THE TAILOR'S QIANT,
SALISBURY.

"¦'i .\ : •

Gog and Magog.

THE

GIANTS IN GUILDHALL
i^iir ual mii> Ugcnburg ^istorg.
WITH AN ACCOUNT OP OTHER CIVIC GIANTS, AT
HOME AND ABROAD. ,

BX F. AV. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A.
IIOHOtlAUV MRMIlRn OP TUB BOCIRTIKS OF ANTlQUAftlRB OF WOllMANnV, PIOAIinV
AND roiTiKiin.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR.

AnMB OF ANTWRnr.
LONDONi
JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY.
1859.

p /a-r^

YALE

^^^

i

9\

PREFACE.

The present volmne, — a small contri
bution to the civic history of our
metropolis, — has grown out of a brief
lecture I read in the summer of the
present year, at tlic meeting of the
London and Middldso.K A rclucologieal
Asflociiiiion, in (liiildliall. Tlie foun
dation was laid by Hone, the only
writer who seems to have cared to
devote more than a passing word to the
giants, who have always been popular

"^1 PEErACE.
favourites. Speaking of his own feeling
on this subject (which the writer shares
with hira), he says: "From the time
when I was astonished by the informa
tion, that 'every day when the giants
hear the clock strike twelve, they come
down to dinner,' I have had somethino-
of curiosity towards them. How came
they there, and what are they for ? In
vain have been my examinations of
Stow, Havel, Strype, Noorthonck, Mait
land, Scyrnonr, Pennant, and nnmbciicss
otlioi' luiLlioi'H of l)()ok.H find tnicts,
ro|i;anlinfi' iiOiidon. Tlicy Hcn.i'ddlj' ihljrn
to nicnUon thcin." To Hone's notes
I have added much on their early
legendary history; their public appear
ances on great festive occasions (such as

PREFACE.

Vll

royal entries to London, and Mayoralty
shows); many literary notices which
escaped him ; and, more particularly,
such- a descriptive account of continental
giants as illustrates the position our
Guildhall giants once held; and which
have not before been brought to bear
on their history, although, as I fully
beheve, their origin must be sought in
that direction.
Modern commerce owes an eternal
debt of gratiliudo for its very exisLcncc,
lo Uie detorniinod niHiHlaiico of Iho
traders of the middle ages to an effete
and destructive feudalism. The true
history of trade is the real history of
modern civihzation. It had its martyrs

Vlll

PREEACE.
in the adventurous men of the Low
Countries, who ultimately triumphed, and
fixed on a firm basis the rights of the
commercial community. Their clear
headed wisdom saw a new field for
prosperous industry; and glorious was
the triumph achieved. The magnificent
hotels-de-ville of their ancient towns, teU
of the mine of wealth opened to the
middle classes. The people's fetes on
great occasions rivalled the royal and
nobler f(!stivals, wliicli at ono time were
confined to the ari.stocracy. It is in
their popular displays wo fijul tlio origin
of our own ancient civic observances;
and it is curious to note how exactly
they were copied to tlie minutest point: ;:
The history of English trade and muni-

PREFACE.

IX

-5

%

cipal pageantry can never be complete
without this reference to continental
usages. The addenda to this volume is of a
natm-e with the Pieces Justifcatives,
which foreign antiquaries so frequently
and so usefully append to their works,
as proofs of the authenticity of their
text, or as indications to the reader for
further researches.
My object has been to touch lightly
on this whole subject ; bnt at tho same
time to indicate the profound antiquity
of the popular behef in giants. The
sacred, as well as the classic authors
confirm this belief; and if Polyphemus

X PREFACE.
be forgotten, Gohath is well-remembered.
Many striking localities are associated
with the gigantic heroes of the middle
ages : the rock known as " Arthur's
Seat,"^ at Edinburgh ; and that termed
"the Chair of Gargantua," on the Seine,
preserve popular tradition. The Colossal
Statuary of Egypt, Greece, and Rome,
may have had its effect in strengthening
the behef of the Gothic tribes who rose
to power upon the decay of Roman
greatness. The enormous wicker figm-es
in which human victims were sacrificed
to the barbaric gods, have by some au
thors been considered as the prototypes
of the wicker-giants paraded at home and
abroad in civic festivities. This was
the opinion enforced by Dr. Milner,

PREFACE.

XI

\

the historian of Winchester, but one
which the author of the present volume
thinks it needless to d-well exclusively
upon; as enough will have been said
in the course of it to show the universality
of belief held by the people of all ages
and countries in a gigantic race, enemies
to those of ordinary stature.
Not wishing to succumb to Dr.
Johnson, Charles Lamb, or Letitia
Landon, in attachment to the great
capital of Avhich he is a native, the
nutlior dedicates this little volume to
genuine lovers of London and its history,
as " a quaint chapter of half-forgotten
lore;" hnppy if they will sit (like
Mistress Quickly) " at the latter end of

Xll

PBEPACE.

a sea-coal fire," and kindly devote an
hour to an unpretentious fellow citizen,
who ^vill gossip on " thinges olde."
F. W. FAIEHOLT.

11, MONTPEMEB SqTTAEE,
BnOMETOIf, Deoembee, 1859.

€^t f iiiliiljaU (iiHttk

y,^o

Mythology has always usui-ped the place
of sober history in the popular mind. The
ancestry of all peoples, by its means, were
connected with the Gods, or were supposed
superhuman in size or power. In early art,
as in early story, great characters were lite
rally great of body. The gods and Idngs of
early Egj^pt were giants among men, when
sculptm-ed or pamted on the storied walls of
the temples and palaces of that mj'stic land.
The national heroes of Greece and Eome
were endowed with gigantic frames. Plero-
B

2 TriE Gurr^DiiALL giants.
dotus tells of the footstep of Hercules shown
in Scythia, and the sandal of Perseus found
at Chemnis, as being both two cubits in
length. The Gothic nations indulged the
samo exaggerated belief of their godlike
and gigantic ancestry. The heroes of
Knight-errantiy were similarly vast. , Of
the ICing Arthm', Higden desires us (when
speaking of tlie discovery of his body at
Glastonbury) to " have mynde that Ai'thures
chyn-bone, that was thenne shewed, was
longer by three inches than the legge and
the knee of the largest man that was then
found. Also the face of his forehead, by-
tw(K!iu', hyn two oyon, was a Hpaunc broad."
The grave of Sir Gawnin, ono of liis far-
famed Knights of the Round Table, was
fourteen feet in length. Another hero. Sir
Bevis, o^Hamton, is still depicted as a giant
on the bar-gate, at Southampton; and the

t

GUY OF WABAVICK. O
renowned Guy of "Warwick is popularly sup
posed to have left personal relics at Warwick
Castle sufficient to prove his vast stature.
liis breastplate, weighing 52lbs., is there
shewn to strengthen the behef of the faith
ful, who will not see that it is the crupper of
a horse as used hi the sixteenth centmy.
Guy's "porridge-pot," capable of holding
102 gallons, it is a species of sacrilege to
look on only as a large camp kettle. The
author has a vivid remembrance of the in
dignation with which his translation of these
"genuine relics " was received in AVarwick
some few years ago. It was like daring to
doubt tlio liquefaction of thoblood of St. Jan-
uarius in Naples, or tho truth of the holy coat
at Treves. "y^Tien such things remain with
us to confirm in our own time the fables of
past ages, we may qualify our sm'prise at
the head of a crocodile passing at Mons for
b2

Missing Page

Missing Page

0 THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.
In directing attention therefore to the
carved figm-es which so strildngly decorate
the old Guildhall of London, it will be
necessary to carry our researches far beyond
the comparatively recent period at whicli
they were fabricated ; to look a little at the
Guild observances of the great continental
trading towns; ,as well as take a retrospective
glance at the once -popular fabulous history
of the early foundation of London,
In the old days when the mventions of
tho Monkisli Chronicler, or the still more
fanciful Roniancist, or Minstrel Bard, were
Korionsly listcuod to n.s luHtory; it bccmmo
part of (ho popular behef that the original
name of London was New Troy, and that it
was founded by Brute or Brutus, the younger
son of Anthenor of Troy ; who, when that
city was sacked by the Greeks, fled to Italy,
and founded the city of Pavia, from whence

EARLY BRITISH LEGENDS. 7
his son, in search of new conquests, voyaged
around the Spanish and French coasts,
obtained the aid of the Gauls to invade
Britain, and landed in tlie port where now
Southampton stands.
Let us now see by whom he was opposed.
Caxton, in his Chronicle of England, se
riously prints, what the old authors as
seriously wrote, about the first peopling of
this island. It is to this effect. The
Emperor Dioclesian had three and tliu'ty
self-willed daughters, of whoso management
he was at last relieved by obtaining for them
as many husbands. But tho ladies did not
plonsnntly submit to tho rule of their lords,
and agreed among themselves to regain their
lost liberties by each cutting her husband's
throat. The deed was effected, and the
Emperor their father, driven to despair of
managing so refractory a family, to punish

8 THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.
their crimes, and rid himself of then-
presence, sent all to sea in one vessel with
half a year's provisions. After long sailine
they reached an island, which they made
then- residence, and named Albion, after the
name of the eldest lady. The Evil One, who
never lost sight of them, created visionary
litiHbands for thnso hulioH, who lircmno iho
mothers of " horrible giants," and they ruled
m the land until the advent of Brutus.
We now arrive at "the veritable history"
of our Guildhall Giants, included in his'
invasion, as thus given In tlio liistory of
tlie Trojiui wars, sold cheaply i,o tlio people
as late as 17;!r,.* The (limit son of the
above lady in this version names our Island.

* T7w llistonj of tu Trojan Wars, and Troy's Be-
struoiion. London, priutod for Sarah Bates, at tho Sun
and Biblo, in GWtspur Street ; and James Hodges, at
tho Looking Glass, on London Bridge. 12mo. 1735.

BRUTUS IN ENGLAND. 9
"Brute, having thus got footing in Britain,
was preparmg to improve the same, when
Albion, who had named this island after
his own name,— by which it is sometimes
called at this day,— having intelhgence
thereof, raised his whole power, being men
of a gigantick stature, and vast strenrth,
and boaiiii^ for their arma liugn clid),s of
knotty oak, battle axes, wliuibats of kon,
and globes full of spikes, fastened to a
long pole by a chain; and mth these
encountering Brute, a bloody battle was
fought, wherein tho Trojans wore worsted
and many of them Hlaili, and (hoir whole
army was forced to I'cliro.
" Brute hereupon considering the dis
advantage bet^vecu his men and the giants,
devised a stratagem to overthrow them,
by digging in the night a very long and
deep trench, at the bottom impaling it with

10

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

sharp stalces, and covering it with boughs
and rotten hurdles, on wliich he caused to
be laid dried leaves and earth, only leaving
some firm passages, well known to his men
by pai'ticular marks.
" This being done, he dared the giants
to a second battle, which Albion readily
accepted; and the fight being begun, after
some dispute. Brute seemed to retire; where
upon the giants pressed on him with great
fury; and the Trojans retiring nimbly be
yond their trench, made a stand, and ply'd
them with a shower of darts and arrows,
which manner of fight they were unac
quainted with, whereby many of them
were slain. However, Albion encouraging
his men to come to handy strokes with
their enemies, they rushed forward, and
the vanguard immediately perished in the
trenches; and the Trojans contmuing to

TROY-NOVANT.

11

shoot their ai-rows very thick, the giants
were put to flight, and pursued into Corn
wall ; where, in another bloody fight, Albion
was slain by Brute, fighting hand to hand ;
and Ms two brothers, Gog and Magog,
giants of huge stature, were taken prison
ers and led in triumph to the place where
now London stands, and upon those risings
on the side of the river Thames, founded
a city, which he called Troy-novant, or
New Troy, and building a palace where
Guildhall stands, caused the two giants to
be chained to the gate of it, as porters.
In memory of which it is held that their
effigies, after their deaths, were set up as
they now appear in Guildhall."
This quotation ¦\vill show how completely
the figures of these giants accord with the
description of them here given ; " tlio globe
full of spikes, fastened to a long pole by

12

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

a chain," is carried by the elder figure.
Though this weapon be not as ancient as
the era fixed by this veritable lustory as
that in which the giants flourished, it be
longs to the medieeval era, and was named
"a Morning Star;" bemg used by horse
men to whirl nhout tlicm in the meUe, aud
break tlio armour, or otherwise injure,
fightuig men.
It might be thought scarcely worth the
student's while to recur to what many may
thiuk absurdities, had not these absurdities
been gravely recorded and produced as
veritable histories by our ancestors, and
did we not to this day preserve their dream-
ings in visible figures of the giants thus
conquered. These tales were so much
valued by our forefathers that they were
transcribed as well authenticated and sober
eai-ly history in their Liber Albus, as well

THE TRAGEDY OF LOORINE.

13

as in the Recordatorium Civitatis Speculum ;
and advanced in a memorial presented to
Henry VI, and now preserved in the Tower
of London, as an evidence of " the Great
Antiquity, precedency, and dignity of the
City of London, even before Eome." This
foundation of London having taken place,
according to GnonVny of Monmoiitli, about
tho year of tho World 2885, or 1008 yoius
before the birth of Christ.
In the old tragedy of Locrine, once attri
buted to Shakespeare, the same story Is
detailed, and " stately Troynovant" men
tioned as the principal city of Albion,
and the burial place of Brute, or Bru
tus, after liis life of adventure. The
victory over the giants is alluded to by
him in the first scene of tliis plajr, where
he details the history of his wanderings
from Troy, until

14

THE GUILDHALL . GIANTS.

-upon the strands of Albion

To Corns hareu happily wo came,
And qucll'd tho giants, oomo of Albion's race,
With Oogmagog, son to Samotlieus,
Tho cursed captain of that damned crew."
The name therefore of one of these giants
has been split into two, and we now call one
Gog and the other Magog. The names
originally wore Gogmagog and Corineus.
The name is still preserved ui its purity as
a de'^ignation to the Gogmagog hills in
Cambrldgeshu-e. The oldest figure In om-
Guildhall is supposed to represent Gog
magog, the younger Corineus.
Corineus is one of the principal characters
in the tragedy just quoted, and one of the
two brothers of Brutus who are companions
in his wanderings and his fortiuies. He
thus narrates his own prowess :
" When flrst I followed theo, and thine, bravo King,
I hazarded my life and'dearest blood,

11

GOGMAGOG,
THE GIANT IN GUILDHALL.

CORINEUS,
THE GIANT IN GUILDHALL.

?;11

-1:

OLD GUILDHALL. 15
To purchase faror at your princely hands.
And for the samo in dangerous attempts.
In sundry conflicts, and in divers broils,
1 shew'd the courage of my manly mind :
ITor this I combated with Gathelus,
The brother to Q-offarius of Gaul ;
For this I fought with furious Q-ogmagog,
A savage captain of a savage crow ;
And for theso deeds bravo Cornwall I Tecolv'd,
A grateful gift given by a grateful King ;
And for this gift, this life and dearest blood
Will Corineus spend for Brutus' sake."
Now as every national hero in the old
time was popularly endowed with gigantic
statm-e, these figures appeal- to represent the
conqueror and the conquered. Their dress,
too, would seem to warrant this supposition ;
as Gogmagog is armed in accordance with
the old tale, while Corineus is habited after
the Koman mode, as conventionally depicted
at the time of their manufacture.
In the middle of the last centm-y the
GuHdhaU was occupied by shopkeepers,

16

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

after the fashion of our bazaars, and one
Thomas Boreman, bookseller, " near the
Giants m Guildhall," published In 1741 two
very small volumes of theh: "Gigantick
History,"* in which he tells us that as
" Corineus and Gogmagog were two brave
giants, who nicely valued their honor, and
exerted their whole strength and force in
defence of their hberty and country ; so the
City of London, by placmg these their
representatives in their Guildhall, emble-
^ * The Gigantich History of tlie two f amicus Giants
in Guildhall. Thii-d edition, corrected; printed for
Thomas Boreman, bookseller, near the Giants in Guild-
hallj and at the Boot and Crown, on Ludgate Hill, 1V41.
2 vols. 64mo. For an inspection of those curious volumes
I am indebted to J. Gough Nichols, Esq., P.S.A. Each
volume measures 2i inches high, by IJ broad ; a full
page contains fourteen lines and sixty words. These tiny
volumes ai-e bound in boards, covered with the old Dutch
paper, having a green raised pattern on a gold ground.
Tho price of each volume is marked oa the title— the
moderate sum of fourpencc !

