December 31, 2019 • 11 mins
Sometimes you have to look a story right in the face and decide for yourself whether it's true or not. Today's trip through the Cabinet will give you two chances to do just that.
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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 right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Thomas Rawley seemed to come
(00:29):
out of nowhere. He was a monk from Bristol, England,
in the mid fifteenth century, and his poetry captivated audiences
right from the start. He published his first piece while
he was still in boarding school, and readers loved it.
In fact, his works were likened to Chaucer, but his
influences extended over a wide range of authors from his time.
(00:49):
His beginnings hadn't been as extraordinary though. Fifteen weeks after
Raleigh's birth, his father sadly passed away. His mother did
her best to raise him and instilled in him the
benefit it's of a good education with a focus on
the arts. His father had also been a poet, so
it only seemed fitting that Raleigh would join in the
family business. But Thomas was more interested in his uncle's background,
(01:12):
specifically with regard to the church and the family history within.
He spent his time studying the tombs and examining the
furniture as well as pouring over the centuries of documentation
preserved in the records room. From the very beginning, Thomas
Raleigh was obsessed with legacy, his families and his own.
He wanted people to know his name. Yet, despite his
(01:33):
outward nature, he was very quiet and closed off from others.
He spent much of his time with his nose in
a book or staring into space for hours on end,
lost in his own mind. As he got older, though,
his mother fed his curiosity by inundating him with books
of all kinds. Eventually he realized reading alone would not
quench the desire burning within him. It was time for
(01:55):
him to write books of his own. He started with
religious poems he had published in a local paper called
The Bristol Journal. Within the church's attic, he set himself
up with towers of books and papers pilfered from the
records room. He referred to his little corner of the
world as his study, and it was where he did
much of his writing and reading. Raleigh also made friends
(02:16):
with local book collectors who possessed the volumes he wanted
to study. The more he read, the more he learned,
hoping to one day find a wealthy patron who had
fund his art and help him elevate his mother out
of poverty. There were a few other people of means
who offered to help with the bill for the young
Mr Raleigh, but their checks eventually ran out as they
discovered the work he was producing was not as successful
(02:38):
as they'd hoped. Raleigh then pivoted. He stopped writing poems
and put his pen to more serious topics like politics.
Using a pseudonym, he wrote devastating letters against dukes, earls,
and even princes in an effort to get recognition and
a little money or his work. The letters proved more
lucrative than the poems, but he was amitted to Bristol.
(03:01):
He knew he had to go somewhere larger to find
greater success. He made some money in London, contributing to
publications like Hamilton's Town and Country magazine, but it was
barely enough to get by. He sent what he made
back home to his mother in the form of gifts,
all while networking with other authors in the city for
a leg up, and he wrote. He wrote all kinds
(03:21):
of things, from prose to poems, to biting satire and
even operas, and though he was paid for it. It
was a pittance, not nearly enough to live on. He
went days without food, but his pride prevented him from
taking up his neighbors on their generosity and the pieces
that he had made decent money writing. The letters and
satirical essays were now rendered effectively illegal due to recent
(03:46):
prosecutions in the press. Unable to provide for himself or
his family any longer, Mr Raleigh destroyed his remaining works
and tragically took his own life. It wasn't until after
his death, though, when people learned the truth about Thomas Raleigh.
He didn't actually exist. His real name had been Thomas Chatterton.
(04:07):
He had been born in seventeen fifty two in Bristol,
and his father had died fifteen weeks after he was born.
Almost everything you've heard about his life was true, although
he wasn't a monk and he didn't live during the
fifteenth century. Raleigh had been a persona away for the
teenage Chatterton to have his work published. He was an
expert forger, having written dozens of medieval poems and selling
(04:30):
them as real historical artifacts to unwitting journalists and collectors.
He could mimic the writing styles of countless authors in
a variety of mediums such as poems and essays. He
hadn't plagiarized anyone. All of his pieces, including the full
length manuscripts he had painstakingly aged over a lit candle,
had been conjured from his own mind. He'd only been
(04:52):
seventeen when he had done it, but he couldn't tell anyone.
His lack of money and the notion of never be
being recognized for his talents were what contributed to his downfall,
and the world was worse off for his loss. It
wasn't until many years after his death, when scholars and
authors were debating the merits of Chatterton's work, that he
(05:12):
was finally recognized. He was immortalized in poems by the
likes of Shelley, Wordsworth, cool Ridge and Keats, as well
as plays and operas. Artists painted portraits of him which
now hang in museums all over Britain, and Chatterton's own
poems have been adapted into songs and stories. Thomas Chatterton
(05:33):
produced an incredible library of work during his tragically short life,
though he wasn't able to tell anyone at the time.
