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An entertaining and enlightening history of Britain's first zoo: the Tower of London menagerie. When King Henry III was given three leopards by his new brother-in-law, Frederick, the Holy Roman Emperor, he ordered -- in desperation -- that they be sent to the Tower of London, his great fortress by the bank of the Thames. After all, where does one keep such things? Soon after the leopards' arrival in 1235 they were joined by an even greater wonder, a huge Norwegian polar bear which was encouraged to catch its own food from the river to save on upkeep expenses. And over the next 600 years -- until the menagerie was closed down by Wellington in 1835, a few years before it became clear he had an interest in the soon-to-open London Zoo -- the Tower played host to thousands more exotic creatures, all brought from overseas by returning explorers or VIP guests. Daniel Hahn's charming history of the first zoo explores the uses and abuses of the menagerie and the legion of Great and Good who came to behold its wonders, from William Blake, who came to look at the 'tygers', to John Wesley, who played his flute to the Tower lions in an attempt to establish if they had souls. Fascinating and ins… (more)
User reviews
As we know by now, I read a lot of older (1950s-1980s) pony books - so when I found a couple of more contemporary ones in a charity shop, I picked them up to have a try. This was quite traditional, in that there is a
Since there's not a huge amount of
Witty and amusing, and certainly worth a reading as a quick introduction to the subject.
The author mocks anyone and anything he can't explain: the
Many times throughout the book, he comes to completely wonky and opposite-of-common-sense conclusions. For instance, several times he talks about people seeing and drawing dragons---yet he insists they're not real. I don't know, but an eye witness is a pretty solid piece of evidence in a court trial---let alone many over several centuries. 3/4 or so in, I was ready to be done.
All that aside, I did learn a lot. I was especially intrigued by the bestiaries---I didn't know about those. I also thought it was really strange that more concern was given to animal welfare than to that of children during Victorian times.