William Buckland (1784-1856) was the first man to write a full account of a fossil (the Megalosaurus). His love of animals and food blended together into some rather interesting eccentricities.
Buckland maintained a zoo at his home, filled with animals of every kind he could find. The animals were kept there until he could eat them or serve them as food to guests. He claimed to have eaten his way through the entire animal kingdom. He noted that the specimens that tasted the worst were bluebottle flies and moles. Various guests to dinner describe being served panther, crocodile, and mouse.
Augustus Hare reported being with Buckland at Nuneham Park and looking at the silver casket containing the heart of French King Louis XIV. “Dr. Buckland, whilst looking at it, exclaimed, ‘I have eaten many strange things, but have never eaten the heart of a king before,’ and, before anyone could hinder him, he had gobbled it up, and the precious relic was lost for ever.”
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