BATTLE OE THE GIANTS. 17
matlcally declare, that they will, lllte mighty
giants, defend the honor of their country,
aud liberties of this their city, which
excels all others, as much as those huge
giants exceed in statm-e the common buUc
of mankind."
The author of this little volume thus
gives his version of the tale of the en
counter "wherein the giants were all de
stroyed, save Goemagog, the hugest among
them, who, bemg in height twelve cubits,
was reserved alive, that Corineus might
try his strength with him in single combat.
Corineus desu-ed nothing more than such
a match; but the old giant in a wrestle
caught him aloft, and broke three of his ribs.
Upon this, Corineus, being desperately en
raged, collected aU his strength, heaved up
Goemagog by main force, and bearing him
oa hia shoulders to the next high rock,

18

THE GUILDHALL GIAnTS.

1

threw him headlong, aU shattered, mto the
sea, and left his name on the chff, which
has been ever since called Lan- Goemagog,
that is to say, the Giant's Leap. Thus
perished Goemagog, commonly called Gog
magog, the last of the giants."*
The early popularity of this tale is testi
fied by its occurrence In the curious history
of the Fitz-Waruies,t composed in the
thu'teenth century, in Anglo -Norman, no
doubt- by a writer who resided on the
Welsh border, and who, in describmg a
* I quote from Hono's Extracts, in his article on the
GuUdhall Giants, appended to his Ancient Mysteries
Desorihecl, Svo, 1823. The book is eo rare that he says,
" the copy I consult is the only one I ever saw." To
Hone the merit is duo of lirst drawing attention to the
history of tho Civic Giants, and establishing the date
of their fabrication.
t The History of Fitllcc Fiiz-Warinc, an oxdlawed
Saron in the reign of King John. Edited from a manu
script in the British Museum by T. Wright, Esq., for
the Warton Club, 1855.

t

i
i

THE DEMON-GIANT.

19

visit paid by WiUiam the Conqueror there, .
speaks of that sovereign asking the history
of a bm'iit and ruined town, and an old
Briton thus giving it to him : " None in
habited these parts except very foul people,
great giants, whose Iting was called Geo-
magog. These heard of the arrival of
Brutus, and went out to encounter him,
and at last all the giants were killed ex
cept Geomagog." He goes on to relate;
his death in the encounter with Corineus,
as previously narrated here. He adds to
the wondrous tale by relating what hap
pened after his death. • " A: spirit of the
devil now entered into the ' body of Geo
magog, and came into these parts, and held
possession of the country long, that never
Briton dared to inhabit it. And long after
wards, King Bran, the son of Donwal, caused
the city to be rebuilt, repaired the walls,
c2

20

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

JAJIOUGE AND MAJIOUGB.

21

and strengthened the great fosses, and he
made Burgh and Great March. And the
deA^il came by night and took away every
thing that was therein, since which time
nobody has ever Inhabited there." Payn
Peverel, a " proud and com-ageous knight,"
listens to the story, and determines to
brave the demon, who comes in a fearful
storm " in the semblance of Geomagog, and
he carried a great club in his hand, and
from his mouth cast fire and smoke, with
wliich the whole town was Illuminated."
He is, however, vanqulshecl by the sign of
the cross, and the sword of the Icnight,
and discloses the history of the treasures
of the town, promising Payn that he shall
be lord of the soU. Such was history in
the middle ages.
Those who ai-o cut'Ious in tracing tho
origin of popular talcs, and who a.grcc with

I

Warton, the historian of our Enghsh poetry,
in assigning to the Eastern nations the iu-
vention of our fabulous lore, may be inte
rested in knowing that "the books of the
Arabians and Persians abound with extra
vagant fictions about the giants Gog and
Magog. These they call Jajiouge and
Majiouge, and they call the land of Tar-
tary by their names. The Caucasian waU,
said to be built by Alexander the Great
(though probably formed at an earlier pe
riod), from the Caspian to the Black Sea,
in order to cover the frontiers of his do
minions, and to prevent the incm-sions of
the Scythians, is called by the Orientals the
wall of Gog and Magog. This wall, some few
fragments of which remain, they pretend to
have been built with all sorts of metals, It
was a common tradition among the Tartars,
that tho people of Jajiouge and Majiouge

22

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

THE GIANTS WALL.

23

were perpetually attempting to make a, pas
sage through this fortress ; but that they
would not succeed in their attempt till the
day of judgment. About the year 808, the
Caliph Al Amin, having heard wonderful
reports concernmg this wall or barrier, sent
his interpreter S.alam with a guard of fifty
men to view it. After a dangerous jomney
of near two months, Salam and his party
arrived in a desolated counti-y, where they
beheld the ruins of many cities destroyed
by the people of Jajiouge and Majiouge.
In six days more they reached the Castle,
near the mountain Kokalj^a, or Caucasus.
This mountain is inaccessibly steep, per
petually covered with snow and thick clouds,
and encompasses the comitry of Jajiouge
and Majiouge, which Is full of cultivated
fields and cities. At the opening of this
mountain the fortress appears ; and travel-

i

ling forward, at the distance of two stages,
they found another mountain, with a ditch
cut through it 150 cubits wide; and, within
the aperture, an iron gate fifty cubits high,
supported by vast buttresses, having an Iron
bulwark crowned with iron turrets reaching
to the summit of the momitam itself, which
is too high to be seen. The Governor of
the Castle above-mentioned, once in eveiy
week, mounted on horseback, with ten more,
comes to this gate, and strikmg it three
times with a hammer weighing five pounds,
hears a murmuring noise from within, sup
posed to proceed from the ' Jajiouge and
Majiouge confined there. Salam was told
that they often appeared on the battlements
of the bulwai-k. Czar Peter I., in his ex
pedition mto Persia, had the curiosity to
siu-vey the ruins of this wall, and some
leagues mthin the mountains he found a

2d

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

skirt of it which seemed entu-e and was
about fifteen feet high. It seems at first
sight to be built of stone : but it consists
of petrified earth, sand, and shells, which
compose a substance of great solidity. It
has been chiefly destroyed by the neighbour-
mg inhabitants for the sake of the materials,
and most of the adjacent to-^ms and villages
are buHt out of its ruins,"*
This writer goes on to observe : " How
these tremendous heroes got footing in Bri
tain is not hard to discover; for the Arabians
having Imparted their taste for marvellous
and romantic fiction into Em-ope, by means
of the settlement of the Moors in Spain,
these were personages of too much Impor
tance for the British and Armoiican bards to

* Varieties of Literature : being principally selections
from the Portfolio of the late John Brady, Esq., author
of Clavis Calendaria. Svo. 1826.

ORIGIN OE GIANTS.

25

suffer them to remaiu behind." Weber, in
the introduction to his Metrical Romances,
has the following sensible remarks on this
point : " The Giants of the Odyssey, and
those of Tm-pin's Chronicle, of Sir Bevis,
and of the Teutonic romances ; the Pj'-gmies
of Pliny, and those of the Scandinavians
and Germans ; the dragons of Medea, and
those of romance; the enchantments of
Caljqpso, Medea, Circe, Alcina, andArmida;
in short, the occm-rence of fairies, monsters,
and wonders of all lands in the poetry of
every nation, renders then- derivation from
any one j)articular source, not only very
uncertaui, but almost preposterous. They
undoubtedly came originally from Asia, the
cradle of mankind ; but all nations In every
age manifestly had a strong inclination to
receive from their neighbours any popular
pnd successful fiction which obtained among

26

THE GUII.DHALL GIANTS.

them, and to communicate their o-\vn to
them in return."
The famous old traveller, Sh- John Maun-
deville (who performed his journey to the
East, between 1D23 and 1350), has told his
version of the Arabian tale In theso words :
" In that same regloun ben the mountaynes
of Caspye, that men clepen Uber In the
coiitree. Betwene the mountaynes the
Jewes of 10 lynagcs ben enclosed, that
men clepen Gothe and Magothe : and they
mowe not gon out on no syde. There
weren enclosed 23 kjmges, with lure
peple, that dwelleden betwene the moun
taynes of Sythe. There King Alisandre
chacede hem betwene the mountaynes ;
and there he thought for to enclose hem
thorghe werk of his men. But Avhen. he
saughe that he might not don it, ne bringe
it to an ende, he preyed to God of Nature,

ROYAL ENTRIES TO LONDON.

27

that he wolde parforme that that he had
begonne. And all were it so, that he was
a Payneme, and not worthi to ben herd, zit
God of liis grace closed the mountajaies to
gydre : so that thei dwellen there, alle fast
ylokked and enclosed with highe moun
taynes all aboute, saf only on o syde ; and
on that syde is the See of Caspye."
When the old Lord Mayor's shows con
sisted of a series of pageants, invented hy
poets of no mean fame, the Civic Giants
were part of the gi-eat public display. On
occasions of Boyal progi-esses through the
City, they kept " watch and ward" at its
gates. In 1415, when the victorious Henry
V.made his triumphant entry to Londonfrom
Southwark, a male and female giant stood
at the entrance of London Bridge; tlie male
bearing an axe In Ms right hand, and In his
left the keys of the City hanging to a staff.

28

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

THE LORD mayor's SHOW.

29

as if he had been the porter. In 1432, when
Henry VI. entered London the same way,
"a mighty giant" awaited him, as his cham
pion, at the same place, with a drawn sword,
and an Inscription by his side, beginning—
" All those that bo enemies to the King
I shall them clothe with confusion," &o.
In 1554, when Plnlip and Mary made their
public entry mto London, "two images,
representing two giants, the one named
Corineus and the other Gogmagog, holding
between them certain Latm verses," were
exhibited on London Bridge ; " at the draw
bridge," as Fox informs us in his Acts and
Momments, who speaks of It all as " a great
vaine spectacle," excusing himself for record
ing the verses, " which, for the vaine osten
tation of flattery, I overpasse." 'When
Queen Elizabeth passed through the City,

the day before her coronation, January 12,
1558, great preparations were made to grace
the progress with emblematic pageantry.
"The final exhibition was at Temple Bar,
which was 'finely dressed' with the two
giants Gotmagot the Albion, and Corineus
the Britain, who held between them a poetic
recapitulation of the Pageantries, both In
Latin and English."*
When Anthony Munday devised the pa
geants for the Mayoralty of Sir Leonard
HoUIday, m 1605, he hitroduced the whole
story of Brutus and his subjugation of Bri
tain in one of them; and " for the more gi'ace
and beauty ofthe show," as he tells us, these
two huge giants (whom he names Corineus,
and Gogmagog) were fettered by chains of
* Nichol's Progresses of Queen Flizaleth; and Ac
counts of Royal Processions in ihe City of London.
Svo. 1831,

30

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

THE LORD MAYOR S SHOW.

31

gold to the Mount upon which Brutus and
the other characters were placed. Mars
ton, in his play of the Dutch Courtezan,
1005, speaks of "the giants stilts that
stalk before my Lord Mayor's pageants;"
and giants formed part of the great shows
made on the settmg of the City watch
on Midsummer eve. In 1672, when
Thomas Jordan, the City Poet, composed
the pageant for Sir Eobert Hanson,
Mayor, he says : " I must not omit to tell ¦
you, that marching in the van of these five
pageants are two exceeding rarities to be
taken notice of, that is, there are two extreme
great giants, each of them at least fifteen
foot high, that do sit, and are chawn by
horses in two several chariots, moving,
talking, and taking tobacco as tliey ride
along, to the great admiration and dehght of
all the spectators. At the conclusion of the

i

show, they are to be set up in Guildhall,
where they may be daily seen all the year,
and I hope never to be demolished by such
dismal violence as happened to then- prede
cessors." This " dismal violence" was the
Great Fh-e of London, by which the Hall
was gutted, but not destroyed. Hatton, in
his Neiv View of London, 1708, says it was
"extremely well beautified and repaii-ed, both
in and outside, in 1G69, and two new figures
of gigantic magnitude will be as before.
These new figm-es ai-e the present ones,
which succeeded those described as carried
thi'ough the streets by Jordan. The history
of the change is thus given in the little book
published in Guildhall, 1741, and already
alluded to, " Before the present giants in
habited Guildhall, there were two giants
made only of wicker work and pasteboard,
put together with great art and ingenuity ;

32

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

and these two terrible original giants had
the honor yearly to grace my Lord Mayor's
show, being carried in great triumph in the
time of the pageants; and when that
emment annual service was over, remounted
then- old stations in Gmldhall, till by reason
of then- very great age, old time, with the
help of a number of city rats and mice, had
eaten up all thek entrails. The dissolution
of the two old, weak, and feeble giants, gave
birth to the two present substantial and
majestic giants ; who, by order, and at the
City charge, were formed and fashioned.
Captain Bichard Saunders, an eminent
carver In Kmg Street, Cheapside, was their
father ; who, after he had completely finished,
clothed, and armed these his two sons, they
were immediately advanced to then- lofty
stations in Guildhall, which they have peace
ably enjoyed ever since the year 1708."

THEIR FABRICATION.

33

•fi-

!¦ i

This incidental notice of " then* father "
enabled Hone to make researches among
the City accounts at the Chamberlain's
office, and under the head of " Extra
ordinary Works " for 1707, he fortunately
discovered among the sums " paid for re-
pau-hig of the Guildhall and ChappeU," an
entry in the followiug words :
"To Richard Saunders, Carver, Seavcnty Pounds,
by order of the Co'mittee, for repairing
Guildhall, dated y= xth of April, 1707,
for work by him done .... £70 "
" This entry of the payment," says Hone,
"confirms the relation of the gigantic his
torian. Saunders's bUl, which doubtless
contained the chai-ges for the two giants,
and aU. the vouchers before 1786, belonging
to the Chamberlain's office, were destroj^cd
by a fire in that year." Saunders's Cap
taincy was in that valuable, but much-ridi
culed force, the City Train-band.

34

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

The "lofty stations" mentioned as awarded
to these figures in the Guildhall, was not
their present locality ; they were originally
placed on each side the entrance to the
Council chamber, and were removed to
the window where they now stand In 1815,
when Hone thoroughly examined them, and
found them to be ponderously constructed
of wood, but hollow within; they are up
wards of fourteen feet in height, and were
evidently made for the permanent decoration
of the building, and not for carrying through
the City on festive days, as were their pre
decessors. Notices of the earlier giants, popular
favomites though they were, are few and
Incidental in the literature of the day.
They are supposed by Brand (In his Popu
lar Antiquities) to be alluded to, when in
then- original position at the gates of GuUd-

^^

1

THEIR ORIGINAL POSITION.

35

hall (as noted p. 11), by Bishop Hall in his
Satires (Book vi., Sat. 1), where, spealcing
of an angry poet, he says that he —
"  makes such faces, that mo scemes I see

Some foul Mcgajra in the Tragedic,
Thrcat'ning her twined snakes at Tantale's ghost ',
Or tho grim visage of some frowning post.
The crab-tree porter of the Guildhall gates,
WTien he his frightful beetle elevates."
In Shirley's Contention for Honour and
Riches, 1633 (and afterwards in his Honoria
and Mammon, 1652), he ridicules the an
nual Civic Pageants on Lord Mayor's Day,
and tlie citizens' love of good cheer after
them: "You march to Guildhall, with
every man his spoon in his pocket, where
r
you look upon the giants, and feed like
Saracens." Bishop Corbet, who died 1635, ui his
Iter Boreale, -wi-itten about the middle of
James the First's reign, alludes to them.

