And bring the hobby I bestrode.”
(Shenstone, Ode to Memory.)
[324] The origin of the diminutive Sir Tom Thumb is, like that of the Teutonic myth, Jack the Giant-killer, to be found in the earliest annals of our race. An old ballad, written in 1630, commences thus:—
“In Arthur’s court Tom Thumb did live,
A man of mickle might,
The best of all the table round,
And eke a doughty knight.
“His stature but an inch in height,
Or quarter of a span,
Then thinke you not this little knight