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Topham had in himself the strength of twelve men united, as is proved by the feats which he performed before Desaguliers, who has done them the honour of admitting them into his "System of Experimental Philosophy," and has thus given them the stamp of unimpeachable authenticity. He took a bar of iron, the two ends of which he held in his hands, placed the middle of the bar behind the nape of his neck, and then brought the extremities forward. He then undid what he had done; that is, he made the bar of iron straight again-an operation much more difficult than the other. This feat he again performed, in consequence of having had a difference with some one of his acquaintance. He took an iron spit from the mantelpiece and twisted it round. his neck with as much ease as a cravat or a handkerchief. All his neighbours endeavoured to live on a good understanding with this terrible man. The housewives hid from his notice all their pewter plates and pots, for fear he should take a fancy to crack up the one like egg-shells or roll up the other like a sheet of paper. The English magazines of the eighteenth century relate that he sometimes used to amuse himself by cracking cocoa-nuts, in the hearing of those who were near him, as another might crack hazel nuts. One night, perceiving a watchman asleep in his box, he carried both the man and his shell to a great distance, and deposited them on the wall of a church-yard. What must have been the astonishment of the guardian of the peace, when awaking in the morning he found himself so highly perched!

As frequently happens, Topham was not endowed with strength of mind equal to that of his body, and had a wife that rendered existence so insupportable that he committed suicide in the prime of life.

CHAPTER VII.

VENETIAN GAMES IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

Hercules and Venice -To what Politics may descend-The Rivalry of the Castellani and the Nicoloti-The Battle of Fat ThursdayThe Forze d'Ercole-Architecture of Flesh and Bones,

THAT living in a dull, humid, and cold atmosphere, the English interest themselves in games of the kind which we have described is not at all astonishing. The amusements of a people are founded on their character, and the character of the people depends to a great extent on the geographical position of the country and the nature of the climate. The English are only faithful to their disposition in preferring sports that call for the exercise of great muscular strength and activity. But who would suspect that Venice, the gay and joyous, should have given itself up for many years-from the middle ages to the period of the Revolution—to amusements of the same description? How should these rude games come to have a place in the brilliant fêtes, of which the masquerade, dancing, love, and music, could never form too great a part, and the attractions of which drew strangers from all parts of Europe? Who could here have introduced games in which physical force alone was demanded, and among others the Forze d'Ercole, the labours of Hercules? What place could he have among a people so light and frivolous? Hercules spinning at the feet of Omphale perhaps, but surely not Hercules the destroyer of lions and hydras! These exhibitions had a very ancient origin, and

an object which strangers could not fathom, but which the ever-watchful government of Venice knew well how to appreciate.

The Senate encouraged an ancient rivalry that existed between two powerful factions in Venice, the Castellani and the Nicoloti, who took part in the athletic exercises, and competed in displaying the highest degree of strength and skill. These parties derived their names from the quarters of the city which they inhabited, the streets of Castello and San Nicolo, on opposite banks of the Grand Canal, and connected by a bridge, which formed a sort of neutral ground, as it were, between two hostile camps, and often became a field of battle hotly contested. It is not easy to discover what was the origin of the rivalry between the Castellani and the Nicoloti. Some say that it dates from the earliest times of Venice, when the islands which now form the city of the lagunes were not united, when the rights of each being still undecided, and the limits of their property undefined, disputes continually arose about the right of fishing in a certain reach of the sea, or of hunting on a certain strip of land. Others have traced the origin of the quarrel to the time when the inhabitants of Equilium and those of Heraclea, deadly enemies, chased from their respective towns by the hordes of barbarians that poured down upon them over the Alps, sought refuge in the midst of the lagunes, and established themselves upon opposite banks of what afterwards came to be known as the Grand Canal. In mingling with the original inhabitants they infected them with the spirit of mutual jealousy and aversion which animated themselves, and which only became intensified with time.

When the partisans of these hostile camps met in the

streets, like the fabled Capulets and Montagues of Mantua, or the royalists and reformers in the High Street of Edinburgh, in Queen Mary's time, a deadly party fight immediately took place. The authorities did not feel themselves bound to interfere; on the contrary, they allowed blood to be spilt, not, perhaps, in too great profusion, but sufficiently to constitute a new cause of quarrel, and to awaken in the hearts of the vanquished a burning desire for vengeance which should be gratified on another occasion. The Lacedæmonians urged their youth to join in similar contests, says Amelot de la Houssaye, but it was for the purpose of training them for war, whereas in the case of the Venetian government the object was to sow and to nourish dissension among the populace. In fact, if the citizens, instead of quarrelling among themselves, had become united, and in doing so had gained confidence in themselves, they would have overturned the power of the aristocracy, for they must have seen how superior they were then in numbers to the ruling class, which jealously kept all the wealth and influence of the state to themselves. Divide and crush, this was the internal policy of the government of Venice.

The Castellans and Nicolites did not perceive that by their dissensions they were only strengthening a power jealous of its privileges, and opposed to the rights of the people, a power, too, which they could easily have broken down by their union. Another cause of quarrel between the parties was that the Nicolites had the privilege of electing a special doge for their own quarter; and this potentate, who was always an artisan of San Nicolas, was the mark for many a pun, sarcasm, and epigram, on the part of the Castellani. But it was particularly on solemn fête days that the smouldering hate of these factions broke out, and that from

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