A fencer in college, I became interested in the history of the sport, and in my 'research' I discovered a man reputed to be one of the greatest fencers of the 19th century: Sir Richard Francis Burton. In subsequent reading I discovered, in my opinion, the most fascinating person of that or any other century. His swordsmanship was incidental; Burton was foremost an explorer, Orientalist, anthropologist, linguist, translator, author, and scholar.
Burton was a man of immense learning and erudition and possessed remarkable physical charisma. It was written he had dark, "questing panther eyes" (that he used at times to hypnotize women) and a physique like a prize fighter, with broad shoulders and a deep-chested, often sardonic, sometimes sad laugh.
How could one not love someone who, when frustrated by the attempts of his parents to make him learn the violin, smashed the instrument over the head of his teacher? Who became known as "Ruffian Dick" for challenging his classmates to duels? Who preferred to spend his time with gypsies and prostitutes than with his fellow students?
At Oxford Burton showed a marked lack of respect for most of his dons, who lacked his expertise and genius for languages. "I am among grocers!" he wrote home to his mother. (Of course, he used the French 'epiciers'.) When finally expelled from Oxford, he drove his horses and wagon over the flowerbeds and through the town blowing a trumpet! A Renaissance figure of a man in the Victorian period, he found himself surrounded by prudes and fools and lesser men than he.
This site is an admittedly modest homage to Burton and to the Burton scholars whose work I value and have enjoyed, for those who want to learn more about one of the more interesting footnotes of the 19th century ...
W.W. Hagerty Library, Drexel University, Annals of Sir Richard Burton©
