England, moreover, there is now scarcely a country town, sea-side watering-place, cricket, rowing, or football club of importance, and probably not a single university or school, which does not hold its annual gathering for athletic pur poses. Across the border the professional still far eclipses the amateur element, and there is no meeting of amateurs which can by any means be compared with the autumn Highland gatherings at Braemar and elsewhere. Until recently the two classes contended indiscriminately together, and the prowess displayed by such amateurs as the late Professor Wilson affords ample testimony that gentlemen were quite capable of holding their own against profes sionals. The number of annual amateur gatherings held in Scotland is, however, extremely limited, and scarcely extends beyond the universities and chief schools connected with Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. In Ireland the origin of the pastime is again attributable to the leading university, viz., Trinity College, Dublin, where the decision of isolated events, from about the year 1845, has given rise to the meetings now annually held in the picturesque College Park at Dublin. The Irish civil service meeting was inaugurated in 1867, since which time the pastime has made marvellous strides in the island, as is testified by important meetings now held annually in Belfast, Cork, and Gal way; whilst the recently formed Irish Champion Athletic Club takes the lead, and stands in the same relation to Ireland as the London Athletic Club does to the whole of Great Britain. Athletic sports are also now extending on the Continent, at many great watering-places where Englishmen are in the habit of con gregating. Oar great colonies of India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, too, as well as the United States of America, Buenos Ayres, China, and even Japan, are not without their annual gatherings for competitors of the Anglo-Saxon race. The contests now classified under the name " athletic sports " are, walking, running, leaping, throwing the hammer, and putting the weight. Leaping and running are respectively identical with the aX/j.a and Spo/ios of the ancient pentathlon; whereas throwing the hammer and putting the weight bear some resemblance to throwing the Sicnco9. Spear-hurling, O.KOVTLOV, is never practised but by a few gymnastic societies ; and wrestling, irdXr), between amateurs is rarely witnessed. Running and leaping, however, are nearly always combined on every occasion in two descriptions of contests, viz., steeplechasing and hurdle-racing. Race-walking finds most votaries in London, the northern counties of England, and in Ireland, all distances, from 1 mile to 7, being in vogue amongst amateurs. Running comprises all distances from 100 yards up to 4 miles. Leaping may be divided into three principal heads, viz., running high-leaping, running wide-leaping, and running pole-leaping, which are found to be included in nearly every athletic programme. Adjuncts to these are the running hop-step-and-jump, standing high-leaping, and standing wide-leaping, all of which are favourite pastimes in the northern and midland counties of England. Vault ing, too, is sometimes practised, but belongs rather to the gymnasium than outdoor athletic arena. Steeplechasing proper can only be practised over natural courses across country. Its home is to be found at Rugby School, and amongst members of hare-and-hounds clubs, who keep themselves in exercise thereby during the winter months. Artificial steeplechase courses are often made on athletic grounds ; but the leaps are generally far too sensational, and constructed rather to afford merriment to the spec tators than a fair test of the competitors leaping powers. A prettier sight than a well-contested hurdle race can scarcely be imagined ; but few first class hurdle racers are met with outside the universities and public schools. Scot land is undoubtedly the birthplace both of hammer throw ing and putting the weight, yet they are now practised at nearly every English and Irish meeting. 1 6 Ib is the usual weight of the missile except in Ireland, where a 42-Ib, and sometimes a 56-lb weight are put, though in a very un satisfactory fashion. Athletic sports may be practised in a well-rolled grass field, but the best arena is an enclosure, with a regularly laid down running track, the fouadation made of clinkers and rubble, and the surface of well-rolled fine cinder ashes. (H. r. w.)
ATHLONE, a market-town and parliamentary borough
of Ireland, lying partly in West Meath and partly in
Roscommon, 76 miles W. of Dublin. The River Shannon
divides the town into two portions, which are connected
by a handsome new bridge, opened in 1844. The rapids
of the Shannon at this point are obviated by means of a
canal about a mile long, which renders the navigation of
the river practicable for 71 miles above the town. In
the war of 1688 the possession of Athlone was considered
of the greatest importance, and it consequently sustained
two sieges, the first by William III. in person, which
failed, and the second by General Ginkell, who, in the face
of the Irish, forded the river and took possession of the
town, with the loss of only fifty men. At the time of the
last war with France it was strongly fortified on the Roscom
mon side, the works covering 15 acres and containing two
magazines, an ordnance store, an armoury with 15,000
stand of arms, and barracks for 1500 men. There are two
parish churches, two Roman Catholic parochial chapels, a
Franciscan and Augustinian chapel, Presbyterian, Baptist,
and Methodist meeting-houses, a court-house, bridewell, a
union work-house, and two branch banks. It has a
woollen factory, as well as other industries, and an active
trade is carried on with Shannon harbour and Limerick by
steamers, and with Dublin by the Grand and Royal Canals
and several railway lines, while the importance of its fairs
and markets is increasing. There is also a valuable
fishery in the river. Market-days, Tuesday and Saturday.
The borough returns one member to parliament. Popula
tion in 1871, 6566; constituency in 1873, 336. Thorn s
Irish Almanac for 1875.
ATHOR, ATHYK, HATHOR, the name of the Egyptian
divinity corresponding to Aphrodite or Venus. Her name
meant " the abode of Hor " or Horus, and she was the
mother of that deity in some of his types, and as such a
form of Isis, of whom she was a higher or celestial mani
festation. Her name occurs as early as the 4th dynasty,
when she is styled the mistress of the tree, or sycamore,
neha, or the tree of the south. Besides the local titles of
the different cities over which she presided, she was entitled
regent of the gods, living mistress of the upper and lower
world, mistress of the heaven and regent of the West, and
pupil or eye of Ra, or the Sun, with whom she was con
nected. In her celestial character she is represented as an
Egyptian female holding a sceptre, her head surmounted
by the sun s disk, horns, and uraeus, and her flesh coloured
blue, the colour of the heaven, or yellow, that of gold and
beauty (according to Egyptian notions), a term also applied
to Aphrodite in Greek mythology. In her terrestrial char
acter she was the goddess who presided over sports and
dancing, music and pleasure, like the Greek Aphrodite, the
goddess of love ; but her particularly special type was the
white or spotted cow, the supposed mother of the sun.
The solar deities Shu and Tefnut were her children. In
certain legends she is mentioned as the seven cows of
Athor, which appear in the Ritual or Book of the Dead.
These cows, like the Moirie, or fates of Greek mythology,
appeared at the births of legendary persons, and predicted
the course and events of their lives. It is in this capacity
that Athor is connected with Ptah, or the Egyptian
Hephrcstus, and is allied to Sekhet or Bast, called the wifa
