k to be lower than _Pigmyes_,
not to instance in a lesse proportion. This _Parsons_ died Anno
Dom. 1620."--Fuller's _History of the Worthies of England_, 1662
(_Staffordshire_), p. 48.

"WILLIAM EVANS was born in this county [Monmouthshire], and may
justly be accounted the _Giant_ of our age for his stature,
being, full two yards and a half in height. He was porter to
King _Charles I._, succeeding, _Walter Persons_ [sic] in his
place, and exceeding him two inches in height, but far beneath
him in an equal proportion 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 _Anno
Dom_. 1630." _Ibid. (Monmouthshire)_, p. 54.

From these extracts it will be seen that the Christian name of Parsons
was _Walter_, not William, 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 of _Bull-head Court_,
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
1660. 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
Royal Collections.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * * {315}

EISELL AND WORMWOOD WINE.

(Vol. ii., p. 249.)

If Pepys' friends actually did _drink up_ the two quarts of _wormwood
wine_ which he gave them, it must, as LORD BRAYBROOKE suggests, have
been rendered more palatable than the _propoma_ which was in use in
Shakspeare's time. I have been furnished by a distinguished friend with
the following, among other Notes, corroborative of my explanation of
_eisell_:

"I have found no better recipe for making wormwood wine than
that given by old Langham in his _Garden of Health_; and as he
directs its use to be confined to 'Streine out a _little_
spoonful, and drinke it with a draught of ale or wine,' I think
it must have been so atrociously unpa