The Tower Menagerie. Edward Turner Bennett
of a white bear; and in the following year to provide a muzzle and chain to hold the said bear while fishing, or washing himself, in the river Thames. In 1255 they were directed to build a house in the Tower for an elephant which had been presented to the king by Louis king of France; and a second writ occurs in which they were ordered to provide necessaries for him and his keepers.
From various orders during the reigns of Edward the First, Second, and Third, we learn that the allowance for each lion or leopard was six pence a day, and the wages of their keeper three halfpence. At later periods the office of keeper of the lions was held by some person of quality about the king, with a fee of six pence a day for himself, and the same for every lion or leopard under his charge. On these terms it was granted by King Henry the Sixth, first to Robert Mansfield, Esq. marshal of his hall, and afterwards to Thomas Rookes, his dapifer. It was not unfrequently held by the lieutenant or constable of the Tower himself, on the condition of his providing a sufficient deputy. There was also another office in the royal household somewhat resembling this in name, that of master, guider, and ruler of the king’s bears and apes; but the latter animals appear to have been kept solely for the royal “game and pleasure.”
During all this period, and even almost down to our own times, the common phrase of “seeing the lions” in the Tower appears to have been almost literally correct, for we seldom hear of any other animals confined there than lions or leopards. Howel tells us in his Londinopolis, published in 1657, that there were then six lions in the Tower, and makes no allusion to any other animals as being at that time contained in it. In 1708 some improvement had taken place; for there were then, according to Strype, no fewer than eleven lions, two leopards or tigers (the worthy historian, it seems, knew not which), three eagles, two owls, two cats of the mountain, and a jackal. Maitland gives a much longer catalogue as existing there in 1754; and this is still further extended in a little pamphlet entitled “An Historical Description of the Tower of London and its Curiosities,” published in 1774. After this time, however, the collection had been so greatly diminished both in value and extent, that in the year 1822, when Mr. Alfred Cops, the present keeper, succeeded to the office, the whole stock of the Menagerie consisted of the grizzly bear, an elephant, and one or two birds. How rapidly and how extensively the collection has increased under his superintendence will best be seen by a reference to the numerous and interesting animals whose natural history forms the subject of the present work. By his spirited and judicious exertions the empty dens have been filled, and new ones have been constructed; and the whole of them being now kept constantly tenanted, the Menagerie affords a really interesting and attractive spectacle to the numerous visiters who are drawn thither either from motives of curiosity or by a love of science.
Such is a brief outline of the history up to the present period of the establishment known as the Tower Menagerie. Of the animals contained in it during the summer of 1828, and of two others which had then recently died, the succeeding pages offer delineations, descriptions, and anecdotes. Among so numerous a collection of inhabitants, of such dissimilar habits, and brought together into one spot from such distant and various climes, some changes have almost necessarily taken place even while our work has been passing through the press; yet so excellent is the management of Mr. Cops, especially as regards cleanliness, that essential security of animal health, that not a single death has occurred from disease, and one only from an accidental cause: the secretary bird, having incautiously introduced its long neck into the den of the hyæna, was deprived of it and of its head at one bite. Other removals are owing to the spirit of commerce. The Cape lion, the chetahs, the Thibet bear, and the deep-blue macaw, have passed into foreign hands, and are now on the continent of Europe. Two of the wolves and one of the Javanese civets have been transferred to the Zoological Society; and the white antelope has also exchanged its habitation in the Tower for the delightful Garden created by that Society in the Regent’s Park.
With the exceptions which have just been enumerated the whole of the animals which are here figured and described are actually living in the Tower Menagerie. Their continuance there affords a test of the fidelity of our work which could not be applied to any production on zoology that has yet appeared in this country, nor, to an equal extent, in any other. As a visit to the Menagerie will enable the reader at once to compare our representations and descriptions with their living prototypes, the imperative necessity of scrupulous accuracy has been deeply impressed throughout the whole undertaking on the minds of those who have been engaged in its completion. In this, it is trusted, they have fully succeeded. To explain the share which each has taken in the work, and to record a debt of gratitude to those kind friends who have assisted in it, is the pleasing duty which it now remains to fulfil.
The whole of the drawings are from the pencil of Mr. William Harvey, who, in seizing faithful and characteristic portraits of animals in restless and almost incessant motion, has succeeded in overcoming difficulties which can only be appreciated by those who have attempted similar delineations. In the portraits he has strictly confined himself to the chastity of truth; but in the vignettes, which have always some reference to the subject of the article which they conclude, he has occasionally held himself at liberty to give full scope to his imagination.
The engravings have been executed throughout by Messrs. Branston and Wright. Determined on securing the accuracy of the representations, they have in every instance compared the proofs with the animals, and have made corrections where necessary until the resemblance has been rendered perfect. In one case alone has a deviation from the original been indulged in: the tail of the ocelot has been figured of the length usual in the species, instead of the truncated state in which it exists in the specimen; the markings of the animal are, however, as noticed in its article, accurately represented.
The literary department has been superintended by E. T. Bennett, Esq. F.L.S., an active member of the Zoological Society, who has arranged for the press the whole of the materials collected from various and authentic sources. To John Bayley, Esq. F.R. and A.S. M.R.I.A. &c. he is indebted for several suggestions in addition to the information contained in that gentleman’s valuable work, “The History and Antiquities of the Tower of London.” To Mr. Alfred Cops, the present Keeper of the Lions, whose meritorious exertions for the increase and improvement of the Menagerie have been already adverted to, he has also to tender his thanks and those of his coadjutors for the facilities constantly afforded to them in the most ready and obliging manner, and for much valuable information relative to the history and habits of the animals.
But especially are his best thanks due for numerous suggestions and much valuable assistance to his friend N. A. Vigors, Esq. A.M. F.R. and L.S., the zealous and talented Secretary of the Zoological Society. To that distinguished zoologist, whose extensive and intimate acquaintance with the animal kingdom at large, and particularly with its feathered tribes, is universally acknowledged, and to other leading Members of the Society to which he devotes his talents and his time, a work like the present appeared not ill adapted to advance the good cause in which they are engaged, the diffusion of knowledge. Under their auspices it was commenced, by their countenance it has been fostered, and it is with the sanction of their approval that it is now submitted to the public eye.
London, Nov. 1828.
THE BENGAL LION.
Felis Leo. Linn.—Var. Bengalensis.
First in majesty as in might, the monarch of the brute creation asserts an undisputed claim to occupy the foremost place in our delineation of the inhabitants of this Royal Menagerie. Who is there to whom his stately mien, his unequalled strength, his tremendous powers of destruction, combined with the ideas generally entertained of his dauntless courage, his grateful affection, and his merciful forbearance, are not familiar “as household words?” When we speak of a Lion, we call up to our imaginations the splendid picture of might unmingled with ferocity, of courage undebased by guile, of dignity tempered with grace and ennobled by generosity; in a word, of all that combination of brilliant qualities, the imputation of which, by writers of all ages, has placed him by universal consent