Tower Menagerie [Hardcover]

Daniel Hahn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2003

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 insightful in equal measure, The Tower Menagerie is both an intriguing survey of our changing attitudes to animals and a hugely entertaining canter through six centuries of British history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Tower of London's Menagerie got started in 1235 when the Holy Roman Emperor gave England's Henry III three leopards; over its history it housed an array of animals from polar bears and lions to exotic birds and snakes. Because the records from the early years are sparse, London writer Hahn had little to work with when it came to describing the daily operations of the menagerie. Some insights are astounding (the drink of choice for Tower elephants was wine), but Hahn's coverage of bureaucratic issues like the salaries of the animals' keepers does little to convey a true sense of the menagerie. Still, Hahn creates a feeling of its impact on society when he uses the Tower's animals as a starting point to discuss our understanding of the animal world, and he offers intriguing anecdotes about how animals and their characteristics have become engrained in our culture and vocabulary. For instance, Hahn points out that bear and bull stock markets get their names from the way each animal fights when baited by dogs. Widening the scope of the book with entertaining trivia, off-beat tales and cheeky asides, Hahn manages to create a credible, living history from a collection of long-departed beasts and birds. Illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Daniel Hahn's engaging book is not just a history of that collection, but of people's attitudes to the animal kingdom in general...I loved the idea of John Wesley wooing lions with flute music to check whether they had souls' The Sunday Telegraph, 18/1 'Hahn's fascinating book covers a giddy spectrum of oddity' Big Issue in the North 'Funny, painful and fascinating' Independent on Sunday 'Entertaining' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE 'Highly enjoyable' CONTEMPORARY REVIEW --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743220811
• ISBN-13: 978-0743220811
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,195,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read!, June 9, 2004

By 

PK (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tower Menagerie: The Amazing 600-Year History of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts Kept at the Tower of London (Hardcover)

This isn't really a book about a zoo. Amazingly, it's more of a trip through various years of human history with the zoo as a recurring reference. Daniel Hahn manages to weave in and out of people, ideas and events and pulls them together in a way you wish your history teacher had done back at school.

In a sprightly fashion, we get a complete picture of six centuries of human development and man's relationship with animals. This is done through various stories linking culture, science and politics.

As a quick sample: we learn how John Wesley had flute music played to the animals to determine if they had a soul; we cover the continuous links between lions and the British monarchy; there is political intrigue and concern at Darwin's theory of evolution; and we find out the origin of bull and bear stock markets.

This brings me to, what I call, the information-on-the-side in this book, which acts as a wonderful source of interest. Daniel Hahn gives Oliver Sacks a run for his money with his fascinating asides and footnotes and then wins hands-down by making them some of the funniest things ever written.

This book is a delight from start to finish. It's thoughtful, fascinating and packed with history, insight and wonderful observations. I urge you to read it - you'll love it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lions and Tigers and Bears- OH MY!, September 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Tower Menagerie (Hardcover)

Funn. The animals and the characters each seem to have a personality. Different periods of history without allowing hte book to drag. Famous people are woven seemlesly into a consistent story.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating little slice of history, July 2, 2009

By 

Whitt Patrick Pond "Whitt" (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tower Menagerie: The Amazing 600-Year History of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts Kept at the Tower of London (Hardcover)

Daniel Hahn's The Tower Menagerie: The Amazing 600-Year History of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts Kept at the Tower of London is a fascinating look at a little known but highly interesting slice of history. Hahn is not a professional historian and the book reflects that, but at the same time he has put together a very readable account on a subject that crosses a number of historical, scientific and cultural threads.

It was difficult to decide how many stars to give this book. I was tempted to give it only 3 stars as I felt it lacked the thoroughness that a professional historian would have shown, but at the same time I was also tempted to give it 5 stars for sheer uniqueness; there is, to my knowledge, only one other book dedicated solely to the topic of the Tower of London's menagerie, and that book is out of print. I settled on 4 stars for being readable, informative and in many places highly entertaining.

Hahn may be forgiven for some of the book's spotty coverage on parts of the menagerie's medieval period as he, like any other researcher, can only research what was actually written and there are precious few resources to consult on the subject for that period. Hence the book's tendency towards an anecdotal style. That said, however, the book is filled with fascinating anecdotes that in themselves reveal a lot about the times the menagerie passed through, from the bizarre beliefs that people once held (that unicorns and dragons were as real as rhinos and giraffes, that elephants could only drink wine in the winter, that ostriches lived on a diet of nails), to the use of menageries as displays of royal and national prestige, and later, to the growth of what would ultimately be the public entertainment industry.

To give you an idea of the kind of anecdotes you'll find in this book, this one deals with the gift of a polar bear to England's Henry III by the king of Norway:

"This unprecendentedly awkward gift arrived in London with its keeper in the autumn of 1252. And... it certainly lost no time in capturing the attention and imagination of the people of the city. At first the sherriffs of the City of London were asked (told) to provide money towards the animal's food and keep... but after a year or so of this expense... the people of London were wisely instructed to invest in a muzzle, chain and rope, so that the animal could be kept on the bank of the Thames and could fish for his own food.
-- Along with the animal's new fishing outfit, the sheriffs paid for a thick wrap for his devoted keeper, who was expected to accompany him into the Thames on his fishing expeditions (quite why remains a mystery); on less energetic days the bear could always fish from his place on the bank, doubtless to the relief of his put-upon companion.
-- Foreign visitors coming to London for diplomacy or trade in the mid-thirteenth century, approaching by boat as most did, would have seen an extraordinary spectacle as they reached the Pool of London:... a large polar bear sitting lazily in the sun, casually pawing salmon out of the water."

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of menageries, zoos, historical attitudes and knowledge regarding animals, royal pasttimes and entertainments, and of course the Tower of London and the many different functions it served. I would like to see a more thorough work on the subject be done someday, but for now, this book will serve as a good and entertaining introduction.