' Jemmy Hirst and Owd Three Laps'
T. Thompson
(From North)
' Eccentricity', according to Edith Sitwell , 'exists particularly in the English, and partly, I think, because of that peculiar and satisfactory knowledge of infallibility that is the hallmark and birthright of the British nation.' But a sense of personal infallibility cannot be the whole explanation. William Sharp (' Owd Three Laps') took to his bed for forty-nine years because his bride failed to turn up at the church.
Jemmy Hirst , the ex-tanner of Rawcliffe, adopted more active forms of eccentricity-going shooting on a bull, with pigs as pointers, betting with banknotes for fivepence-half-penny (made by himself), and arranging for his coffin to be borne to the grave by eight widows.