English Eccentrics

Ecentricity exists particularly in the English, says Dame Edith, because of 'that peculiar and satisfactory knowledge of infallibility that is the hallmark and the birthright of the British nation.' Hermits, sportsmen, quacks, mariners, the indefatigable British travellers, men of learning, men of living - here is a glorious gallery of the extremes of human nature portrayed with wit, sympathy, knowledge and love. The reader meets The amphibious Lord Rokeby, whose beard reached his knees and who seldom left his bath; Mad Jack Mytton, the hunting squire who jumped a five bar gate in his chaise and set fire to his nightshirt to frighten away the hiccups; Curricle Coats, the Gifted Amateur, whose suit was sewn with diamonds and whose every performance ended in uproar; Irascible Captain Thicknesses, who left his right hand, to be cut off after his death, to his son Lord Audley; Saintly Squire Waterton, the nineteenth century Gerald Durrell, who rode a crocodile bareback and many, many others.