230 THE LION. 



because many of them have been found toothless"* Pompey, the 

 great lion, which died in the Tower in 17 60, was known to 

 have lived there above seventy years ; and one brought from 

 the river Gambia, died in that edifice at the age of sixty-three. 

 The first lioness that visited England died there on Septem- 

 ber 4, 1733} and, according to Noble, she was "very aged," 

 and had annually produced a litter of cubs for several years. 

 Wallace, the splendid and celebrated lion that demolished the 

 dogs which were set upon him at Warwick a few years ago, 

 died at Wolverhampton at the early age of nineteen, in the 

 summer of 1838. From weakness and decay, however, he was 

 a touching spectacle to the beholder for some time before life 

 became extinct. I shall not soon forget the pitiable look of a 

 sick lion, which I lately saw at the Regent's Park Zoological 

 Gardens, a few days previous to its death, arising from a 

 disease of the lungs and the liver. It was feeding time, and 

 the leopards and tigers were growling over their meat as it 

 was dealt out to them ; but this noble patient was lying down 

 exhausted, breathing hard, and quite indifferent to all that was 

 passing around. The keeper approached, and addressing some 

 words of compassion to the animal, flung a fine leg of mutton 

 on the floor of the cage. The lion raised his head, and 

 merely looked at the joint with an indifference that bespoke a 

 loss of appetite j and then resting his head again on his paws, 

 breathed as audibly as before, and gazed on the keeper with 

 a composed but melancholy expression. 



The Bushmen, according to Mr. Lewis Leslie, consider the 

 carcase of a lion delicious meat. Mr. Pringle tells us that the 

 head of the large lion, previously mentioned, was boiled by his 

 orders for the purpose of preserving the skull, and that he 

 tasted the flesh from curiosity. It resembled very white coarse 

 beef, and was rather insipid, but without any disagreeable 

 flavour. 



* History, Natural and Experimental, of Life and Death (1650), p. 8. 



