The Feral Favorite

Peter the Wild Boy was discovered in 1725, naked and walking on all fours in the woods near Hamelin, Germany. He was a feral child who had survived in the wild by eating plants and bark. His discovery caused a sensation across Europe, leading King George I to bring the boy to his royal court in London as a curiosity of nature.

• Peter was placed under the care of various scholars, including the famous Dr. Arbuthnot, to see if he could be civilized.
• Despite intense efforts to educate him, he never learned to speak a single word, though he could hum tunes.
• He became a human pet of the court, often dressed in fine green velvet suits and allowed to roam the palace.

The leading intellectuals of the day, including Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, debated whether Peter was a noble savage or proof of man's animalistic nature. While he never mastered language, he did develop a love for music and a talent for mimicry. He eventually lived out his days on a farm in Hertfordshire, supported by a government pension. His presence at court served as a constant, bizarre reminder of the thin line between civilization and the wild, making him one of the most studied and mysterious figures of the Georgian era.