HAMMERSMITH  , a western

metropolitan borough of London, England, bounded E. by Kensington and S. by Fulham and the river Thames, and extending N. and W. to the boundary of the county of London . Pop . (1901) 112,239 . The name appears in the early forms of Hermodewode and Hamersmith; the derivation is probably from the Anglo-Saxon, signifying the place with a haven (hythe) . Hammersmith is mentioned with Fulham as a winter camp of Danish invaders in 879, when they occupied the island of Hame, which may be identified with Chiswick Eyot . Hammersmith consists of residential streets of various classes . There are many good houses in the districts of Brook Green in the south-east, and Ravenscourt Park and Starch Green in the west . Shepherd's Bush in the east is a populous and poorer quarter . Boat-building yards, lead-mills, oil mills, distilleries, coach factories, motor works, and other industrial establishments are found along the river and elsewhere in the borough . The main thoroughfares are Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road, from Acton on the west, converging at Shepherd's Bush and continuing towards Notting Hill; King Street from Chiswick on the south-west, continued as Hammersmith Broadway and Road to Kensington Road; Bridge Road from Hammersmith Bridge over the Thames, and Fulham Palace Road from Fulham, converging at the Broadway . Old Hammersmith Bridge, designed by Tierney Clark (1824), was the earliest suspension bridge erected near London . This bridge was found insecure and replaced in 1884-1887 .

Until 1834 Hammersmith formed

part of Fulham parish . Its church of St Paul was built as a chapel of ease to Fulham, and consecrated by Laud in 1631 . The existing building dates from 189o . Among the old monuments preserved is that of Sir Nicholas Crispe (d . 1665), a prominent royalist during the civil wars and a benefactor of the parish . Schools and religious houses are numerous . St Paul's school is one of the principal public schools in England . It was founded in or about 1509 by John Colet, dean of St Paul's, under the shadow of the cathedral church . But it appears that Colet actually refounded and reorganized a school which had been attached to the cathedral of St Paul from very early times; the first mention of such a school dates from the early part of the 12th century (see an article in The Times, London, July 7, 1909, on the occasion of the celebration of the quatercentenary of Colet's foundation) . The school was moved to its present site in Hammersmith Road in 1883 . The number of foundation scholars, that is, the number for which Colet's endowment provided, is 153, according to the number of fishes taken in the miraculous draught . The total number of pupils is about 600 .

The school

governors are appointed by the Mercers' Company (by which body the new site was acquired), and the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London . Close to the school is St Paul's preparatory school, and at Brook Green is a girls' school in connexion with the main school . There are, besides, the Edward Latymer foundation school for boys (1624), part of the income of which is devoted to general charitable purposes; the Godolphin school, founded in the 16th century and remodelled as a grammar school in 1861; Nazareth House of Little Sisters of the Poor, the Convent of the Sacred Heart, and other convents . The town hall, the West London hospital with its post-graduate college, and Wormwood Scrubbs prison are noteworthy buildings . Other institutions are the Hammer-smith school of art and a Roman Catholic training college . Besides the picturesque Ravenscourt Park (31 acres) there are extensive recreation grounds in the north of the borough at Wormwood Scrubbs (193 acres), and others of lesser extent . An important place of entertainment is Olympia, near Hammer-smith Road and the Addison Road station on the West London railway, which includes a vast arena under a glass roof; while at Shepherd's Bush are the extensive grounds and buildings first occupied by the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908, including a huge stadium for athletic displays . In the extreme north of the borough is the Kensal Green Roman Catholic cemetery, in which Cardinal Manning and many other prominent members of this faith are buried . In the neighbourhood of the Mall, bordering the river, are the house where Thomson wrote his poem " The Seasons," and Kelmscott House, the residence of William Morris . The parliamentary borough of Hammersmith returns one member . The borough council consists of a mayor, 5 aldermen, and 30 councillors . Area, 2286.3 acres .

