July 4, 2019 • 9 mins
On today's tour, we'll hear tall tales and forgotten origin stories. Perfect items for exhibit in the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
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 of Curiosities. Charles had always been
(00:29):
a little different. His family looked up to him. Everyone
he met did too. They couldn't help it. He was
over seven ft tall. His parents claimed his towering height
was due to his conception atop a haystack, though the
real reason for his stature didn't matter to him. All
he knew was that in Ireland in seventeen sixty one,
he was an anomaly, a freak, as they used to
(00:50):
call him, and it wasn't long before he had outgrown
the tiny village where he lived. Literally as a teenager,
Charles set out for Scotland and began perform a mean
fun tricks for the people that he met. He liked
to see the reactions on their faces as he lit
his pipe using a nearby street lamp. His charm and
personality made him a sensation, so much so that a
(01:11):
stage show was written and performed about the larger than
life Irish transplant Charles. Fame had earned him quite a
bit of money too, which he carried on him at
all times. He didn't use banks, nor did he keep
anything in a secret hiding place at home. Unfortunately, many
locals knew about his wealth, which made him an easy target.
After a night of heavy drinking, a pickpocket managed to
(01:34):
lift every last bill off the seven foot tall giant,
leaving him penniless. To make matters worse, it started to
come to light that Charles height had come at a cost.
While the story about the haystack was a fun way
to play off their sun situation, the truth had actually
been much darker. Charles Burne had been born with a
tumor in his pituitary gland, which had accelerated his growth.
(01:56):
His health eventually took a bad turn, and, compounded with
his sudden extreme poverty, left him without any kind of
fighting chance at survival. He died at twenty two years old,
broke and homeless. But the story of the Irish Giant
doesn't end there. In fact, it gets a little stranger. See,
Charles had died at a time when the medical field
(02:17):
was entering an era of intense research, when patients alive
or dead were being experimented on in new sometimes inhumane ways.
The dead rarely got a chance to rest, as undertakers
sold bodies on the black market to desperate medical researchers.
Charles Byrne had known all about these kinds of doctors
(02:37):
and how they'd want to study his body after he
was gone. One in particular had been on his radar
for some time. He was a surgeon and collector of
biological specimens named John Hunter, an apt name for someone
who spent his life in pursuit of rare cadavers. Prior
to his death, Charles had asked a group of friends
to make sure his body would be buried at sea,
(02:58):
far from the hands of doctor Hunter. They agreed to
his wishes, and after he passed away, had his body
placed in a lead lined coffin before casting it to
the bottom of the ocean. Looking back, it's a wonder
that it sank at all, Given that the coffin had
been empty. There would have been no way for doctor
Hunter to retrieve Charles's body once it had slipped beneath
(03:19):
the waves. So the good doctor turned to his trust
the assistant cold hard Cash. He paid Charles, Burns and
Balmer to steal the corpse before it went into the coffin.
Charles friends had no idea, at least not for a year.
During that time, doctor Hunter performed all sorts of experiments
on the late Irish giants corpse, leaving behind nothing more
than his oversized bones. His skeleton remains the centerpiece of
(03:44):
the hunter Arian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
in London. John Hunter's contributions to medicine can't be understated.
Thanks to his research, we have a greater understanding of
how our bones develop over time, and how gunshot wounds
and venereal diseases affected By his legacy, However, we'll always
have a large blemish upon it for not letting a
(04:06):
poor young man rest in peace. Just how large, oh,
I'd say about seven and a half feet tall. No
(04:26):
one knows how it got there or its true purpose.
Its builder has left no written records. It has existed
for thousands of years in the middle of a field
in Wiltshire, England, where it draws nearly a million visitors
each year. It's thirteen foot tall stones stands straight up,
each weigh in about twenty five tons, and the method
of its construction continues to baffle historians to this day.
(04:50):
Stonehenge may not be one of the Seven Wonders of
the World, but it's no less on inspiring. When examined
up close. The sheer enormity of the stones does make
people wonder how they were moved and arranged in the
first place. According to twelfth century writer Jeffrey of Monmouth,
King Arthur's faithful wizard Merlin constructed it himself. But although
(05:10):
it sits in a wide open meadow surrounded by grass,
visiting Stonehenge today requires the purchase of a ticket. It
takes a whole team of guards, groundskeepers and restoration experts
to keep the Neolithic structure intact, and that costs money.
I've been there myself and paid the price of admission.
In fact, money is what begins our story in the
(05:30):
first place. During the early fifteen hundreds, King Henry the
Eighth owned Stonehenge after seizing the land upon which it sat.
