Dorset Museums 3 - The County Museum

No toads were harmed in the making of this reconstruction...!

This is a story of a toad; a toad in a bit of a hole, you could say... so those of you with a nervous disposition better switch to another blog.
 In the 19C James Buckland self-styled doctor of King's Stag near Cerne claimed to cure scrofula with the use of toad bags. An unsuspecting toad's head was pulled off and its still wriggling body put in a bag around the patients kneck. The shock assured a cure (of the patient, not the toad)...the cure's popularity was such that a toad shortage was created meaning that patients had to make do with toad portions rather than a whole toad.
Each year during a spring full moon Buckland hosted a Toad Fair where his wife and daughter clad in white would hand out his cure to the afflicted.
He was up the (tad) pole if you ask me...