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There had been a Royal menagerie at the Tower of Londpn for hundreds of years ~ this volume perhaps captures it at its zenith.
And as the author writes '... the whole of the animals which are here figured and described are actually living in the Tower Menagerie' - although he innumerates one or two losses - the Secretary Bird [see images] 'having incautiously introduced its long neck into the den of the hyeana , was deprived of it and its head in one bite' and a few creatures, the Thibet Bear, the Cape lion the chetahs, the deep blue macaw, two wolves, a Javanese civet and the white antelope which had been brought or transferred.

There are 60 illustratioons of the inmates and some small tail pieces etc.

Full of anecdotes of the creatures 'Characters and History' this is a fascinating and engaging book - although if you were an inmate, often a grim, barred place to live.

9 by 6 inches this volume has been rebound - no doubt by the one time owner whose book plate adorns the pale emon endpapers, one Berkley Cole Wilmot Williams of Herringston [a name to conjur with] - with a leather spine and pale lemon paper coloured boards which inevitable have become shelf worn and marked. The binding is however strong - and will last for another two hundred years!

241 pages

Full of charming illustrations.