Memorials of the Tower of London
De Ros, William Lennox
1866
THE TOWER MENAGERIE.
THE TOWER MENAGERIE.
FROM the earliest times it appears to have been the custom of our kings to collect and keep in the Tower wild beasts of various descriptions, as a sort of appendage to the Palace. The first we hear of this in our Historical Records, was the sending of three leopards to be kept in the Tower, by Henry III., these animals having been presented to him by the Emperor Frederick, in reference to the royal armorial bearings of England. Soon after, the same King placed a white bear in the Tower, with a pension of 4d. a day for his keep, and orders to provide him with a chain and a muzzle for his security, and also " Unam longam et fortem cordam, ad tenendum eum ursum, piscantem in aqua Tamisi&aelif;,"-" a long and strong cord to hold this bear when fishing in the water of Thames." | |
In 1255 the King of France sent Henry III. a present of an elephant, " a beast most strange and wonderfull to the English people, sith most seldom or never any of that kind had been seene in Englond before that tyme." A house or shed was built for him in the Tower, and he and his keeper received a regular allowance from | |
267 | the City of London, on which corporation, by the bye, this King was in the habit of throwing any little extra expense which he did not exactly know how to provide from his own resources. |
During the reigns of the three Edwards, the collection of wild beasts in the Tower was from time to time greatly increased. A lion, belonging to Edward II., had a quarter of mutton allowed daily for his dinner, and his keeper was allowed 1&frac1/2.d a day for his own board; but, by a later order of this King, 9l. 7s. 6d. annually was allowed for the support of the whole of the wild beasts in the Tower. Keepers were now becoming of more necessity and consequence, and in Henry VI.'s reign we find one Robert Mansfield placed over the establishment, with a good salary attached to his office. In Richard III.'s short reign, the office of keeper of the wild beasts was not beneath the acceptance of Brackenbury the Lieutenant of the Tower; and when Henry VII. made Tiptoft, Earl of Oxford, Constable of the Tower, he also conferred on him the distinct charge of Keeper of the lions. | |
It was reserved for James I. to subject these noble creatures to wanton cruelty for the sport of baiting them. He caused three fierce mastiffs to be brought to the Tower, where the King and Queen, with the Prince, and four or five courtiers, placed themselves in the windows of the Lions' Tower to view the savage amusement. | |
The following is the circumstantial account of an eyewitness:-" The King, Queene, and Prince, with four or five Lords, went to the Lions' Toure, and caused the lustiest lion to be separated from his mate, and put into | |
268 | the lion's den one dog alone, who presently flew to the face of the lion; but the lion suddenly shooke him off, and graspt him fast by the neck, drawing the dog up staires and downe staires. The King, now perceiving the lion greatly exceede the dog in strength, but nothing in noble heart and courage, caused another dog to be put into the denne, who prooved as hot and lusty as his fellow, and tooke the lion by the face; but the lion began to deale with him as with the former; whereupon the King commanded the third dog to be put in, before the second dog was spoiled, which third dog, more fierce and fell than eyther of the former, and in despite eyther of clawes or strength, tooke the lion by the lip; but the lion so tore the dog by the eyes, head, and face, that he lost his hold, and then the lion tooke the dog's necke in his mouth, drawing him up and downe as he did the former, but, being wearied, could not bite so deadly as at the first. Now, whilest the last dog was thus hand to hand with the lion in the upper roome, the other two dogs were fighting together in the lower roome, whereupon the King caused the lion to be driven downe, thinking the lion would have parted them; but when he saw he must needs come by them, he leaped cleane over them both, and, contrary to the King's expectation, the lion fled into an inward den, and would not by any meanes endure the presence of the dogs; albeit the last dog pursued eagerly, but could not finde the way to the lyon. You shall understand the two last dogs, whilest the lion held them both under his pawes, did bite the lion by the belly, whereat the lion roared so extreamely that the earth |
269 | shooke withall, and the next lion rampt and roared as if he would have made rescue." The two dogs which had been first engaged in this combat died within a few days, but the third recovered. |
