Major Percy Marlborough Stewart (1871-1962) was a Cambridge-educated adventurer, tourist, big game hunter scholar, teacher, shark fisherman, philanthropist, country landowner, soldier and landscape gardener, amongst other things. Today I went to visit some lakes and gardens he built on his estate and later bequeathed to the townsfolk of Pocklington, North Yorkshire. I also visited a museum dedicated to his many round-the-world trips.
“I suddenly said to my wife: ‘We’re terribly dull people, let’s travel around the world and then we shall have something to talk about.’”
I bought a book about his life. He was pretty badass. Here are some things I’ve found out about him so far:
- He bought, on impulse, a giant piece of redwood tree (15ft long, 12ft diameter) for $100 from the Seattle, had it shipped to Hull via Cape Horn in South America, and then had a special railway truck constructed to transport it inland to his estate, where it was carved into a summer house.
- In 1908, he was dining with his wife in a hotel in Mexico City when an earthquake struck. Whilst diners fled, he coolly took out his pocket watch and timed the duration of the earthquake.
- Whilst shark fishing at Honolulu in 1906, he caught a 17ft bullnose shark using a dead horse as bait.
"Drunk at the matinee" is a collection of candid poetry about stupid shit that we all experience from day to day.
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