mencement of 1876 they were removed to more spacious and comfortable quarters in a new "lion house," which is situated a little farther to the south, not far from the ponds set apart for the seals and sealions. The noble beasts made the journey, not in a sort of quiet and sober procession, and as they are seen in pictures of Bacchus and his attendant train, but in closed boxes, with slipped sides, into which they were tempted by the sight of some extra slices of meat. they were transported This done, 283 unfortunately struck her foot against the top of the railing, and was precipitated backwards; the fall proved fatal, for, upon examination, it was found. she had broken her spine. The grief of her partner was excessive, and, although it did not show itself with the same violence as in a previous instance, it proved equally fatal: a deep melancholy took possession of him, and he pined to death in a few weeks." The writer tells us that these lions, during the voyage, behaved with so much suavity and good humour, that THE MONKEY-HOUSE. Amusements," published in the year 1840, tells | ordinary symptoms of fear and antipathy at the sight the following story, which shows the king of beasts in an amiable light:-"The lion in the collection of the Zoological Gardens was brought, with his lioness, from Tunis, and, as the keeper informed us, they lived most lovingly together. Their dens were separated only by an iron railing, sufficiently low to allow of their jumping over. One day, as the lioness was amusing herself with leaping from one den to the other, whilst her lord looked on, apparently highly delighted with her gaiety, she "leave its cards on the "little stranger;" so that there was hardly an exaggeration in the words of a poem, by Theodore Hook, in Blackwood: "The folks in town are nearly wild Whose proper name is Chimpanzee. He's dressed in a cap and a Guernsey shirt; The Tory poet then describes, in graphic colours, imaginary visits paid to the chimpanzee by Lord Melbourne, Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, Lord Glenelg, the Speaker, and the other ministers of State "Lord John came up the other day, Attended by a lady gay, 'Oh, dear!' he cried, 'how like Lord T. ! I can't bear to look at this chimpanzee.' The lady said, with a tender smile Fit all his sorrows to beguile, 'Oh, never mind, Lord John: to me You are not in the least like a chimpanzee!' "Glenelg mooned up to see the brute, Of distant climes the rarest fruit, And said to the keeper, 'Stir him up for me: "The Speaker next, to make him stare, Proceeded, dressed as he is in the chair; 'I hope no offence, but I think that he Takes you for the late Mrs. Chimpanzee. "Lord Palmerston, just turning grey, Came up to gaze, and turned away, He'll make a most Cupid-like chimpanzee.' "Lord Melbourne cantered on his hack Said Melbourne, and bowed to the chimpanzee." The poet ends by a suggestion that perhaps the Ministry itself might do well to give place to so clever a creature: "For if the King-God bless his heart- No doubt he'll send for the chimpanzee." Three other specimens of the chimpanzee have been exhibited here since then, but they have never suceeeded in obtaining the attention which was bestowed on their predecessor; the last died in 1875. The most important block of buildings in the gardens are those which contain the collection of the larger animals, such as the hippopotamus, the giraffe, and the elephants, &c. The fact of hippopotami having been on many occasions exhibited by the Emperors of Rome in the great displays of wild beasts which were presented to the people in the circus, was a sufficient proof that the animal could be transported from its haunts in the Nile with success. And, therefore, although 1,500 years had elapsed since the last recorded instance of this kind, the Council of the Zoological Society, in the year 1849, undertook, with considerable confidence, the operation of carrying one from Upper Egypt, all attempts to obtain it on the west coast having proved futile. By the influence of the Hon. C. A. Murray, then Agent and ConsulGeneral at Cairo, his Highness the Viceroy, Abbas Pasha, was induced to give orders that this object should be effected; and in the month of July in that year a party of hunters, specially organised for the purpose, succeeded in capturing a calf of some three days' old on the island of Obaysch, in the White Nile. When found in the reedy covert to which the mother had confided him, the hippopotamus, who now weighs at least four tons, was of such small dimensions that the chief huntsman took him up in his arms to carry him to the boat from which his men had