The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

xoS ATHLETIC SPORTS OF SCOTLAND. of hard work he underwent as a mason partly accounts for the great improvementhe made, especially at h mmer-throwing, after he stopped mason work. With the exception of the highleap, he may be said to have improved everyear from16 to over 30. These things must be taken into account when judging ofhis performances against other athletes previous to 1868. From 1853 to 1858 he was merely a big boy competing against matured men. From 1858 to1868 he laidaside his mason's tools only only for three orfour months in the year. In 1867he was ill with influenza early in the season,and hardly gotover it by the end of the season. From this time hewas all-round champion athlete at all the fivefeats mentioned, the only onewho has ever been so. While quitea youth he broke hisleft arm, which, from bad treatment, was always afterwards much inferiorto his right. In the winter of1868 or1869, whileriding onhorseback, he ran his left knee fulltilt against the head of a post, and it was long ere he could use it with freedom. In 1871 he fractured his left ankle at Rothesay at the long leap, and was never able to do the high leap in anything like his pristine form again. In 1872, duringhis second tour in America, he sprained his left arm badly at vaulting. Yet it was after all these injuriesthat his best performances were done with the hammer. In 1870 he made his firsttour inAmerica. He sufferedmuch from seasick­ ness on the voyage out, and the heat told greatly againsthim after landing, yet in every feat of strength as practised in Scot­ land itwas Dinnie firstand the otherspractically nowhere. He also won many races, and generally the high leap. There can be no question but that this first visit of his to Americagave an impetus to Scottish athletic sports there thathas done much to maintain and increase the popularity they now enjoy. It was after his return fromAmerica in 1870 that he began to practise with dumb-bells. In 1872he again went to America in company with James Fleming. On account of the injury referred to he had often to throw the hammer with one hand, yet he generally beat them all except Fleming. When over40, in company with