MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: George Orwell, Common Toads and the Bank of England

What you may well ask is Richard ranting about now? Has he completely lost his marbles? Has his reduction of lithium mid-February down to zero mg been a ghastly mistake?

Oh no my dear friends! On March 19th I visited the People`s History Museum in Manchester and lo! as Charlie Fort would say, I came across  a book of essays by George Orwell (yes,the same George Orwell who wrote Animal Farm and 1984) and the title of the book was `Some Thoughts on The Common Toad`, which happened also to be the first essay in the book, first published in 1946. The essay is really a celebration of Spring and how Orwell hoped that in a Socialist society workers would have sufficient leisure time to enjoy the site of toads and Spring flowers. The interesting thing from a Fortean zoologists point of view is the following sentence:

" As for spring, not even the narrow and gloomy streets round the Bank of England are quite able to exclude it..." 

Earlier, in the 1920s or `30s Charles Fort writes in one of his books about snakes being seen near the British Museum, i.e Bloomsbury in London. Given the huge destruction wrought by Nazi bombs in London during World War 2 it`s surprising that any amphibians or reptiles survived at all. 

The Bank of England is in Threadneedle Street in Central London. Orwell`s essay on the toad was first published in The New Republic of May 20th 1946