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~ Some
Great British Eccentrics ~
~ Prince Philip ~
A genial, outspoken old duffer or congenitally stupid?
"British women can't cook." ~ 1966
"Everybody was saying that we must have more leasure. Now they they are complaining that they are unemployed."
~ During the 1981 recession
Like
a mole hiding from the light of day, William John Cavindish
Bentock Scott, fifth Duke of Portland, vanished underground when
he inherited Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire.
More from Phil:
Cooked a viper for
luncheon', surgeon and naturalist Frank Buckland gleefully
recorded in his diary. He also added that he had prepared some
elephant's trunk soup but was disappointed because, dispite
several days boiling, it was too tough to eat.
~ Gold
Dresses and Aztec Collars ~
Looking down her long,
thin nose, Dame Edith Sitwell would inform her admirers: "I am,
of course, decended from the Plantagenets..." The connection was
actually rather distant and she looked uncannily like the Tuder
Queen Elizabeth 1, but anyone seeing her could not help being
devastatingly impressed.
Richard Whately, Protestant
primate of Dublin from 1831 to 1863, must have been one of the
most restless men that ever lived. His brilliant mind worked at
twice the rate of that of most people. Furthermore, his limbs
were never still.
A genial, outspoken old duffer or congenitally stupid?
"British women can't cook." ~ 1966
"Everybody was saying that we must have more leasure. Now they they are complaining that they are unemployed."
~ During the 1981 recession
~ The Duke Who Detested Daylight ~
Like
a mole hiding from the light of day, William John Cavindish
Bentock Scott, fifth Duke of Portland, vanished underground when
he inherited Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire.
After coming into the title in 1854 he spent the rest of his
life burrowing and built fifteen miles of tunnel under his
estate.
He hated meeting people and never invited anyone to his home,
yet he constructed a vast complex of subterranean rooms,
including the largest ballroom in the country, a 250 foot(75
metres) library, a hugh glass-roofed conservatory and a
billiard-room big enough to take a dozen billiard
tables.
More from Phil:
"You are a woman, aren't you?"
~ Said in 1984 in Kenya after accepting a gift from an
indigenous woman.
"Are you still throwing spears at other tribes?"
~ To an elder of the Djabugay at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Park,
Austrailia 2002.
~ Mice On Buttered Toast ~
Cooked a viper for
luncheon', surgeon and naturalist Frank Buckland gleefully
recorded in his diary. He also added that he had prepared some
elephant's trunk soup but was disappointed because, dispite
several days boiling, it was too tough to eat.
Author of the best selling Curiosities of Natural
History, he had an ever inquisitive palate and an incredible
strong stomach, he would sample and eat almost anything.
His home at Regency House, near Euston Station in London, was
more of a managerie than a home, with monkeys, a pet mongoose,
rats, and a jackass that would let out a wild laugh every half
hour.
n hearing that a panther had died at London Zoo he begged the
curator to dig it up so that he could try panther chops which, he
confessed,"were not very good."
~ Gold
Dresses and Aztec Collars ~
Looking down her long,
thin nose, Dame Edith Sitwell would inform her admirers: "I am,
of course, decended from the Plantagenets..." The connection was
actually rather distant and she looked uncannily like the Tuder
Queen Elizabeth 1, but anyone seeing her could not help being
devastatingly impressed.
Six feet (186cm) tall with a pale, lofty forehead and hooded
eyes, she had one of the most famous faces of the age. As the
acknowleged High Priestess of English poetry, her public
appearances were sensational.
She loved to dress in great sweeping gowns of stiff brocade or
velvet decorated with semi-precious stones. She wore gold turbans
and painted her finger nails to match.
Vast topaz and aquamarine rings glittered on her hands,
bracelets of amber and jet clattered round her wrists and her
chest was usually weighted down with an enormous cross or an
Aztec collar of beaten gold.
~ The Astonishing Archbishop ~
Richard Whately, Protestant
primate of Dublin from 1831 to 1863, must have been one of the
most restless men that ever lived. His brilliant mind worked at
twice the rate of that of most people. Furthermore, his limbs
were never still.
On occasions he
- ~ raised his right foot into the air, doubled it back over his left thigh, grasped the instep with both hands and dropped his foot into the lap of Provost LLoyd, who was sitting next to him.
- ~ when sitting next to him at a Privy Council meeting in Dublin, Chief Justice felt a sneeze coming on, groped in his pocket for a hankerchief only to find Whately's foot already there.
- ~ dislocated six of Lady Anglesey's most elegant chairs by whizzing them round and round on one leg while he talked.
~ Water Baby ~
Lord Rokeby decided that he
would like to spend all his life near to or in water. He would
spend hours in the sea off the Kent coast and sometimes had to
dragged, unconscious, back to dry land.
At home, in Mount Morris, near Hyde, he built an enormous glass topped tank and spent nearly all his life floating in the water, even taking his meals there. He grew an enormous beard, which hung down to his waist and spread out on the surface of the water.
His obsession with water was so great that he had a vast number of drinking fountains installed all over his house and drank great quantities of water from them every day.
