VI 



AT THE "ZOO" 79 



In later days, when he had been elected President, he always 

 did his best to encourage the better housing of the animals. 

 The building of the new lion house and the new reptile house 

 were both a source of great satisfaction to him. The nocturnal 

 animals, as every visitor regrets to find, are, as a rule, almost 

 invisible or very torpid by day. For the benefit of some special 

 friends who were really interested in the subject he formed a 

 party to visit the Gardens at night in order to see the nocturnal 

 creatures in their waking hours. He always thoroughly enjoyed 

 taking people to the Gardens who showed a real interest in or 

 appreciation of what they saw. I think amongst the very last 

 whom he so conducted was the King of Siam, the titular " Lord 

 of Elephants " in his own country. 



Occasionally things from the Gardens found their way to our 

 house. Once it was an ostrich egg, fresh laid, which was to be 

 cooked. It took half an hour to boil, and then the shell was 

 found to be so hard that it had to be cracked open with a 

 hammer. Finally it was decided that it should be placed on a 

 salad and sent up in that form. It was considered by us a great 

 success. A baby tiger which died was also sent to Lincoln's 

 Inn Fields. It was stuffed and kept as our ne plus ultra nursery 

 schoolroom toy. Unfortunately a puppy destroyed it one day 

 when we were out. 



I mentioned our visits to the Museum in the evening when 

 we were children. 



I often think of the contrast between our mode of enjoying 

 ourselves there and the different form of pleasure found by the 

 guests whom our father and mother used to ask there to the 

 many parties which they gave in the Museum, when the whole 

 place was brilliantly lighted up and full of "grown-ups" in 

 evening costume enjoying the novelty of meeting in such 

 unusual surroundings. We used to see a good deal of many of 

 the visitors to our house. I remember the poets Longfellow, 

 Lowell, and Browning; Dean Stanley, who was one of the 

 closest friends of the family; Charles Darwin, and such dis- 

 tinguished foreigners as Virchow, Schliemann, Agassiz, and the 

 black King George of Bonney. 



One day, coming in from our play in the gardens, we found a 



