Kenneth Grahame - The League of Gentlemen TV - David Attenborough TV - White Watson’s Stratum of Devon - Arthur C Clarke TV - John Scott - William Shakespeare - Kenneth Grahame - Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia TV -
The clever men at Oxford
Know all that there is to be knowed.
But they none of them know one half so much
As intelligent Mr Toad! Kenneth Grahame, Wind in the Willows
The toad can teach us many lessons. It’s lifecycle is a model of order and simplicity. The League of Gentlemen s1e6: Escape from Royston Vasey, BBC 1999
There are more than 5,000 species of frogs and toads. Attenborough's Fabulous Frogs, BBC 2014
They can hop and climb. They can parachute from the treetops. And burrow deep into the ground. Some seemingly can even walk on water. ibid.
The Midwife Toad is not the only species in which the male takes care of the young. ibid.
It would be truly sad if we lost them. ibid.
The Author is in possession of a dried Toad, that was taken alive out of this Stratus forty yards from the Surface in the Fire Engine Pit at Eastwood colliery, but died immediately on exposure to the air. White Watson’s Stratum of Devon 1811
The Workmen employed some years ago in getting this Marble from the Quarry, on Cowden, near Ashford, on breaking a solid block, found in the midst thereof two Toads alive, at the distance of about six inches from each other, which died immediately on exposure to the air. ibid.
This toad emerged alive from a solid block of coal which had been burning in the hearth of a Mr W J Clark at his home at Bath Street, Rugby. Although it had no mouth and no rectum it lived on for five weeks. Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World. ITV 1980
When I worked in the quarry at Kettlebrook, with Charles Alldridge, we sawed a stone through about four feet thick, quite solid, and in the middle was a toad about the size of my fist, and a hole about twice the size. We took it out, and it lived about half an hour, and then it died. John Scott, letter to The Times 1862
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything. William Shakespeare, As You Like It II I 12
I’m such a clever Toad. Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
This is the story of … Bufo Alvarius the psychedelic toad … 5 MeO-DMT. Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia: Bufo the Psychedelic Toad, Vice TV 2011