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- [00:00]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
This is Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford from Therapy for Black Girls. You know that Amazon has millions of books, so you can find one that gives you just the reading feeling you're looking for. You know, like if you're looking for a relaxed feeling, like with a beach read, Amazon has got it covered. Or if you're looking for more of a terrified ah with evil twins or things lurking in the woods or something, Amazon's got you. I mean, even if you want an aw teen romance, Amazon has it covered too. Amazon Books. That reading feeling awaits.
- [00:42]
Aaron Manke
Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of curiosities. In 1851, a young British man visited London on grim business. He had just finished burying his mother and now he had the unenviable task of going through her estate. He was emptying her desk drawer when he found a small black object wrapped in paper. When he realized what it was, he almost dropped it. It was his father's burned and blackened heart. The story of how the heart wound up in that desk begins in 1814 with one of the most quintessentially gothic love affairs in history. It centered on two star crossed lovers. Mary was the 16 year old daughter of a broke novelist. Percy was a young poet who hung around Mary's house, always trying to get her father to look at his writing. He was also 21 and married with a child on the way. Despite the obstacles, Mary and Percy were instantly drawn to one another. They soon began a torrid affair, meeting in secret by her mother's gravestone. Eventually, they decided to make their love public, revealing it to Mary's father and Percy's wife. Neither family took the news very well and Percy was forbidden from seeing Mary ever again. But the young lovers refused to accept defeat. They fled home and spent months traveling abroad in Europe. When they returned, Mary was pregnant. Unfortunately, the child was born premature and died only a few days later. Mary's grief was made worse when news of her affair spread. She and Percy were ostracized by London society. The scandal soon became so overwhelming, the couple decided to flee England again, despite being out of money. It wasn't long before another tragedy struck. Two years into the affair, Percy's wife Harriet was found floating in London's Serpentine River. Having taken her own life, Mary was riddled with guilt over Harriet's death. But it solved a lot of her problems too. She and Percy were married only two weeks later, finally putting an end to the gossip. They were now free to live more or less as they pleased, but still preferred to avoid London, where they felt unwelcome for so long. They traveled often staying in the Italian countryside with Percy's wealthy author friends. Meanwhile, Percy and Mary's relationship continued to face obstacles. They lost two more children to illness, leaving Mary deeply depressed. Percy sought solace outside their marriage. He fathered a child with another woman in 1818 and may have had a separate ongoing relationship with Mary's stepsister Claire. Despite Percy's infidelity, Mary's love was steadfast. While they went through periods of estrangement, she always returned to him eventually, at least until 1822. On July 8th of that year, Percy was sailing off the coast of Italy when he was caught in a storm. The boat capsized and 29 year old Percy drowned. His body washed up on shore where it was found 10 days later. Because it was in the water so long, there were concerns that the body might carry bacteria. It was cremated on the beach and the remains were taken to Rome for burial. At least most of the remains were buried there. For some reason, Percy's heart survived the cremation. This is hard to explain, but it could have been caused by the heart calcifying due to an earlier bout of tuberculosis. For Mary, though, it was proof that her husband's romantic spirit persisted beyond the grave. She brought the organ home, wrapped it in one of Percy's poems and placed it in the top drawer of her writing desk where it stayed until her death. It's a little spooky to think of her sitting at that desk writing away while her husband's calcified heart lay mere inches away. Maybe it inspired her because her writing captured both romance and and horror. Mary was of course, Mary Shelley, best known as the author of the novel Frankenstein. Her husband was Percy Bysshe Shelley, a famous romantic poet. The strange fate of Percy's heart is both an unsettling footnote to their torrid relationship and a romantic symbol of all they endured. After everything they'd been through, scandal, infidelity and even death, their love still burned.
- [05:26]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
This is Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford from Therapy for Black Girls. There are millions of books on Amazon, so there's a reading feeling for everyone. So if you're after that excited haha feeling, like when you discover you have a lot in common with Vikings or something, Amazon has books for you. Or maybe you enjoy the sort of nervous haha that comes when the hero barely escapes the zombies. Or maybe you like the smug that comes when the villain gets what he deserves. You know, Amazon has it all. Amazon Books that reading feeling awaits Gifting.