landed. Covered, however, with a coat of slime, more slippery than that of any fish, the calf glided from his grasp, and struggled to regain the safe recesses of the river. Quicker than he, the hunter used the gaff-hook fastened to his spear, of the same model as that used for a like purpose at the mouth of the Nile 3,000 years before, and struck him on the side, and safely held him. From Obaysch, many hundred miles above Cairo, the hippopotamus travelled down in charge of the hunters and a company of infantry, who finally landed him at the British Agency in the month of November, 1849, and in May of the following year he was landed on English soil. A special train conveyed him to London, every station yielding up its wondering crowd to look upon the monster as he passedfruitlessly, for they only saw the Arab keeper, who Regent's Park.] THE ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 285 then attended him night and day, and who, for largest ever made; and the bear-pit has always want of air, was constrained to put his head out been a centre of attraction, especially for juveniles, through the roof. The excitement created by the in order to see the grizzly monsters climb the arrival of the hippopotamus was immense; the "ragged staff" and catch the biscuits and other number of visitors to the gardens suddenly rose edibles that are thrown to them; but the most from 168,895 in 1849 to 360,402 in 1850; and attractive feature of the gardens, however, in the the population of London thus attracted to the eyes of children, is the monkey-house, in which establishment as suddenly discovered that it con- there are three large cages full of spider-monkeys, tained an unrivalled collection of the most interest-ring-tailed, black-fronted, and white-handed lemurs, ing and instructive character, in which, if, as often dog-faced baboons, apes, the sacred monkey of happened, they failed to see the hippopotamus, the Hindoos, and other species. Their frolics in they still had the rhinoceros and a vast number of other objects to occupy them, which were scarcely, if at all, less attractive. The hippopotamus, which thus became a household word, for many years continued to be a prime favourite with the public; and the arrival of his mate, the more juvenile "Adhela," in 1853, did not diminish his attraction. Professor Owen published a report on the new acquisition, which formed so great an attraction. Macaulay writes thus of him in 1849:-"I have seen the hippopotamus, both asleep and awake; and I can assure you that, asleep or awake, he is the ugliest of the works of God." It may be added that two hippopotami have been born in the gardens: the first died, and is to be seen stuffed, in the rear of the giraffe house; the second, who is called "Guy Fawkes," was born on the 5th of November, 1874. The first living giraffe which appeared in this country was transmitted to George IV., in 1827, by Mohammed Ali, Viceroy of Egypt. It lived, however, only a few months in the menagerie at Windsor. Seven years afterwards, the Council of the Zoological Society succeeded in obtaining four specimens from Khordofan, where they were captured by M. Thibaut. This acquisition cost the society upwards of £2,300, including £1,000 for steamboat passage; and the female produced six fawns here between 1840 and 1851. The reptile-house was fitted up in 1849. The creatures are placed in large plate-glass cases; here are pythons and rattlesnakes, and a variety of other species, some of which have produced their young in the gardens. Several years ago some serpents were exhibited which were taught to dance. This, however, was nothing new, as the same thing was exhibited in 1778 by a foreigner at "Bartlemy Fair." On one occasion a keeper in the gardens was killed by the bite of a cobra di Capello, a large Indian serpent; and some years ago a large boa-constrictor swallowed a blanket, and disgorged it about a month afterwards. summer, and on a fine warm sunny day in winter, cause the pathways round the cages to be crowded with visitors, watching their ever-varying antics, and occasionally mischievous tricks. It would be well for many a lady's bonnet if its wearer had never approached too near to the bars of the cage of these light-fingered gentry. But every winter makes sad havoc in their numbers, as few of the specimens survive more than a couple of years; dying mostly of consumption or from lung disease, in spite of the admirable arrangements for warming their house. The orang-utan, named "Darby," brought from Borneo in 1851, was the finest specimen of his class that had, up to that time, been seen in Europe; he is stated to have