Yf-

36

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

-when speaking of those at Holmby, the seat
of Sir Christopher Hatton, the "Dancing
Chancellor " of Queen Elizabeth :
" Oh you, that do Guildhall and Holmeby keep
Soe carefully, when both their founders sleope.
You are good giants."
In the British Bibliographer, vol. 4, p.
277, the following verses are quoted from
a broadside printed in 1660; and after
wards by Archdeacon Nares, in his Glos
sary :
" And such stout Coronoous was, from whom
Cornwall's first honor, and her name doth come.
For though he eheweth not so great, nor tall.
In his dimensions set forth at Guildhall,
Know 'tis a poet only can define
A gyant's posture in a gyant's line.
*- # # *
And thus attended by h'is direful dog
The gyaut was (God bless us ! ) Gogmagog."
George Wither, in his Joco-Serio: Strange

^¦^'i

THEIR DIALOGUES.

sr

Newes of a , Discourse between two Dead
Giants, 1661, alludes to them by different
names :

" Big-bon'd Colbrant, and great Brandamore,
The giants in Guildhall ....
Wliere they have had a place to them assign'd
At publick meetings, now time out of mind."

This brief poem " was composed by occa
sion of a scurrilous pamphlet, entitled, A
Dialogue between Brandamore and Colbrant,
the two Giants in Guildhall," In winch
Wither was alluded to in no flattering terms.
His poem contains no other notice of them ;
and tlie names, which he had evidently
borrowed firom his adversary, seem to have
been the capricious invention of that un
known satirist, as tliey are not met with
elsewhere. In the Latin poem, Londini ([uod re-

88

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

liquum, 1667, quoted by Brand, in his
Popular Antiquities, they axe thus noticed :
" Haud procul, oxcclsis olim prsctoria pinnis
Surgebant pnrio marmoro fulsit opus.
Alta duo JElnei scrvabant atria fratres.
Prostextaquo frequeus splenduit aula toga.
Hie popnlo Augustus reddebat jura scnatus,
Et sua prajtori sella curulis erat.
Sed nequo Vulcanum juris revereutia cepit,
Tuta satellitio nee fuit aulo suo.
Vidi, et exurgas, dixit, speciosior aula
Atque frequens sohta curia lite strepat."
Among the fireworks upon the Thames,
at the coronation of James II. and his
Queen, AprU 24, 1685, the giants appeared;
the City of London having contributed part
of the expenses. The narrative of the pro
ceedings by K. Lowman, 1085,* describes

* Quoted from tho folio half-sheet by Hono. Sand
ford, in his aocoimt of theso festivities, lakes no note of
theso figures, nor are they ropi-esontod in liis engraving
of the fireworks, which otherwise accords with tho above
description.

REJOICINGS EOR JAMES n.

39

a raft erected in the middle of the river,
having on it two pyramids, between them a
brass sun, and a cross and crown, in fire
works; in front "were placed the statues
of the two giants of Guildhall, in lively
colom-s and proportions facing Whitehall,
the backs of which were all filled with
fiery materials, and from the first deluge
of fire tin the end of the sport, which
lasted near an hour, the two giants, the
cross, and the sun, grew all In a light
flame in the figures^ described, and burned
-without abatement of matter."
Ned Wai-d, in his London S2:>y, 1609,
describes a visit to Guildhall, "which we
entered with as great astonishment to see
the giants, as the Morocco Ambassador did
London when he saw the snow fall. I asked
my friend the meaning and design of setting
up these two lubberly preposterous figures ;

40

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

for I suppose they had some peculiar end
m it. 'Truly,' says my friend, 'I am
wholly ignorant of what they intended by
them, imless they were set up to show the
City what huge loobies their forefathers
were, or else to fright stubborn apprentices
uito obedience : for the dread of appearing
before two such monstrous loggerheads, wiH
sooner reform their manners, or mould them
in compliance -nith their masters' will, than
carrying them before my Lord Mayor, or
the Chamberlain of London ; for some of
them are as much frighted at the names of
Gog and Magog, as little children are at
the terrible sound of Kawhead and Bloody-
bones." From this we may gather, as Hono
has shrewdly observed, that some representa
tions of the popular figures garnished the
old luill, after the fire that Hatton alludes
to, and before the construction of the present

/

THEIR POPULARITY.

41

ones. ¦ It is further confirmed by the title-
page of an 8vo. tract published in 1684,
describuig " the gyant, or the miracle of
natm-e, being that so much admired young
man, born in Ireland, believed to be as big
as one of the gyants in Guildhall." It is
most probable that, according to old custom,
the figm-es that graced the Mayoralty shows
in 1672 were set up in the haU. Their
popularity is attested in another part of
Ward's book, by the exclamation of a coach
man : " Pay me my fare, or, by Gog and
Magog, you shall feel the smart of my
whipcord." Upon the reparation of the hall in 1706,
the present figures were placed in a con
spicuous position ; but not, as before ob
served, in then- present one. There is a
view of the interior of Guildhall, apparently
engi-aved about this time (In the Croivle

42

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

Illustrated Pennant, in the British Museum),
which has a brief description of the scene
beneath it, in which we are told, " over the
steps going into the Mayor's com-t, at some
height stand giants of monstrous height and
bigness ; the one holding a pole-axe, the
other a halbert." An elaborately constructed
door-case or porch was built over the steps
alluded to, exactly opposite the great gate
of Guildhall. It consisted of a semi-gothic
foundation, upon which imitation palm-
trees were planted, they in tm-n .supported
a balcony, in front of that was placed a clock
in a carved case, sm-rounded by emblematic
figures of Time, &c. Upon brackets on
each side of this balcony the giants were
stationed, and the first notice of them in
their new position is given in Bragg's Ob
server, Dec. 25, 1706, when narrating the
placing of the colors taken at Eamilies in

THE COLORS OP RAMILIES.

43

the Guildhall : " ^ATien I entered the hall,
I protest, masters, I never saw so much
joy in the countenances of the people in my
life, as in the cits on this occasion ; nay, the
very giants stared at the colors with all the
eyes they had, and smiled as well as they
could."* In London in Miniature, 1755, they are
thus briefly alluded to: "In the middle
of the hall on the north side, over the
door leading to the Mayor's coui-t, is a

* Their appearonco is less favourably noted in a political
satire on a procession to court in the early part of the
eighteenth century, for a redress of grievances; it is said
of the citizens composing it, —
" Tho giants in Guildhall could not have looked
gi-iramer."
Tho famous orator Henley took an opportunity of
ridiculing the annual Lord Mayor's show, and "tho
two giants walking out to keep holiday." Seo an adver
tisement of this lecture (Got. 21, 1730) reprinted by
Hono.

44

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

TOPOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNTS.

45

very handsome clock and dial, finely gilt
and ornamented, and on each side thereof
are the huge figures of two monstrous
giants, about fom-teen feet high, finely
carved in wood, and painted."
In the New London Spy ; or, a Twenty-
four Hours' Ramble through the Bills of
Mortality (8vo., 1760, p. 71), they are
thus described, after the fashion of Ned
Ward: "The first objects that struck me
were two monstrous figures of immense
bulk, and stupendous height, fixed on each
side of the clock ; as If designed to stiike
aU that entered with astonishment and
awe. As I could by no means devise
the design of placing these preposterous
figures in the most conspicuous part of the
liaU, I referred to my sage friend for his
opinion ; but he could not resolve me
with any degree of certamty. He conjec-

-v

tm-ed that our forefathers might weakly
believe the stories related of giants and
their mighty feats, particularly those of
the renowned Gog and Magog, which
these unwieldy lumps, by some, are sup
posed to represent."
In Brand's Popular Antiquities (Bohn's
edition, vol. 1, p. 324), a similarly uncivil
notice of them is given from Grosley's
Tour to London, translated by Nugent,
1772 ; in which their very existence is
attributed to the " Gothic taste " of the
Enghsh nation. By far the best accoimt
of their appearance, combined with some
curious details of the structm-e they sup
ported. Is to be found In Dodsleys' London
and its Environs Described, 1761, vol. 3,
p. 102, as follows: "Nearly fronting the
gate, are nine or ten steps, leading to the
Lord Mayor's court, over which is a balcony

46

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

supported at each end by fom- iron pillars
in the form of palm trees ; by these is a
small enclosure on each side on the top
of the steps, used on some occasions as
offices for clerks to write in, each belns
just sufficient to hold one person. Under
tliese are two prisons called Little Ease,
from the lowness of the ceiling, by which
prisoners were obliged to sit on the floor ;
these prisons are intended for city appren
tices, who, upon complaint and a strict
examination Into the offence, were some
times committed thither by the Chamberlam,
whose office is at the right hand, at the
head of the steps. In the front of this
balcony is a clock, on the frame of which
is carved the four cardinal virtues, with
the figure of Tune on tho top, and a
cock on each side of him. But the most
extraordinary figures are yet behuid ; these

VIEWS OP GUILDHALL.

47

^f-

are two monstrous giants, which stand on
the outside of the balcony, close to the
wall, one on each side : they have black
and bushy beards ; one holds an halbert,
and the other a ball set round with spikes,
hanging by a cham to a long staff. These
absurd ornaments, which Mr. Strype sup
poses were designed to represent an ancient
Briton and a Saxon, are painted, as if to give
them the gi-eater appearance of hfe, and ren
der them more formidable to children."
There Is a curious print in the European
Magazine of 1810, designed to exhibit the
giants only, and showhig the upper part of
the balcony and clock; it Is the only in
stance In which they were honoured by
exclusive dehneatlon, mitil Hone, in 1823,
still more correctly perpetuated then- features
by the aid ofthe admirable pencil of George
Gruilvshank.

48

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

VIEWS OF GUILDHALL.

49

Pennant, speaking of Guildhall, merely
says : " Facing the entrance are two tre
mendous figures, by some called Gog and
Magog; by Stow, an antient Briton and
Saxon. I leave others to determine the
unportant decision." This loose reference
to Stow has been pretty constantly repeated,
although pregnant with grave error; it would
lead to the inference that they were so
known and named m the reign of Eliza
beth ; but the fact is, Stow does not men
tion them at all : they are thus named by
Strjqpe in his edition of Stow's book, as
correctly noted by Dodsley ; and therefore
the names, instead of being authorities of
the reign of Elizabeth, end In being conjec
tures in that of Anne.
The view of the interior of the Guildhall,
published by G. Hawkins m 1801, shows ,
both giants bearing pendant splices on

•t

k

chams secured to a poleaxe, but it is pro
bably an oversight. The lower range of
liglits in the gi-eat west window was at
this time blocked up, and Beckford's monu
ment was in the centre : pictures of judges
occupied the sides where the giants now
stand. On this popular monument Pennant
makes an unusually illnatured remark for
him. He says : " The principal figure was
also a giant in his day, the Eaw-head
and Bloody-bones to the good foUcs of St.
James's." The best view of the locality is in the
fine print published by Boydell (from a
painting by Wm. Miller, engraved by Ben
jamin Smith), representmg tlie ceremony
of administering the oath of allegiance on
the 8tli of November, the day preceding
Lord Mayor's day, to Alderman Newnham,
in 1782. The armed giant, with the shield

50

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

POPULAR SHOWS.

51

and halbert, is very clearly shown stand
ing on an ornamental bracket beside the
gallery. In 1815, when the hall underwent repa
ration, this doorcase, balcony, and clock
were removed, the giants were repainted
and gilt, and set on pedestals on each side
the great west window, where they now
stand. In 1837, they were again restored;
and in that year. Alderman Lucas being
Mayor, copies of these giants fourteen feet
in height, were introduced in the Lord
Mayor's show : each walked by the aid
of a man within them, and they from
time to time turned their faces to the
spectators who lined the streets. It was
the final exhibition of the olden glories
of that day.
Anciently the giants were frequently pa^
raded before the gratified eyes of the citi-

¦ i

zens. Thus we are told in Machyn's Diary
(printed by the Camden Society), that in
1553, "the xvlj day of Marche, cam through
London from Algatt, Master Maynard, tlie
Shreyff of London, with a standard and
dromes, and after gyants boyth great and
small." The citizens appear to have wH-
Ihigly taxed themselves for such monsters,
for May games, Midsummer pageants, &c.
Thus the churchwardens' accounts of St.
Andrew Hubbard parish. In the city of
London, have an entry, a.d. 1533, "Ee-
ceyved for the Jeyantt, xix^- ; " and again, in
1535, "Eeceyved for the Jeji-antt, ij • vllj^-."
Puttenham, hi his Arte of EngUsh Poesie,
1589, speaks of "MIdsommer pageants in
London, where, to make the people wonder,
are set forth great and uglie gyants, march
ing as if they were aUve, and armed at all
points, but within they are stuffed full of
E 2

02 THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.
brown paper and tow, which the shrewd
boyes, underpeeping, do guilefully discover,
and turne to a great derision." These
"MIdsommer pageants" were the annual
settmgs of the Watch for the protection of
the City, a sight our monarchs thought it
worth a jom-ncy to see, and of which Stow
has left so graphic an account, informing
us, " the Mayor had besides his giant three
pageants ; each of the sheriffs had besides
their giants but two pageants."* The set
ting of the Watch at Chester was conducted
on the eve of the festival of St. John the
Baptist, In the same pompous manner ; and
* Stow relates in his Annals, under date 1510 : " On
Midsummer Eve, at night, King Henry came privily into
VVcst-Clieap, being clothed in one of tho coats of his
guard," to sec tho great show; with which he was
so much gratified, that ho afterwards visited tho
City in state with his Queen and Nobles, to give
them a share iu his "royal pleasure," and patronize
the festivities.

THE DEVIL IN HIS FEATHERS.

53

4'

I: i

in 1564, it was directed that there should
be annually, according to ancient custom,
a pageant, consisting of fom- giants, with
animals, hobby-horses, and other figures
thereui specified. Hone, who follows Strutt
in tliis account, continues: "In 1599,
Henry Hardman, Esq., the Mayor of that
year, from religious motives, caused the
giants in the Midsummer show 'to be
broken, and not to goe the devil in his
feathers: " Now, as Hone has repeated
this note elsewhere in his popular works,
it is worth correcting, for he seems to go
wrong when describing Hardman's doings
at Chester. The foUowing extract from
the Corporation Eecords in the History of
Chester, 8vo,, 1815, clearly shows that the
"devil in his feathers" was n pecxdlar
feature in the butchers' display on tins
occasion, and that the giants are not alluded

54

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

CHESTER PLAYS.

55

to by such a phrase at aU, and were not
" broken," but only put aside :
"1599, Hem-y Hardman, Mayor, caused
the giants in the Midsummer show not to
go, the devil hi his feathers not to ride for
the butchers, but a boy as the others, and
the cuppes and cannes, and dragon, and
naked boy to be put away ; but caused a
man m complete armour to go before the
shows in their stead."*
* On this circumstance, Hone says : " One conjecture
may be hazarded, that, as after the Mayor of Chester had
ordered the giants there to be destroyed, he provided a
man in armour as a substitute ; so perhaps the dissolu
tion of tho old London giants, and the incapacity of the
new ones for the duty of Lord Mayor's show, occasioned
the appearance of the men in armour in that procession."
Tho author of the tiny " Gigantick History" already
quoted, shows that the armed man was tho Civic Cham
pion at the Mayor's feast, in imitation of the King's
Champion at Boyal Coronations, a semi-regal state being
always held in Guildhall at the inauguration of a Mayor.
He thus describes the custom more than a century since :
" About twelve-a-clock this mighty champion mounted

From "the Banes [or Proclamations]
which are read before the beginning of the
Plays of Chester,"* we again learn that
this devil was peculiar to the Butchers' Com
pany, who always played the " Temptation
of Christ," in which he appears to have been
so popular a character, as to have been
on his horse (in complete armour from the Tower), with
a great drawn sword in his hand, advances at the head
of the Worshipful Company of Armourers, who set out
from their hall in Coleman Street, and proceed to a large
house near Trig stairs, belonging to that Company ;
where having regaled themselves, they set out again,
going thro' St. Paul's Churchyard, Ludgate, and so on to
Salisbury Court, in Elect Street ; where having showed
themselves, they return back, and march before my
Lord's company through tho City to King Street, and
then to their own hall in Coleman Street : and after this
bold Champion hath seen the Worshipful Company safe
housed, he dismounts his pranoer, and so concludes the
ceremony." The significance of the one champion, has
therefore been lost in the vulgar taste for many " men
' ' in armour" in the procession.
" * Wright's edition ofthe Chester Mysteries, published
¦ by the Shakespeare Society, ISIS.

