Giants and dwarfs.

  • Wood, Edward J.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Giants and dwarfs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    195/490 page 179
    clays ago an uncommon feat of gallantry. For a wager of 10/. lie kissed, en passant, a young lacly at a garret window.” His arrival in London, in 1804, was announced as follows : u Just arrived in town, and to be seen in a commodious room, at No. 11 Haymarket, nearly opposite the Opera House, the celebrated Irish giant, Mr. O’Brien, of the kingdom of Ireland, indis- putably the tallest man ever shewn. He is a lineal descendant of the old puissant King Brien Boreau, and has in 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 fortune and alliance, the lineal descendants thereof have been favoured by Providence with the original size and stature which have been so peculiar to their family. The gentleman alluded to measures near nine feet high. Admittance, one shilling.” The Gentleman's Magazine for 1804 contains an account by W. Blair, a surgeon of the Lock Hospital, of a visit paid by him to Cotter. He says: “I visited this Irishman on the 5th of May, 1804, at No. 11 Haymarket. He was of very extraordinary stature, but not well-formed. As he would not suffer a minute examination to be made of his per- son, it is impossible to give any other than a very slight description of him. He declined the proposal of walking across the room, and I believe was afraid of discovering his extreme imbecility. He had the general aspect of a weak and unreflecting person,
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