The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

20 ATHLETIC SPORTS OF SCOTLAND. two or three times heavier than the hammer, the performer would be killed by a few blows ; buthe blows are scarcely felt when the anvil is very heavy, for the more matter the anvilhas, the greateris its inertia, and it is the less liable to be struck out of its place; for when it has received by the blow the whole momentum of the hammer, its velocity will be so much less than that ofthe hammer,as its quantity ofmatter is greater. When the blow,indeed, istruck, theman feels less of the weight of the anvil than he did before, because in the reaction of the stone all the parts of it round about the hammer rise to the blow." THOMAS TOPHAM.— One of the most noted professional strong men was Thomas Topham, who exhibited about 1740. He was a man of about 5 feet 10 inches in height, and about 14 stones 4 lbs. inweight, very stronglymade. Two things distin­ guish Topham; first, his feats were feats ofreal strength; secon he is the first that performed feats that allow of comparison with those ofthe presentday. No one can mention asingle featof any of Topham's predecessors, from Samson onwards, and prove that it requires more strengththan thousands of men are possessed of at the present time. Topham's ignorance of the tricks ofhis trade ledto a serious accident in attempting to pull, really to pull, against horses, with his feet supported against a firm barrier. Instead of allowing the horses to try and crush the bones ofhis legs together by end pressure, asEckeberg did, he trusted to a genuine pull against them, with the result that he was pulled forward so violently against the barrier, as to break one of his knee pans. The following are the two best feats of real strengthrecorded of him. He stoodon a platform which had two parallel bars at a convenient height on his right and lefton which to place his hands. Below him on a lower platform were three barrels of water weighing altogether 1836 pounds. These being bound together, a chain from them passed through the platform on which Topham stood, andwas attached to a belt that passed overhis neck and shoulders ;