56

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

paraded a little too proudly at other times.
The Company is thus addressed :
"  you, bowehers of this citio.

The storio of Sathan, that Christe wouldo needes tempto,
Set out as accostomablie have yeo,
Tho devill in his fothcrs all ragged and rente."
Now, as It was usual (particularly in the
fifteenth century) to represent the angels
entirely covered Avith feathers ; as may be
seen In many examples, but In none better
than the painted glass in New College
Chapel, Oxford ;* and Lucifer was " a fallen
angel," he was properly habited in feathers,
but possibly made grotesque and horrible, by
being black and ragged. That the other
parts of this showwerenot long discontinued
appears by Strutt's account in the Introduc-
* Engraved in Tlie Calendar of the Anglican Church.
Illustrated, published by Parkor of Oxford, 1851. They
were put up before 1386, when the building was com
pleted.

CHESTER GIANTS.

57

tion to his Sports and Pastimes, which we
now quote :
"In the year 1601, John Eatclyffe, beer-
brewer, being Mayor, ' sett out the giaunts
and MIdsommer show, as of oulde it was wont
to be kept.' In the time of the Common
wealth tliis spectacle was discontinued, and
the giants, with the beasts, were destroyed.
At the restoration of Charles IL it was
agreed by the citizens to replace the pageant
as usual, on the eve of the festival of St.
John the Baptist, m 1661 ; and as the
foUo-mng computation of the charges for
the different parts of the show are exceed
ingly curious, I shall lay them before the
reader without any farther apology. We
are told that ' all things were to be made
new, by reason the ould modells were all
broken.^ The computlst then proceeds:
'For finding all the materials, with the

58

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

workmanship of the fom* great giants, all to
be made new, as neere as may be lyke as
they were before, at five pounds a giant the
least that can be, and four men to carry
them at two shillings and sixpence each.'
The materials for the composition of these
monsters are afterwards specified to be
' hoops of various magnitudes, and other
productions of the cooper, deal boai-ds, nails,
pasteboard, scaleboard, paper of various
sorts, with buckram, size clotli, and old
sheets for their bodies, sleeves, and sldrts,
which were to be coloured.' One pair of the
' olde sheets' were provided to cover the
' father and mother giants.' Another article
specifies ' three yards of buckram for the
mother's and daughter's hoods ;" which
seems to prove that three of these stupen
dous pasteboard personages were the repre
sentatives of females. There were 'also

COVENTRY GIANTS.

59

tinsIUe, thifoil, gold and silver leaf, and
colours of different kinds, Avith glue and
paste ui abundance.' Eespectmg the last
article a very ridiculous entry occurs in the
bill of charges, it runs thus : ' For arsnick
to put mto the paste to save the giants from
being eaten by the rats, one shilling and
fom-pence.' "
Chester and Coventry were tlie two grand
cities for public displays in the olden time.
Sharp, in his Dissertation on ihe Pageants
or Dramatic Mysteries anciently performed
at Coventry, by the trading Companies of
that City (Coventry, 1835), has furnished
very cmious details of the giants displayed
by the Capper's Company, from 1533 to
1500, as preserved in their account books.
The fii-st entry, in 1533, is "payed for the
Gyant, xxvlj'. viij*.;" in the next year we
have "paid for dressyng the gyant vi*.;"

60

THE GOTLDHALL GIANTS.

while charges continue during those years
for dressing, mending, and painting him;
as well as sums for "beryng the giants
about the streets, which appears to have
been at the rate of one shilling per night.
In 1547, is an entry of ninepence, for
canvass to make the giant a new skirt;
again In 1553, are others for " mendyng and
payntyng the Gyand ;" which, as they are
the last, would seem to infer that twenty
years' wear and tear had thoroughly under
mined his constitution. The most curious
item is that of twopence "paid for the
candlestick in his head, and the light:"
which charge for " waxe candell" is more
tlian once repeated ; showing that it was the
custom to light the head at night, the
ceremony of setting the Midsummer Watch
always taking place after dark.
By the Drapers' accounts of Coventry, we

^

THE BURFORD GIANT.

61

find that they owned two giants. In 1556,
they have a charge of twenty shillings,
" payd to Eobert Crowe for makyng of the
gyanes," and in the same year they pay two
men eleven-pence each for carrying them.
By an entry of 2s. 6d. paid for painting
the giant's wife, we learn that these figures
were male and female," as many still are in
some continental cities ; and, like them, they
swelled public shows by the loan of their
figures, for in 1657, there is an entry In
their books of the receipt of 2s. 4d. " for
the hyar of the giant's wife at Midsummer."
Other places followed the example. Dr.
Plot, in his History of Oxfordshire, speaks
of the custom of keeping IMIdsummer Eve
"In great jollity" at Burford, and of carry
ing "up and do-^m the town" a di-agon
and a giant ; and Shai-p, In the work just
quoted, tells us, that ui 1814 "he saw at

G2

THE GUIT.DIIALL GIANTS.

Sahsbury a figure of a man, ten or twelve
feet high, belonging to the Taylors' Company,
and called St. Christopher (by the common
people termed the giant). This was ex
hibited in the various streets, attended by
two men grotesquely habited, bearing his
sword and club; a drum and fife played
tunes, to which the figure was made to
dance in a solemn unwieldy manner, by a
man concealed witliin, and perfectly hidden
by its long drapery. The attendants danced
around the giant, watching carefully to check
by the sword or club, any deviation from a
perpendicular position."
It is now about fifteen years since the
author of this little volume visited the hall
of the Tailors' Company at Sahsbury, and
saw in that neglected building then- once-
popular giant mouldering to decay. The
frontispiece to this volume has been copied

THE SALISBURY GIANT.

63

from the sketch he then made of the figure.
Its substructure was a framework of lath
and hoop, similar to that used for " Jack-in-
the-Green " on May-day, and allowed a
person to walk inside and carry the figm-e,
he being fully concealed by the drapery,
which was of coloured chintz, bordered
with red and pm-ple, and trimmed with
yeUow fringe. The head was modeUed in
paste-board, and coloured, the hair being
formed of tow; a gold-laced cocked hat and
yellow cockade completed the costume. A
large wooden pipe was stuck hi the mouth,
after the fashion of the London giants of
1672 ; a branch of artificial laurel was
placed in the right hand. The club and
sword were both carved in wood, and painted.
This was the last of the old perambulating
English giants, and the only one whose
figure has been dehneatcd.

64

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

FOREIGN GIANTS.

65

I trace all these English giants to the much
older Guild observances of the continental
cities. We owe to the merchantmen of the
Low Countries that determination to carry
out great tradmg enterprises through impedi
ments of AvhIch we now can form very slight
Ideas ; and which resulted in the overthrow of
the feudal system, the estabhshment of com
merce on a firm basis, and the rise and
prosperity of great cities with a free trade ;
such as Antwerp was, and London is.
Their prosperous traders rivalled the glories
of the old nobility In the palaces they
constructed for their Guildhalls; and
having no pride of ancestry, they chose
the legends of then- old cities for display
on public occasions. Hence they typified
the legendary history of Antwerp in the
giant Antigonus; that of Lyderic, the
Forester of Flanders ; of the gigantic horse

•1

Bayard, upon which ride the four sons of
Aymon; of Goliath, the giant of Ath; and
the family of giants of Mallnes, Brussels,
and Doual. Gayant, the giant of Doual,
Is twenty-two feet in height; and with
his spear touches the house tops of the old
city. On solemn occasions of great popular
observance, such as the entries of Sovereigns
mto cities ; or in gi-eat religious centenary
solemnities, Hke the feasts of St. Eombaud
at Mallnes, or St. Macaire at Mons,
there is a reunion of giants. They are
lent by the corporations of each town to
swell the public shows. The only giant
who has not visited his friends is he of
Antwerp: the reason' being that there Is
no gate in the city lai-ge cnougli for him to
go through. In the old time it was neces
sary to lower the lanthorns, and remove
the chains or ropes by which they were
F

66

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.,

suspended, in iill streets through whicli
the figure passed. It always occupied
a part in processions to honour kings and
potentates, when it was made to promenade
the city. On the entry of Philip, Prince
of Spain (afterwards Phlhp II.), the
bm-ghers bestowed large sums on a grand
public spectacle, and the giant was exhibi
ted, seated ui a Doric temple, in the great
square opposite the Town-hall. Above
him, upon the abacus, was this inscription :
ILLE EGO {QUEM FAMA EST, HIS OLIM LOCIS
NOVAM EXERCVISSE TYRANNIOEM) ET SI COR
PORIS VASTIT ATE ADHVCDVM SI M FOR IVI I DAB I LIS,
POSITAJAM FER1TATE,TIBI PHILIPPE PRINCEPS
MAX. LIBENS CEDO, TVAEQVE ME POTESTATI
VLTRO SVBIICIO.
Grapheus, secretary to the city of Antwerp,
in his descriptive quarto volume of the
festivities then given, has pubhshed an
engraving of this figure; and its history
in the following words :

THE ANTWERP GIANT.

67

^

,

A^

" There is a very popular tradition (which
we ourselves, as boys, have helped to sus
tain) that this giant, called Antigonus, In-
liablted the locality on the river Scheldt,
where, at the present-day, may be seen the
ruins of the castle of old Antwerp, with the
walls partly destroyed, the reputed pre-
torium, the public prison, and the temple
of Saint Valburg, which (they say) was
formerly sacred to Mars.*
" This Antigonus, relying upon his im
pregnable castle, began to play the tyrant ;
to exact a toll from travellers who passed
that way ; and to exercise a cruel rule over
the neighbourhood. If those whom he
caught did not pay the Impost leried, or
refused to pay, he extorted it by violence ;
* Verbyat, in his account of Antwerp, 1646, tells us
that this castle (probably a Roman ruin) stood on the
site of the house of the Knights Crusaders of the
Teutonic Order, within the borcht or bailywick.
f2

68

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

THE ANTWERP GIANT.

69

and those who could not pay in money,
he did not allow to depart without cutting
off one of their hands. From this circum
stance the inhabitants called the place
Hantworp — that is, hand tossing*— which
word (the aspirate being dropt, and the
0 being changed Into e), we pronounce
Antwerp. We find in ancient writings It
was sometimes called Andoverp, as well as
Antorp, and Antorff.-\
" But there was at this time a prince of
the province called Brabon (from whom
Brabant Is named, as some suppose), who,
resolving to put an end to the insolent
tyranny of the giant, boldly attacked him,
* In the original Latin, a word, mamij actionem, has
been coined to express this hand throwing or hand
tossing. t The most probable derivation of the name is from
an t'Werf, tho city o» tJia Wharf or quay.— De Wez,
Did. Geog. des Pays-Ba^.

/i
%

and with heroic valom- encountered, over
threw, and slew him; thus liberating the
country. " There are various versions of this
legend, as is consistent with tlie rude age
in wliich it originated : they are not, how
ever, less worthy of credit than the stories
of ' the ancients about then- gods, such as
Jupiter, Juno, Saturn, and Mercury.*
" Eespecting the cutting off the hands,
it is vouched for by many trustworthy
persons of this city, whom we ourselves
were acquainted mth, and who are alive
at this day, that they themselves have
seen exliumed, on the occasion of the
excavation of the foundations of some old
* One version of the legend affirms that Antigonus
had a retreat under the Scheldt, but that the means of
access to it are now unknown ; but if it could be dis
covered, tho giant's chair of massive gold would reward
the explorer.

70

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

buildings, certain small coffers* full of flesh-
less men's hands that had been cut off.
"Moreover, there may be still seen in our
senate house some perfect bones of un
usual size, with iron chains hanging to
them, which are universally ascribed to
the giant himself. To whomsoever they
may have belonged, skilful anatomists
assert they are the bones of a man of
extraordinary statxxre. They are the hip
bone, a tooth, the arm, the shoulder-blade,
and the tibia. From the measurement
of the bones It is calculated that the man
to whom they belonged measured eighteen
feet in helght.f
* It is probable that theso coiTevs were Roman fune
real vases, containing fragments of bone, tlie result of
cremation. t The artist Albert Durer mentions in his Journal of
Travels in the Netherlands, 1520 and 1521, having seen
at Antwerp, in the former year, " the bones of a giant

THE ANTWERP GIANT.

71

" We recollect that these bones were the
subject of some Latin epigrams which are
now preserved in the house of the keeper
of the public treasury, They are as
follows : OK" THE nir-BOKE,
Tanta htco homflci fuerlt si coxa gigantis,
Ca3tera quanta illi membra fuisse putes p
THE TOOTH.
J-aueibus immensis dens hie stetit, ore voraci
Quivisset solidos ille vorare boves.
THE AMI.
Quam fucrit forti munitus robore, socsvus
Ille vir, id oubiti pars monet ista sui.
THE SnOUMJEE-BLADE.
Ardua terribilis spatula hceo est (orede) tyranni,
Quid reris quantum sustlnuisset onus ?
THE TIBIA.
Q-estavit vastum vasta ist ha;c tibia corpus,
Enceladum cequavit, non dubium, ille gradu."
Such is the earliest account (published in
who had been eighteen feet high." They were most
probably fossil bonos of extinct animals. — See what is
said oil this subject iu the note, p. 4.

72

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

1550) of this celebrated figure, from the
official pen of an officer of the city of Ant
werp. The tale is further counnemorated
by a figure surmounting the iron-work cano
py of the famous well opposite the great
west door of the cathedral ; the work of the
artist Quintyn Matsys while he was a black
smith. It represents Antigonus, fully
armed, bearing a sword in one hand, and
with the other throwing away the severed
hand of one of his victims. But an equally
curious adaptation of the old story appears
to this day In the arms of Antwei-p (see cut
in title page of this book, from a design by
Eubens, used In the festivities noted p. 76),
a castle of three towers argent, sm-mounted
by two hands, gides, one dexter, the other
sinister. The castle being that of the
giant, the hands those of his opponents.
Verbyst, spealdng of the old legend, in

THE ANT^VERP GIANT.

73

1646, says, that the citizens " ajipeal to
the two most solemn annual processions
which taJce place at Antwerp, on the ani-
versaries of the circumcision, and of the
assumption of the Virgin, when from time
immemorial It has been the custom to
carry in j)rocession a colossal statue of
the giant, followed by a number of persons
who appeal- to have had their hands cut off."
In the woodcut executed by John Jeghers,
about 1640, delineating the principal pa
geants in these great popular shows, the
giant Is preceded by two men In the liver}^
of the city, carrying the severed hands as
a trophy. He is attended by six smaller
giants, one playing a pipe and another a
tabor. In the show of 1685, there Avere
eight of these giants, some dressed In the
costume of Spain and the Netherlands, and
others hi French, Dutch, and English

>v^

71 THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.
fashions; and these all danced round the
great giant, "to denote that Antwerp,
symbolized by him, was at peace with
all nations."
. This famous figure, whicli still exists, was
designed In 1534 by Peter Van Aelst, painter
to the Emperor Charies the Fifth, and con
structed under his superintendence. A
native writer says: "It has been admh-ed
by all lovers of art as one of its greatest
wonders, by reason of its great size, and
the exceeding cleverness with which it is
constructed." The figure is nearly forty
feet In height: like our Guildhall giants,
it is carved m wood, coloured, and gilt,
but hollow throughout ; and is borne about
the streets in a car drawn by eight strong
horses. In the noble Illustrated volumes which
issued from the presses of this old city.

ANTIGONUS,
THE GIANT OF ANTWERP.

