Compiled by London swaminathan

Date: 20 April 2016

Post No. 2741

Time uploaded in London :– 14-02

( Thanks for the Pictures)

DON’T REBLOG IT AT LEAST FOR A WEEK!  DON’T USE THE PICTURES; THEY ARE COPYRIGHTED BY SOMEONE.

(for old articles go to tamilandvedas.com OR swamiindology.blogspot.com)

Eccentricity Anecdotes

Poor Rousseau!

In 1776 David Hume, ‘the philosopher and historian, carried off Rousseau to England and tried to get a pension for him from George III. Rousseau was beginning to suffer from the persecution obsession that afflicted his later years, but at first he was purring and grateful. Then his old suspicions, his old hatred of being under obligation, came back upon him and he began to explode nervously. At such times Hume could only pat him on the back, exclaiming,
What, my dear sir?……. Eh, my dear sir…. What now my dear sir?

Xxx

Eccentric Francis Thompson

In one of his lodgings, Francis Thompson, the poet, habitually walked around his table all night and went to bed at dawn. Finally he wore out the carpet in a perfect circle around his table. He habitually stayed in the bed most of the day and never kept appointments. Whatever he was he always sought the fire and stood against it forever getting his trousers and his coat afire. Once, in his lodging, he set the curtains afire and tipped over the lamp in trying to extinguish it. His hands were badly burned and he walked the streets all night, for, as he later remarked
“The room was quite burned out”.

Xxx

Male or Female Hippo?

A woman visitor to the London zoo asked the keeper whether the hippocampus was a male or a female.
Madam, replied the keeper sternly, that is a question that should be of interest only to another hippopotamus.

Xxx

Fire! Fire! Thomas Gray!!

Gray, the English poet, had an abnormal terror of fire and when he was living at Peterhouse got Wharton to supply him with a sixty five foot rope ladder with strong hooks which he fastened to a bar across his window, which bar remains there to this day.

One chill February night, some undergraduates, aware of his pyrrophobia shouted,Fire, on his staircase.  The timid Gray hastily threw out his rope ladder and descended through the darkness and cold in his night clothes, only to drop into a carefully placed tub of water. He fell to shivering. A night watchman discovered him and helped him back, up the stairs, to his room.

Xxx

Actress who travelled with her Coffin!!

In 1874 , Sarah Bernhardt was advised to give up acting if she wished to live, but she returned to the theatre as soon as she was able to leave her bed.  When she was asked by an admirer what gift he could send her , she replied, “They say, I am to die, so you may send me a coffin.”

A week later, she was notified by a famous coffin maker that an order had been received for a coffin, to be constructed according to her wishes. Sarah was most particular about its design, finally agreeing that it should be made up of rosewood, with handles of silver, later changed to gold.

For the reminder of her life this coffin never left her side, even during her travels. She had made a trestle on which it stood at the end of her bed, so she could see it without effort, on awakening.
“To remind me that my body will soon be dust and my glory alone will live forever”, she explained.

—Subham–