In the middle of the present (the nineteenth) century, all the newspapers made mention of the birth of a boy at Newcastle-on-Tyne with a tail, which “wagged when he was pleased.”
In the College of Surgeons at Dublin may be seen a human skeleton with a tail seven inches long.
Tails given by way of Punishment. Polydore Vergil asserts that when Thomas á Becket came to Stroud, the mob cut off the tail of his horse, and in eternal reproach, “both they and their offspring bore tails.” Lambarde repeats the same story in his Perambulation of Kent (1576).
For Becket’s sake Kent always shall have tails.--Andrew Marvel.
John Bale, bishop of Ossory, in the reign of Edward VI., tells us that John Capgrave and Alexander of Esseby have stated it as a fact that certain Dorsetshire men cast fishes’ tails at St. Augustine, in consequence of which “the men of this county have borne tails ever since.”
We all know the tradition that Cornish men are born with tails.
Taillefer, a valiant warrior and minstrel in the army of William the Conqueror. At the battle of Hastings (or Senlac) he stimulated the ardor of the Normans by songs in praise of Charlemagne and Roland. The soldier-minstrel was at last borne down by numbers, and fell fighting.
He was a juggler or minstrel, who could sing songs and play tricks.... So he rode forth singing as he went, and as some say, throwing his sword up in the air and catching it again.--E. A. Freeman, Old English History, 332.
Tailors of Tooley Street (The Three). Canning tells us of three tailors of Tooley Street, Southwark, who addressed a petition of grievances to the House of Commons, beginning with these words, “We, the people of England.”
The “deputies of Vaugirard” presented themselves before Charles VIII. of France. When the king asked how many there were, the usher replied, “Only one, an please your majesty.”