I I
1 1

THE ANTWERP GIANT. 75
and recorded the sumptuous pageants with
which its merchant-princes delighted to
receive roj'al visitors, ai-e many fine en
gravings of the giant. In that descriptive
of the entry of Francis, Duke of Brabant
and Anjou, 15R3, Antigonus appears
with the French flag at the end of his
truncheon, in compliment to the Duke,
who was further flattered in some Latin
' '^ verses appended to his car ; " the giant
turned his head (by an artifice) towards
his highness, and holding hi his hand the
arms of Spain, let them fall, leaving those
of Anjou," — a delicate compliment to the
late and former rulers, who both helped
to ruin the old city. In the description
by Bochius of the spectacles on the advent
of Ernest, Archduke of Austria, 1595, the
giant, he says, was stationed in front of the
Town-hall, with war, discord, and envy

76

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

conquered at his feet,— a political illu
sion to the times. Under the benlmi O
mfluence of Albert and Isabella, the Ant-
werplans exhibited on the occasion of
their public entry in 1002, the giant
disarmed by cuplds, who were perched on
various parts of the figure, as if in the
act of relieving him of his mlhtary
equipment. When Ferdinand of Austria
made his triumphal entry as Gover
nor of Belgium in 1635, the giant
was stationed In his old situation near
the Town-hall.* The very best engrav-

* In Gevartius' m.ignifioent volume, devoted to a des
cription of tho festivities, tho iig\u'e may be recognised
in tho general plan of Antwerp. Outhis occasion Kubens
invented and suporintcndcd Ihc pngcnntiy, for whicli the
genius of the great IfJeming was peculiarly suited. His
original designs are still preserved in the gallery at Ant
werp." It may be worth remarking, that tho city is always
personified as a female crowned with a castle, above
which are the severed hands.

THE ANTWERP PAGEANTS.

77

ing of tills figm-e, is the large foho
print published in 1065 by Wm. Hendricx,
and from which our cut is copied.
In the Magazin de la Ville, Ene Bollard,
this enormous figure Is stored with equally
unwieldly companions. The building is
nearly as large as our Guildhall; vast
folding doors reaching from ground to roof
give admittance and exit to the pageants,
which are stiU paraded through the streets
on gi-eat occasions, and were all exliibited
when her Majesty Queen Victoria visited
Antwerp In September, 1843. They consist
of emblematic figures, a ship fully rigged,
a gigantic whale, &c. Three years ago,
while staying in Antwerp, tlie author
obtained permission from th6 municipal
authorities to examine these figures at
leisure. It was a singular sight, tliis
great hall crowded Avith these vast figm-es;

f

iS THE GUILDHALL GIANTS. J '¦
;|f/
something hke a visit to Brobdignag. • I f '
Chief among them sat Antigonus ; a door |r,.
hi the pedestal or seat on wliich he reposes 'U f
allows access to a stair, by which you 1] ' '
may ascend the body, tho sialrcaso con
tinuing to the shoulders, where a platform
is constructed, in the centre of which Is a
winch, used to move the giant's head back-
ward and forward as he goes along, by a >f
man who stands on this platform during \\
his progi-ess ; the neck bemg made to move
freely in the gorget which surrounds the
breastplate. Having bestcTf^ed so much space In the ' M '
consideration of this, the most popular
and curious of the Continental family of
giants, wc may now more briefly allude
to some others, which belong to other old
cities; the most remarkable being the
giant of Doual, whose history has been

h\

y

.'J ;

GAYANT AND HIS FAMILY,
THE GIANTS OF DOUAI.

: 1

THE DOUAI GIANT. 79
told by Monsiem- le Conseiller Quenson
in an octavo volume published at Doual
in 1839.
Gayant, the giant of Doual, and his
family, are represented in our cut as thoy
are seen on the fete-days of July ;* and
consist of the giant himself, (who was also
sometimes termed Jehan Gelon); his spouse,
named Marie Cagenon ; a young male giant,
his son, called ilf. Jacquot; ayoxmg giantess,
his daughter, termed Mademoiselle Filion;
and a young Infant, called Binbin, ce tiot
tourni, — " a surname of affection given
hhn by the peoi)le by reason of his age, and
his eyes badly turned," says M. Quenson.
The giant is twenty-two feet In height, in
the costmne of a Avarrior of the time of the
* Tlie size of our page will not admit the full hciglit
of tlio tilting-spear the giant cari'ies, which is nearly as
tall as himself ; and is decorated willi a streamer or
pennon at its point.

%

80

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

renaissance, with a helmet, breastplate, thigh-
pieces, and apron of chain-mail, from
which descends a huge petticoat, reaching
to the ground, and serving to conceal the
nine men who move the figure within.*-
The giantess, his wife, is two feet shorter
than her lord, and is elaborately dressed
In the costume of the time of Frangois
Premier, decorated with enormous jewels,
and bearing in one hand a feather-fan.
Her eldest son, only twelve feet in height.
Is in the full court dress of the sixteenth
century ; her daughter (" of delicate com
plexion, and hglit hair ") is two feet less
than her brother ; the infant being only eight
feet high, is habited in a child's loose
dress, with the national hourrelct or round
turban-caii and carries toys in the hand.
* The corporation accounts for 1763 note the gift of
twelve "pots da hihrre" to those who carried tho giant.

THE DOUAI GIANT.

81

This singular group, which origlnatmg
in one figure, has been added to from
time to time, has sm-vivcd, observes M.
Quenson, " in spite of the advance of ages,
the mandcments of bishops, the edicts
of councils, the murmurs of the pious, or
the irony of the eighteenth century." To
understand this, we must briefly allude
to the eventful historjr of Gayant.
His real origin is shrouded in the mists
of fable. He Is popularly behoved to
have done good service in saving Doual
In the time of Baldwin the Second, when
besieged by Norman enemies ; by creating
a division at the head of his men and so
preserving the city. Another traditionary
tale goes, that he was a certain Jehan
G6lon, Seigneur de Cantm, who resided
in a castle near the town, having a subter
ranean communication between botli places;

82

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

THE DOUAI GIANTS.

83

that he came through it to the conquered
inhabitants ; placed himself at then head ;
surprised then- enemies, fatigued by car
nage, and stupefied by wine ; and, by a
general massacre, delivered the country.
The time of his advent in the public
shows has not been satisfactorily ascertained
by M. Quenson, nor do the archives of
the municipality, which he has consulted
-vrith diligence, assist him. But the pro
cession in which he usually figined was
mstituted at the close of the fifteenth
centm-y, in honor of the patron saint of
the city, St. Maurand. Doual, in the
early part of the next century, was dis
tinguished as the Athens of Flanders,
and In the taste of that age, fostered by
PhUippe-le-Bon, dehghted in the glories
of 'pubhc display ; the accounts of expen-
ditm-e preserved in the corporation records

•^'S

%

show that no niggard hand dispensed
money In wines and feastlngs on these
occasions. It was not until 1665 that the
giantess appeared, and the accounts already
alluded to show that both were attended
by musicians and dancers, triumphal cars,
a figure of a dragon, and other pageants.
AU of them were paraded in extra glory
in July, 1667, when Louis XIV and his
Queen made a " solemn entry " into Douai,
and the giants occasioned much amusement
to their Majesties by then- quaint appear
ance. They are described In an accomit
of the festivities pubhshed at this time as
" deux grands colosses des deux sexes, d'une
prodlgeuse hautexu- et d'une Industrie toute
particuhOre." At the close of the centm-y,
the family of the giants, a son and daughter,
made their appearance. M. Quenson says,
"the giants of Flanders, and Belgium
g2
I

t-

84

THE GUttDHALL GIANTS.

for the most part obtained progeny." It
was not, however, till 1715 that the third,
Binhin, appeared. IiT 1099, the Archbishop
of Arras suddenly issued a mandate for
bidding their public display in rehgious
processions as heretofore. Great was the
grief of the people of Douai, when the
giants, St. Michael and the Devil, the
Avlieel of fortune, and their other popular
shows Avere denounced as only fit to "Irrlter
la colt;re de Dieu :" the Archbishop ends
by forbidding, under pain of excommuni
cation, any of the citizens to bear in then-
processions, either In city or country,
figures of giants and the hke " en habits
travcstis," which he declares to be more
fit for the pagans, or the theatre ; and
"tout-a-fait opposes a I'esprlt de rEgiise."
A compromise was ultimately clFccted :
the religious part of the ceremony was

THE DOUAI GIANTS. 85
separated from the secular ; and the
giants paraded Douai as usual. So great
was the love of the people for their fete
and then- giant, that he was affectionately
termed grand-pere, and a convivial society
of the principal inhabitants met under
the name of Enfants cle Gayant. In 1770,
another Bishop of Arras interfered (m-ged
by the Proctor of the Ecclesiastical Com-t),
to stop the usual fetes, which the people
were busy preparing. They all became
furious; the Town Council met, they
declared their giants, &c., were simply
intended for "honest recreation," and did
not deserve ecclesiastical mtolerance. A
paper war commenced on both sides : the
magistrates argued for the antiquity of their
custom, but the Bishop prevailed, and
obtained the confii-matlon of the I\ina
in June, 1771, to his mandate for the

80

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

THE MALINES GIANT.

87

suppression of the pageantry. In 1779,
the whole burst forth again in new splen
dour; the gigantic family were repaired,
fully rehabited in the most fashionable
costmne of that era, and a fourth child
added In a go-cart, Avhich Avas personated
by the tallest man to be hired. The
Great Eevolution again consigned . them
for some years to obscurity and partial
decay; but in 1801 they were once more
brought- forth, thoroughly repaired, and
ncAvly dressed; the giantess being In the
first fashion of that era, with a short
Avaisted goAvn, a timban-hat and feather,
scarf, and reticule in hand. Around them
danced their three children, they themselves
moving in cadence to the voices of the
parties Avithinside Avho joined in chorus,
to the favourite air of Gayant, the very
popular song of the Douaisiens. Songs,

¦a-

poems, and dramas, recorded the event;
and they peaceably paraded every year
untU 1821, Avhen they were again restored
and rehabited as exhibited in our cut.
Such is the history of the vicissitudes of
a great popular shoAV. Having bestowed
thus much attention on the two prhicipal
civic pageants of tliis land on the continent,
we Avill more briefly allude to the gigantic
figures displayed elsewhere.
Mallnes, in a spirit of rivalry to AntAverp,
exhibited a figure in position and costume
very similar to the Antigonus of the latter
city. This giant was seated on a pedestal,
habited as an ancient Eoman, and was
thu-ty feet in height. He (like the Douai
one) rejoiced in the popular name Le Grand-
Papa ; and on festival days Avas dragged
about the city on a car shaped like an
architectural platform, decorated Avitli masks

88

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

and pendent Avreaths, and drawn by four
poAverful horses. In addition, a Avhole
family of giants marched on foot, consist
ing of a father and mother, tAvo daughters
of different ages, and a young son. They
all Avorc a fantastic scmi-Chhiese costume.

Brussels had also its family of giants,
formerly consisting of a grand-papa, grand-
mama; their children, termed papa and

GOLIATH AND HIS WIFE,
THE GIANTS OF ATH.

THE GIANTS OP ATH.

89

mama; and then- grandchildren, two m-
fants, popularly knoAvn as Jean, and Marie.
The elders of the family have disappeared,
and om- cut represents all that remains of
their descendants.
The giant of Ath rejoices hi the formid
able name of Goliath, and is of immense
proportions ; he Is armed Avith a broad-
SAVord, and a mighty club furnished Avith
sphces. His head is protected by a helmet,
and his body by a breastplate ; but from the
waist dowHAvards he takes the feminine ap
pearance all these monsters possess, OAAing
to the necessity of an abundance of drapery
to conceal the men A\ithin Avho move the
figure. Goliath's wife Is an equally enor
mous figure, habited in the costume of the
last century. This ancient name Avas not
sacred to the giant of Ath; that of Nieuport
bore the very same; the city of Troyes also

90

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

formerly had its Goliath, who, on the en
try of Charles VIII. to that city, In 1480,
" very much diverted the King," as the old
clu-onicler relates, in a scene Avith David,
who ultimately brought him doAvn by a
stroke from his sling.
The giants of Louvain are also a
Avedded pah-, but they indulge In the
classic names of Hercules and his spouse
Megara. At Dunkirk, the giant is habited as a
Spanish halberdier, of the time of Phihp
IV.; his Avife is dressed in the style of
the last century ; their son, Cupido, is
completely armed, lilce a knight for the
tournejr, mounted on a war-horse Avhose
caparison hid the wheels and the men who
pushed them along. The giant (forty-five
feet In height) carried hi his pocket one
of the largest men to be hh-ed, who

BELGIC GIANTS.

91

occasionally peeped out, shook his rattle,
and called to his papa or. maman.
At Cassel, the giant Is habited in the
costume of a Avarrior of the middle ages,
and folloAved by a A'cry tail man dressed
as a baby.
At Ypres, and at Poperlnghe, the giants
have also babies in their suite.
At Hazebrouck, the giant is in the
habit of a Turk, and is accompanied by
an elephant. His size is not equal to
the rest of his brethren, as one man
cai-ries him ; the body to the waist resting
on his shoulders ; a long petticoat conceals
the legs.
The giant of Asselt is termed Lange-
Ma7i. Pie Avas repaired for the Jubilee
of 1835; and was carried about the city
in a car, draAvn by four horses ; restmg at
stated places, where soup was distributed.

92

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

m memory of a famhie which affhcted
the city in the year 1638.
At Lille, the giants paraded the toAvii
on all important occasions, and Avere last
repah-ed for the great communal fete of
that city in 1821. Lhce others, they are
connected Avith old popular stories. One
represents Lyderic, the first Grand Forester
of Flanders ; the other his enemy, the cruel
Giant Phhiart, Avhom he fought with and
conquered, beneath the Avails of the
Chateau du Buc, which stood Avhere the
good city of Lille Avas afterwards erected.
Our cut displays this redoubtable champion
as then exliibited; the numerous feet
seen, belong to liis bearers Avithinside.
When the grand Ixlstoiic cortege passed
through the streets of tho town in 1852,
these giants were followed by a group of
semi-bai-barous warriors, dressed in skms of

^r*

LYDERIC,
GRAND FORESTER OF FLANDERS,
THE GIANT OF LILLE.

GIGANTIC ANIMALS.

93

beasts, and armed with stakes and maces.
Some Avere mounted on powerful horses,
drawing a car, upon Avhich the story of
the early life of Lyderic Avas exliibited in
accordance with popular fable. A gigantic
female, named Jeanne MaiUotte, appeared
in another part of the procession, decorated
Avith a mhitary staff, and brandishing a
spear. She was accompanied by a gro
tesque tambour-major, and a corps of
drummers about seven feet in height.
Gigantic figmes of animals also frequently
gi-aced these shoAvs ; thus a colossal horse
named Bayard, upon Avhich sat the four
sons of Aymon, the heroes of the once
famed medieval romance, is carried about
the streets of Mahnes on the great anni
versaries of St. Eomnald, the patron samt
of the city, and is hitended as " an emblem
of the union and fidelity of its Inhabitants,"

1

94

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

DRAGONS.

