(Vol. ii., pp. 131. 172.)
When I wrote my note upon _Long Meg of Westminster_, I was not aware of
the following passage in Fuller's _Worthies_ (Westminster, edit. 1662,
p. 236.):
"_As long as Megg of Westminster._--This is applyed to persons
very tall, especially if they have _hop-pole-height_, wanting
_breadth_ proportionable thereunto. That such a _gyant-woman_ ever
was in Westminster, cannot be proved by any good witness (I pass
not for a late lying _pamphlet_), though some in proof thereof
produce her gravestone on the _south-side_ of the _cloistures_,
which (I confess) is as long, and large, and entire _marble_ as
ever I beheld. But be it known, that no _woman_ in that age was
interred in the _cloistures_, appropriated to the sepultures of
the _abbot_ and his _monkes_. Besides, I have read in the records
of that _Abby_ of an infectious year, wherein many monkes dyed of
the _plague_, and were all buried in one grave; probably in this
place, under this _marble monument_. If there be any truth in the
proverb, it rather relateth to a great gun, lying in the tower,
commonly call'd _Long Megg_; and in troublesome times (perchance
upon _ill May day_ in the raigne of King _Henry_ the eighth),
brought to _Westminster_, where for a good time it continued. But
this _Nut_ (perchance) deserves not the cracking."
Grose, in his _Provincial Glossary_, inserts among the _Local Proverbs_,
"As Long as Megg of Westminster," with the following note:--
"This is applied to very tall slender persons. Some think it
alluded to a long gun, called Megg, in troublesome times brought
from the tower to Westminster, where it long remained. Others
suppose it to refer to an old fictitious story of a monstrous tall
virago called Long Megg of Westminster, of whom there is a small
penny history, well known to school-boys of the lesser sort. In it
there are many relations of her prowess. Whether there ever was
such a woman or not, is immaterial; the story is sufficiently
ancient to have occasioned the saying. Megg is there described as
having breadth in proportion to her height. Fuller says, that the
large grave-stone shown on the south side of the cloister in
Westminster Abbey, said to cover her body, was, as he has read in
an ancient record, placed over a number of monks who died of the
plague, and were all buried in one grave; that being the place
appointed for the sepulture of the abbots and monks, in which no
woman was permitted to be interred."--Edit. 1811, p. 207.
I shall not enter into the question, as to whether any "tall woman" of
"bad repute" was or was not buried in the cloisters of Westminster, as
it is very likely to turn out, upon a little inquiry, that the
_original_ "long Meg" was a "great gun," and not a creature of flesh and
blood.
"Long Meg" is also the name of a large gun preserved in the castle of
Edinburgh; and, what is somewhat extraordinary, the great bombard forged
for the siege of Oudenarde, in 1382, now in the city of Ghent, is called
by the towns-people "Mad Meg."
A series of stones, situated upon an eminence on the east side of the
river Eden, near the village of Little Salkeld, are commonly known as
"Long Meg and her Daughters."
These notices, at any rate, are suggestive, and may be the means of
elucidating something perhaps more worth the knowing.