Welsh Journals

THE ECCENTRIC DOCTOR WILLIAM PRICE OF LLANTRISANT (1800-1893) by JOHN CULE This paper was read at a meeting of the History of Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine on March 6 1963, and is published here by courtesy of the Honorary Editors of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. DR. WILLAM PRICE has many claims to immortality, which was the designed consummation of his life of eccentricity. The patients of his general practice were accustomed to his appearance in battle dress, allegedly the uniform of the Welsh mercenaries who so soundly defeated the English at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The coat of bright green, like the trouser, was made of an elegant face cloth, and set off by a brass-buttoned red waistcoat with green-bound scalloped revers. The buttons were specially made and represented his own herd of goats, of which he was extremely proud. These showed on one design a billy goat standing, on another a nanny goat lying down and on a third a standing kid.1 The hat, reminiscent of that of Davy Crockett, was a foxskin and the authority for this he claimed from even greater antiquity. "The fox is represented as one of the first beings in the hieroglyphics of Egypt. The primitive bard and the druids always wore foxskins as head coverings". He lived in an age of antiquarian invention and the doctor was never at a loss for an authority for either his acts or his dress. The scalloped edges of his clothing represented 1 See the dress, portrait, documents, and many other relics in the Dr- William Price Collection at the Welsh Folk Museum, St. Fagan's Castle,. Cardiff. The description of the dress here given owes much to Miss. Penelopen Price. 2 Cardiff Times and South Wales Weekly News, 19 May-23 June 1888.