314 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 50. 



with the head gilt. When Bp. Fox's tomb was 

 opened at Winchester some few years since, his staff 

 of oak was found in perfect preservation. A staff of 

 wood painted in azure and gilt, hangs over Tre- 

 lawney's tomb in Pelynt Church, Cornwall. The 

 superb statf of the pious and muniticent founder of 

 the two St. Marie V/inton Colleges is still pre- 

 served at Oxford, as is also that of the illustrious 

 AVykehnmist, Bp. Fox, to whose devotion we owe 

 Corpus Christi College in that university. One of 

 the earliest tombs bearing a staff incised, is that 

 of Abbot Vitalis, who died in 1082, and may be 

 seen in the south cloister of St. Peter's Abbey in 

 Westminster. There were crozlered as well as 

 mitred abbots : for instance, the superior of the 

 Benedictine abbey at Bourges had a right to the 

 crozier, but not to the mitre. The Abbot of AVest- 

 minster was croziered and mitred. I intended to 

 write a reply, but have ended with a note. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M. A. 

 7. College Street, Westminster. 



J. Z. P. will find a fully satisfixctory answer to 

 his Query, in regard to the real difference between 

 the crozier and the pastoral staff, on referring to 

 the article headed "Crozier," in the Glossary of Ar- 

 chitecture. It is there stated, that " the crozier of 

 an archbishop is surmounted by a cross; but it was 

 only at a comparatively late time, about the 12th 

 century, that the archbishop laid aside the pastoral 

 staff, to assume the cross as an appropriate portion 

 of his personal insignia." From whichit maybe 

 inferred, that the only existent real difference be- 

 tween the crozier and the pastoral staff is, that 

 the former is surmounted by a cross, and the 

 latter is as it was before the 12th century, viz., 

 surmounted by " a head curled round something 

 in the manner of a shepherd's crook;" and the 

 difference in regard to their use, that the crozier 

 pertains to the archbishops, and the pastoral staff 

 to the bishops. K- W. Elliot. 



Cheltenham, Sept. 16. 1S50. 



TAESONS, THE STAFFOUBSIIIRE^GIANT. 



(Vol. ii., p. 135.) 



Harwood's note in Erdeswick's Staffordshire, 

 quoted by your correspondent C. Ii. B., is incor- 

 rect, inasmuch as the writer has confused the bio- 

 graphies of two distinct " giants" — Walter 

 Parsons, porter to King James I., and William 

 Evans, who filled the same ofEce in the succeeding 

 reign. 



Tlie best account of these two " worthies" is 

 that found in Fuller, and which I extract from the 

 original edition now before ine : — 



" Walter Paksons, born in this county [Stafford- 

 shire], was first apprenticed to a smith, whenhegrew 

 so tall in stature, that a hole was made for him in the 



^ound to stand therein up to the knees, so to make 

 him adequate with his fellow-workmen. He after- 

 wards was porter to King James ,- seeing as gates ge- 

 nerally are higher than the rest of the building, so it 

 was sightly that the porter should be taller than other 

 persons. Pie was proportionable in all parts, and had 

 strength equal to height, valour to his strength, temper 

 to his valour, so that he disdained to do an injury to any 

 single person. lie woidd make noUiing to take two 

 of the tallest yeomen of the guard (like ttie Gizard and 

 Liver) under his arms at once, and order them as he 

 pleased. 



" Yet were his parents (for aught I do understand 

 to the contrary) but of an ordinary stature, whereat 

 none will wonder who have read what St. Augustine 

 (Z)e Civitate Dei, lib. xv. cap. '23. ) reports of a woman 

 which came to Home (a little before the sacking thereof 

 by the Gollis), of so giant-like a height, that she was 

 far above all who saw her, though infinite troopes came 

 to behold the spectacle. And yet he addeth, Et lioc 

 erat tnaximce admirationis, quod ambo parentes ejus, S^c. 

 This made men most admire, that both her piarents 

 were but of ordinary stature. This Parsons is pro- 

 duced for proof, that all ages afford some oF extra- 

 ordinary height, and that there is no general decay of 

 mankind in their dimensions, which, if there were, we 

 had ere this time shrunk to be lower than Pigmyes, 

 not to instance in a losse proportion. This Parsons 

 died Anno Dom. 162-." — Fuller's History of ttie Wor- 

 tliies of England, 1662 { Staffnrdstiire), p. 48. 



" VViLLiAM Evans was born in this county [Mon- 

 mouthshire], and may justly be accounted the Giant of 

 our age for his stature, being full two yards and a 

 half in height. He was purter to King Cliarles I., 

 succeeding Wcdter Persons [sic] in his place, and ex- 

 ceeding him two inches in hei^'ht, but far beneath him 

 in an equal [iroportion of body ; for he was not onely 

 what the Latines call compernis, knocking his knees 

 together, and going out squalling with his feet, but 

 also haulted a little ; yet made a shift to dance in an 

 antimask at court, where he drew little Jeffrey, the 

 dwarf, out of his pocket, first to the wonder, then to 

 the laughter, of the beholders. He dyed Anrw Don\. 

 163^." Ibid. {Momnoutlis/iire), p. 54. 



From these extracts it will be seen that the 

 Christian name of Parsons was Waltei; not Wil- 

 liam, as stated by Harwood. William was the 

 Christian name of Evans, Parsons' successor. The 

 bas-relief mentioned by the same writer represents 

 William Evans and Jeffrey Hudson, his diminutive 

 fellow-servant. It is over the entrance oi Bull-head 

 Covrt, Newgate Street ; not " a bagnio-court," 

 which is nonsense. On the stone these words are 

 cut : " The King's Porter, and the Dwarf," with 

 the date 16(J0. This bas-relief is engraved in 

 Pennant. 



There is a picture of Queen Elizabeth's giant 

 porter at Hampton Court ; but I am not aware 

 that any portrait of Parsons is preserved in the 

 Royid Collections. Edward F. Rimbault. 



