Friday, July the 20th, 2007

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Ponderous Coxcombry

From Necropolis : London And Its Dead by Catharine Arnold:

“One of the most spectacular monuments [in Kensal Green cemetery] is the £3,000 tomb of Andrew Ducrow, an Egyptian extravaganza that The Builder dismissed as ‘ponderous coxcombry’. Ducrow (1793–1842) was a showman, ‘the Colossus of Equestrians', who wrestled with lions, re-enacted scenes from Napoleonic battles, and could lift four or five children using nothing more than his teeth.”

We are not told if the children in question were pious Victorian orphans, but I expect they were.