95

typified hi the model of fraternity displayed
by those fabulous heroes.
The Fete du Poulain, at Pezenas, In
Provence, was instituted In 1220, by Louis
VIII. The chief feature, the Poulain, is
a gigantic horse made of cardboard, covered
Avith real skin, Avith a mane and tall tied
up AAith variegated ribands, and houslno's
of blue enriched with gold fleurs-de-lis. It
is moved by Iavo men withlnside, and sm--
rounded by a gay group of richly-clad
dancers, who promenade the town, exe
cuting then dances at stated intervals.
Enormous camels and unicorns, sea-mon
sters of fabulous orlgia and fanciful desim
hlcethe "licorne" and sea-horse— all havin^
some local signhicance— Avere, and are,. still
pai-aded. But of all monsters the dragon
has been the most universally popular,
rivallmg, or even surpassmg the giants

themselves. Dragons had a general reli
gious significance, but Avere fi-eqxxently con
nected with the legendary career of some
local saint. In theh- general meanhig, they
conveyed an idea of the evil spirit, of
sorcery, or heresy. Thus in many of the
churches of France before the great Eevo
lution, it Avas customary, three days before
Holy Thursday, for the clergy to ca.nj in
procession a dragon, whose long tail Avas
fiUed Avith chaff. The first tAA^o days it was
borne before the cross, AAuth the tail full ;
the tlhrd day it was borne after the cross
Avith the tail empty : this was intended to
signify that on the first days the devU
reigned in the world; but that on tlie last
he Avas dispossessed. The local dragons
abounded, and were realizations of those
believed to have been conquered by the
patron saints of various iDlaces. M. Bottin,

90

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

in his History of tha North of France, has
noted twenty-one such. In that district alone;
and ]\I. Delmotte, in his Rechcrchcs sur
Gilles de Chin et le Dragon de Mons, has
added seventeen others ; Avhich are very far
from completing a perfect hst. The dragons
of St. Margaret and St. George form part
of then- legendary history; those of Mons
and Eouen are believed to be typical of
localities sacred to the clim-ch.* With
ourselves, dragons of monstrous size were
as popular as giants; and I may here in
troduce as a cm-ioslty the last of the English
* Thus Gilles de Chin, who fought with tho dragon
of Mons, founded the Abbey of Wasmes, on a tract of
marsh land {loame in the Walloon dialect), which pes
tiferous spot was symbolized by the dragon. Louis do
Sacy in the same way explained the dragon of Eouen,
conquered by St. Eomain, as a type of tho irruption of
water prevented by him. This dragon was termed, la
gargouillc, a term still applied to the water-spouts of
churches, often made in the form of a dragon.

THE NORWICH DRAGON.

97

dragons which belonged to the corporation
of Norwich, and was always carried in
]\Iayoralt3'- processions, until the Eeform
Bill, In 1832, finally conquered the monster.
St. George and St. Margaret Avere the
patron saints of the old Guilds of this city,
therefore the dragon had a double hold on
popular sympathy; and was popidai-ly known
as snap or snap-dragon.

The body of this monster Avas formed of
light materials, being composed of canvas
stretched over a framework of Avood ; tlie
H

A.

98

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

outside Avas painted of a sea-green colour,
AvIth gilt scales, picked out Avith red. The
body Avas five feet in length, and Avas some
times used to secrete whie abstracted from
the Mayor's cellars. The neck was capable
of elongation (measuring three feet and a
half when extended), was supported by
springs attached to the body, and was capa
ble of being tm'iied In any direction at the
Avill of the bearer. From betAveen the ears
the AA'hole outer extremity of the back was
sm-mounted by a sort of mane, of crimson
colour, tied in fantastic knots aromid the
juncture of the enormous taU, wliich ex
tended above five feet, curhng at the fm-ther
extremity, as exhibited in the cut (a). Be-
tAveen the Avings Avas a small aperture for
ah-, and beneath the body Avas hung a sort
of petticoat, to conceal the legs of the bearer,
Avhose feet Avere furnished AAith large claws.

THE NORAA'ICII DRAGON.

99

The dragon's head had its loAver jaw
furnished Avith a plate of kon resembling a
horse-shoe ; it Avas formerly garnished with
enormous naUs, which produced a terrible

clatter when the jaAvs met together. They
were made to open and shut by means of
strhigs, and the chlldi-en amused themselves
by thi-OA?hig halfpence into the gaping mouth,
which txu-ned to the right and left dm-ing
the whole of the journey, noisily clashing its
h2

I,

100

THE GUILDIIALL GIANTS.

jaAvs, from Avhich the Dragon's populai- name
of snap Avas probably derived.
Giants, like dragons, Avere regarded as
emblematic of an cauI principle ; they typo-
ficd paganism in its most repulsive form, if
indeed they may not be, as some Avriters
imagine, derived from the rites of paganism
itself. Dr. Milner, in his History of Win
chester, 1798, takes this view of the question,
when speakhig of the huge wicker figures in
which the Gauls enclosed and hmmt then-
victims as a sacrifice to then- gods. He says :
" In different places on the opposite side of
the channel, Avhere we are assured that the
rites In question prevailed, among the rest at
Dunkh-k and Douay, it has been an imme
morial custom on a certain holiday hi the
year, to buUd up an immense figure of
basketAvork and canvas to the lieight of forty
or fifty feet, which, when properly painted

AVICKEB GIANTS.

101

and dressed, represented a huge giant, which
also contahied a nxmiber of living men Avithin
it, Avho raised the same, and caused it to
move from place to place. The popular
tradition Avas, that this figure represented a
certain pagan giant, Avho used to devour
the inhabitants of tliese places, until he Avas
Idlled by a patron saint of tlie same. Have
not Ave here a plam trace of the horrid
sacrifices of Druidism offered up to Saturn,
or Moloch, and of the beneficial effect of
Christianity in destroying the same ? " In
the great procession ou the festival of Cor
pus Christi giants Avere commonly seen. In
the Life of Friar Gerund, the author alludes
to the boys going " after the giants and the
serpent Tarasca,* on the day of Corpus ; "
* "La Tarasque" was the name given to tho dragon
yearly paraded about the old City of Tai-asoon, in the
south of Prance. — Dulaure's JEist. de Paris.

102

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

and, in an explanatory note, we are told " the
figm-es of gigantic men and a large seiqient
are carried about on this day, by Avay of
sliOAvIng the conquest of Christ over the
poAvers of earth and hell. The serpent Is
callcA^^Taraka, say the etymologists, from
Tepa^ unde to Tepaanov, and in plur. ra
repacrrM, monstra, portenta, miracida.* In
the relation of the Earl of Nottingham's
journey mto Spain [Harleian Miscellany,
A'ol. 3, J). 420) is a description of the great
Corpus Christi procession at Valladolid, In
1604, in AvhIch the King walked, bearing a
lighted taper ; and in Avhicli procession "first
came eight great giants, three men and three
Avonicn, and tAvo Moors, Avith a tabor and
liipe playing, and they dancing." The
Church of Eome possessed one saintly giant.

* Sec p. Gl for a notice, by Dr. Plot, of tho custom of
carrying a giant aud dragon in Oxfordsliire.

SAINT CHRISTOPHER.

103

who Avas frequently exhibited on this occa
sion. Naogeorgus, in his Popish Kingdom,
as translated by Barnaby Googe, tells us,
that amid the general display on the festival
of Corpus Christi, —
" Great Christopher doth wade ond passe with Christ
amid tho brook."

The old history of St. Christopher, as re
lated in Caxton's translation of Voragine's
Golden Legend, 1483, assures us, that he
Avas "of a right grete stature, and had a
terryble and ferdful chore and countenaunce ;
and he Avas tAvelve cubytes of length." He
Avas converted by a hermit to Christianity, and
by him Induced to devote himself to carryhig
travellers safely over a dangerous stream.
One night, Avhile sleeping, he was aAvalcened
by the voice of a child, aa'Iio desired to be
carried across. The giant lifted the child

104

THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.

on his shoulders, and entered the river;
but the waters rose higher and higher, and
the child Avaxed heavier cacli foot he strode.
With much trouble he landed him, sayhig :
" ChUd, thou hast put me In great peril ;
thou Aveighest almost as if I had borne the
Avhole Avcrld : I could bear no gi-eater bm--
den." And the child answered : " Christo
pher, marvel not! thou hast borne more
than that, for thou hast borne him that
made It on thy shoulders. I am the Christ
whom thou servest in thy work." Figures
of tills saint were constantly painted on
church Avails, and sometimes at the en
trance of cities, for it was a popular belief,
as noted by Erasmus In his Praise of
Folly, that the day on Avhich his figure was
seen, a violent death, or a death with
out confession, could not happen to the
spectator.

SAINT CHRISTOPHER.

105

The engraving here given is copied from the
only representation knoAvn to the author, of
this popular saint, as exhibited on this equally
popular festival. It occm-s among the plates
to the Explication des Ceremonies dc la Fete-

Dieu d'Aix en Provence, 1777. This celebra
ted fete, founded by the old troubadour King
of Jerusalem and Count of Provence — the far-
famed E6n6 of Anjou — in the early part of

106 THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.
the fifteenth century, retained, until the
time of the publication of the volume just
alluded to, many of its ancient features.
This of St. Christopher being one of tho
most curious, and described as " haAung the
body formed of hoops of Avood, enveloped
in a long \\'hlte dress, the arms extended
in the form of a cross, a figure of the hifant
Saviour seated on the right one. The figure
Avas nine or ten feet in height, and carried
by a man Avithinside, Avho kept what
sahors call "a bright look out" for the
hberal pious, when he made the figure
courteously salute them, and so " obtained
a little more silver In return for this
politeness." Such is a brief record of the giants, icll-

•* The giant of the Tailors' Company at Salisbury, was
ono popularly known as St. Cliristopher, though without
tho proper attributes of that converted giont. See p. G2.

LEGENDARY GIANTS.

107

gious and secular, at home and abroad.
It may serve to shoAV the popularity of
the fabulous history of old cities.
The people of the Loav Countries still
cling to theirs, and proudly exliibit their
Icgcndary giants. We have long since for
gotten our'i fables ; they lie in the seldom
read pages of Geoffry of Monmouth. We
noAV no longer, when the Sovereign of
England dines with the Lord Mayor, re
mind him in boastful rhymes that London
is Troynovant, or New Troy, founded by
Brutus long before Christ, and claiming
precedence of Eome. But all this Avas
complacently done as late as the middle of
the seventeenth century. ]My object in this
volume has been to rescue my old friends
Gog and Magog from the contemptuous
slights of such as knoAv not their origin ;
and do not feel Iioav curiously they ai'e

108 THE GUILDHALL GIANTS.
linked Anth mediseval observances at home
and abroad, AAith the history of our native
City,and the glories of its gi-eat popular ruler,
my Lord Mayor, in the daj^s long past,—
" When London did pom- out her citizens.
The Mayor and all his brethren in best sort."

Addenda.

112

ADDENDA.

gives to events which happened in pre-historic
times, delighted for many ages a certain class of
romantic readers. In it we have such docu
ments as " correct copies " of letters written hy
the Imaginary Brutus of Troy, at the time Avhen
Eli govemed Israel ; while the speeches of him
self and his officers are given with the accuracy
of a modern parliamentary reporter. His la
bours in thus constructing a history, where no
true history existed, met, however, a grateful
reward. His work was Avidely read, particularly
by our early poets ; the noblest of them all here
foxmd the substructure of his King Lear,
The graver historians of the Shakespearian
era by no means cast aside the tales of reverend
Geoffry ; they were taken as facts by eminent
men ; even the learned Camden confesses to a
wavering over them, and, in the early part of his
Britannia, excuses himself from condemning
what had been so long received as truths.
When ultimately discarded by the learned, the

ADDENDA.

113

*'

tales were treasured by the populace, and repro
duced in cheap books as "reverend histories."
Por tho more immediate convenience of the
reader, we here give Geoffry's description of the
encounter between Corineus and Gogmagog.
He prefaces tho account hy telling us tliat a\ hen
Brutus first iuvadcd Albion it was Inhabited by
none but a few giants. Corineus had for his
share of the land the county of ComAvaU ; the
rest we tell in Geoffry's words :
" It was a great diversion to Corineus to
encounter the said giants, which were in greater
numbers there than in all the other provinces
that fell to the share of his companions. Among
the rest was one detestable monster, named
Goemagot, in stature twelve cubits, and of such
prodigious strength, that at one shake he pulled
up an oak as if it had been a hazel wand. On
a certain day, AA'hen Brutus was holding a solemn
festival to the gods, in the port where they at
first landed, this giant Avith twenty more of

Missing Page

Missing Page

114

ADDENDA.

his companions came in upon tho Britons,
among Avhom he made a dreadful slaughter.
But the Britons at last assembling together in a
body, put them to tho rout, and killed them
every one but Goemagot. Brutus had given
orders to have him preserved, out of a desire to
see a combat between him and Corineus, who
took a great pleasure in such encounters. Cori
neus, overjoyed at this, prepared himself, and
throwing aside his arms, challenged Ixim to
Avrestle with him. At the beginning of the
encounter, Corineus and the giant, standing
front to front, held each other strongly in their
arms, and panted aloud for breath; but Goe
magot presently grasping Corineus with all his
might, broke three of his ribs, two on his right
side, and one on his left. At which Corineus,
highly enraged, roused up his Avholo strength,
and snatching him upon his shoulders, ran with
him as fast as the weight would allow him, to
the next shore, and there gettmg upon the top

ADDENDA.

115

%-.

of a high rock, hurled down the savage monster
into the sea; where, falHng on the sides of
craggy roclcs, he was torn to pieces, and coloured
the waves with his blood. The place where he
fell, taking its name from the giant's fall, is
called Lam Goemagot, that is, Goomngot's
Leap, to this day."
Dr. Giles, in his edition of this old Chronicle,
teUs us, that this spot " is now caUed the Haw,
and is near Plymouth."

Fage 11.-- -GoG and Magoo.
The names of Gog and Magog are first found
in the Old Testament. Magog is named as one
of the sons of Japheth in the tenth chapter of
Genesis ; and again iu the first book of Chroni
cles, chap. 1, V. 5. Magog is not associated
with Gog until the times of Ezekiel, during the
3i

116

addenda.

Captivity, from the thirtieth year of Nabopalas-
sar, 595, B.C., doAvn to 572, e.g. (Ezekiel xxxviii.
2 ; xxxix. 6.) In the post-Christian but uncertain
a"o of tho writer of the Apocalypse (between
A.D. 95 and the Council of Laodicca, Avhich
rejected it as apocryphal, 360 — 3G9, a.d.),
" Gog and Magog appear together as nations
(Eevelations xx. 20) ; whereas, seven or eight
centuries previously, Gog, the Prmce of Ehos,
Meshech, and Tubal would seem to have been
understood as the proper name of a King." —
Nott aud GHddon, Types of ManUnd, Phila
delphia, 1857, p. 470.

JPago 15. — GlOANTIO IlEBOEa.
In addition to the gigantic heroes mentioned
here and on page 2, it may be worth noting the

ADDENDA.

117

names of Cliarlemagno and Godfrey do Bouillon,
for whose great deeds media3val fancy awarded'
great stature. The fabulous Eoland was also
a giant. Por further remarks on the subject,
see Leroux de Lincy, Liv. des Legendes, t. 1.
p. 158—5.

Page 16. — BouEilAN and his Books.
It appears that Thomas Boreman, whose stall
was near the two Giants in GuO-dhall, throve
well by pubHshing his first tiny volume of their
" Gigantich Jlistory," for in the preface to the
second, wliich completes the history of the
Guildhall, the chapel adjoining, "and other
curious matters," relative to Mayoralty cere
monials, ho says : " J^ecessitij, the mother of
Invention, Avas tho author of the fii-st part ;
which, as soon as she had finish'd, left me, and

* !

118

ADDENDA.

sent success in her stead; now, this last lady,-
aud I had been long strangers, and, altho' ;
she has lived with me about three months, we
know not how to behave to each other : in short,
she is a very desirable person, bxxt much fitter
for pleasure than business. Necessity, for inven
tion and dispatch, is worth two of her ; and if the
latter had not stept back again to begin the
work, I fear the former, whose task it was,
would never have finished it." He apologizes
for his two volumes, because one may be put in
the pocket of j3ach subscriber, and "there
would be no fear of their growing lapsided from
the weight of such a gigantic work." Among ;
his Hst of subscribers he inserts the name of
" Giant Cormeus" for " 100 books," and " Giant
Gogmagog" for the same number.
He continued a series of volumes of the same
size and price, making nine in all. Two devoted
to the history of St. Paul's Cathedral, aud two
more to tho ToAvcr of London. In 1742, ho

ADDENDA.

