Giants
ARACÆAS, of the family of the Achæmenidæ, a person in great favour with Xerxes, was the tallest man of the rest of the Persians; for he lacked but the breadth of four fingers of full five cubits by the royal standard, which in our measure must be near seven feet.
Walter Parsons, born in Staffordshire, was first apprentice to a smith, when he grew so tall, that a hole was made for him in the ground, to stand therein up to the knees, so as to make him adequate with his fellow workmen: he afterwards was porter to King James; because gates being generally higher than the rest of the building, it was proper that the porter should be taller than other persons. He was proportionable in all parts, and had strength equal to his height, valour equal to his strength, and good temper equal to his valour; so that he disdained to do an injury to any single person. He would take two of the tallest yeomen of the guard in his arms at once, and order them as he pleased. He was seven feet four inches in height.
William Evans was born in Monmouthshire, and may justly be counted the giant of his age; for his stature being full two yards and a half in height, he was porter to King Charles the First, succeeding Walter Parsons in his place, and exceeding him two inches in stature; but he was far beneath him in equal proportion of bone; for he was not only knock-kneed and splay footed, but also halted a little; yet he made a shift to dance in an anti-mask at court, where he drew little Jeffery, the king's dwarf, out of his pocket, to the no small wonder and laughter of the beholders.