1-158-829 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Scene from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolph Erich Raspe, c1850. Munchausen, having tethered his horse to a pole in a snowstorm, in the morning finds the snow gone and his horse tethered on a church spire. Ever resourceful, he breaks the tether with a single shot and his horse falls to the ground, where he remounts and continues on his journey. From The Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolph Erich Raspe. (Paris, c1850). First published London, 1785. Raspe (1737-1794), German scholar and adventurer, published these tall stories when in need of money while exiled in England. They were based on the tales that Karl Friedrich Hieronymous von Munchausen (1720-1797), German braggart and pathological liar, told about his time serving the Russian army fighting against the Turks.