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) entered the record books with his unusually large nose, which measured a whopping 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, even after hundreds of years.
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 cruelly referred to as an "idiot," though not much else is known about the record-breaking Yorkshireman.
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 Wedder's 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 lengthy hooter.
"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.
Understandably, due to the breathtaking nature of the picture and, with Reddit being Reddit, the replies were immediately full of jokes.
One comment 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?"
Other comments, meanwhile, debated other specifics of Wedders' nose, such as the size of his nostrils, which is obviously very important.
"[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.
Another Redditor mentioned that the images of what Wedders is believed to have looked like 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 from Yorkshire could still be holding the world record for the longest nose hundreds of years after his death?