- [06:01]
US Cellular Ad
Is hard, but here's a Give the gift of connection from US Cellular. Not sure what that means. Here's a slightly more specific you can choose four free phones and get four lines for $90 a month from US Cellular. Your family wants new phones. How do we know? They told us. The good news is that compared to wrapping presents, you're great at getting hints. So take the hint and get them four free phones and four lines for $90 a month. US Cellular built for us.
- [06:37]
Aaron Manke
When a person dies, we remember them in a number of ways. We hold a funeral so that we can bid them goodbye one last time. We might hold a candlelight vigil or donate money in their honor as well. But those who are buried in cemeteries are usually commemorated by way of a plaque or tombstone marking their gravesite. It could be inscribed with the dates of their birth and death, or a heartfelt message of peace and love. But not Sir George Yeardley. His grave was different, and for a good reason. George was born in 1587 in Surrey, England, the son of a merchant tailor from London. But rather than enter the family business, he took a different route for his life. He joined the military. He spent several years at war before seeking new horizons. Quite literally. In 1609, George ventured out to sea with Sir Thomas Gates and a fleet of ships carrying colonists and supplies for an expedition to Jamestown in America. Although their trip took a bit longer than expected, a nasty storm forced their ship to wreck in Bermuda, and it took the crew almost a whole year to build two new ships that would take everyone to Virginia. But they eventually made it. By the time everyone arrived, conditions in the colony had grown dire. Many were already dead from sickness or a lack of food, or from attacks by the local indigenous tribes. But while others took to helping the struggling colony, George was given another he was sent to look for gold and silver in the nearby mountain ranges. Years passed, and in 1616 his hard work and loyalty had earned him the title of deputy Governor of Virginia. Throughout his tenure as both deputy governor and then as governor, George accomplished quite a lot. He secured peace treaties with the Chickahominy Native Americans formed a local governing body, cultivated land with other farmers, and encouraged the construction of a new college. He also married a woman named Temperance Flowerdew. She had arrived in Jamestown the year before her would be husband, and the couple had three children together, Elizabeth, Abigail, and their youngest, a son named Francis. But not everything George did was good or wholesome. He oversaw the introduction of the slave trade to Virginia when a ship carrying dozens of enslaved Africans landed on its shores. The governor then chose to own a number of enslaved persons himself, putting them to work on his private plantation. Sir George Yeardley did not live long. He died in 1627, when he was roughly 40 years of age. His body was laid to rest in Jamestown and adorned with a large grave marker made of polished black limestone. It was a significant grave, too, likely of some great expense, given that it had to be quarried, cut and imported from Europe. The stone featured a carving of a knight in armor, to its left, a curly symbol that resembled a backwards question mark, and to the right, the imprint of a shield. When first installed at his grave, these carvings would have been covered by brass overlays, each with intricate details. But record of who the stone had belonged to had been lost for four centuries, leading many to speculate as to who the owner might have been. Well, In September of 2024, we finally got our answer. Researchers determined that Sir George Yeardley had in fact been the original recipient of the gravestone following his death and burial in Jamestown. But they didn't obtain this information by testing his remains for traces of DNA. There was none to test after such a long period of time. Instead, they pored through documents and records dating back to the 1600s, figuring the shape on the stone was a knight. They looked at all deceased Englishmen from the 1620s who had been knighted, and this led them straight to Yeardley. As for the stone itself, the researchers were also able to find out that it was over 300 million years old and had come from either Ireland or Belgium. It would have been very expensive and chosen by Yeardley or someone close to him in order to show off just how rich he really was. But there's something else about Sir George, a fact that sets him apart from all others in both Jamestown and the rest of America. His grave is so old, it's believed to be the first in the country ever to be marked with a gravestone. And that fact, well, it kind of rocks. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities Podcast. The show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series and television show, and you can learn all about it over@theworldoflore.com and until next time, stay curious.