His eyes were hollow, his mouth was wide:
Loathly he was to look upon,
And liker a demon than a man:
His staff was a young and torn-up oak;
And hard and heavy was his stroke.”
“The giant Ascabart is alluded to in the first canto of Scott’s Lady of the Lake; and many legends are told of his conqueror Sir Bevis, who appears to have resided near Southampton, at a place still called Sir Bevis’s Mount.”
“I suppose these figures below are Sir Bevis’s arms,” said Agnes; “if there ever was such a person.”
“I do not wonder that you have not full faith in Sir Bevis,” said Mrs. Merton, smiling; “but for my own part, I believe that all the heroes of romance we hear about in different places are real personages, though their deeds have been so exaggerated as to make us doubt their existence.”
“But the arms, mamma,” repeated Agnes,—“whose do you think they are?”
“Most of them are probably those of the persons who have repaired the gate, at different times; and I think those of Queen Elizabeth are in the centre. The queer-looking animals that sit below, however, most probably belonged to Sir Bevis, as they appear of the same date as his figure.”