CHAPTER XXXV 



ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, BELLE VUE, MANCHESTER 



These well-known Zoological Gardens, occupying some 

 eighty acres on the south-eastern border of the city of 

 Manchester, were founded in June, 1836, by John 

 Jennison, in whose family the property remains to the 

 present time. He had opened a small zoological 

 collection in 1828 at Stockport, when Belle Yue 

 House with land became vacant, and gave a name to 

 his Garden and opportunities for extension. A litho- 

 graph of the Gardens, taken about 1846, shows only 

 cages for domesticated animals and birds, a few parrots, 

 monkeys, and deer. 



On the opening of the London and North-Western 

 Railway to Manchester [circa 1846), the Gardens 

 reached their full dimensions, and an entrance was 

 built to accommodate visitors alighting at Belle Vue 

 Station. The zoological collection still clustered close 

 round Belle Yue House and the bowling-green ; indeed, 

 the main outline and extent of the collection of the 

 early fifties is still visible in the so-called aviary of the 

 present day. It is divided into two compartments. 

 The first is the more interesting. There are cages on 

 three sides, arranged in four tiers — the highest evidently 

 intended for the larger birds of prey, the lowest for car- 



