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HOW TO GET STRONG
As we have seen, "his size was gigantic," and "few men could meet him in single combat."
Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, p. 61, says: "He was very tall and handsome; and one of the strongest and bravest men that ever lived. He was particularly dexterous in the use of all weapons which were then employed in battle."
"Wallace's favorite weapon appears to have been a long and ponderous two-handled sword,[1] which his prodigious strength enabled him to wield with the greatest ease." An eye-witness says: "Bruce was a man beautiful and of a fine appearance; and his strength was so great that he could easily have overcome any mortal man of his time. But in so far as he excelled other men; he was
- ↑ The great sword now in Stirling Castle is commonly supposed to have been Wallace's. But perhaps he had two. At any rate, hear Mr. McTavish: "It is the popular belief in Scotland that the sword of William Wallace, the friend of Bruce and the hero par excellence of Scottish romance, lies, with other relics, in Stirling Castle. This, according to the story of Duncan McPherson McTavish, of East Girard Avenue, is a popular mistake. He alone has the sword of the Scottish warrior, and he says that it has been handed down from sire to son in the McTavish clan for centuries. The sword which the esteemed Highlander proudly exhibits to his friends is a most formidable weapon. It is exactly six feet four inches in length, and weighs somewhat over twenty-seven pounds. No ordinary man can hold it out at arm's length, and not even Sandow could wield it for five minutes. It is made, Mr. McTavish asserts, of the finest Damascus steel, and he adds that but one head of his clan—his great-great-great-great-grandfather, Ian Dhu McTavish—could use it in battle, and his strength was so great that, with this terrible weapon, he could cut right through an armed knight from the helmet to the saddle of his horse. Mr. McTavish talks a great deal of his famous ancestor, especially after dinner, and the stories he relates of his physical prowess are somewhat wonderful."—Philadelphia Times, quoted in the New York Evening Sun, April 21, 1898.
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