T is for poor old Toad in today’s #LockdownBestiary (aka ‘Paddock’, ‘Crapaud’). Warty, crawling, despised beast, spitting and pissing venom. Classified by Linnaeus with amphibians, ‘foul and loathsome’ animals. The early modern toad had some friends, but mainly enemies ... Toads barely feature in medieval bestiaries. This 13th-century example, though, has a rubbish toad. But for full medieval horror, Gerald of Wales (c1146–c1223) tells how a plague of toads stalked and killed a sick man, pursuing him up a tree, where they ate up his body.