Several centuries after he was alive, a Yorkshire man is still holding the record for the world's longest nose.
Thomas Wadhouse (better known as Thomas Wedders) broke the records with his unusually large nose, which measured 19cm (almost eight inches). In fact, he was posthumously awarded the Guinness World Record for the world's longest nose - a feat no one else has been able to conquer yet.
According to The Yorkshireman, Wedders was quite the celebrity in the northern English county. Born in 1730, he appeared in multiple sideshows and circuses across the nation, much to the public's amusement.
At the time, he was sometimes referred to as an "idiot," though not much else is known about the record-breaking man.
One particular article - published in The Strand Magazine, Vol. XI, in 1896 - stated: "Thus, if noses were ever uniformly exact in representing the importance of the individual, this worthy ought to have amassed all the money in Threadneedle Street and conquered all Europe."
"But either his chin was too weak or his brow too low, or Nature had so exhausted herself in the task of giving this prodigy a nose as to altogether forget to endow him with brains; or perhaps, the nose crowded out this latter commodity. At all events, we are told this Yorkshireman expired, nose and all, as he had lived, in a condition of mind best described as the most abject idiocy," the article continued.
Recently, an image of his wax figure from Ripley's Believe It Or Not was posted on Reddit, garnering the interest of thousands of people who were left in awe of his ginormous schnozzle!
"Thomas Wadhouse, born in England, circa 1730, was a performer in various circus sideshows in the mid-18th century. Wedders is chiefly known for having the world's longest nose, allegedly measuring 7.5 inches (19 cm) long," the Reddit post read.
Thousands of users rushed to the comments and, with Reddit being Reddit, many of them were full of jokes. Like this comment that read: "Chiefly known? How else would this guy be known? Oh Timothy have you met the new baker in town? You know the guy, pleasant wife, six children… you must know the fellow. Always wears a hat. Curly haired lad. Still not ringing a bell? You know the guy come on… 12 inch nose."
Another commenter added: "So, why did some hunchback dude get the name 'elephant man' and not this guy?"
Of course, many comments turned into deep discussions on the technicalities of Wedder's nose, with many users questioning how big his nostrils would have been.
"[Hideous] kind of thing here but [were] his actual nostrils the length of the nose? Or normal nostrils and just long a** tip?" someone asked.
Someone else mentioned that the images existing of Wedders don't really give us many clues, adding: "The drawing makes LESS sense to me because it's taking over his entire skull. Otherwise, noses do naturally become longer on the tip as we age (cartilage keeps growing) so the idea of out of control cartilage growth made more sense than his whole face being committed to a nose. But also I'm not an expert at all."
Well, there you have it! Who knew a Georgian-era circus performer could still be holding the world record for the longest nose? I definitely didn't!
