"
The many theories of the cause of gigantism will not be discussed
here, the reader being referred to volumes exclusively devoted to
this subject.
Celebrated Giants.--Mention of some of the most famous giants
will be made, together with any associate points of interest.
Becanus, physician to Charles V, says that he saw a youth 9 feet
high and a man and a woman almost 10 feet. Ainsworth says that in
1553 the Tower of London was guarded by three brothers claiming
direct descent from Henry VIII, and surnamed Og, Gog, and Magog,
all of whom were over 8 feet in height. In his "Chronicles of
Holland" in 1557 Hadrianus Barlandus said that in the time of
John, Earl of Holland, the giant Nicholas was so large that men
could stand under his arms, and his shoe held 3 ordinary feet.
Among the yeoman of the guard of John Frederick, Duke of Hanover,
there was one Christopher Munster, 8 1/2 feet high, who died in
1676 in his forty-fifth year. The giant porter of the Duke of
Wurtemberg was 7 1/2 feet high. "Big Sam," the porter at Carleton
Palace, when George IV was Prince of Wales, was 8 feet high. The
porter of Queen Elizabeth, of whom there is a picture in Hampton
Court, painted by Zucchero, was 7 1/2 feet high; and Walter
Parson, porter to James I, was about the same height.
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