December 6, 2022 • 9 mins
Our tour today features two characters remembered for very different things.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed. Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production of
iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. Born and raised in Norfolk, England, in nine six,
Arthur started getting visions early on. He was only twelve
years old when he began dreaming of a city made
of stone. It had been carved into the side of
a mountain in the desert, somewhere far from England, a
(00:50):
place he had never seen before with his own eyes.
The visions only grew more intense as Arthur got older,
with the image of the city becoming clearer in his mind.
As time by. They left him upset, but he couldn't
figure out the reason why. It was during a visit
to his local beach when the clearest vision presented itself.
Arthur had been playing among the orange and pink colored
(01:11):
pebbles along the shore when he was whisked away to
the city in the mountain. There was as though he
had been teleported there. The beach faded away around him,
and he was suddenly standing within the walls of the
city itself. What he didn't realize was that the colors
of the pebbles had triggered his strongest vision yet due
to their resemblance to the son of the city. What
(01:32):
confounded him was that he had never seen such a
structure before in his life. He didn't read books about
traveling to exotic locations, nor had he left Norfolk, but
the place felt so real and familiar. He hadn't invented it.
It was like he was living someone else's memories. After
that day at the beach, Arthur received more bits and
pieces of information. They were being beamed straight into his
(01:55):
brain from some far off satellite. He returned to the beach,
to the pink and the orange pebbles under his feet,
and just as before, they transported him back to the
city in the mountain, but he saw more on each
mental trip. There were streets and passageways. A military barracks
had been built nearby, and he got the sense that
he was a soldier, one who had been killed by
(02:16):
a spear in battle. Arthur stopped going to the beach
after that. He kept his dreams to himself, although he
continued to have them well into his old age. It
wasn't until he was watching a BBC documentary about ancient
Jordan when he finally saw the city he had been
dreaming about for real. It was Petra, also known as
the resting place of the Holy Grail for fellow Indiana
(02:38):
Jones fans. Arthur was a static at the realization and
reached out to the BBC about the documentary. He told
them about his lifelong visions, and rather than hang up
on him, they believed him. He became the subject of
a segment on another BBC program and was subsequently interviewed
by an archaeologist with a deep knowledge of Petra. The
(02:58):
archaeologist was floored by how much Arthur knew about the city,
considering he had never laid eyes on it before the documentary.
He knew details that no average person would know without
having been there themselves. The Jordanian government got wind of
Arthur's miraculous story and invited him to Petra to demonstrate
his innate knowledge. Set loose on his own, he walked
(03:20):
through it as though he had grown up there. He
knew every street and landmark. He was even able to
explain parts of the city that had been yet to
be excavated. When presented with artifacts and buildings that the
so called experts could not understand, Arthur calmly told them
about their true purposes, which happened to be correct. All
attempts to stump him or prove him to be a
(03:42):
sham failed. Arthur knew more about Petra than archaeologists and
the people of Jordan's but how it was believed that
he had been glimpsing the past life of a Jordanian soldier,
one who had died centuries ago. Arthur was seen by
many spiritual leaders as proof that reincard nation was a
real phenomenon. True or not, it was certainly curious. Arthur
(04:05):
flower Do didn't see much more excitement during his time
on Earth, but he and his past life did prove
one thing. Life's a beach and then you die. When
(04:29):
someone loses a limb, such as an arm or a leg,
the road to recovery can be rough. They may have
to fight off infection or learn how to do things
with only one appendage that they used to do with two.
Tying their shoes, walking, and buttoning up their shirt are
all made more difficult. But the story doesn't end with
that loss. It goes on as the person at its
(04:49):
center continues to grow and adapt. They may get a
prosthetic device, which brings its own set of challenges. But
no matter what, the tail of a lost limb is
always about the person it once belonged too well. Usually.
Henry Paget, the Earl of Uxbridge and the first Marquess
of Anglesey, was born in seventeen sixty eight to a
wealthy English family. He was well educated and entered Parliament
(05:12):
when he was only twenty two years old. Paget continued
to climb the political ladder into the eighteen hundreds, while
also joining the military to fight the French in seventeen
ninety three. As major general and later lieutenant general, Paget
commanded formidable cavalries against France, and his men regularly defeated
them in battle. However, it was at the Battle of
(05:33):
Waterloo where Paget had his uh Waterloo moment. On June
eighteenth of eighteen fifteen, he was in charge of thirteen
thousand cavalry and forty four members of the horse artillery,
which he led into the fray after taking on thousands
of French infantry. The charge of two thousand British heavy
cavaltry led by Paget had successfully managed to drive them back. However,
(05:56):
Paget's men continued to chase after them and were eventually
met with force by additional French cavalry. Paget did his
best to counter their attacks with roughly nine lightly armed
cavalry charges, but he kept running into the same problem.
His horses continued to get blown out from under him
by cannon fire. Every time he went down, Paget got
(06:16):
back up on a new horse. By the end of
the fight, it seemed as though he had made it
out okay, though the same couldn't be said of the horses. Unfortunately,
the French weren't done yet, though. They fired their cannons
a few more times, and as Paget was trotting away
beside the Duke of Wellington's one of their cannon balls
collided with his knee. It was shattered into a thousand pieces.
