Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of BritaineHolinshed, Raphael
History
Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine
Holinshed, Raphael
Great Britain -- History -- To 1485; Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
[Sidenote: Alderney.]
Beside this there is moreouer the Ile of Alderney a verie pretie plot,
about seuen miles in compasse, wherin a préest not long since did find a
[Sidenote: _Comment. Brit._]
coffin of stone, in which lay the bodie of an huge giant, whose fore
téeth were so big as a mans fist, as Leland dooth report. Certes this to
me is no maruell at all, sith I haue read of greater, and mentioned them
alreadie in the beginning of this booke. Such a tooth also haue they in
Spaine wherevnto they go in pilgrimage as vnto S. Christophers tooth,
but it was one of his eie teeth, if Ludouicus Viues say true, who went
thither to offer vnto the same. S. August. de ciuit. lib. 15. cap. 9.
writeth in like sort, of such another found vpon the coast of Vtica, and
thereby gathereth that all men in time past were not onlie far greater
than they be now, but also the giants farre exceeding the huge stature
[Sidenote: _Iliad. 6._]
and height of the highest of them all. Homer complaineth that men in his
time were but dwarfes in comparison of such as liued in the wars of Troy.
[Sidenote: _Iliad. 5. & 7._]
See his fift Iliad, where he speaketh of Diomedes, and how he threw a
stone at Æneas, (which 14. men of his time were not able to stirre) and
[Sidenote: _Vergilius Aen. 12._]
therewith did hit him on the thigh and ouerthrew him. Virgil also noteth
no lesse in his owne deuise, but Iuvenal bréefelie comprehendeth all
this in his 15. Satyra, where he saith:
Saxa inclinatis per humum quæsita lacertis
Incipiunt torquere, domestica seditione
Tela, nec hunc lapidem, quali se Turnus, & Aiax,
Et quo Tytides percussit pondere coxam
Aeneæ: sed quem valeant emittere dextræ
Illis dissimiles, & nostro tempore nata.
Nam genus hoc viuo iam decrescebat Homero,
Terra malos homines nunc educat, atque pusillos,
Ergo Deus quicunque aspexit, ridet, & odit.
But to returne againe vnto the Ile of Alderney, from whence I haue
digressed. Herein also is a prettie towne with a parish-church, great
plentie of corne, cattell, conies, and wilde foule, whereby the
inhabitants doo reape much gaine and commoditie: onelie wood is their
want, which they otherwise supplie. The language also of such as dwell
in these Iles, is French; but the wearing of their haire long, & the
attire of those that liued in Gardsey and Iardsey, vntill the time of
king Henrie the eight, was all after the Irish guise. The Ile of Gardsey
also was sore spoiled by the French 1371. and left so desolate, that
onlie one castell remained therein vntouched.
Beyond this, and neerer unto the coast of England (for these doo lie
about the verie middest of the British sea) we haue one Iland called
[Sidenote: Bruchsey.]
the Bruch or the Bruchsey, lieng about two miles from Poole, whither men
saile from the Fromouth, and wherein is nought else, but an old chapell,
without any other housing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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