The same writer gives the following particulars respecting the menagerie, and of a second visit made by King James to the lions' den, in June, 1605. " In the spring of this yeare the Kinge builded a wall, and filled up with earth all that part of the mote or ditch about the west sid of the lions' den, and appoynted a drawing partition to be made towards the south part thereof, the one part thereof to serve for the breeding lionesse when she shall have whelps, and the other part thereof for a walke for other lions. The Kinge caused also three trap doores to bee made in the wall of the lyon's den, for the lyons to goe into their walke at the pleasure of the keeper, which walke shall bee maintayned and kept for especiall place to baight the lyons with dogges, beares, bulles,bores, &c. Munday, June 3, in the afternoone, his Majestie, beeing accompanied with the Duke of Lenox, the Earles of Worcester, Pembroke, Southampton, Suffolke, Devonshire, Salisbury, and Mountgomery, and Lord Heskin, Captayne of his Highnesse Guarde, with many knights and gentlemen of name, came to the Lyons' Tower, and, for that time, was placed over the platforme of the lyons, because, as yet, the galleries were not builded, the one of them for the King and great Lords, and the other for speciall personages. The King, being placed as aforesayde, commaunded Master Raph Gyll, Keeper of the Lyons, that his servants should put forth into the walke the male and | |
270 | female breeders, but the lyons woulde not goe out by any ordinary meanes that could be used, neither would they come neere the trap doore, untill they were forced out with burning linkes, and, when they were come downe into the walke, they were both amazed, and stood looking about them, and gazing up into the ayre; then was there two rackes of mutton throwne unto them, which they did presently eate ; then was there a lusty live cocke cast unto them, which they presently killed and sucked his bloud; then was there another live cocke cast unto them, which they likewise killed, but sucked not his blood. After that the Kinge caused a live lambe to be easily let downe unto them by a rope, and, being come to the grounde, the lambe lay upon his knees, and both the lyons stoode in their former places, and only beheld the lamb, but presently the lambe rose up and went unto the lyons, who very gently looked uppon him and smelled on him without signe of any further hurt; then the lambe was very softly drawne up againe in as good plight as hee was let downe. Then they caused those lyons to be put into their denne, and another male lyon only to be put forth, and two lusty mastiffes, at a by doore to be let in to him, and they flew fiercely uppon him, and, perceiving the lyon's necke to be so defended with hayre they could not hurt him, sought onely to bite him by the face, and did so; then was there a third dogge let in, as fierce as the fiercest. One of them, a brended dogge, tooke the lyon by the face, and turned him uppon his backe; but the lyon spoyled them all; the best dogge died the next day." |
Another combat was exhibited on the 23rd June, 1609, | |
271 | when King James, and all his family, with divers noblemen and many others, assembled in the Tower " to see a trial of the lyon's single valour, against a great fierce beare, who had killed a child that was negligently left in the beare-house;" yet neither ' the great lyon," which was first " put forth," nor " divers other lyons," nor " the two young lustie lions, which were bred in that yard, and were now grown great," could be induced to fight, but all " sought the next way into their dennes, as soone as they espied the trap-doores open." A stone-horse, however, which had been turned into the same yard, would have been worried to death by six dogs, had not the King commanded the bear-wards to rescue him. About a fortnight afterwards, the bear was baited to death upon a stage, by the King's order; "and unto the mother of the murthered child was given twenty pounds, out of the money which the people gave to see the bear kil'd." |
It is not easy to imagine a more disgusting display, or a greater mockery of justice and charity, than this niggardly device of the King's for saving his own pocket, by the contributions of a collection of spectators of tastes as brutal as his own. | |
In 1758 George II. had so bad a fit of gout, being then seventy-five, that Lord Chesterfield wrote, -"It was generally thought that H. M. would have died, and for a very good reason, for the oldest lion in the Tower-much about the King's age-died a fortnight ago! This extravagancy, I can assure you, was believed by many above the common people." *[1] So | |
272 | difficult is it for human imagination to assign any bounds, however remote, to human credulity. |
The Tower menagerie was so much in the way of the restorations of the entrance towers and gates, and appeared such an unnecessary appendage to the Royal Palace and Fortress, that in the year 1831 the Duke of Wellington obtained the King's leave to remove it altogether, and to clear away the unsightly dens and sheds with which the entrance was encumbered and disfigured. | |
Footnotes: [1] From Lord Stanhope's History of England. |
