Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine

by Raphael Holinshed; William Harrison; John Hooker

Geruasius Tilberiensis. Geruasius Tilberiensis, head Marshall to the king of Arles writeth in his Chronicle dedicated to Otho 4. how that at Isoretum, in the suburbes of Paris, he saw the bodie of a man that was twentie foot long, beside the head and the necke, which was missing & not found, the owner hauing peraduenture béene beheaded for some notable trespasse committed in times past, or (as he saith) killed by S. William.

The Greeke writers make mention of Andronicus their emperour, who liued 1183. of Grace, and was ten foot in height, that is, thrée foot higher than the Dutch man that shewed himselfe in manie places of England, 1582. this man maried Anna daughter to Lewis of France (before assured to Alexius, whome he strangled, dismembred and drowned in the sea) the ladie not being aboue eleuen yeares of age, whereas he was an old dotard, and beside hir he kept Marpaca a fine harlot, who ruled him as she listed.

Zonaras speaketh of a woman that liued in the daies of Justine, who being borne in Cilicia, and of verie comelie personage, was neuerthelesse almost two foot taller than the tallest woman of hir time.

Sir Thomas Eliot. A carcase was taken vp at Iuie church neere Salisburie but of late yeares to speake of, almost fourtéene foot long, in Dictionario Eliotæ.

Leland in Combrit. In Gillesland in Come Whitton paroche not far from the chappell of the Moore, six miles by east from Carleill, a coffin of stone was found, and therein the bones of a man, of more than incredible greatnes. In like sort Leland speaketh of another found in the Ile called Alderney, whereof you shall read more in the chapiter of our Ilands.

Richard Grafton. Richard Grafton in his Manuell telleth of one whose shinbone conteined six foot, and thereto his scull so great that it was able to receiue fiue pecks of wheat. Wherefore by coniecturall symmetrie of these parts, his bodie must needs be of 24. foot, or rather more, if it were The Symmetrie or proportion of the bodie of a comelie man. diligentlie measured. For the proportion of a comelie and well featured bodie, answereth 9. times to the length of the face, taken at large from the pitch of the crowne to the chin, as the whole length is from the same place vnto the sole of the foot, measured by an imagined line, and seuered into so manie parts by like ouerthwart draughts, as Drurerus in his lineall description of mans bodie doth deliuer. Neuertheles, this symmetrie is not taken by other than the well proportioned face, for Recta, orbiculata (or fornicata) prona, resupinata, and lacunata (or repanda) doo so far degenerate from the true proportion as from the forme and beautie of the comelie. Hereby also they make the face taken in strict maner, to be the tenth part of the whole bodie, that is, frō the highest part of the forehead to the pitch of the chin, so that in the vse of the word face there is a difference, wherby the 9. part is taken (I say) from the crowne (called Vertex, because the haire there turneth into a circle) so that if the space by a rule were truelie taken, I meane from the crowne or highest part of the head to the pitch of the nether chap, and multiplied by nine, the length of the whole bodie would easilie appeare, & shew it selfe at the full. In like maner I find, that from the elbow to the top of the midle finger is the 4. part of the whole length, called a cubit: from the wrist to the top of the same finger, a tenth part: the length of the shinbone to the ancle a fourth part (and all one with the cubit:) from the top of the finger to the third ioint, two third parts of the face from the top of the forehead. Which obseruations I willinglie remember in this place, to the end that if anie such carcases happen to be found hereafter, it shall not be hard by some of these bones here mentioned, to come by the stature of the whole bodie, in certeine & exact maner. As for the rest of the bones, ioints, parts, &c: you may resort to Drurerus, Cardan, and other writers, sith the farther deliuerie of them concerneth not my purpose. To proceed therefore with other examples, I read that the bodie Sylvester Gyraldus. of king Arthur being found in the yeare 1189. was two foot higher than anie man that came to behold the same. Finallie the carcase of William Conqueror was séene not manie yeares since (to wit, 1542.) in the citie Constans fama Gallorum. of Cane, twelue inches longer, by the iudgment of such as saw it, than anie man which dwelled in the countrie. All which testimonies I note togither, bicause they proceed from christian writers, from whome nothing should be farther or more distant, than of set purpose to lie, and feed the world with fables.