His legacy has been preserved so that generations to come
can see how one person with boundless talent managed to
fool the world all before he was old enough to drink. Paradolia.
(06:05):
It's something that we've all experienced, even if the word
is unfamiliar to us, every time we see a shape
in the clouds or a face comprised of the knots
of a piece of wood. We experienced paradolia. In Clearwater, Florida,
in the mid nineteen nineties, the image of the Virgin
Mary appeared in the glass on the outside of an
office building. What many considered an act of divinity was
(06:28):
eventually revealed to be the result of water deposits on
the weathered glass. The Biblical Jesus has also made appearances
in everyday objects, such as cheetos, rocks, and even tortillas.
Now whether these were truly spiritual acts or not is
up for debate, and I will leave that to you
to decide. But for one Spanish woman in nineteen seventy one,
(06:50):
the paradolia she faced was real, But it wasn't Jesus
or Mary that she saw. It was something so much worse. Maria,
her husband, and their son lived in Belmez, a small
village in the coastal community of on the Lucia, Spain.
Maria had been in her kitchen when she spotted a
stain on the floor. Thinking that something had been spilled,
(07:11):
or perhaps been tracked into the house by her son,
she grabbed a scrub brush and started removing the stain,
except she couldn't. It wouldn't come up. The stain grew
bigger as time passed, and Maria noticed something else about
it as well. It was changing. In fact, it was
shifting into much more than just a stain. It had
the appearance of a face, and Maria knew she had
(07:33):
to get rid of it. She tried to scrub it
away again, but did more harm to the floor than
to the stain, which wouldn't budge her. Husband, Juan had
a better idea. He and their son grabbed a pick
axe and started ripping up the floor. Once the whole
thing was in pieces, wand cleared out the debris and
poured a new floor from cement. Soon it dried and
Maria was able to resume her life without the stain
(07:56):
watching her from below. But then it came back. The
problem with the small village is that once one person
knows something, it isn't long before everyone else knows about
it too. News of Maria's floor spread far and wide,
with a mayor himself stepping in to make sure nothing
happened to it. Surveyors were brought in to excavate the
kitchen to find the cause of the stain. It might
(08:18):
have been a leaking pipe in the ground, or even
a spring of some kind that was bubbling up to
the floor. They dug and they dug, eventually locating the
source of the face. When they'd finished, the family were
allowed back into their home and their kitchen floor was
restored to its former glory, and the face did not return.
Weeks later, another face took its place, then another Where
(08:41):
the original stain took days or weeks to materialize, These
new faces appeared over the course of ours. Men, women, children,
Faces of all kinds had taken over their floor. Soon
the faces weren't the only things invading their home. It
was overtaken by curious visitors hoping to see the ghostly
formations for themselves. Everyone from students, the clergymen to the
(09:05):
police came to glimpse what they had dubbed as the
bell Mez faces. The first thought was that the whole
thing had been a hoax. It wouldn't have been the
first time, and the sudden jump from one face to
five or six was severe. Yet there was no evidence
that Maria, her husband, or their son were behind any
of it, which brought the discussion back to what the
(09:25):
surveyors had found beneath the floor in the first place.
During their excavation, diggers had found the remains of several
bodies under the house, dated to be about seven hundred
years old. They told the story of a mass grave
that had been filled in with concrete before the house
was built. On top of the skeletons, some of which
were missing their heads, were moved to a nearby Catholic
(09:47):
cemetery where they were reinterred properly, Yet it seems their
spirits refused to leave the family's home. Scholars attributed the
paranormal activity to Maria herself, claiming that she was forming
something called thoughtography. Basically, Maria's thoughts were manifesting in the floor.
This theory gained steam as researchers realized that the faces
(10:10):
seemed to appear and shift only when she was around.
Others concluded Maria's son Miguel had drawn the faces himself,
using a combination of paint and acid. How a child
was able to figure out how to convincingly pull off
such an elaborate hoax, though, remains to be seen. Maria
passed away in two thousand four. The faces are still
(10:31):
there parts of the kitchen floor, and although everyone has
a theory, the fact is there is no definitive conclusion
as to their origin. Maybe, though, if we're lucky, Maria
will show her face as well and tell us all
about it. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
(10:54):
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
or learn more about the show by visit Curiosities podcast
dot com. 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
(11:15):
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Thomas Rawley seemed to come
(00:29):
out of nowhere. He was a monk from Bristol, England,
in the mid fifteenth century, and his poetry captivated audiences
right from the start. He published his first piece while
he was still in boarding school, and readers loved it.