been "very intelligent, and as docile as a child.” Then, again, the elephants are never forgotten, and a ride on the back of one of these monsters, as he paces slowly round his paddock, is a sight as pleasing to adults as it is enjoyable for the young. Usually there are three or four elephants here, either Asiatic or African. With these animals the Council of the Society has been somewhat unfortunate: in 1847, died here the great Indian elephant, "Jack," after having been in the gardens sixteen years; one died in 1875, and another, about the same time, broke the end off the proboscis of its trunk. In 1881-2 no little excitement was aroused by the sale of one of the elephants, "Jumbo," to Mr. Barnum, the American showman. Adjoining the stable is a tank of water, of a depth nearly equal to the height of a full-grown elephant, in which they bathe on warm summer afternoons. Although every means has been tried to induce the breeding of elephants here, it has, so far, met with no success whatever. Another great attraction of the gardens is the seal-pond, in which three or four of these "monsters of the deep" may be seen daily playing their gambols, just as on the shores of South Wales or of Brittany. They are most attached and obedient to the keeper-a rough-hewn French coast-guardThe collection of bears is said to be one of the man, who, when he feeds them publicly, makes them perform all sorts of amusing feats-climbing and crested paroquets, at 15s. and 10s., and a chairs, &c. common heron at 10s. The books kept daily at The parrot-house, in the northern section of the gardens, is well worthy of a visit, containing, as it does, every variety of the painted inhabitants of the woods of South America and Australia. The screaming and screeching of these not very tuneful-namely, a list of such birds, beasts, and fishes as songsters, when they are heard in chorus, may reconcile us to the dull plumage of our native birds, and teach us that there is a law of compensation not only for human beings, but for the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. The obituary of the gardens for the year 1873, which we make as a sample for that of most years, included not only a rhinoceros and the little hippopotamus already mentioned, but a seal, an ostrich, and the old and venerable lion "Nero," who died peacefully and quietly, not of any disease, but of sheer age. We might add that, if inquests were held on the bodies of beasts, it would have been the duty of a jury to bring in a verdict of "Wilful murder" against the British public in the case of the seal and the ostrich, the former of which was killed by swallowing a bag of nuts thrown to it by some schoolboys, without cracking the shells; while the latter was shown, upon dissection, to have met its end by twenty-one penny pieces which it could not digest, although it was an ostrich. The climate, it is true, has something to do, at times, with the longevity of the animals: for instance, some fine white oxen from Italy, the gift of Count Cavour, are now all dead, reminding the classical reader of the well-known line of Virgil "Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus Victima." require medical attendance. In one corner of the gardens, not easily found by chance visitors, is a small and unobtrusive dissecting-room, where the carcases of such animals as die from natural causes are made subservient to the purposes of anatomical science. In 1875 an extensive addition was made to the gardens, by inclosing about four acres of land on the north side of the canal, which is crossed by a bridge, thus enabling the society to open an additional entrance in the Outer Circle of the Park, nearly opposite the foot of Primrose Hill. In these gardens were lodged, in a temporary building, the collection of beasts and birds brought back by the Prince of Wales from India, in 1876, including several tiger cubs, goats, sheep, dwarf oxen, and dwarf elephants, as well as several varieties of the pheasant tribe. We may add, in conclusion, that Regent's Park is, and must be, at a disadvantage when compared with the other places of fashionable resort in London; and although crowds of the bon ton flock to the fêtes at the Botanical Gardens, and lounge away their Sunday afternoons at "the Zoo" in the season, yet it never will or can become really “the fashion," as the tide sets steadily in a south-west direction. "The Regent's Park, above all," writes the Viscomte d'Arlingcourt, in his account of a visit to Some huge white oxen from India, however, now England in 1844, "is a scene of enchantment, in the gardens, thrive well and multiply. During the year above