the mask at all times whilst walking and in all public places.
11. The wearing apparel to be worn at the start to consist of the following articles:
    one suite of clothes, one pair of stockings, one shirt, one under-vest, one pair pants, one pair boots, one pair of putties, one jersey, one handkerchief, one mask.
12. To find a wife on the journey.^[1]
13. To forward an account of the miles walked and towns visited with all the necessary documents from the Capital of each County (whilst in England), and all other towns mentioned in the appended list.
14. To visit the countries of the world in the order of the appended list.
15. To be allowed to go as you please.
16. All the above conditions must be strictly adhered to, otherwise the above wager will become null and void.

^[1] In the pamphlet, it is stated that condition 12, to find a wife on the journey, had already been satisfied. I personally believe this to be because he had actually married Kate before setting out on the journey!

Route

List of Countries and Towns to be visited whilst Walking around the World.
England and Wales
Kent	Maidstone, Woolwich, Chatham, Dover.
Sussex	Lewes, Hastings, Brighton, Chichester.
Hampshire	Winchester, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth.
Dorset	Dorchester, Weymouth, Poole, Bridport.
Devon	Exeter, Plymouth, Devonport, Barnstaple.
Cornwall	Bodmin, Truro, penzance, Launceston.
Somerset	Taunton, bridgewater, Weston-Super-Mare, Bath.
Wiltshire	Sailsbury, Swindon, Marlborough, Devizes.
Berkshire	Reading, Abingdon, Maidenhead, Windsor.
Surry	Guildford, Croydon, Epson, Kingston.
Middlesex	Brentford, Staines, Tottenham, Enfield.
Essex	Chelmsford, Romford, Colchester, Harwich.
Suffolk	Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds, Lowstoft, Sudbury.
Norfolk	Norwich, Thetford, Yarmouth, King's Lynn.
Cambridgeshire	Cambridge, Wisbech, Ely, Newmarket.
Hertfordshire	Hertford, Watford, Ware, St. Albans.
Buckinghamshire	Aylesbury, Buckingham, Great Marlow, Wycombe.
Oxfordshire	Oxford, Banbury, Woodstock, Henley.
Gloucestershire	Gloucester, Bristol, Cirencester, Tewkesbury.
Wales	Cardiff, Swansea, Merthyr-Tydvil, Barry.
Monmouthshire	Monmouth, Newport, Abergavenny, Pontypool.
Herefordshire	Hereford, Leominster, Ledbury, Ross.
Warwickshire	Warwick, Birmingham, Coventry, Stratford.
Worcestershire	Worcester, Droitwich, Kidderminster, Dudley.
Northamptonshire	Northampton, Peterborough, Kettering, Wellingborough.
Bedfordshire	Bedford, Luton, Dunstable, Woburn.
Huntstanton	Huntingdon, St. Ives, St. Neots, Stilton
Rutland	Oakham, Uppingham, Preston, Manton.
Leicestershire	Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Loughborough.
Staffordshire	Stafford, Wolverhampton, Lichfield, Stoke-on-Trent.
Shropshire	Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Wellington, Ludlow.
Cheshire	Chester, Stockport, Macclesfield, Crewe.
Derbyshire	Derby, Chesterfield, Buxton, Matlock.
Nottinghamshire	Nottingham, Mansfield, Newark, Worksop.
Lincolnshire	Lincoln, Grimsby, Gainsborough, Grantham.
Yorkshire	York, Sheffield, Hull, Leeds.
Lancashire	Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston.
Westmoreland	Appleby, Kendal, Shap, Tobay.
Durham	Durham, Stockton, Sunderland, South Shields.
Cumberland	Carlisle, Whitehaven, Maryport, Eskoswald.
Northumberland	Newcastle-on-Tyne, Berwick, Tynemouth, Alnwick.
Rest of the World
Scotland	Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow, and Greenock.
Ireland	Belfast, Dundalk, Dublin, Cork.
Canada	Quebec, Montreal, and Ottawa.
United States America	New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans.
South America	Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, Santiago, Valparaiso.
New Zealand	Invercargill, Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, Napier, Auckland.
Australia	Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide.
South Africa	Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Volkrust, Ladysmith, Pietermaritzburg, Durban.
Japan	Yokohama, Tokio, Kioto, Nagasaki.
Ghinm Peking	Tientsin, Nankin, Shanghai, Ning-Po, Fu-Chau, Hong-Kong, Canton.
India	Calcutta, Patna, Benares, Allahabad, Lucknow, Delhi, Cawnpore, Zubalpur, Baroda, Surat, Poona, Bombay.
Egypt	Suez, Cairo, Port Said, Damietta, Rosetta, Alexandria.
Italy	Brindisi, Larento, Potenza, Salerno, Naples, Capua, Gaeta, Velletri, Rome, Civita Vecchia, Viterbe, Florence, Leghorn, Pisa, Spezia, Genoa.
France	Nice, Marseilles, Montpellier, Perpignan, Toulouse, Limoges, Voleaux, Paris, Valenciennes.
Spain	Barcelona, Tarragona, Castellon, Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena, Almeria, Malaga, Cadiz, Madrid, Gaudalajara, Soria, Pamplona.
Portugal	Lisbon, Faro, Setubal, Portalegre.
Belgium	Brussels, Antwerp, Liege.
Germany	Berlin, Cologne, Cassel, Madgeburg, Hamburg, Bremen.
Holland	Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Haarlem.

Notes:

• I have used the spellings as given in the pamphlet, which are not always as we know them today! It is also interesting to see how UK counties and even country names have changed since the time of Harry's walk.
• The route is laid out in the pamphlet as above, with Wales listed as if it is just one of the counties of England, but Scotland and Ireland listed with the other countries of the world. I've emboldened Wales in the table, to make is stand out a little better, but this isn't the case in the pamphlet.

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