This item appeared as an entry in the Victorian publication Curiosities of London: exhibiting the most rare and remarkable objects of interest in the metropolis; with nearly sixty years personal recollections by John Timbs, John (1801-1875).
Publication date: 1867
Publisher London : J. C. Hotten
The digitised edition was scanned by the University of California Libraries with sponsorship of MSN.
Note that the scanning process frequently fails to render characters correctly.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY GARDENS,
Upon the north-west side of the Regent’s Park, consist of a triangular garden south of the outer road, and a northern garden upon the banks of the Regent’s Canal : they are connected by a tunnel beneath the road, and their extent is about 17 acres. The soil being originally the London clay very near the surface, was cold and damp, and, for a time, caused great mortality among the animals of the Menagerie ; but the whole has been thoroughly drained and tastefully planted.
The Zoological Society was instituted in 1826, “for the general advancement of zoological science.” It had been proposed:
“The great objects should be, the introduction of new varieties, breeds, and races of animals, for the purpose of domestication or for stocking our farm-yards, woods, pleasure-grounds, and wastes ; with the establishment of a general zoological collection, consisting of prepared specimens in the different classes and orders, so as to afford a correct view of the Animal Kingdom at large, in as complete a series as may be practicable; and at the same time point out the analogies between the animals already domesticated, and those which are similar in character, upon which the first experiments may be made. * * * * Should the Society flourish and succeed, it will not only be useful in common life, but would likewise promote the best and most extensive objects of the Scientific History of Animated Nature, and offer a collection of living animals such as never yet existed in ancient or modern times.” — Prospectus, privately circulated, 1824.
Among the founders of the Society were Sir Stamford Raffles, Sir Humphry Davy, Earl Darnley, Sir Everard Home, Mr. Davies Gilbert, Dr. Horsfield, the Rev. W Kirby, Mr. Sharpe Macleay, and Mr. N. A. Vigors ; and into the new Society merged the Zoological Club. At the same time was commenced the formation of a Museum, at No. 33, Bruton-street, with the magnificent collection of Sir S. Raffles. A plot of ground in the Regent’s Park was granted to the Society by the government, and laid out by Decimus Burton, who also built the first houses and inclosures for the animals. Sir Francis Chantrey took great interest in the Society, and the embellishment of the Gardens. In 1827, the lake in the Park, with its islands and water-fowl, and a site for breeding and rearing, were likewise granted to the Society. The Gardens were first opened to the public in 1828, by members’ orders, and one shilling each person ; and during seven months there were upwards of 30,000 visitors : there were then in the Menagerie 430 animals ; and the year’s expenses were £10,000.
Among the earliest tenants of the Menagerie were a pair of emus from New Holland; two Arctic bears and a Russian bear; a herd of kangaroos; Cuban mastiffs and Thibet watch-dogs ; two llamas from Peru ; a splendid collection of eagles, falcons, and owls ; a pair of beavers ; cranes, spoonbills, and storks; zebras and Indian cows; Esquimaux dogs ; armadillos ; and a collection of monkeys. To the collection have since been added an immense number of species of Mammalia and Birds, lists of which are appended to the several annual Reports. To these was added, in 1849, a collection of Reptiles ; and in 1853, a collection of Fish, Mollusea, Zoophytes, and other Aquatic Animals. Among the royal donors to the collection are the Emperor of Russia, the late Queen of Portugal, the Viceroy of Egypt, and Queen Victoria. In 1830, the menagerie collected by George IV. at Sandpit-gate, Windsor, was removed to the Society’s Gardens ; and 1834 the last of the Tower Menagerie was received here. It is now the finest public Vivarium in Europe.
The following are some of the more remarkable animals which the Society have possessed, or are now in the Menagerie : —
Antelopes, the great family of, finely represented. The beautiful Elands were bequeathed by the late Earl of Derby, and have bred freely since their arrival in 1851. The Leucoryx is the first of her race born out of Africa. Ant-eater, Giant, brought to England from Brazil in 1853, and was exhibited in Broad-street, St. Giles’s, until purchased by the Zoological Society for 200?. (See the admirable paper by Professor Owen.) Apteryx, or Kiv>i bird, from New Zealand; the first living specimen brought to England of this rare bird. The Fish-house, built of iron and glass, in 1853, consisting of a series of glass tanks, in which fish spawn, zoophytes produce young, and algaj luxuriate; Crustacea and mollusea live successfully, and ascidian polypes are illustrated, together with sea anemones, jelly- fishes and star-fishes, rare shell-fishes, &c. : a new world of animal life is here seen as in the depths of the ocean, with masses of rock, sand, gravel, corallines, sea-weed, and sea-water; the animals are in a state of natural restlessness, now quiescent, now eating and being eaten. Aurochs, or European Bisons : a pair presented by the Emperor of Russia, in 1847, from the forest of Bialowitzca : the male died in 1848, the female in 1849, from pleuro-pneumonia. Bears : the collection is one of the largest ever made. Elephants : including an Indian elephant calf and its mother. In 1847 died here the great Indian elephant Jack, having been in the gardens sixteen years. Adjoining the stable is a tank of water, of a depth nearly equal to the height of a full-grown elephant. In 1851 the Society possessed a herd of four Elephants, besides a hippopotamus, a rhinoceros, and both species of tapir ; being