296 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



Windsor Castle could boast, in the sixteenth century, the 

 possession of an exceptionally fine unicorn's horn, of which 

 more than one description has been preserved for us. That 

 of Hentzner, the tutor of a young German nobleman who 

 made the English tour in 1598, is brief but significant: 

 "We were shown here at Windsor Castle among other Things 

 the Horn of a Unicorn, of above eight Spans and an Half in 

 Length, valued at above £10,000."* An English authority 

 gives a fuller description, noting the special conformation 

 of this horn, and likening it in this respect to that said to 

 have been given by Haroun al Rashid to Charlemagne and 

 preserved in the treasury of St. Denis. It was "seven great 

 feet in length," and was said to weigh thirteen pounds, 

 although when taken in the hands it seemed to be heavier. 

 In form and appearance it suggested an immense wax 

 candle. Of the spiral twists this writer says: "The splents 

 of the spire are smooth and not deep, being for the most part 

 like unto the wreathing turnings of snailes, or the revolutions 

 or windings of woodbine .... but they proceed from 

 the right hande toward the left, from the beginning of the 

 horn, even unto the very ende."t 



That the virtues of these substances were often regularly 

 tested appears from this passage in De Boot's treatise: 



"I saw a horn in the possession of Philibert de Bois, a 

 merchant of Prague, who had received it from the envoy of 

 the Duke of Moscow at Prague as security for a loan of 

 one thousand ducats. However, as this horn was not found 

 to have any virtue against poison, the gem-dealers declared 

 it was not a unicorn's horn, although it bore all the marks 

 of being one. "J 



*"A journey into England, by Paul Hentzner, in the year MDXCVllI"; trans, in 

 Dodsley's "Fugitive Pieces," London, 1765, Vol. II, p. 293. 



tTopsell, "History of foure-footed beastes," London, 1607, cited in Phipson "The Animal 

 lore of Shakespeare's Time," London, 1883, pp. 456, 457. 



fLapidum et gemmarum historia. Lug. Bat., 1636, p 435. 



