She rode zebras around Victorian London and bought her own artillery - Lady Meux

She was a village butcher's daughter from Devon who reinvented herself twice, married into one of Britain's greatest brewing fortunes, and then drove around Victorian London in a carriage pulled by zebras.

In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Lady Meux, quite possibly the most eccentric woman in Victorian London, and a masterclass in what happens when high society refuses to accept you and you simply buy your way past it.

What You'll Hear in This Episode:

🦓 The zebras – she had a high phaeton pulled by zebras, animals nobody has ever properly tamed, and drove it through the West End past the hats, horses and chimney smoke

🎭 Two complete reinventions – born Susie Langton, she arrived in London in the 1870s with no connections, no money and a brand new name, and worked her way into the theatrical world before marrying a baronet-to-be in secret

🏛️ She bought Christopher Wren's arch – when Temple Bar was dismantled and dumped in a builder's yard, she bought it and had it re-erected as the front gate of her country estate

🇪🇬 1,700 Egyptian antiquities – a serious collection, catalogued by an actual Egyptologist, which she tried to leave to the British Museum. They turned her down, so she sold the lot

💥 She bought her own artillery – told that British forces at Ladysmith were under-gunned in the Boer War, and refused by the authorities, she went directly to Armstrong and paid for a battery of field guns herself

💰 The inheritance twist – with no children, she left the entire brewing fortune to an army officer who'd simply come round and told her about the war, on one condition: he had to change his name

If you love eccentric history, Victorian scandal, self-made outsiders and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.

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Produced by Ben Fairclough

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