HAMMER-THROWING, a

branch of field athletics which consists of hurling to the greatest possible distance an instrument with a heavy head and slender handle called the hammer . Throwing the hammer is in all probability of Keltic origin, as it has been popular in Ireland and Scotland for many centuries . The missile was, however, not a hammer, but the wheel of a chariot attached to a fixed axle, by which it was whirled round the head and cast for distance . Such a sport was undoubtedly cultivated in the old Irish games, a large stone being substituted for the wheel at the beginning of the Christian era . In the Scottish highlands the missile took the form of a smith's sledge-hammer, and in this form the sport became popular in England in early days . Edward II. is said to have fostered it, and Henry VIII. is known to have been proficient . At the beginning of the 19th century two standard hammers were generally recognized in Scotland, the heavy hammer, weighing about 21 lb, and the light hammer, weighing about 16 lb . These were in general use until about 1885, although the light hammer gradually attained popularity at the expense of the heavy . Although originally an ordinary blacksmith's sledge with a handle about 3 ft. long, the form of the head was gradually modified until it acquired its present spherical shape, and the stiff wooden handle gave place to one of flexible whalebone about e in. in diameter . The Scottish style of throwing, which also obtained in America, was to stand on a mark, swing the hammer round the head several times and 'hurl it backwards over the shoulder, the length being measured from the mark made by the falling hammer to the nearest foot of the thrower, no run or follow being allowed . Such men as Donald Dinnie, G . Davidson and Kenneth McRae threw the light hammer over Ito ft., and Dinnie's record was 132 ft .

8 in., made, however, from a raised

mount . Meanwhile the English Amateur Athletic Association had early fixed the weight of the hammer at 16 lb, but the length of the handle and the run varied widely, the restrictions being few . Under these conditions S . S . Brown, of Oxford, made in 1873 a throw of 120 ft., which was considered extraordinary at the time . In 1875 the throw was made from a 7-ft. circle without run, head and handle of the missile weighing together exactly 16 lb . In 1887 the circle was enlarged to 9 ft., and in 1896 a handle of flexible metal was legalized . The throw was made after a few rapid revolutions of the body, which added an impetus that greatly added to the distance attained . It thus happened that the Scottish competitors at the English games, who clung to their standing style of throwing, were, although athletes of the very first class, repeatedly beaten; the result being that the Scottish association was forced to introduce the English rules . This was also the case in America, where the throw from the 7-ft. circle, any motions being allowed within it, was adopted in 1888, and still obtains . The Americans still further modified the handle, which now consists of steel wire with two skeleton loops for the hands, the wire being joined to the head by means of a ball-bearing swivel . Thus the greatest mechanical advantage, that of having the entire weight of the missile at the end, as well as the least friction, is obtained ..

In England the Amateur Athletic Association in 1908 enacted that " the head and handle may be of any

size, shape and material, provided that the complete implement shall not be more than 4 ft. and its weight not less than 16 lb . The competitor may assume any position he chooses, and use either one or both hands . All throws shall be made from a circle 7 ft. in diameter." The modern hammer-thrower, if right-handed, begins by placing the head on the ground at his right side . He then lifts and swings it round his head with increasing rapidity, his wholebody finally revolving with outstretched arms twice, in some cases three times, as rapidly as possible, the hammer being released in the desired direction . During the " spinning," or revolving of the body, the athlete must be constantly, "ahead of the hammer," i.e. he must be drawing it after him with continually increased pressure up to the very moment of delivery . The muscles chiefly called into play are those of the shoulders, back and loins . The adoption of the hand-loops has given the thrower greater control over the hammer and has thus rendered the sport much less dangerous than it once was . With a wooden handle the longest throw made in Great Britain from a 9-ft. circle was that of W . J . M . Barry in 1892, who won the championship in that year with 133 ft . 3 in .

With the flexible handle, "unlimited run and follow " being permitted, the record was held in 1909 by M . J . McGrath with 175 ft . 8 in., made in 1907; a Scottish amateur, T . R .

Nicholson, held the British record of 169 ft . 8 in . The world's record for throw from a 7-ft. circle was 172 ft . 11 in. by J . Flanagan in 1904 in America ; the British record from 9-ft. circle being also held by Flanagan with a throw of 163 ft . 1 in. made in 1900 . Flanagan's Olympic record (London, 1908) was 17o ft .

4'-,-, in . See Athletics in the

Badminton library; Athletes' Guide in Spalding's Athletic library; " Hammer-Throwing " in vol. xx. of Outing . HAMMER-TOE, a painful condition in which a toe is rigidly bent and the salient angle on its upper aspect is constantly irritated by the boot . It is treated surgically, not as formerly by amputation of the toe, but the toe is made permanently to lie flat by the simple excision of the small digital joint . Even in extremely bad cases of hammer-toe the operation of resection of the head of the metatarsal phalanx is to be recommended rather than amputation .