Chapter Giant's Causeway to Giant's Leap of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Giant's Causeway to Giant's Leap

  (6) Giants of Real Life.

• ANAK (of Bible history), father of the Anakim. The Hebrew spies said they were mere grasshoppers in comparison with these giants (Joshua xv. 14; Judges i. 20; and Numbers xiii. 33.)
  
• ANDRONICUS II. was 10 feet in height. He was grandson of Alexius Comnenus. Nicetas asserts that he had seen him.
  
• BAMFORD (Edward) was 7 feet 4 inches. He died in 1768, and was buried in St. Dunstan's churchyard.
  
• BATES (Captain) was 7 feet 11 1/2 inches. He was a native of Kentucky, and was exhibited in London in 1871. His wife (Anna Swann) was the same height.
  
• BLACKER (Henry) was 7 feet 4 inches, and most symmetrical. He was born at Cuckfield, in Sussex, in 1724, and was called "The British Giant."
  
• BRADLEY (William) was 7 feet 9 inches in height. He was born in 1787, and died 1820. His birth is duly registered in the parish church of Market Weighton, in Yorkshire, and his right hand is preserved in the museum of the College of Surgeons.
  
• BRICE (M. J.) exhibited under the name of Anak, was 7 feet 8 inches in height at the age of 26. He was born in 1840 at Ramonchamp, in the Vosges, and visited England 1862-5. His arms had a stretch of 95 1/2 inches, and were therefore 3 1/2 inches too long for symmetry.
  
• BRUSTED (Von) was 8 feet in height. This Norway giant was exhibited in London in 1880.
  
• BUSBY (John) was 7 feet 9 inches in height, and his brother was about the same. They were natives of Darfield, in Yorkshire.
  
• CHANG, the Chinese giant, was 8 feet 2 inches in height. The entire name of this Chinese giant was Chang-Woo-Goo. He was exhibited in London in 1865-1866, and again in 1880. He was a native of Fychou.
  
• CHARLEMAGNE was nearly 8 feet in height, and was so strong he could squeeze together three horseshoes with his hands.
  
• COTTER (Patrick) was 8 feet 7 1/2 inches in height. This Irish giant died at Clifton, Bristol, in 1802. A cast of his hand is preserved in the museum of the College of Surgeons.
  
• DANIEL, the porter of Oliver Cromwell, was a man of gigantic stature.
  
• ELEAZER was 7 cubits (nearly 14 feet). Vitellius sent this giant to Rome; and he is mentioned by Josephus. N.B. - The height of Goliath was 6 cubits and a span.
     Nothing can be a greater proof that the cubit was not 21 inches, for no recorded height of any giant known has reached 10 feet. The nearest approach to it was Gabara, the Arabian giant (9 feet 9 inches) mentioned by Pliny, and Middleton of Lancashire (9 feet 3 inches) mentioned by Dr. Plott. Probably a cubit was about 18 inches.
  
• ELEIZEGUE (Joachim). Was 7 feet 10 inches in height. He was a Spaniard, and exhibited in the Cosmorama, Regent Street, London.
  
• EVANS (William) was 8 feet at death. He was a porter of Charles I., and died in 1632.
  
• FRANK (Big). Was 7 feet 8 inches in height. He was an Irishman whose name was Francis Sheridan, and died in 1870.
  
• FRENZ (Louis) was 7 feet 4 inches in height. He was called "the French giant."
  
• FUNNUM (court giant of Eugene II.) was 11 feet 6 inches.
  
• GABARA, the Arabian giant, was 9 feet 9 inches. This Arabian giant is mentioned by Pliny, who says he was the tallest man seen in the days of Claudius.
  
• GILLY was 8 feet. This Swedish giant was exhibited in the early part of the nineteenth century.
  
• GOLIATH was 6 cubits and a span (11 feet 9 inches, if the cubit = 21 inches, and the span = 9 inches).
     See note to the giant ELEAZER. If the cubit was 18 inches, then Goliath was the same height as the Arabian giant Gabara.
  
• GORDON (Alíce) was 7 feet in height. She was a native of Essex, and died in 1737, at the age of 19.
  
• HALE (Robert) was 7 feet 6 inches in height. He was born at Somerton, in Norfolk, and was called "the Norfolk giant" (1820-1862).
  
• HAR'DRADA (Harold) was nearly 8 feet in height ("5 ells of Norway"), and was called "the Norway giant." Snorro Sturleson says he was "about 8 feet in height."
  
• HOLMES (Benjamin) was 7 feet 6 inches in height. He was a Northumberland man, and was made sword-bearer of the Corporation of Worcester. He died in 1892.
  
• JOHN FREDERICK, Duke of Brunswick, was 8 feet 6 inches in height.