In fact, his works were likened to Chaucer, but his
influences extended over a wide range of authors from his time.
(00:49):
His beginnings hadn't been as extraordinary though. Fifteen weeks after
Raleigh's birth, his father sadly passed away. His mother did
her best to raise him and instilled in him the
benefit it's of a good education with a focus on
the arts. His father had also been a poet, so
it only seemed fitting that Raleigh would join in the
family business. But Thomas was more interested in his uncle's background,
(01:12):
specifically with regard to the church and the family history within.
He spent his time studying the tombs and examining the
furniture as well as pouring over the centuries of documentation
preserved in the records room. From the very beginning, Thomas
Raleigh was obsessed with legacy, his families and his own.
He wanted people to know his name. Yet, despite his
(01:33):
outward nature, he was very quiet and closed off from others.
He spent much of his time with his nose in
a book or staring into space for hours on end,
lost in his own mind. As he got older, though,
his mother fed his curiosity by inundating him with books
of all kinds. Eventually he realized reading alone would not
quench the desire burning within him. It was time for
(01:55):
him to write books of his own. He started with
religious poems he had published in a local paper called
The Bristol Journal. Within the church's attic, he set himself
up with towers of books and papers pilfered from the
records room. He referred to his little corner of the
world as his study, and it was where he did
much of his writing and reading. Raleigh also made friends
(02:16):
with local book collectors who possessed the volumes he wanted
to study. The more he read, the more he learned,
hoping to one day find a wealthy patron who had
fund his art and help him elevate his mother out
of poverty. There were a few other people of means
who offered to help with the bill for the young
Mr Raleigh, but their checks eventually ran out as they
discovered the work he was producing was not as successful
(02:38):
as they'd hoped. Raleigh then pivoted. He stopped writing poems
and put his pen to more serious topics like politics.
Using a pseudonym, he wrote devastating letters against dukes, earls,
and even princes in an effort to get recognition and
a little money or his work. The letters proved more
lucrative than the poems, but he was amitted to Bristol.
(03:01):
He knew he had to go somewhere larger to find
greater success. He made some money in London, contributing to
publications like Hamilton's Town and Country magazine, but it was
barely enough to get by. He sent what he made
back home to his mother in the form of gifts,
all while networking with other authors in the city for
a leg up, and he wrote. He wrote all kinds
(03:21):
of things, from prose to poems, to biting satire and
even operas, and though he was paid for it. It
was a pittance, not nearly enough to live on. He
went days without food, but his pride prevented him from
taking up his neighbors on their generosity and the pieces
that he had made decent money writing. The letters and
satirical essays were now rendered effectively illegal due to recent
(03:46):
prosecutions in the press. Unable to provide for himself or
his family any longer, Mr Raleigh destroyed his remaining works
and tragically took his own life. It wasn't until after
his death, though, when people learned the truth about Thomas Raleigh.
He didn't actually exist. His real name had been Thomas Chatterton.
(04:07):
He had been born in seventeen fifty two in Bristol,
and his father had died fifteen weeks after he was born.
Almost everything you've heard about his life was true, although
he wasn't a monk and he didn't live during the
fifteenth century. Raleigh had been a persona away for the
teenage Chatterton to have his work published. He was an
expert forger, having written dozens of medieval poems and selling
(04:30):
them as real historical artifacts to unwitting journalists and collectors.
He could mimic the writing styles of countless authors in
a variety of mediums such as poems and essays. He
hadn't plagiarized anyone. All of his pieces, including the full
length manuscripts he had painstakingly aged over a lit candle,
had been conjured from his own mind. He'd only been
(04:52):
seventeen when he had done it, but he couldn't tell anyone.
His lack of money and the notion of never be
being recognized for his talents were what contributed to his downfall,
and the world was worse off for his loss. It
wasn't until many years after his death, when scholars and
authors were debating the merits of Chatterton's work, that he
(05:12):
was finally recognized. He was immortalized in poems by the
likes of Shelley, Wordsworth, cool Ridge and Keats, as well
as plays and operas. Artists painted portraits of him which
now hang in museums all over Britain, and Chatterton's own
poems have been adapted into songs and stories. Thomas Chatterton
(05:33):
produced an incredible library of work during his tragically short life,
though he wasn't able to tell anyone at the time.
