Eccentricity? Lady Meux Takes Third place

Lady Valerie Susie Bruce Meux, of Theobalds Park, Waltham Cross, has been nominated among the seven most eccentric Britons of all time. In fact, she comes in at a very creditable third place.

What is this nonsense? I hear you splutter. Well, it is comes courtesy of BBC Countryfile online, promoting a book called Weird Guide Britain, by Dave Hamilton, published by Wild Things, £18.99.

Here is Lady Meux's entry with my comments in brackets and bold:

"Lady Meux (1847-1910) (She was born in 1852)

"This banjo-playing Victorian socialite loved beer to an extreme degree. (Loved beer? To drink? Unlikely. Champagne and brandy, most definitely) Happily for her, she married the heir to a brewing fortune and famously drove a carriage drawn by zebras because "horses were too predictable". (She did married into a brewing fortune. Zebras were certainly kept at Theobalds Park, but whether they 'broken' to pull carriages is unlikely. They were kept for genetic breeding experiments. It is said she drove carriages pulled by zebras, but there is little real evidence. And what is the source of the quote "horses were too predictable").

"Born Valerie Langdon in Devon (actually Susan Langdon), she married Sir Henry Bruce Meux after she caught his eye at the Casino De Venise in Holborn (I would argue that there is stronger evidence they met in Evans' Supper Rooms, Covent Garden). Due to rumours that she had been a prostitute, their wedding was deemed scandalous and she was shunned from polite society.

"Undeterred, she chose to live life to the full, installing an indoor roller-skating rink, a swimming pool, a gun room and a museum of Egyptian antiquities at her residence, Theobald's Park, while being carted around London by her zebras."

So here are Lady Meux's fellow eccentrics:

1. Harry Grindell Matthews (1880-1941): archetypal crackpot inventor.

2. Roland le Petour (12th century): court jester for Henry II.

3. Lady Meux (1847-1910)

4. William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland (1800-1879): a cripplingly shy man who built a network of tunnels and underground chambers underneath his home in Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire.

5. Squire John 'Mad Jack' Mytton (1796-1834): a drinker, gambler and eccentric who squandered a fortune in 15 years.

6. Hannah Snell (1723-1792): disguised herself as a man to become a soldier.

7. Isaac Newton (1643–1727): mathematician, physicist and astronomer, stared at the Sun’s reflection in a mirror and endured days of temporary blindness.

The BBC Countryfile online article can be found here:

A human badger, a windy court jester and Isaac Newton – meet the 7 most eccentric Brits of all time | Countryfile.com