There is a building on Philpot Lane in London that has two mice attached to an outside ledge, both nibbling on, or fighting over, a piece of cheese. The structure was built in 1862, but no one knows when the mice were added. The two rodents have quite a story behind them. It is said that two workers got into a fight during the building's construction, when one accused the other of stealing his lunch. A shoving match led to one of the workers falling to his death, although some versions of the story have both workers dying. During the commotion afterward, someone saw what happened to the lunch in question- it was taken away by two mice.
Is there any truth to the story? Ian Mansfield looked into the tale's history, and found that the first documented account was in 1975, but also found reasons why contemporary accounts might not exist. What he didn't find is any information about who installed the sculpture. Still, the veracity of the story now matters less than the fact that the sculpture and the story have become a part of Philpot Lane's culture. Read up on the two mice and the cheese at Ian Visits. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: Loco Steve)
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