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Great British Eccentrics









S. D. Tucker



Eccentrics extremely diverse and hard to define. In general they are non-conformists who are curious, creative and obsessive. They see the rest of the world as boring and mundane. They don't care what people think of them, but they aren't out of touch with reality. (They simply think they're right and everybody else is wrong). They don't have symptoms of mental illness, such as delusions or hallucinations. One of the most common denominators was their spelling - they either choose to spell things idiosyncratically, or they never bothered to learn 'rules' in first place.

Woman who went round wallpapering public toilets.

Sir Claude de Crespigny had multiple foibles. He interviewed his servants with fist fights. If they put up a good fight they were hired. Used to offer passing tramps a hot dinner if they agreed to spar with him. So of course his mates hired a pro boxer to dress up as a tramp and give him a beating.

Maddest lord of all was John Russell, the 4th Earl Russell. Grandfather Lord John Russell was an impt British Prime Minister (responsible for the 1832 Reform Act, which extended franchise), and his father was Bertrand Russell, mathematician, philosopher and peace campaigner. Russell was famous for making speeches in H of Lords asserting things such as the Royal Family were all toads, group sex would restart the economy, and we could prevent WW3 by communicating with angels.



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