He lived to the age of 88, so it can't have been that bad for him.
At home, in Mount Morris, near Hyde, he built an enormous glass topped tank and spent nearly all his life floating in the water, even taking his meals there. He grew an enormous beard, which hung down to his waist and spread out on the surface of the water.
His obsession with water was so great that he had a vast number of drinking fountains installed all over his house and drank great quantities of water from them every day.
He lived to the age of 88, so it can't have been that bad for him.
~ King Of The Dandies
~
Beau Brummell took his seat
at the candlelit table without looking left or right. He was
dining in distinguised company. His servant whispered that on one
side of him was the Marquis of Headfort and on the other was Lord
Yarmouth.
For the rest of the evening Brummell entertained the two aristocrats with a conversation of devastating wit ~ without once turning his head. Brummell had no intention of disturbing one fold of his exquisitely arranged cravat. It had, after all, taken him three hours to tie it!
George 'Beau' Brummell, king of the dandies in Regency England, made the cravat his trademark. A snowy froth of fine, starched muslin, it created a sensation when he fist wore it.
One speck of dust, one crease, and a cravat was tossed aside and the whole ritual of tying it would begin again. The floor of his dressing room was often littered ankle deep with yards of discarded muslin. 'These are our failures," explained his valet.
For the rest of the evening Brummell entertained the two aristocrats with a conversation of devastating wit ~ without once turning his head. Brummell had no intention of disturbing one fold of his exquisitely arranged cravat. It had, after all, taken him three hours to tie it!
George 'Beau' Brummell, king of the dandies in Regency England, made the cravat his trademark. A snowy froth of fine, starched muslin, it created a sensation when he fist wore it.
One speck of dust, one crease, and a cravat was tossed aside and the whole ritual of tying it would begin again. The floor of his dressing room was often littered ankle deep with yards of discarded muslin. 'These are our failures," explained his valet.
~ White For All Occasions ~
The 17th century Irish
farmer Robert Cook was the most startling figure in County
Waterford. He never wore anything but white linen.
Not only were his underclothes, night clothes and shirts in purest white, but so were his suits, coats and hats. He became so famous for his clothes and passion for white that he was known over over all Ireland as 'Linen Cook'.
He refused to have any black cattle in the fields of his farm at Cappoquin and even his horses had to be the same pure white as his clothes.
Cook was a passionate vegetarian and refused to eat the flesh of any animal or to wear anything produced by an animal.
A fox which attacted his poultry was not killed when it was caught. Instead he gave it a lecture on the evils of murder, then offered it a sporting chance by making it run through a line of his farm labourers, who were armed with sticks.
Cook had a long and healthy life, finding that 'water for drink and pulse, corn and other vegetables for food linen and other vegetables for raiment be sufficient'.
He died in 1726 when he was over 80 years old and was buried in white linen.
Not only were his underclothes, night clothes and shirts in purest white, but so were his suits, coats and hats. He became so famous for his clothes and passion for white that he was known over over all Ireland as 'Linen Cook'.
He refused to have any black cattle in the fields of his farm at Cappoquin and even his horses had to be the same pure white as his clothes.
Cook was a passionate vegetarian and refused to eat the flesh of any animal or to wear anything produced by an animal.
A fox which attacted his poultry was not killed when it was caught. Instead he gave it a lecture on the evils of murder, then offered it a sporting chance by making it run through a line of his farm labourers, who were armed with sticks.
Cook had a long and healthy life, finding that 'water for drink and pulse, corn and other vegetables for food linen and other vegetables for raiment be sufficient'.
He died in 1726 when he was over 80 years old and was buried in white linen.
~ Prudish Expurgater ~
"Nothing is added to the
original text, but those words or expressions are omitted which
cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family."
~ Thomas Bowdler ~ 1754-1825 ~ was a doctor, author and editor who thought that a lot of literature was coarse or indecent and in 1818 he published an edition of the works of Shakespeare in which all the offensive phrases had been removed.
His crude form of censorship his given name to the practice of prudish expurgation ~ Bowdlerism.
~ Thomas Bowdler ~ 1754-1825 ~ was a doctor, author and editor who thought that a lot of literature was coarse or indecent and in 1818 he published an edition of the works of Shakespeare in which all the offensive phrases had been removed.
His crude form of censorship his given name to the practice of prudish expurgation ~ Bowdlerism.
~ Mans Best Friend ~
Francis Henry Egerton,
eighth Earl of Bridgewater, preferred the company of his dogs to
people, and, having no time for either men or women, declared
that dogs were much better behaved than gentlemen.
Every day a huge table would be laid for twelve and the dogs would be led in, each to his own place and a clean white napkin around his neck.
Each dog had his own servant who would serve them off silver dishes.
He also had an obsession with boots and insisted that he wore a new pair every day. At night he arranged them around his bedroom walls and used them as a calender.
Every day a huge table would be laid for twelve and the dogs would be led in, each to his own place and a clean white napkin around his neck.
Each dog had his own servant who would serve them off silver dishes.
He also had an obsession with boots and insisted that he wore a new pair every day. At night he arranged them around his bedroom walls and used them as a calender.