mentioned (1873) the list of new arrivals comprised upwards of 1,000 entries, including births, purchases, donations, exchanges, and 66 deposits." Among these was a handsome lioness, which was purchased in Dublin, and which, shortly after reaching Regent's Park, presented her new masters with a litter of four cubs. where we might fancy ourselves surrounded by the quiet charms of a smiling landscape, or in the delightful garden of a magnificent country house, if we did not see on every side a countless number of mansions, adorned with colonnades, porticoes, pediments, and statues, which transport us back to London; but London is not here, as it is on the banks of the Thames, the gloomy commercial city. It should be added that at intervals a "dupli- Its appearance has entirely changed. Purified cate list" of animals is issued and circulated by from its smoke and dirt, and decked with costly the secretary of the society; one of such lists splendour, it has become the perfumed abode of now before us (dated September, 1872) includes a the aristocracy. No artisans' dwellings are to be large variety of specimens, ranging from the Indian | seen here: nothing less than the habitations of elephant (offered at £450) down to ring-necked princes." Situation of Primrose Hill, and its Appearance in Bygone Times-Barrow Hill and the West Middlesex Waterworks-The Manor of ChalcotMurder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey-Duel between Ugo Foscolo and Graham-Primrose Hill purchased by the Crown, and made a Park for the People-The Tunnel through the Hill-Fireworks in Celebration of the Peace in 1856-The Shakespeare Oak-Lady Byron's Residence-Chalk Farm-Duels fought there-The Wrestling Club of Cumberland and Westmoreland-The Eccentric Lord Coleraine-The Old Chalk Farm Tavern-The Railway Station-Pickford's Goods Depôt-The Boys' Home-The "York and Albany" Tavern-Gloucester Gate-Albany Street-The Guards' Barracks-Park Village East-Cumberland Market-Munster Square-Osnaburgh Street-Sir Goldsworthy Gurney-The "Queen's Head and Artichoke "-Trinity Church. a "park for the people," and its associations are the reverse of aristocratic. The hill lies on the north side of the park, and its name still bears testimony to its rural and retired situation, when its sides were covered with brushwood and an undergrowth of early spring flowers. Going back to the time of the Roman settlers, we find that when they planted their colony on the banks of the Thames and founded London, most part of the northern district consisted of a large forest filled with wolves and other wild animals. Early in the thirteenth century the forest of Middlesex was disafforested, but although portions were cleared, St. John's Wood, as we have already seen, remained sufficiently dense in Queen Elizabeth's reign to afford shelter and concealment to Babington, the conspirator, and his associates. At that time, however, the slopes of Primrose Hill were used as meadow land, and were probably in the mind of writers who allude to the many "haicockes in July at Pancredge" (St. Pancras), as a thing known to everybody. This district dates back to very early times, if we may accept the name of Barrow Hill-formerly Greenberry Hill-which lies on its western side, as evidence that it was once the scene of a battle and place of sepulture for the slain. There was formerly a Barrow Farm, and Barrow Hill itself "The definite history of the place," says a writer in the Builder, "dates from the time when 'sundry devout men of London' gave to the Leper Hospital of St. James (afterwards St. James's Palace) four hides of land in the field of Westminster, and eighty acres of land and wood in Hendon, Chalcot, and Hampstead. Edward I. confirmed these gifts, but in course of time dissensions arose between the convent and the Abbey of Westminster, which Henry VI. brought to an end by giving the custody of the hospital into the hands of the provost and fellows of his newly-founded college of Eton, and with it the before-mentioned acres. In the twenty-third year of Henry VIII.'s reign the hospital was surrendered to the king, who turned it into a manor-house. The property of Chalcot and its neighbourhood was probably of little value, and no doubt the Eton authorities had not much difficulty in getting it into their own hands again." More than two centuries pass away, farmhouses are built, and the manor of Chalcot is divided into Upper and Lower, which are described as the Chalcots. Towards the close of the year 1678 the eyes of all England were directed towards this retired and lonely spot, for there had been discovered the dead body of Sir Edmund Berry |