(06:37):
Although Paget's stiff upper lip refused to buckle, he allegedly
said to the Duke, by God, Sir, I've lost my leg,
and the Duke of Wellington was believed to have replied
by God, sir, so you have. Paget was brought to
a surgeon who took one look at his leg and
knew immediately that it couldn't be saved. The limb was
amputated shortly thereafter at the Belgian home of a man
(06:58):
named Hyacinthe Joseph Marie Kari, but since Paget was in
the midst of war with no access to proper health
care facilities, the surgery was completed without anesthetic, but that
didn't phase the general. He said that the knives felt
kind of blunt as the doctor cut the limb away,
and when it was all over, Henry Paget was down
one leg, and Monsieur Peris had increased his number of
(07:18):
appendages by one. That's right. The owner of the house
where the amputation had taken place had also taken possession
of Paget's discarded leg. He buried it in his garden
outside and turned it into a kind of shrine or altar,
complete with a tombstone. Others heard about the strange leg
grave at Pari's home and began showing up at his
(07:38):
doorstep to see it, and Paris, seeing a lucrative business
opportunity before him started charging a fee for visitors. Sixty
odd years later, Paget's son made a pilgrimage to the
house to see the shrine for himself. What he found
flabbergast at him. The leg had been removed from its
grave and placed on display for all to see. The
(07:59):
change in ven you had been made after a big
storm had disturbed the ground where it had been interred.
The British government stepped in and requested the bones be
returned to the Paget's family. Peri's Air said that he
would happily hand it over for a price. The Belgian
Minister of Justice then told him to put the leg
back in the ground so as to avoid an international incident.
(08:19):
Paris Airs obliged taking down the public display, but he
didn't rebury the bones as ordered. Instead, he tucked them
away in his study, only to have them discovered by
his widow following his death in nineteen thirty five. She
was so upset by the presence that she tossed them
in the homes furnace and cremated them. But Henry Paget,
the Earl of Uxbridge, had moved on from his injury
(08:42):
long before. After a year long recovery, he was fitted
with one of the first ever prosthetic limbs that could
bend at the knee. It had been built from wood
and leather with springs inside. With it strapped onto his thigh,
he was able to ride horses again until his death
in eighteen fifty four at the age of eighty five.
Paget never got to see his lost limb again. His
(09:03):
son did have the chance to bring it home later
in life, but unfortunately, thanks to Monsieur Perry's own air,
it would have cost him an arm and a leg.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
(09:27):
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
and you can learn all about it over at the
World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Welcomed. Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production of
iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. Born and raised in Norfolk, England, in nine six,
Arthur started getting visions early on. He was only twelve
years old when he began dreaming of a city made
of stone. It had been carved into the side of
a mountain in the desert, somewhere far from England, a
(00:50):
place he had never seen before with his own eyes.
The visions only grew more intense as Arthur got older,
with the image of the city becoming clearer in his mind.
As time by. They left him upset, but he couldn't
figure out the reason why. It was during a visit
to his local beach when the clearest vision presented itself.
Arthur had been playing among the orange and pink colored
(01:11):
pebbles along the shore when he was whisked away to
the city in the mountain. There was as though he
had been teleported there. The beach faded away around him,
and he was suddenly standing within the walls of the
city itself. What he didn't realize was that the colors
of the pebbles had triggered his strongest vision yet due
to their resemblance to the son of the city. What
(01:32):
confounded him was that he had never seen such a
structure before in his life. He didn't read books about
traveling to exotic locations, nor had he left Norfolk, but
the place felt so real and familiar. He hadn't invented it.
It was like he was living someone else's memories. After
that day at the beach, Arthur received more bits and
pieces of information. They were being beamed straight into his
(01:55):
brain from some far off satellite. He returned to the beach,
to the pink and the orange pebbles under his feet,
and just as before, they transported him back to the
city in the mountain, but he saw more on each
mental trip. There were streets and passageways. A military barracks
had been built nearby, and he got the sense that
he was a soldier, one who had been killed by
(02:16):
a spear in battle. Arthur stopped going to the beach
after that. He kept his dreams to himself, although he
continued to have them well into his old age. It
wasn't until he was watching a BBC documentary about ancient
Jordan when he finally saw the city he had been
dreaming about for real. It was Petra, also known as
the resting place of the Holy Grail for fellow Indiana
(02:38):
Jones fans. Arthur was a static at the realization and
reached out to the BBC about the documentary. He told
them about his lifelong visions, and rather than hang up
on him, they believed him. He became the subject of
a segment on another BBC program and was subsequently interviewed
by an archaeologist with a deep knowledge of Petra. The
(02:58):
archaeologist was floored by how much Arthur knew about the city,
considering he had never laid eyes on it before the documentary.