In our times also, and whilest Francis the first reigned ouer France, there was a man séene in Aquiteine, whome the king being in those parties made of his gard, whose height was such, that a man of common heigth might easilie go vnder his twist without stooping, a stature Briat. incredible. Moreouer Casanion, a writer of our time, telleth of the bones of Briat a giant found of late in Delphinois, of 15. cubits, the diameter of whose scull was two cubits, and the breadth of his shoulders foure, as he himselfe beheld in the late second wars of France, & wherevnto the report of Ioan Marius made in his bookes De Galliarum illustrationibus,where he writeth of the carcase of the same giant found not farre from the Rhodanus, which was 22. foot long, from the scull to the sole of the feet, dooth yéeld sufficient testimonie. Also Calameus in his commentaries De Biturigibus, confirmeth no lesse, adding that he was found 1556. & so dooth Baptista Fulgosus, lib. 1. cap. 6. saieng farther, that his graue was seene not farre from Valentia, and discouered by the violence and current of the Rhodanus. The said Casanion in like sort speaketh of the bones of a man which he beheld, one of whose téeth was a foot long, and eight pound in weight. Also of the sepulchre of another neere vnto Charmes castell, which was nine paces in length, things incredible to vs, if eiesight did not confirme it in our owne times, and these carcases were not reserued by the verie prouidence of God, to the end we might behold his works, and by these relikes vnderstand, that such men were in old time in deed, of whose statures we now begin to doubt. Now to say somwhat also of mine owne knowledge, there is the thighbone of a man to be séene in the church of S. Laurence néere Guildhall in London, which in time past was 26. inches in length, but now it beginneth to decaie, so that it is shorter by foure inches than it was in the time of king Edward. Another also is to be seene in Aldermarie burie, of some called Aldermanburie, of 32. inches and rather more, whereof the symmetrie hath beene taken by some skilfull in that practise, and an image made according to that proportion, which is fixt in the east end of the cloister of the same church, not farre from the said bone, and sheweth the person of a man full ten or eleuen foot high, which as some say was found in the cloister of Poules, that was neere to the librarie, at such time as the Duke of Somerset did pull it downe to the verie foundation, and carried the stones thereof to the Strand, where he did build his house. These two bones haue I séene, beside other, whereof at the beholding I tooke no great heed, bicause I minded not as then to haue had any such vse of their proportions, and therefore I will speake no more of them: this is sufficient for my purpose that is deliuered out of the christian authors.

Now it resteth furthermore that I set downe, what I haue read therof in Pagane writers, who had alwaies great regard of their credit, and so ought all men that dedicate any thing vnto posteritie, least in going about otherwise to reape renowme and praise, they doo procure vnto themselues in the end nothing else but meere contempt and infamie. For my part I will touch rare things, and such as to my selfe doo séeme almost incredible: howbeit as I find them, so I note them, requiring your Honour in reading hereof, to let euerie Author beare his owne burden, and euerie oxe his bundle.

In vita Sertorij de Antheo. Plutarch telleth how Sertorius being in Lybia, néere to the streicts of Maroco, to wit, at Tingi (or Tanger in Mauritania, as it is now called) caused the sepulchre of Antheus, afore remembred to be opened: for hearing by common report that the said giant laie buried there, whose corps was fiftie cubits long at the least, he was so far off from crediting the same, that he would not beleeue it, vntill he saw the coffin open wherein the bones of the aforesaid prince did rest. To be short therefore, he caused his souldiers to cast downe the hill made sometime ouer the tombe, and finding the bodie in the bottome coffined in stone, after the measure therof taken, he saw it manifestlie to be 60. cubits in length, which were ten more than the people made accompt of, which Strabo also confirmeth.

Pausanias reporteth out of one Miso, that when the bodie of Aiax was found, the whirlebone of his knée was adiudged so broad as a pretie dish: also that the bodie of Asterius somtime king of Creta was ten cubits long, and that of Hyllus or Gerion no lesse maruelous than the rest, all which Goropius still condemneth to be the bones of monsters of the sea (notwithstanding the manifest formes of their bones, epitaphes, and inscriptions found ingrauen in brasse and lead with them in their sepulchres) so far is he from being persuaded and led from his opinion.