Mad Dogs & Englishman

The United Kingdom of Britain is, without doubt, a celebrated island for the extravagance of it's subjects, hence the well versed saying 'The mad dog and the Englishman'. Some of them have definitely made their rarity or eccentricity an art, a profession or leitmotif. Some cynics insinuated that British eccentricity came from their environment socially more strict and rigid than others. I have never read any of Edith Sitwell's books before, an English authoress and poetess (1887-1964), and she herself an eccentric aristocratic. Her book in documentary form had been translated into Spanish by Jordi Fibla called 'Excentricos ingleses' (The eccentric English) in which she had compiled in 1933 the most eccentric Englishmen, her most famous work. The following are some of the interesting characters: - Lord Rokeby, a charming little old man who became very well known for his strange amphibious habits, and for being the owner of the longest beard. The old codger got into the habit of taking 'eternal baths' after a trip to Aquisgran, and lived ever since semi-sub-aquatic in the swimming pool of his house in Kent. Before that he did it in the sea where he tried to stay submerged with the longest persistence possible, until he lost consciousness and had to be forcefully pulled out! Yes, the little gentleman spent the most part of his life in the water, and leaving his beard grow till it reached his knees. Robert Coates was famous for his most unconventional, even outrageous clothing. Deliriously Funkadelic, but also for being a condemnably bad actor - all his acting ended in topsy-turvy riots. At the end the authorities had to prohibit him stepping onto the stage. In a gesture of wisdom the Spanish imported him over and install him in the dramatic and musical circles. Confirming the belief that being mediocre would get you nowhere, but being the very worst (in anything) you could become famous, simply for being impossibly or incredibly bad or useless. Charles Waterton, the renowned explorer and naturalist, epitome of the wise and eccentric Englishman, did all the things that mad scientists do, beyond the limit of the law. He tried to fly on the base of mechanical contrivance, mixed dissected animal parts, had a vampire in his bedroom (who refused to bite him, to his great irritation), slept with a boa constrictor, and rode on the back of a crocodile. When he was already a doddering old man, he would climb trees at the slightest provocation. But the writer/poetess said that "Waterton was eccentric only in the sense that great gentlemen are, not made to adapt to conventions or cowardice of the multitude." Then there was Mad Jack Mytton, perhaps the most renowned and Epicurean (and dangerous) of the English eccentrics. The lady included him in the section of Sportsmen because she didn't really know what to do with him. "That half mad creature, hunter and hunted", dedicated all his life to dilapidate his inheritance, self-mutilate and self-destructive, subjecting himself to all manners of the most creative ways; always in the name of fun and foolery. He drank 8 full bottles of Port a day, went hunting in below zero temperature in his pajama robe, chased ducks running on the iced up lake, jumping over solid fence with his horse cart, shared his house and drinks with his horses. One day he gave a whole bottle of Port with sugar to his favourite horse, and the animal ended up a total wreck. He once enter the dinning room on the back of a brown bear, which bit his calf brutally. He tried to ward off an attack of a hippo setting his own pajama shirt on fire, etc. etc. Mytton did not live to 80 (no kidding?) but died in a dungeon penniless at the age of 38, destroyed by his own madness and delirium. But he had lived, and how!! Tags:crazy,eccentric,cynic

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