Giants and dwarfs.

  • Wood, Edward J.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Giants and dwarfs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    190/490 page 174
    hands with the spectators in the upper boxes; there is also in the same entertainment, a new species of fun and laughter, which is a singing duck, that joins the chorus of a song perfectly in tune and timed’ Later in the year, about September or October, he again visited the Wells, where he was announced among dancers, tumblers, and performing dogs as follows: “At Sadler’s Wells, this evening, the wonderful Irish Giant, Mr. Patrick O’Brien, from the Strand, opposite Somerset House, the tallest man ever seen in this kingdom, who meastu'es eight feet four inches high, will make his first appearance.” In the summer of 1785 Cotter removed from St. James’s-street to the Strand. An advertisement in that year says : “ The Irish giant, removed from No. 30 St. James’s-street, to No. 333, facing So- merset House, Strand. To be seen from eleven in the morning till seven in the evening. Mr. O’Brien, of the kingdom of Ireland, indisputably the tallest man in this kingdom, a lineal descendant of the old puissant King Brien Boreau, and who has in his person and appearance all the similitude of that great and grand potentate. It is remarkable of this family, that however various the revolutions in point of for- tune or alliance, the lineal descendants thereof have been favoured by providence with that original size and stature, which has been so peculiar to their family. The gentleman alluded to is between eighteen and nineteen years of age, and measures eight feet three inches and a half high. His family height is
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