His legacy has been preserved so that generations to come
can see how one person with boundless talent managed to
fool the world all before he was old enough to drink. Paradolia.
(06:05):
It's something that we've all experienced, even if the word
is unfamiliar to us, every time we see a shape
in the clouds or a face comprised of the knots
of a piece of wood. We experienced paradolia. In Clearwater, Florida,
in the mid nineteen nineties, the image of the Virgin
Mary appeared in the glass on the outside of an
office building. What many considered an act of divinity was
(06:28):
eventually revealed to be the result of water deposits on
the weathered glass. The Biblical Jesus has also made appearances
in everyday objects, such as cheetos, rocks, and even tortillas.
Now whether these were truly spiritual acts or not is
up for debate, and I will leave that to you
to decide. But for one Spanish woman in nineteen seventy one,
(06:50):
the paradolia she faced was real, But it wasn't Jesus
or Mary that she saw. It was something so much worse. Maria,
her husband, and their son lived in Belmez, a small
village in the coastal community of on the Lucia, Spain.
Maria had been in her kitchen when she spotted a
stain on the floor. Thinking that something had been spilled,
(07:11):
or perhaps been tracked into the house by her son,
she grabbed a scrub brush and started removing the stain,
except she couldn't. It wouldn't come up. The stain grew
bigger as time passed, and Maria noticed something else about
it as well. It was changing. In fact, it was
shifting into much more than just a stain. It had
the appearance of a face, and Maria knew she had
(07:33):
to get rid of it. She tried to scrub it
away again, but did more harm to the floor than
to the stain, which wouldn't budge her. Husband, Juan had
a better idea. He and their son grabbed a pick
axe and started ripping up the floor. Once the whole
thing was in pieces, wand cleared out the debris and
poured a new floor from cement. Soon it dried and
Maria was able to resume her life without the stain
(07:56):
watching her from below. But then it came back. The
problem with the small village is that once one person
knows something, it isn't long before everyone else knows about
it too. News of Maria's floor spread far and wide,
with a mayor himself stepping in to make sure nothing
happened to it. Surveyors were brought in to excavate the
kitchen to find the cause of the stain. It might
(08:18):
have been a leaking pipe in the ground, or even
a spring of some kind that was bubbling up to
the floor. They dug and they dug, eventually locating the
source of the face. When they'd finished, the family were
allowed back into their home and their kitchen floor was
restored to its former glory, and the face did not return.
Weeks later, another face took its place, then another Where
(08:41):
the original stain took days or weeks to materialize, These
new faces appeared over the course of ours. Men, women, children,
Faces of all kinds had taken over their floor. Soon
the faces weren't the only things invading their home. It
was overtaken by curious visitors hoping to see the ghostly
formations for themselves. Everyone from students, the clergymen to the
(09:05):
police came to glimpse what they had dubbed as the
bell Mez faces. The first thought was that the whole
thing had been a hoax. It wouldn't have been the
first time, and the sudden jump from one face to
five or six was severe. Yet there was no evidence
that Maria, her husband, or their son were behind any
of it, which brought the discussion back to what the
(09:25):
surveyors had found beneath the floor in the first place.
During their excavation, diggers had found the remains of several
bodies under the house, dated to be about seven hundred
years old. They told the story of a mass grave
that had been filled in with concrete before the house
was built. On top of the skeletons, some of which
were missing their heads, were moved to a nearby Catholic
(09:47):
cemetery where they were reinterred properly, Yet it seems their
spirits refused to leave the family's home. Scholars attributed the
paranormal activity to Maria herself, claiming that she was forming
something called thoughtography. Basically, Maria's thoughts were manifesting in the floor.
This theory gained steam as researchers realized that the faces
(10:10):
seemed to appear and shift only when she was around.
Others concluded Maria's son Miguel had drawn the faces himself,
using a combination of paint and acid. How a child
was able to figure out how to convincingly pull off
such an elaborate hoax, though, remains to be seen. Maria
passed away in two thousand four. The faces are still
(10:31):
there parts of the kitchen floor, and although everyone has
a theory, the fact is there is no definitive conclusion
as to their origin. Maybe, though, if we're lucky, Maria
will show her face as well and tell us all
about it. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
(10:54):
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
or learn more about the show by visit Curiosities podcast
dot com. 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
(11:15):
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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