We here at the Eclectic Eccentric love to buck authority as much as the next blogger, but some times thumbing your nose at the man can escalate rather quickly. Such was the case in 1805 when Lord Byron, who would later go on to become one of history’s greatest poets, enrolled in Trinity College at Cambridge University.
Lord Byron, who inherited his title at the age of ten, was not accustomed to being told what he could and could not do. And so he took it rather sourly when the administration told him that he was not allowed to keep his faithful canine companion in his dorm. Lord Byron was so irritated that he scoured the university rules looking for any loophole he could find to get his dog into school with him. He had no luck finding a way around the provision prohibiting dogs. He did, however, discover to his surprise that there was no mention whatsoever of bears.
Finding a rather tame looking bear at a local carnival, he promptly purchased the animal, put it on a leash, and brought it back to his dorm to live with him. When asked what the university was supposed to do with a bear roaming around campus he replied he believed the bear “should sit for a fellowship”.
Somewhat surprisingly the bear made it through all of Lord Byron’s years of study without incident. Which is more than I can say for my own days at university. So remember the next time you think yourself to be a bit too eccentric that at least you’re not ‘keep a tame bear on a leash in your dorm room’ eccentric. Until next time this has been A Writer’s Tale.