the largest collection of pachydcrmata ever exhibited in Europe. Giraffes : four received in 1836 cost the Society upwards of 2300/., including 1000Z. for steamboat passage : the female produced six male fawns here between 1840 and 1851. Hippopotamus, a young male (the first living specimen seen in England), received from Egypt in May, 1850, when ten months old, seven feet long, and six and a half feet in girth ; also a female hippopotamus, received 1854. Humming-birds : Mr. Gould’s matchless collection of 2000 examples was exhibited here in 1851 and J852. Iguanas, two from Cuba and Carthagena, closely resembling, in everything but size, the fossil Iguanodon. The Lions nu.nber generally from ei-’ht to ten, including a pair of cubs born in the gardens in 1853. Orang-utan and Chimpanzee : the purchase-money of the latter sometimes exceeds 3002. The orang ” Darby,” brought from Borneo in 1851, is the finest yet seen in Europe, very intelligent, and docile as a child. Parrot-houses, the, some- times contain from sixty to seventy species. Rapacious Birds : so extensive a series of eagles and vultures has never yet been seen at one view. The Reptile-house was fitted up in 1849 ; the creatures are placed in large plate-glass eases : here are pythons and a rattle-snake, with a young one born here; here is also a case of the tree-frogs of Europe: a yellow snake from Jamaica has produced eight young in the gardens. Cobra de Capello, from India: in 1852, a keeper in the gardens was killed by the bite of this serpent. A large Boa in 1850 swallowed a blanket, and disgorged it in thirty-three days. A one-horned Rhinoceros, of continental India, was obtained in 1834, when it was about four years old, and weighed 26 cwt.; it died in 1850: it was replaced by a female, about five years old. Satin Bower-Birds, horn. Sydney : a pair have built here a bower, or breeding-place. Tapir of the Old World, from Mount Ophir ; the nearest existing form to the Paleotherium. Tigers : a pair of magnificent specimens, presented by the Guicowar of Baroda in 1851 ; a pair of clouded tigers, 1854. The Wapiti Deer breeds every year in the Menagerie.
The animals in the Gardens, although reduced in number, are more valuable and interesting than when their number was higher. The missions of the Society’s head- keeper, to collect rare animals for the Menagerie, have been very profitable. The additional houses, from time to time, are very expensive: the new monkey-house, fittings, and works cost 4842?.; and in 1864 the sum of 6604?. was laid out in permanent additions to the establishment. In 1863, the income amounted to 20,284?. 12s. lie?. — a sum unexampled, except in the two Exhibition years ; but the income of 1864 reached 21,713?. 13*. 10c?. The visitors of all classes to the Gardens during the year 1864 were 507,169 — a number falling little, if at all, short of that of the visitors to the British Museum, which is open to the public gratuitously. The yearly income of the Society may now be reckoned, under ordinary circumstances, to reach the amount of 20,000?. ; and the ordinary expenses of the present large establishment, 17,000?. The greater part of the above large sum is produced by the shillings and sixpences taken at the gates of the Society’s Gardens for the admission of visitors. In 1864, upwards of 12,700?. accrued to the Society’s revenues in this way, and the corresponding amount in each year generally exceeds 10,000?. Visitors on Mondays and holidays, who pay only sixpence a head, contribute by far the larger proportion of this sum — their numbers being much more than double those of the visitors on the other days of the week who pay one shilling each.
The number of Fellows and Annual Subscribers at the close of 1866 was 2459. Income, 24,379/. Visitors, 527,349. Animals in the Menagerie, 2013; Quadrupeds, 535; Birds, 1305; Keptiles, 173. Expenditure, 22,418/.; cost and keep of Animals, 1409/. Menagerie expenses, 1058/. Provisions, 3837/.— New Buildings and Works, 3983/.
The Society’s Museum, which is in the South Garden, is described at p. 606. An excellent Guide to the Gardens is published.
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, SURREY,
These were established in 1831, by Mr. Edward Cross, upon the demesne which had been attached to the manor-house at Walworth. Thither Cross removed his menagerie from the King’s Mews, where it had been transferred from Exeter Change. The Gardens were laid out by Henry Phillips, author of Sylva Florifera ; when a glazed circular building, 100 feet in diameter, was built for the cages of the carnivorous animals (lions, tigers, leopards, &c.) ; and other houses for mammalia, birds, &c. Here, in 1834, was first exhibited a young Indian one-horned rhinoceros, for which Cross paid 800Z. ; it was the only specimen brought to England for twenty years : in 1836 were added three giraffes, one fifteen feet high. To the zoological attraction was added a large picture-model, upon the borders of the lake, three acres in extent : the first picture, Mount Vesuvius (with the natural lake for the Bay of Naples), was produced in 1837, when fireworks were also first introduced, for the volcanic eruption ; in 1839, Iceland and its volcanoes; 1841, the City of Rome; 1843, Temple of Ellora; 1844, London and the Great Fire of 1666 ; 1845, Edinburgh ; 1846, Vesuvius, reproduced ; 1848, Rome, reproduced ; 1849, Storming of Badajoz. These picture-models, mostly painted by Danson, were of great extent ; that of Rome occupying five acres, and a painted surface of 260,000 square feet. They probably originated in the Ranelagh spectacles of the last century j for in 1792 was exhibited there Mount Etna, 80 feet high, with the flowing lava, and altogether a triumph of machinery and pyrotechnics. Balloon-ascents, flower-shows, and other sights, with out-door concerts, were added to the attractions of these Gardens. In 1856, the property was sold, the Menagerie removed, and there was built upon the site the Surrey Music Hall