INTRODUCTION. XV 
own times, the common phrase of “ seeing the lions” in 
the Tower appears to have been almost literally correct, 
for we seldom hear of any other animals confined there 
than lions or leopards. Howel tells us in his Londino- 
polis, published in 1657, that there were then six lions 
in the Tower, and makes no allusion to any other ani- 
mals as being at that time contained in it. In 1708 
some improvement had taken place; for there were 
then, according to Strype, no fewer than eleven lions, 
two leopards or tigers (the worthy historian, it seems, 
knew not which), three eagles, two owls, two cats of the 
mountain, and a jackal. Maitland gives a much longer 
catalogue as existing there in 1754; and this is still 
further extended in a little pamphlet entitled “An His- 
torical Description of the Tower of London and its 
Curiosities,” published in 1774. After this time, how- 
ever, the collection had been so greatly diminished both 
in value and extent, that in the year 1822, when Mr. Al- 
fred Cops, the present keeper, succeeded to the office, 
the whole stock of the Menagerie consisted of the grizzly 
bear, an elephant, and one or two birds. How rapidly 
and how extensively the collection has increased under 
his superintendence will best be seen by a reference to 
the numerous and interesting animals whose natural 
history forms the subject of the present work. By his 
spirited and judicious exertions the empty dens have 
been filled, and new ones have been constructed; and 
the whole of them being now kept constantly tenanted, 
the Menagerie affords a really interesting and attractive 
spectacle to the numerous visiters who are drawn thither 
either from motives of curiosity or by a love of science. 
Such is a brief outline of the history up to the present 
period of the establishment known as the Tower Mena- 
