throws it up vertically. If it is successfully thrown it ought to come down upon its broad end, and stand a moment perpendicular before it falls. The "hammer," which is used in another Scotch game of a similar kind, is a ball of iron or brass fixed at the end of a shaft of about a yard in length. The competitor takes the shaft in his hand, and, whirling the hammer round and round several times, hurls it from him, taking a leap at the instant of throwing, to give more effect to the effort. In this game strength is not of so much account as skill and practice, without which, indeed, no one need attempt the feat. The longest throw

wins the prize.

Amongst the best wrestlers in England are the northcountrymen, of whom a ponderous fellow, eighteen stone in weight, named Bill Jamieson, is the leader. Last year he challenged any man in the world, and offered to give one fall in seven, so that he would have to throw an adversary four times to win. Dick Wright, of Longtown, is also well known in the Cumberland and Westmoreland rings; and at the annual meetings of the Society at the Agricultural Hall, London, every Good Friday, these men are generally left in for the final falls in the "all weights" prizes. The terms in use in the north are the cross buttock," the "back heel," the "in lock," the "swinging hipe," and many others. The men seize each other round the waist, and as no kicking is allowed, as in the west-country style, they grapple for some time before turning an opponent over, or "felling" him. Prizes are also given at many other towns, viz., at Manchester, Liverpool, and Newcastle, while at Carlisle several days a year are devoted to this sport.

Many wrestlers are also at the present day to be found in Cornwall and Devonshire. There is no rivalry between

the inhabitants of these bordering counties, who, keeping themselves apart, have no wish to measure themselves against each other, and if they compete, their striving does not part friendship. They practise modes of wrestling diametrically opposite, and nothing in the world would make them interfere with each other in any way. The men of Cornwall cultivate particularly the croc-en-jamb, which, after them, has received the name, now famous in England, of the Cornish hug. Those of Devon leave this practice to their neighbours; but, in return, they use a coup which is peculiarly dangerous and terrible-the kick, a compliment addressed usually to the legs of the adversary. Consequently, the combatants strive to keep their thighs, their calves, and shins, as safe as possible. If the reader has seen. a bull-fight, he will remember that the Picadors take similar precautions. Under their breeches of buffalo hide they have leg-cases of sheet iron, the effect of which is to render harmless the horns of the enraged animal, but which at the same time are so heavy that once down the combatant cannot get up again.

The Cornish Hug is the subject of a very curious book, written in the last century, by Sir Thomas Parkyns, who was not a mere dilettante, but combined theory with practice. His portrait, somewhat disfigured by time, is still to be seen at the church of Bunny, Nottingham, where he is represented in the costume and attitude of a wrestler. For a magistrate, he employed his leisure in a somewhat singular fashion; but no man is always able to control his hobbies. Sir Thomas came into the world with a passion, or rather a mania for athletic exercises. The games which he had instituted in his parish and upon his domain of Bunny Park, were continued after his death (March 28, 1741), for he

left some prizes, the last of which were not distributed till 1810. This strange character, who seems to have escaped from Olympia, and to have wandered into our modern times by accident, amused himself by descending into the ring, and there disputing with his creditors the debts which he owed them. He sometimes won, and in that case put his money in his purse. His debts, however, were paid by his domestics, as a rule, all stout fellows who had given proof of their quality as wrestlers. Some of them had been famous athletes, particularly his butler and valet, both of whom he admitted into his service only after he had had proof of the solidity of their fists.

The virtue of temperance, which Sir Thomas practised for its own sake, carried him on to the age of seventyeight years, without even having experienced a single illness in all his life; but at that age he was obliged to succumb to the embrace of the formidable wrestler who spares no one.

Sir Thomas Parkyns had also a mania for collecting coffins! He had already gathered a number in the churchyard, when the idea occurred to him to select one for his own use, and to have it placed opposite to him in the church, surmounted by his bust in marble, carved by his chaplain. It is to be hoped that the worthy ecclesiastic was worth more as a theologian than as a sculptor, for his talent as an artist is by no means great.

In the same century lived another very remarkable athlete, who performed surprising feats of strength-Thomas Topham, born at London in 1710. He established himself in 1741 at Derby, where he performed a prodigious feat of strength, that of lifting three casks filled with water, and weighing in all 1,836 lbs. One of the aldermen of Derby

seeing a man of plain exterior presenting himself before him, asked what was wanted, and was told by the “ plain" man, Thomas Topham, that he requested permission to perform certain feats which required uncommon strength. Topham then was a man of five feet ten inches in height, about thirty years of age, well proportioned, and extraordinarily muscular. There was, however, nothing special in his appearance, if we except his armpits and hams, which, hollow in the case of ordinary people, were with him full of muscles and tendons.

At the time when Desaguliers was making his curious experiments in physics and mechanics, and was seeking to explain scientifically certain effects of muscular force, he went to see Thomas Topham, who was most honest in all his performances. "He entirely ignores the art of making his strength appear more surprising than it is," says Desaguliers, "and even undertakes sometimes things which become very difficult to him owing to his disadvantageous position, for he often attempts and does what people tell him other athletes have done who had special advantages which he does not possess. Having wagered that he would pull against two horses, supported by the trunk of a tree, he was pulled from his position with such violence that one of his knees coming into contact with the wood, the result was a fracture of the knee-pan, which caused the loss of part of the strength of that limb. Now, if he had put himself in an advantageous position, he could have pulled against four horses instead of two without the least inconvenience. It was probably in consequence of this accident that in his experiment with the casks he worked not with the muscles of the legs, as others who have attempted similar feats on a smaller scale have done, but with those of the neck and shoulders.