ELEPHANTS OR GIANTS? 237 



tion be difficult to say ; it was found in the parish of 

 Cornwell and is thus considered by the author: "It 

 remains," he says, " that it must have belonged to some 

 greater Animal than either an Ox on: Horse : and if so (say 

 almost all other Authors in like Case) in all probability it 

 must have been the Bone of some Elephant, brought 

 hither during the Government of the Romans in Britain : 

 but this Opinion too lies under so great Difficulties, that 

 it can hardly be admitted ; which are briefly these : 

 None of the Roman Authors, who elsewhere are large 

 enough in describing the Elephant's Behaviour in Fight, 

 and how terrible they were to some of the Trans-Alpine 

 Nations, mention any such Matter in any of their Ex- 

 peditions into Britain. . . . One there was 'tis true sent 

 hither as a Present by St. Lewis IX., King of France 

 to King Henry III. Anno 1255, which, says Matthew 

 Paris, was the first seen this side of the Alps, and 

 perhaps there may have been two or three brought for 

 Show hither since : but whether it be likely any of 

 these should have been buried at Cornwell let the 

 Reader judge." 



A point is made of the fact that tusks had not been 

 found associated with the supposed elephant's bones, 

 a piece of negative evidence the worthlessness of w T hich 

 is shown by the subsequent discovery of such tusks. 



Instances are then given of the exhumation of similar 

 bones from churchyards. " Since the great Conflagration 

 of London, Anno 1666, upon the pulling down of St. Mary 

 Wool-Church, and making the site of it into a Market- 

 place there was found a Thigh-bone (supposed to be 

 of a Woman] which was to be seen at the King's Head 

 Tavern at Greenwich in Kent, much bigger and longer 

 than ours of Stone could in proportion be, had it been 

 entire." Two other similar bones were dug up in the 

 parish churchyard of Merton Valence. "Now," ex- 



