reputedly able to lift a hundredweight, i.e. , with two fingers and hold it at arm's length for ten minutes. In 1849, he entered show business and went to work for P. T. Barnum's circus, appearing next to General Tom Thumb. In 1853 he toured the West Indies and Cuba. Queen Victoria heard stories about MacAskill's great strength and invited him to appear before her to give a demonstration at Windsor Castle, after which she proclaimed him to be "the tallest, stoutest and strongest man to ever enter the palace", and presented him with two gold rings in appreciation. The fishermen of St. Anns envied MacAskill's strength. While they laboriously bailed their boats, MacAskill set his weight under his two-ton boat, tipped it on its beam ends and reportedly emptied the bilge water. He reportedly single-handedly set a mast into a schooner. He was also said to have been able to lift a fully grown horse over a four-foot fence. There are various accounts of an incident with an anchor that may have taken place in New York or New Orleans. French sailors apparently taunted MacAskill to lift an anchor lying on the wharf, which was estimated to weigh . MacAskill easily did so and walked down the wharf with it, but one of the anchor's flukes caught in one of his shoulders, crippling him. However, this was not the cause of his death, as he lived for many years thereafter. After a show business career demonstrating his size and strength in Europe and North America, he returned to his home community of Englishtown and purchased a gristmill, a general store and several other properties. Death In the summer of 1863, MacAskill undertook a trip to the colonial capital at Halifax, where he had been planning to sell produce and purchase stock for his store that he would need for the winter season from the city's wholesalers. During the trip, he suddenly became seriously ill and was returned to St. Anns, where his family moved him back to his parents' home. His original childhood bed was hastily lengthened and put up in their living room to provide for his care. The doctor's diagnosis was brain fever. After a week's illness, MacAskill died peacefully in his sleep on August 8, 1863, the Presbyterian minister the Rev. Abraham McIntosh and many neighbours being in attendance in the house. The Halifax Acadian Recorder