THE SCENE: Whether it be the 21st Century or the 17th Century, sometimes it’s nice to be very, very tall.
THE TEXT: There came a country gentleman (or sufficient yeoman) up to town, who had several sons, but one an extraordinary proper handsome fellow, whom he did hope to have preferred to be a yeoman of the guard. The father (a goodly man himself) comes to Sir Walter Raleigh a stranger to him, and told him that he had brought up a boy that he would desire (having many children) should be one of her majesty’s guard.
Quod Sir Walter Raleigh, “Had you spake for yourself I should readily have granted your desire, for your person deserves it, but I put in no boys.”
Said the father, “Boy, come in.” The son enters, about eighteen or nineteen, but such a goodly proper young fellow, as Sir Walter Raleigh had not seen the like – he was the tallest of all the guard. Sir Walter Raleigh swears him immediately; and ordered him to carry up the first dish at dinner, where the queen beheld him with admiration, as if a beautiful young giant had stalked in with the service.
– Brief Lives, John Aubrey, 17th Century AD