It eventually passed down to the Earl of Hartford, followed
by countless other owners until eighteen twenty four. At that time,
the site was purchased by a wealthy family from Cheshire,
who maintained ownership for almost a century. Then, in nineteen fifteen,
(05:53):
after the last heir to the land was killed fighting
in France during World War One. The family put the
land up for auction. The auction was held at the
Palace Theater in Salisbury. Of all the people present, one
stood out Cecil Chub. He was born and Shrewden, about
four miles from Stonehenge, and being a successful lawyer, had
become quite wealthy. When the lot was announced, Cecil hadn't
(06:16):
expected to bid, but the more he thought about it,
the better the idea sounded to him. A Lot fifteen
contained a little over thirty acres of land, including Stonehenge itself.
When the final bid was collected, it was Cecil Chub
who came out on top, having spent six thousand, six
hundred pounds. By today's standards, that puts the total at
almost seven hundred thousand American dollars. He didn't hold on
(06:37):
to the property long, though, he believed that such an
iconic and wondrous site should not belong to just one person,
but to a nation as a whole. In nineteen eighteen,
three years after purchasing it, he formally rescinded his ownership
and gave Stonehenge to England, though he also included a
number of conditions. First, all local residents should have free
(06:59):
access to see at any time, and second, outside visitors
should be charged no more than a shilling for entry.
Since then, Stonehenge's value has gone up a bit. Locals
are still allowed to see it at no cost, but
visitors must pay five pounds to gaze upon the stones.
If it were being sold at auction today, it's estimated
that the ancient site could fetch as high as sixty
(07:20):
five million American dollars. Quite a smart investment in hindsight,
but at the time there really wasn't any reason to
own the land other than to build upon it. Chub
had no interest in using the area for new construction,
so why buy it at all? Well, he did it
for the best reason of all, love, of course, love
for his hometown, and love for his wife. He believed
(07:42):
that if anyone was going to own that ring of stones,
it should be a local man, not some company or
investor from overseas. And more importantly, he wanted to give
his wife a special gift, something she could look at
and remember just how much he loved her. As it
turns out, she wasn't thrilled with his last minute per
just which may have fueled his desire to give it
(08:02):
back to England. However, his philanthropic gesture was recognized in
n when he was made a baronet by Prime Minister
Lloyd George, so perhaps the investment paid off after all.
If there is a lesson to be learned here, though,
I think it's this. While it's a good idea to
buy your true love a ring, buying them Stonehenge might
(08:24):
be a bit too much. 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. The show was created by
me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
(08:46):
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. Two
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 of Curiosities. Charles had always been
(00:29):
a little different. His family looked up to him. Everyone
he met did too. They couldn't help it. He was
over seven ft tall. His parents claimed his towering height
was due to his conception atop a haystack, though the
real reason for his stature didn't matter to him. All
he knew was that in Ireland in seventeen sixty one,
he was an anomaly, a freak, as they used to
(00:50):
call him, and it wasn't long before he had outgrown
the tiny village where he lived. Literally as a teenager,
Charles set out for Scotland and began perform a mean
fun tricks for the people that he met. He liked
to see the reactions on their faces as he lit
his pipe using a nearby street lamp. His charm and
personality made him a sensation, so much so that a
(01:11):
stage show was written and performed about the larger than
life Irish transplant Charles. Fame had earned him quite a
bit of money too, which he carried on him at
all times. He didn't use banks, nor did he keep
anything in a secret hiding place at home. Unfortunately, many
locals knew about his wealth, which made him an easy target.
After a night of heavy drinking, a pickpocket managed to
(01:34):
lift every last bill off the seven foot tall giant,
leaving him penniless. To make matters worse, it started to
come to light that Charles height had come at a cost.
While the story about the haystack was a fun way
to play off their sun situation, the truth had actually
been much darker. Charles Burne had been born with a
tumor in his pituitary gland, which had accelerated his growth.
(01:56):
His health eventually took a bad turn, and, compounded with
his sudden extreme poverty, left him without any kind of
fighting chance at survival. He died at twenty two years old,
broke and homeless. But the story of the Irish Giant
doesn't end there. In fact, it gets a little stranger. See,
Charles had died at a time when the medical field
(02:17):
was entering an era of intense research, when patients alive
or dead were being experimented on in new sometimes inhumane ways.
The dead rarely got a chance to rest, as undertakers
sold bodies on the black market to desperate medical researchers.
