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Was Dick Whittington ever more than a pantomime favourite? Was Spring-Heeled Jack a circus acrobat or a stranded extra-terrestrial? And why did a family on the Isle of Man think that a mongoose was telling them what to do? Eugene Byrne explores the tales of eight of Britain's most famous mythical figures...
Published: 1 The garrotting panic of 1862 Victorian London was a sprawling metropolis, an imperial capital, the nerve-centre of the mightiest nation on Earth. Yet it was also a city wracked by fear. Confronted by rapid industrialisation, crowded slums and graphic media reports of a thriving criminal underbelly, many Londoners may have come to the conclusion that danger lurked in every shadow. And a single mugging in 1862 apparently confirmed their fears. Advertisement On 17 July, Hugh Pilkington, the Liberal MP for Blackburn, was walking home from a late sitting in the Commons when...