TO write of wonders in this Age, is a thing most men look after: but before I give you a Declaration of the wonder of this Age, let us compare it with some former ages, and we shal be convinced of the truth of this our relation. We read of sundry Giants that inhabited this Isle of Great Britain, many mighty men of stature, especially in the North, where men most commonly are of greatest stature, as Starcater, Hart­ben, Angrin, Arverode, of whom Saxo Iohannes magus Olaus magnus makes mention, whose bones do yet remain to be seen as rare miracles of nature; some of these in their life time were able to lift up a vessell of liquor of a thousand weight, or an horse, or an oxe, and cast it on their shoulders; their very wo­men, some of them, have come somewhat neere them in strength of body; some of these lived in the time of Olaus, An­no 1500. we read of Corineus and Gogmagot, whom some re­port to be King of this Isle, who fought a combat hand to hand till one of them was slain; Hanvill in his Architrenion makes the later to be eighteen foot hight; Corineus the Dane enjoyed Cornwall upon the Conquest. Be pleas'd to look back and reflect on the Scripture, 1 Sam. 17.5. &c. we find Goli­ab the Philistine whom David entountred, to be above nifie foot in height, whose shirt of male of weight 1250. ounces of brasse, which is, 104. pound, and of Og the King of Basan, [Page 2] Deut. 3. who was the last of the race of Giants that was left in the Land of Promise to be overcome of the Israelites, whose iron bed was shewed for a wonder at Rabbah, a City of the Ammonites, containing nine cubits; although they were in the beginning of the world, yet we have had those of later times, that have have parallel'd them: to come down to Chri­stian Writers, if we will believe S. Austin in Civitate Dei, Lib. 15. Cap. 9. how he saw the tooth of a man as big as a hun­dred of his own: and Iohannes Bocate in his 68. Cap. 4. Book, saith that in the Cave of a mountain not far from Drepanum a Town of Sicily, called Erix, the body of an exceeding high Giant was discovered, three of whose teeth did weigh an hundred ounces, which is eight pound and four ounces: he saith moreover, the forepart of his scull was able to containe many bushells of wheat, and by the proportion of his thigh, his body was judged to be two hundred cubits high: this mi­racle of nature is yet to be seen in the Church of Drepanum in Sicily in perpetuall memory of his greatnesse: his body was found upon this occasion as some were going to dig, to lay the foundation of an house, the miners found a great vault, they found the body of a mighty man sitting in a Cave, of whose greatnesse they were sore afraid, they ran away and made an outcry in the City, how there sate a man in such a place as great as an hill, the people hearing this news ran out with clubs and staves as if to fight a battel; and three hundred entring the Cave they forthwith saw he was dead, and yet sate as if he had been alive, having a staff in his hand, compa­red by mine Author to the mast of a Ship, which being touched fell to dust with his body, saving three teeth, and part of his scull, and one of his thigh-bones.

There was a carkasse laid bare in the year 1170. in England upon the shore, where the beating of the shore had washed a­way [Page 3] the earth from the stone wherein it lay, and when it was taken up, it contained fifteen foot in length, as our Chroni­cles and Records affirm, and Iohannes Leland Masieus Lib. 14. Trivet.

At Perth at this day in Scotland the skeleton of a man is to be seen, call'd Iohn per Antiphrasin, being fourteen foot in length, which divers affirm that have beheld the same, and (as Hector Boetius saith) he did put his whole arm into one of his hanch bones.

Sir Thomas Eliot reports, a carkasse was taken up at Ivy Church neer Salisbury almost fourteen foot long.

Grafton reports of one whose shin-bone conteined six foot, his scull so great it contained five pecks of wheat, and by consequence his body must needs be twenty four foot long.

Goropius reports of a Giant in Brabant, whose bones were seventeen or eighteen cubits in length.

Gervasius Tilbiriensis Head-marshall to the King of Arles, reports in his Chronicle, that at Isoricum in the Suburbs of Paris, he saw the body of a man that was twenty foot long, besides the head and the neck which was missing, and not found; the owner perhaps might be beheaded for some nota­ble trespasse committed in times past.

Leland in Com. Brit. reports that in Whitton Parish, not far from the Chappell of the Moore, six miles by East from Car­lisle, a coffin was found, and therein the bones of a man of in­credible greatnesse.

The Greek Writers make mention of Andronicus the Em­peror, who lived 1183. and was ten foot in height, that is three foot higher then the Kings great Porter.

Thus have I deduced from the beginning of the world, as neer as I can, those memorable Giants, or mighty tall men, and those no fables, but proved from good authority.

Some will by no means believe that there were in former eimes any such things as Giants, but such their erroneous opi­nions will be apparently confuted in the following relation, which for truth hath the confirmation of some hundreds of eye-witnesses, as you may read in the letter insuing.