110

published one entitled The History of Oajanus,
ihe Swedish Qiant, from his birth to the present
time. By the author of the Gigantich Histories.
He afterwards published two volumes on West
minster Abbey, but required an advance on the
price of each volume, AvhIch was raised to six
pence.

Bage 21. — Jajiouge and Majiouge.
Nott and Ghddqn, in their Types of Ifanhind
(Philadelphia, 1857, p. 470), say: "Arab tradi
tion, under the appellatives Tadjooj aud Mad-
jooj, prolongs the union [of tho elder Scriptural
Gog and Magog] down to the seventh century
after Christ; with the commentary that they
arc two nations descended from Japheth ; Gog
being attributed to the Turks, and Magog to tho

120

ADDENDA.

Geeldn, tho Geh and Gelas of Ptolemy and
Strabo, and our Alarni.
"In ancient Greek and Latin, Gigas, read
also Gug-as, sigmQ.ei giant j and oriental legend
associated giants with Scythians In the north of
Asia. Magog has been assimilated to tho Mns-
sagetoB [perhaps Massa-Gctce, Masian-Gctm, of
Mount Masuis] who are to Gets9 what Magog
is to Gog; the prefixes ma and massa being
considered intensitives, to indicate either the
most honoured branch of tho nation, or the
whole nation itself."
The authors adopt the opinion of Dubois,
who says " the Hebrew word is Ma-gug. The
first syllable refers to the Maiotes, Taurio
Medians, transplanted from the Taurus to the
east of the Caspian. The second syllable, Gug,
is simply the Indo- Germanic word Khogh, or
mountain. " Haying thus fixed Gug to a moun
tain, CfaiW-asos, the root of Asos is instantly
recognised in the natural name of the Osses,

addenda:

121

Osseth, Tases, Aas, Asi; Avhcnce the continent
of Asia derives its Europcon designation. As
far back as history mounts, she finds Avithin
the angle circumscribed between the Caucasus,
the Palus Mcotis, and the Tanais, an Asia
proper, inhabited by a people, 'As,' of ludo-
Germanic race : and we discover in tho ilfa-iotes
of the ' mountain ' Cawc-asus, the long-lost, and
mystified nation, Ma- Gug of the tenth chapter
of Genesis."

Pago 60.— The Coventex Giants.
The following detailed accounts of the ex
penses incurred by the tAvo Coventry companies
who indulged in giants, is given from Sharp's
volume. The first is especially valuable, as it
shows the constant repair, &c., required by
the figure, year by year, for twenty years.

122

1633. 1534.

1540.

1542.
15<1>7.

1548.
1549. 1551.
1553.

ADDENDA.

oaipeb's accounts.

Item. Payed for the Gy-ant . . xsyij''
  — dressyng the Gyant 
  — beryng the Gyant 
 ¦  — naylls and corde • 
  — pcntteng of tho )
Gyantt . . .] ^-
  — the candelsteke ) 
in hys hedand the lyght j
  — bercng of the Gyant 
P'd for kepyng the Gyant (inter alia)
Beryng of the Gyant ij. nyghta
P' d for waxe candell for the Gyant .
Item. Paid for canvas to make tho ")
Gyant a ncwe skerte . J
  — pentyng of the ¦)
Gyant . . . .]
Paid for the Gyeando (bearing)
 mendyng of tho Gyeando .
¦  beryng tho Joyand ,
For mendyng of hya head and armo
Drceeyng and mendyng of tlw'l
Gyeando . , . , , j
Payd for a candell for tho Gyeando .
Por mendyng the Qyeand
Mendying and payntyng the Gyand

TllJ'i- TI.
xii.' j.

xvij.

'J —
— j-
— ix.
iij. viij.
— xvi.
— viij.
— xviij.
— xvj.
— xviij.
— ij-
— xxij.
ij' xi-

Jc

ADDENDA.

deapee's acooxtnt.

123

1556. Payd to Eobart Orowo for makyng ") j^ 
of the Gyanes , , . . j
1556. Payed toij men for beryng of the') ..^
Gycnes . . . . j "~ ^^'J '
1557. - wyfTo
 the beryng of the Gyans")
wyfFe . . , . . .] - ^™.I-
1560.  pentyng of the Gyans wyife ij. vj.
 to endes for the waxe . . v. —

— payntyng of tho Gyoncs) 

Page 79. — Gaxant, the Giant oe Doxtai.
The name Gayant (which by M, M. Baudry
and Durot has beon thought to signify the
Dragon), now assumed as the proper name
of the great figure of Douai, is tho pure
mediajval form of the word giant ; as proved
by M. Delmotte, in the following quotations

124

addenda.

from old romances : many more might be
cited if necessary. " Ains maia si biaus horn no fu ni'a ;
II n'oBt pas luouros d'un gdiani,"
Roman do Perceval,

'Ca'icns est nnga'ians, biau su-c."
Ibid.

" Mieux vaut -wajayant que un page,
Et deux dismes que un terrage,"
Jeu-Parti. (Chanson 28.)

Page 83. — E.-CPEN3ES or tub Douai Giant.
The following extracts from tlio archives of
Douay, aro selected from the work of M,
Quenson, and detail the expenses incurred

ADDENDA.

125

by the municipality on the occasion of the
display of the giants, June 10, 1G65.

rior- ins.

rnn.tars.

A oinq homes ayans porto Ic geont, pnyo a
ohascun 30 past, faisant .
A ceulx ayans portez la geanlo pom- coste fois
soullemeut pour estre a la charge des
mandeliers 
Aux deux gar90ns ayans daneez devant le geant
ot la geanto 
A Martin Mauduy pour douzo paircs dc souliers
blanos hvrez pour joustca et danses par
devant le geant et la geante paye par re
duction 
Au S'-- Laurent Durieu eschovin pour divcrsos
parties do grosseriea tant pour I'habit de
la goantc, estcndart qualtroment scion son
billot  283 — 13
A Philippe Plassol pour la facon do I'habit dc
la geanto ct aultrca potilz Uabitz apparant
par sou billot roduiet a . . • -3^ „
A Marie Jennc Paul pour avoir faiot la porruquo
do la goantc, raccomodo cello du geant ct
St. Michel, paye par reduction . . .17 — „

7 — 10

,-30

, — 20

5 — 16

126

ADDENDA.

' ADDENDA.

127

rior. Paa-
ias. toa.

A Guillaume Gourb^ mandelier pom- la facon
et livreson d'osier tant pour la geante que i
poui le bracquet ct marteau d'armea, et
r'accommode le geant . , . . 3^^ 
A M. Loya Cardon pom- avoir faiet les pieda ot
mains de St. Michel ot le oarguant de la
geante, payo  3 
Pour vingt et une oordes do perlea applicquez
a la coiffure do la goantc, a 3 past, ohaseuns
payo enssemble ... tq
. .J, vo
Pour avou-moulle la teste de la geante couatruit
aea mains, son collici-, sa rose do diamant
etdiversesaultrcspieohesd'omement, passe 40-^ „

Page 86. — Ebstoeation of Gayant.
The serio-comic poem on the restoration of
the giant of Douai, in 1779, to his aifectionate
friends, the inhabitants of that city, is here
given from tho appendix to the work of

M. Quenson, so'frequently quoted. It was com
posed by M. Seraphiu Bernard, " Greifier de la
Mairie de Douai," and printed in 4to, 1780, by
M. Derbaix, who Avas executed "a la lanterne,"
in the Eevolution of 1793. It may be worth
noting here, that during tho same horrible
period, it was the custom with the concierge
of the Hotel de Ville, during the three feie
days, to exhibit the heads of Gayant and
his family on the balcony of that building.
LA PEOOESSIOlf DE DOXIAI,
Ou Gayant Resussitd.
Jadia j'aurais chanto lo tombeau de Gayant ;
Je celcibre aujom-d'hui son triompho eclatant.
Muse, qui du befroi via la reconnaissance,
Le zole, les regrets, la sohdo eloquence,
Eapeller notre perte et rammer nos cccm-a,
Tiens ornor mes corita, y repandre des floiu-a.
Ecarto loin de moi cotte image cruolle,
Cea rapporta deatruotcm-s, qu'iuspii'a le faux zMe,

128

ADDENDA.

Que du haut d'un clooher tu vis tracer expres,
Pour ri5pandro le deuil au milieu do la paix ;
Eloigno aussi de moi tout accent de triateaso :
Gayant rossuscitc ram^,nc rallegrcsse.
Co lu'iros memorablo, objot do tons tea vcoux,
Agroablo signal dca plaisivs ot des jeux;
Que le sort a detruit, quo lo sort fait rcnaitrc,
Douai, rcjouis-toi, ton Gayant va paroitre !
Jo lo vois s'elever, sortir do son tombeau.
Triomphant de la mort, fut-il jamais si beau ?
Sur sou front glorieux, un caaque redoubtable,
Eapelle la valeur de son bras formidable ;
Ses nobles vetemens, ornemens des guerriers,
Annoncent ses exploits, ses antiques lauricrs.*
Gayant va se venger! — Non. La paix, qui I'inspire,
Veut qu'au bonhem- commun aujourd'hui tout conapire ;
La vengeance n'est point dana ses doux sentimens ;
Sea ennemis vaincus vont utre ses enfans.
Semblable a ces Gauloia, dont le m&lc courage.
Par la force accable, savait braver I'orago ;
Do leura fiers ennemis il.s ropousaaient les traits,
Et, vainqucrs gencreux, ils leur donnaiont la pais.
Ansi Gayant, tombe sous lea coups do I'cnvic,
Rodeviant geuoroux en roprenant la vie :
* Suivaiifc 111 trndition popolairo, Gayaut a ddfonduo Douai.

ADDENDA. 129
II salt que la clcmenee illusti-e les hcros,
Et qu'il faut pardonner k d'orgueilleux rivaux.
Venez, Douaisiens ! venez, Pcuple fidi51c !
Contemplcz sa grandeur ct sa gloiro immortelle ;
Livroz-vous il la joyc, appollcz les plaisira :
Lo plus hcuroiix succes couronno tos di^airs.
Et vous, Peuplca voisins ! qui, depuis sa disgrace.
Six ans nous avez fuis, venez, sa dedicace,
Kamene avec les jeux, les festins, I'amitid.
Si sa perte en vos occurs avis mis la pitie,
Qu'elle en sorte a jamais. Que sa joycuse fete,
Toua faase partager la gaiety qu'elle apprete.
Deja I'airain sonnant annonee la splendour
Du jour trois foia houreux, qu'aspire avec ardeur.
Le Peuple qui I'aima, le grand qui le aouhaite ;
Enfin tout est content, ct la joio est parfaitc.
La villagcois s'cveille, et quittant son hameau.
Assemble ses amis, monte sur le c6teau,
Contcmple la Cite, vera ses murs s'achcmiue ;
II a pris en passant Agathe sa voisino.
Sur la route ila ont joint Qnillaume, Alain, Pierrot,
Et le viellard Antoine, ct I'antiquc Margot.
Coux-ci font de Gayant uno hiatoire CdMc .-
lis diaent qu'il sa fote une ardeur mutuclle, K

130

ADDENDA.

Les enflama tous deux, et que leur union
Commen^a leur bonheur b, sa procession.
Les amans, il ces mots, disent h, leura maitressea.
Que depuis bien long-terns lour constantea tendreases
Vamcment ont parlc. Qu'aujourd'hui leur bonheur,
Doit leur etre assure par un aveu du occur ;
Quo cotte occasion veut qu'ila ao rcjouiasaut,
Et qu'ila doivcnt a'aimer. — Les vioUards applaudiaaent.
Tandis que ces diacours repandant la gaictd,
Tous cea bona villagcois ont gagno la cite.
Les bourgeois (Strangora repandent la gaitd,
Bcnfcrinds, ila ont dii voir le grand jour dclore.
Les ponts sont abaissos. Jo les vois pctillana,
Acoourir ^ grand Hots sur dea ohars eelatans,
Conficr leurs dcstins il I'flomont liquide,*
En braver la fureur, I'ineonstanee periide ;
D'autres par des sentlers prdoipiter leurs pas.
Tous bi-Alout d'arriver: Gayant leur tend les bras.
L'un d'avance le louc et I'autre le ddprise ;
L'un dit sa femme est bien, sa fiUe est moin bien mise ;
Binbin est bien coiffc, son habit oat us(j ;
L'ainc dans sea habits a I'air embarrasso.
VoiU\ comme toujours, cnclins ilia aatyre,
Les hommes, aans juger, eoramcncent par mddire.
• La Barque.

ADDENDA. 131
Mais quel nouvoau spectacle attire mes regards ?
De jeunea oombattans* viennant de toutea parts.
Des diverses cites, dea hameaux, o'est I'elite ;
Chacun de eon c6te range la rdussite,
lis sent prcta au combat ; le cirque va a'ouvrirt
Jeuneeso, combattez, suivez votre desir.
Le signal est donnd. Dans les airs dlancde.
La ballo par dix mains oussitot ropoussdo,
Par d'autrca ost renduo : arretde il la Qn,
Elle a fait des jouera lo sort et le destin.
La Scarpe dca long-tema au deuil abandonnee,
Entend lea cria de joie, en dcmeure dtonueo ;
Elle voit aur les bords I'cspoir, le Dieu dea jeux,
Animcr un spectacle agrdable il sea yeux.
A cette heureuse vue, appellant I'alldgrcaae,
Elle passe aux transports de la plua doueo ivresae.
Aux aoclamationa d'un peuple transportd,
Aux sons dea instrumons qui marquent la galte.
Penetrant il travers la foule rdjouie,
Conduit par la Portune, image de la vie ;
Gayant, accompngnd do sa femme, do ses file,
S'avance vera la place ct a'arrfito au Parvia.
L.^ oontemplant d'un coil satisfait ct tranquille,
Lea peuplca de Douai, Valencienne, et Lille,

Jouors de Ballo.

t L'Esplanftde.

K 2

132

ADDENDA.

D' Arras, Tournai, Cambrai, de Bdthune, et Bouchain,
Des hameaux d'alentour, rassemblca toua cnfin ;
II ae aent pcnctre de la reconnaiasance,
II parle, ct dans I'iustaut r5gno au profond ailenoo !
" 0 joie ! o doux transports, mos onfans, mes amia !
Jo ronaia au bonhoiu-, vous voyaut rdunis.
Jadis, — le souvenir m'en fait frdmir encore,
Jadis le sort cruel, pour dea faita que j'ignore,
En me privant du jour, attrista mes enfans,
Et nous ravit il tous noa plaisirs lea plus grands.
Maintenant que jo vis, maintenant que I'orage,
Pleinement dissipe, laisse un jour sans nuago,
Sentons le prix du caliue aprfes tant dea malfaeura,
Livrons-nous au plJiisir, savourona sea douceurs,
Oubliona pour jamais les noirs trails do renvic,
Ne sbngeons qu'ii jouir des instans dc la vie.
Jo vais porter la joio a tous lea habitants.
Lea voir, les visiter et lea rcndrc contcnta.
Mea adieux autrefois, diotes par la ddtreaae,
Portiirant dans les cffiurs la deuU et la tristesse.
H faut que ma presence y porte la gaitd,
Et que d'un plaisir par chacun soit transportd."
Ainsi parla Gayant. II part. Les eris de joie
So font entendre au loin. Le plaisu- se ddploie.
Lo cri : " Vive, Gayant," est cent fois repdtd ;
Et Ton se divertit dana toute la citd.

ADDENDA.
' 0 vous, restaurateurs da plaisir populaire,
Magiatrata ! reoevez mon horamage sincere.
Ne dana votro citd, j'essayi pr&s des vous
Do celi^bre lea jeux rovenus parmi nous,
Et des Douaisiens de chanter dea mervemca.
En publiant ces vers, faible fruit de mes vielles,
" Si de vous agrdor jo n'cmportc le prix,
II eat flatteur au moina de I'avoir cnterpris."

