page_title: Englishtown, Nova Scotia
section_title: "Giant" McAskill
hierarchical_section_title: Englishtown, Nova Scotia / "Giant" McAskill
caption_attribution_description: English: Angus MacAskill in Uniform beside a (6 feet 5 inces tall) canadian friend
context_page_description: Englishtown is a small coastal community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located partially on St. Ann's Harbour as well as St. Ann's Bay in Victoria County on Cape Breton Island. It is predominantly a fishing community.
context_section_description: The town's most well known resident was a man named Angus McAskill, a celebrity of some renown in the 1800s. McAskill was born in the highlands of Scotland and came to Englishtown as a child with his family. Though his exact height cannot be confirmed, his brother gave his height as 7 ft 9 in and his weight as approximately 400 pounds. In 1850, the captain of a fishing schooner from Yarmouth observed McAskill in Englishtown and tried to convince him to come to the United States to give exhibitions of his unusual size and strength. MacAskill consented and became one of the "wonders" of Barnum's American Museum. He did this for approximately four years, amassing enough money to live quite comfortably upon returning home to Englishtown. During his time in the United States, however, McAskill suffered a serious injury which would indirectly lead to his death many years later. One of his boots was preserved at the Nova Scotia Provincial Museum, displayed alongside the thigh bone of a mammoth.
caption: McAskill (left), standing beside a man of 6 ft 5 in
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