Charles Byrne had known all about these kinds of doctors
(02:37):
and how they'd want to study his body after he
was gone. One in particular had been on his radar
for some time. He was a surgeon and collector of
biological specimens named John Hunter, an apt name for someone
who spent his life in pursuit of rare cadavers. Prior
to his death, Charles had asked a group of friends
to make sure his body would be buried at sea,
(02:58):
far from the hands of doctor Hunter. They agreed to
his wishes, and after he passed away, had his body
placed in a lead lined coffin before casting it to
the bottom of the ocean. Looking back, it's a wonder
that it sank at all, Given that the coffin had
been empty. There would have been no way for doctor
Hunter to retrieve Charles's body once it had slipped beneath
(03:19):
the waves. So the good doctor turned to his trust
the assistant cold hard Cash. He paid Charles, Burns and
Balmer to steal the corpse before it went into the coffin.
Charles friends had no idea, at least not for a year.
During that time, doctor Hunter performed all sorts of experiments
on the late Irish giants corpse, leaving behind nothing more
than his oversized bones. His skeleton remains the centerpiece of
(03:44):
the hunter Arian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
in London. John Hunter's contributions to medicine can't be understated.
Thanks to his research, we have a greater understanding of
how our bones develop over time, and how gunshot wounds
and venereal diseases affected By his legacy, However, we'll always
have a large blemish upon it for not letting a
(04:06):
poor young man rest in peace. Just how large, oh,
I'd say about seven and a half feet tall. No
(04:26):
one knows how it got there or its true purpose.
Its builder has left no written records. It has existed
for thousands of years in the middle of a field
in Wiltshire, England, where it draws nearly a million visitors
each year. It's thirteen foot tall stones stands straight up,
each weigh in about twenty five tons, and the method
of its construction continues to baffle historians to this day.
(04:50):
Stonehenge may not be one of the Seven Wonders of
the World, but it's no less on inspiring. When examined
up close. The sheer enormity of the stones does make
people wonder how they were moved and arranged in the
first place. According to twelfth century writer Jeffrey of Monmouth,
King Arthur's faithful wizard Merlin constructed it himself. But although
(05:10):
it sits in a wide open meadow surrounded by grass,
visiting Stonehenge today requires the purchase of a ticket. It
takes a whole team of guards, groundskeepers and restoration experts
to keep the Neolithic structure intact, and that costs money.
I've been there myself and paid the price of admission.
In fact, money is what begins our story in the
(05:30):
first place. During the early fifteen hundreds, King Henry the
Eighth owned Stonehenge after seizing the land upon which it sat.
It eventually passed down to the Earl of Hartford, followed
by countless other owners until eighteen twenty four. At that time,
the site was purchased by a wealthy family from Cheshire,
who maintained ownership for almost a century. Then, in nineteen fifteen,
(05:53):
after the last heir to the land was killed fighting
in France during World War One. The family put the
land up for auction. The auction was held at the
Palace Theater in Salisbury. Of all the people present, one
stood out Cecil Chub. He was born and Shrewden, about
four miles from Stonehenge, and being a successful lawyer, had
become quite wealthy. When the lot was announced, Cecil hadn't
(06:16):
expected to bid, but the more he thought about it,
the better the idea sounded to him. A Lot fifteen
contained a little over thirty acres of land, including Stonehenge itself.
When the final bid was collected, it was Cecil Chub
who came out on top, having spent six thousand, six
hundred pounds. By today's standards, that puts the total at
almost seven hundred thousand American dollars. He didn't hold on
(06:37):
to the property long, though, he believed that such an
iconic and wondrous site should not belong to just one person,
but to a nation as a whole. In nineteen eighteen,
three years after purchasing it, he formally rescinded his ownership
and gave Stonehenge to England, though he also included a
number of conditions. First, all local residents should have free
(06:59):
access to see at any time, and second, outside visitors
should be charged no more than a shilling for entry.
Since then, Stonehenge's value has gone up a bit. Locals
are still allowed to see it at no cost, but
visitors must pay five pounds to gaze upon the stones.
If it were being sold at auction today, it's estimated
that the ancient site could fetch as high as sixty
(07:20):
five million American dollars. Quite a smart investment in hindsight,
but at the time there really wasn't any reason to
own the land other than to build upon it. Chub
had no interest in using the area for new construction,
so why buy it at all? Well, he did it
for the best reason of all, love, of course, love
for his hometown, and love for his wife. He believed
(07:42):
that if anyone was going to own that ring of stones,
it should be a local man, not some company or
investor from overseas. And more importantly, he wanted to give
his wife a special gift, something she could look at
and remember just how much he loved her. As it
turns out, she wasn't thrilled with his last minute per
just which may have fueled his desire to give it
(08:02):
back to England. However, his philanthropic gesture was recognized in
n when he was made a baronet by Prime Minister
Lloyd George, so perhaps the investment paid off after all.
If there is a lesson to be learned here, though,
I think it's this. While it's a good idea to
buy your true love a ring, buying them Stonehenge might
(08:24):
be a bit too much. 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. The show was created by
me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
(08:46):
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. Two
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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