Fawsley Hall and the Elephant man -John Merrick

  I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am a man! 

 John Merrick

THANK YOU MY FRIENDS BEATA and ALISON for INSPIRATION to KNOW about THIS STORY THE ELEPHANT MAN

I heared about this story during visiting Fawsley with Beata first time. She told me the story about John Merrick. The story was so interesting for me that I decided to explore this topic. She show me the house with one room where probably "the Elephant man" stayed during visiting Fawsley Hall. Unfortunately I couldn't see  this house inside but I visited this place. I need to thanks Alison who told me about visiting John Merrick in Fawsley Hall. 

 

The Elephant Man is the true story of a child born in Victorian England in 1862. His features were grotesque and he was of an unusual size, due to a congenital disorder. He has incorrectly been called John Merrick, when his correct name was actually Joseph Carey Merrick. As an infant, he appeared completely normal. Bumps started to appear on the left side of his body at the age of three. His mother died when Joseph was twelve and he was unwanted by his stepmother. He was forced to forage a living for himself on the streets of London.

This photograph was circulated to members of the public c. 1889 as a Carte de visite. This photograph was first published in The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity by Ashley Montagu. Image: Royal London Hospital Archives via WikiCommons

 He was sent to the workhouse on two occasions. He finally was able to secure a position as a sideshow performer in the circus, where he was billed as the freak show. 

 Sideshows were made illegal in the United Kingdom in 1886, putting Merrick out of work. He traveled to Belgium where he did obtain work in a circus, but he was badly mistreated. The manager of the show stole his money and abandoned him in Belgium, but he was able to make his way back to London. At this time he was ill, suffering from bronchial problems that made it difficult for him to speak. Once he was in London, he decided to contact the doctor, whose business card he had kept all those years. The doctor set him up in private quarters in the hospital and he was able to live quite comfortably.

 He was a favourite of Queen Victoria. In the summer of 1887, Merrick spent time vacationing at the Fawsley Hall estate, Northamptonshire. Special measures were taken for his journey there as he was forced to travel in a carriage with blinds drawn. Merrick enjoyed his time away from urban London greatly and collected wildflowers to take back with him to London. He visited Fawsley Hall again in 1888 and 1889.

 He visited this estate several times over the next two years where he loved spending time outdoors collecting wild flowers and enjoying the beauties of nature. He remained living at the hospital until his death at age 27. His death was the result of the accidental dislocation of his neck because it was unable to support the immense weight of his body as he slept on his back.

 During his life, doctors diagnosed Joseph as suffering from a condition known as elephantiasis. However, Ashley Montagu, in his book on the life of this man, suggested that the disorder was a genetic one known as von Recklinghausen’s Disease, which is caused by a single mutated gene in the body. In 1986 another theory was put forward that Merrick suffered from Proteus Syndrome, which is a disorder that causes the growth of tumors on the body. As recently as 2001, it was suggested that both these diagnoses were correct and that Merrick was suffering from a combination of the two.

[ http://scotdir.com/arts-and-humanities/is-the-story-about-the-elephant-man-john-merrick]

[http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/joseph-merrick-the-elephant-man/]

I will come back to this topic after visiting  the Royal London Hospital where Merrick’s preserved skeleton was previously