133

Page 86.— The Sonq op Gatant.
The enthusiasm with which the people of
Douai welcomed the second restoration of
their giant m 1801, occasioned the production
of many gratulatory poems and couplets ; and
among the rest, the song descriptive of the
yearly festivities given below. It was printed
in the Mrennes Douaisiennes ; and is sup-
posed to be the narration by a countryman
of the neighbourhood, in his provincial patois,

1.34

ADDENDA.

of the great doings which are so attrac
tive to the whole district. The "wheel of
fortune," alluded to in the fourth verse, is
a very popular part of the pageantry, and
has been introduced in other shoAvs of the
kind elseAvhere, particularly in the Tcte-Dieu
at Aix, and the festival of St. Eombaud,
at Mallnes. It consists of a plain wheel laid
flat upon a car draAAm by horses ; in the centre
is a figure of Eortune ; and upon the outer
circle, at the junction of each spoke, is placed
a figure indicative of some grade in life, tho
soldier, priest, husbandman, &c. As the car
is drawn, a roUing side-long movement is given
to tho wheel, Avhich lifts or depresses the
various figures as the Avheel revolves. It is a
simple moralizatiou of human life, which easily
appeals to the vulgar comprehension, and is
consequently much relished by tho co-antry
folks, who never tire in enforcing its meaning
on the minds of their children. The air to

ADDENDA.

135

which the words of this song are simg rivals in
popularity that of Mons, described in a future
page ; it is played by tlie carillons, by the
street musicians, and sung universally on this
j'oyous day. CHAIfSOK DE GAYANT.
AUons, veux-tu vcnir, compere,
A la duoasse de Douai :
Ah ! c'est si joli ot si gai,
Quo de Valenciennes et Tournai,
De Lille, d'Orohies, ct d' Arras,
Les pas presses viennent il grand pas.
AUons, di in pau men compere,
Che qu'un y verra tout de bon,
Des jueux arrivant de long,
Avee fusicqs, area et boujons,
Et dea jueux de baUe auasi.
Ah! meneompk-e, t'on s'ras surpris.
Sur des plachca toutea nouvieUes,
Y s'in vont disputer lea prix :
A Saint-Ame avec fusicqs,
Saint-Nicolaa avec area rodis,

136 ADDENDA.
Saint-Jacquos o'est cnoor pus mieux,
T'y vcrraa ohello ballo ot lea jueux.
Jo vcrras ohello biello ruo do fortune
Eo\iler ot eourir II grand pas :
C'cst pour to divo quo tout vo,]
Et tant&t haut et tanlfit has,
Argcnticr, avocat, payaan,
Chacun ju role en courant.
Gayant arrive sur la grand' plache,
Avec sa femme et ses enfans,
II dit a toua les habitana :
Divertissez-vous aagement.
Dana cea jours si biaux et si gais,
Voua pouvez tous boiro il longs traita.
Wette in pau, compere v'lil Jacquea,
Avec EiUon qui danae si bin,
Et v'lSi lil-bas ch'tiot Binbin
Qui ju au volant tout douehemin.
Turlututu v'lil I'grand Gayant,
Tout en faisant des eontre-tems.
V'lil deja tros heures qui sonnent,
Le ju de balle va eommeneher.
AUous-y d'un pas redoubld
Pour vir tons chds faraux juer.

ADDENDA.
L'un ¦wetto on haut, I'autre wetto en bas,
Y sont plua subtils quo do cats.
Au son dca timbaUca ot troinpcttes,
L'bttUo gngndo lea prix donnds,
Chds amouroux ii-ont, danser
A rcomddio, i'l I'Elisde,
Tous joyeux ct tertous oontens,
Turlututu, vivo Gayant.

137

Bage 88. — The Buussjsls Giants.
The legendary history of the giants of
Brussels, like that of other municipal figures of
their kind, is connected with the early founda
tion of the city. The legend relates that the
aboriginal giant and his wife, respectively
named Jan and Jannika, had resided in the
district in which Brussels now stands since the
period of the deluge. The advent of now
settlers, and the foundation of a Availed city,
alarmed the worthy couple, who are traditionally

138 ADDENDA.
reported to have looked over the wall, forty feet
high, of Avhat is now tho Eue Villa Hermosa,
with no friendly eye upon the colony of human
dwarfs, Avho Avhero xiltimately destined to put
an end to tho long reign of the giants in the
land. This universal belief iu a race of colossal
proportion, defeated by the ancestry of various
peoples, displays a love of the marvellous, com
bined with a fair share of vanity, in the ancient
prowess Avhich gave victory to the modern races.

Page 96. — The Dbaoon or Mons.
The festival at Blons was really founded iu
memory of the relief of the inhabitants from a
great post {^pestc noire), Avhich ravaged the
country in 1348. Noav, as it Avas common in all
processions of the epoch to represent the evil
principle under the form of a dragon of osier, he

ADDENDA.

139

appeared with St. George, whose victim he
became after a fight in the great square. St.
George had upon the arpon of his saddle a
small figure of faith, — the poupee of the popular
song ; for which the representation of the Virgin
and child has since been substituted, — Vmama
of the same verses. The Doudou is the name
given to the dragon ; and the following are the
words of L'ancien Noel du Doudou, as these
popular rhymes are termed by M. Delmotte :

IE DOTT-DOir.
Nos irons vir I'car d'or
A rprocession de Mon ;
Co s'ra I'poupde Saint George,
Qui no' Buivra do long ;
G'est I'doudou, o'est I'mama
C'est I'poupdo, poupee, poupee ;
Cost I'doudou, o'est I'mamn,
C'est rpoupdo Saint George qui va,
Lo gins du rempart riront com' des kiards,
De vir tant de oarottcs,
Le gins du culot riront com' do sots.
Do vir tant do caret' il leu' pots.

140

ADDENDA.

ADDENDA.

141

The enthusiasm at Mons on these feast-davs
is universal, and is best described in the lively
words of the Prench author: " Que lorsque les
premieres notes du Doudou se font entendre sur
le carillon pendant la fete, la figure des h.ibi-
tants de Mons rayonno de joie ; tout le mondo
chaute ou dause cet air choi-i ; des exclamations
presque frenetiques s'echappant au miheu des
eclats de rire, des gambades; quand on se
rencontre on se donne la main, ou invite mcme
les etrangers a manger de la tarte, du jambon,
etc. ; c'est un dehre universal. Cet air est aussi
celebre a Mons que le fameux air de Gayant a
Douai."

Pfl^e 101.— Giants vanquxsued by Saints.
M. Delmotte, in his tract pubhshed anony-
mously at Mons, in 1825, and entitled Beoher-
cles Ilistori^ues sur Gilles, Seigneur de Qhin et

lo Dragon, has given the following list of the
principal saints who have conquered dragons,
according to their legendary history :
Ste. Attraota.
St. Bcnoil, of Arczzp.
St. Bienlicure of VcndAmo.
St. Derien of Landernau.
St. Donatus.
St. George.
St. Gratus.
St. HUarion.
St. Jacobus.
St. Jean de Beaume.
St. Jouin, Bishop of Le'on.
St. Leon of Mans.
Ste. Marguerite.
Ste. Marthe of Tarascon.
St. Marcel of Paris.
St. Meen, Abbd of St. Plorent,
St. Michael the Archangel.
St. Pavace of Mans.
St. Peregrinua.
St. Pol, Bishop of Leon.
Ste. Eadegonde of Poitiers.

142 ADDENDA.
St. Eomain, Bishop of Eouen.
St. Samson, Bishop of Dole.
St. Theodorus.
Ste. Vdndrando.
St. Victor of Marscillea.
St. Vigor.
To this he has added a still more curious list
of the various Erench cities in which dragons are
publicly paraded on the festival days of certain
saiats, appending references to books Avhere full
notices of such events occur :
"A Eeims, la Icraulla, {Expilly, article Reims.)
A Paris, le dragon de St. Marcel. {Saimal, livre ii.)
A Vendome, le dragon de St. Bienhcure. (Dulattre,
Hisioire de Paris.)
A I'Abbayo de Plcm-y. (^Ducange.)
A la Eoche-Turpin, prcia Montoire. (Dulaure, Sist.
de Paris.)
A Eouen. la Gargouille. {Hxpilly, article Rouen!)
A Poitiers, la grande-gueule, aula bonne Sainie-Ver-
mine. (Dulaure, Hist, de Paris.)
A Tarascon, la Tarasque. (Idem.)
A Troyes, la chair salee. (Idem.)

ADDENDA.

143

A Metz, le GraoulU, ou Kraully. {Bxpilly, article
Metz.) Lo dragon de Louvain {Molanus, Historia Sanctorum
imaginum, p. 506), celui do Eamilies (Lo Carpentior,
Mi.il. de Cambray, p. 513), celui de St. Andrd, pr(;s
VUliers, il doux lieues ct demio .'l Vendfime, celui de St,
Bertrand de Commingoa, ct autrea."

INDEX

PAGE
-^ Aix, Eete-Dieu at  105
AliBlON, why so oaUed  8 — 9
li Ancestey of Ancient Nations .... 1
. AUTIQONTO, the Giant of Antwerp . 65 — 78
r Antavbep, Etymology of , . . 68
I „ Giant of  65—78
„ Arms of  72
j. „ Pageants iu  75
Asselt, Giant of  91
Ath, Giants of  89
AYMOlf, Pour sons of  93
Bayaed, the Gigantic Horae .... 03
' :' Beckeoed's Monument  49
' ! BEiaiUM:, Civic Giants in  5
Bevis of Hamton  2
: L

146

INDEX.

rAOB 68

8—20

Bbadon, the Pi-inoe of Brabant
Beitish Giants
Beussels, Giants of  88
BxTEEOED Giant  61
Cassel, Giant of '.  91
Caxton's Chronicle of England .... 7
CnESTBB Giants  57 — 59
Cheistoehee, St., at Salisbury .... 62
„ at Aix, in Provence . . . 105
„ Legend of . . - . 103—105
CoEBET, Bishop, his notice ofthe GuUdhall Gianta 35 — 3S
CoBPus Cheisti, Festival of . . 51 — 60, 103
Coventby Giants  59 — 61
Cbooodile, Head of, believed to be that of a dragon 3
Debitation of Giants, of Antiquity ... 25
Devil, the, in hia Pcathcra .
DiAio&TJES of the GuUdhall Giants
Douai, tho Giant of . . .
Deacons, their Significance .
DEAOONofMons .
„ of Norwich .
„ of Taraacon .
Detjidibji, sacrifices of

".

53

37

, 79-

-87

.

95

.

96

. 07-

-99

.

101

101

DiTNEiEK, Giants of . . .
BaXTTiAN Pictures
Fete du Poulain, at Pezenas
„ at Aix, in Pi-ovence
FlHEWOEKS, Giants in .
Planbees, Civic Giants iu .
FtTLKE Pitz-Waeine, Ilistory of .
Gawain, Sir, hia Grave
Gayant, the Giant of Douai
Giants behoved in by tho nations of antiquity
„ in the Middle Ages .
„ relics of them shown now .
>j )) in the time of EUzabeth
„ favourites with the populace
„ appear in Tournaments
„ list of Flemish and Belgian Civic
„ origin in Britain
„ early history of those in GuUdhall
„ iu history of Pulke Pitz-A(^''arino
„ of tho Jajiouge and Majiouge .
„ of Caspia .....
„ exhibited at ontrics of Sovcroi
London

roigna

18

79

147 90 1
94
105 39 5
—20 2
87 1

8-
18- 21-

to 27

¦15
5 8
-15-20-24, 26
—29

148

INDEX.

;aqe
29—30

Giants exhibited by Mayora of London
„ Guildhall, tho maler of tho ¦ . . 33— 34i
„ „ their original station . 34, 41 — 49
„ „ literary notices of . . 34 — 38
„ „ appear among firoworliS on the
coronation of James II. . . 38 — 39
„ „ their last publio appearance in
of London  50
„ Midsummer pageanta of, at London . 51
at Chester 52—59
at Coventry . 60
at Burford . 61
„ „ „ » at Salisbury , 62
„ „ at Antwerp 65 — 78

at Douai
at Malines
at Bruasela
at Ath .
at Nieuport
at Troyes
at Louvain
at Dunkirk
at Cassel

79 87 8889
89 89 90 90 91

f

Giants — Midaummor pageanta of, at Tprea
„ „ „ at Popcringho
„ „ ,, at Hazebrouck
„ „ „ ¦ at Asselt
at LUlo .

St. Chriatoplior at Aix
Giant's Bones in Church of St. Lawrence, Loudon
„ at Antwerp
Gigantic Animals in pageanta
Glastonbuey, Discovery of King Arthur's body at
Goliath, tho name of several Giants
Gothic Giants of antiquity ....
Guildhall, Giants in 
„ its Origin ....
„ once full of Shops
„ Views of .
Guy oe Waewiok, his Gigantic Armour, &o,
Hail, Bishop, his Satires
Hanson, pageants on his Mayoralty
Hazebeouok, Giant of . . .
Henley, Orator, ridicules the Lord Mayor's Show
HeeodotuS, his talcs of Gianta
Heeoes of Greece and Eome

UO
lAQB 91
91 01
91
93
105 4
70
93 2
89 2
8
11
15
41—50 3
35
30 91
43 2
1

150 INDEX. PAOE
Holliday, Sir Leonard, pageants on hia Mayoralty 29
Holmby, Giants at  36
Hone, tho iirst true Historian of tho GuildhaU
Giants  18
HoESE, Gigantic, at Malinca .... 93
)) ,), at Pezenas .... 94
Jajiouoe and Majiouge, Land of, . . 21 — 24
Kino Abthub a Giant  2
LAuaEMAN, the Giant of Asselt . . . . 91
Latin Veeses on the Antwerp Giant ... 71
Laaveence, St., Chm'ch of, contained Giant'a
bones  4
Lille, Giant of  93
Little Ease, a Prison in GuUdhall ... 46
LoCEiNE, an old Tragedy, once attributed to
Shakespeare  13  15
London, fabulous early History of . . 6 — 11
„ its antiquity  13
LoED Mayob's Shoav . . . .29, 30, 35, 50
Louvain, Giants of  90
Lydebio, the Giant of LiUo .... 92
Majiouge and Jajiouge, Land of . . . 21 — 24
Malines, Giants of  87

^'

5f

INDEX. 151
PAGE
Maundeville, his account of Gog and Magog . 26
JIiDSUMMEE Snows in London .... 51
„ at Cheater . . . 52—59
„ at Coventry .... GO
MiLNEE, his theory of Gianta . . . .100
MiNTTTJi Books  16
MoNS, Dragon of  96
" MOENINO Stab," The  12
Neat College, Oxford, and its painted glass . 56
Nieupoet, Giant of  89
NoEWlCH, Dragon of  97—99
Pageant House at Antwerp .... 77
Pennant on Beckford  49
PoPEElNOHE, Giant of . .91
Poulain, a gigantic horse  94
Quintin Matsy's well at Antwerp ... 72
Eamilies, colors from the battle of, placed in
GuUdhall  43
Eejoicings at the coronation of James 11. . 38 — 39
Eubens designs Pageants ... .76
Salisbuby Giant  63
Saundees, Capt. , E., maker of the GuildhaU
Gianta  32—33

If) 2

INDEX.

SniELEY, the Poet, his notice of tlio Guildhall
Giants ....
Steype's additions to Stow .
Tayloe's Company, Salisbury
Tkade in tlio Middle Ages .
Teoyes, Giants of
Teoy-noa^ant the original name of London
TouENAMENTS, Giants iu . . .
Teiumpuant Enteies of Sovereigns to London 27—28
J) 3) „ into Antwerp 76
)> 11 „ into Douai
» ;, ,, into Troyea
Waed, Ned, his Account of GuUdhall
Waeavick Castle, and the reUes of Sir Guy
kept there  3
WiTHEE, Geo., his Discourae between the GuUd
hall Giants  37
Ypees, Giant of  91

3543
62
0490
11 4

SO
90 39

JliTMAtr UIIOTiniKS, rUINTifJlH, r.ouuu SqUAllH. Ji.C,

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