He knew details that no average person would know without
having been there themselves. The Jordanian government got wind of
Arthur's miraculous story and invited him to Petra to demonstrate
his innate knowledge. Set loose on his own, he walked
(03:20):
through it as though he had grown up there. He
knew every street and landmark. He was even able to
explain parts of the city that had been yet to
be excavated. When presented with artifacts and buildings that the
so called experts could not understand, Arthur calmly told them
about their true purposes, which happened to be correct. All
attempts to stump him or prove him to be a
(03:42):
sham failed. Arthur knew more about Petra than archaeologists and
the people of Jordan's but how it was believed that
he had been glimpsing the past life of a Jordanian soldier,
one who had died centuries ago. Arthur was seen by
many spiritual leaders as proof that reincard nation was a
real phenomenon. True or not, it was certainly curious. Arthur
(04:05):
flower Do didn't see much more excitement during his time
on Earth, but he and his past life did prove
one thing. Life's a beach and then you die. When
(04:29):
someone loses a limb, such as an arm or a leg,
the road to recovery can be rough. They may have
to fight off infection or learn how to do things
with only one appendage that they used to do with two.
Tying their shoes, walking, and buttoning up their shirt are
all made more difficult. But the story doesn't end with
that loss. It goes on as the person at its
(04:49):
center continues to grow and adapt. They may get a
prosthetic device, which brings its own set of challenges. But
no matter what, the tail of a lost limb is
always about the person it once belonged too well. Usually.
Henry Paget, the Earl of Uxbridge and the first Marquess
of Anglesey, was born in seventeen sixty eight to a
wealthy English family. He was well educated and entered Parliament
(05:12):
when he was only twenty two years old. Paget continued
to climb the political ladder into the eighteen hundreds, while
also joining the military to fight the French in seventeen
ninety three. As major general and later lieutenant general, Paget
commanded formidable cavalries against France, and his men regularly defeated
them in battle. However, it was at the Battle of
(05:33):
Waterloo where Paget had his uh Waterloo moment. On June
eighteenth of eighteen fifteen, he was in charge of thirteen
thousand cavalry and forty four members of the horse artillery,
which he led into the fray after taking on thousands
of French infantry. The charge of two thousand British heavy
cavaltry led by Paget had successfully managed to drive them back. However,
(05:56):
Paget's men continued to chase after them and were eventually
met with force by additional French cavalry. Paget did his
best to counter their attacks with roughly nine lightly armed
cavalry charges, but he kept running into the same problem.
His horses continued to get blown out from under him
by cannon fire. Every time he went down, Paget got
(06:16):
back up on a new horse. By the end of
the fight, it seemed as though he had made it
out okay, though the same couldn't be said of the horses. Unfortunately,
the French weren't done yet, though. They fired their cannons
a few more times, and as Paget was trotting away
beside the Duke of Wellington's one of their cannon balls
collided with his knee. It was shattered into a thousand pieces.
(06:37):
Although Paget's stiff upper lip refused to buckle, he allegedly
said to the Duke, by God, Sir, I've lost my leg,
and the Duke of Wellington was believed to have replied
by God, sir, so you have. Paget was brought to
a surgeon who took one look at his leg and
knew immediately that it couldn't be saved. The limb was
amputated shortly thereafter at the Belgian home of a man
(06:58):
named Hyacinthe Joseph Marie Kari, but since Paget was in
the midst of war with no access to proper health
care facilities, the surgery was completed without anesthetic, but that
didn't phase the general. He said that the knives felt
kind of blunt as the doctor cut the limb away,
and when it was all over, Henry Paget was down
one leg, and Monsieur Peris had increased his number of
(07:18):
appendages by one. That's right. The owner of the house
where the amputation had taken place had also taken possession
of Paget's discarded leg. He buried it in his garden
outside and turned it into a kind of shrine or altar,
complete with a tombstone. Others heard about the strange leg
grave at Pari's home and began showing up at his
(07:38):
doorstep to see it, and Paris, seeing a lucrative business
opportunity before him started charging a fee for visitors. Sixty
odd years later, Paget's son made a pilgrimage to the
house to see the shrine for himself. What he found
flabbergast at him. The leg had been removed from its
grave and placed on display for all to see. The
(07:59):
change in ven you had been made after a big
storm had disturbed the ground where it had been interred.
The British government stepped in and requested the bones be
returned to the Paget's family. Peri's Air said that he
would happily hand it over for a price. The Belgian
Minister of Justice then told him to put the leg
back in the ground so as to avoid an international incident.
(08:19):
Paris Airs obliged taking down the public display, but he
didn't rebury the bones as ordered. Instead, he tucked them
away in his study, only to have them discovered by
his widow following his death in nineteen thirty five. She
was so upset by the presence that she tossed them
in the homes furnace and cremated them. But Henry Paget,
the Earl of Uxbridge, had moved on from his injury
(08:42):
long before. After a year long recovery, he was fitted
with one of the first ever prosthetic limbs that could
bend at the knee. It had been built from wood
and leather with springs inside. With it strapped onto his thigh,
he was able to ride horses again until his death
in eighteen fifty four at the age of eighty five.
Paget never got to see his lost limb again. His
(09:03):
son did have the chance to bring it home later
in life, but unfortunately, thanks to Monsieur Perry's own air,
it would have cost him an arm and a leg.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
(09:27):
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
and you can learn all about it over at the
World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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