The Man Who Ate Bluebottles: And Other Great British Eccentrics

Until he ate a bluebottle, William Buckland had always maintained that the taste of mole was the most repulsive he knew. But that was before he ate the embalmed heart of Louis XVI.

Lord Monboddo believed that babies are born with tails, and was a careful observer at the births of his own children - but in each case the midwife outwitted him and managed to destroy the evidence.

The Comtesse de Noailles was a keen believer in the benefits of fresh air and methane gas, keeping cows tethered near...