HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
it by a lecture delivered by Mr. Bennett, of Mail- 
ing, concerning prehistoric Kent, and havei con- 
tinued to occupy myself with researches in. this 
respect ever since. From the stone implements 
and tools which I have picked up in my rambles I 
believe that primitive man was very numerous in 
the locality." 
The delicate labour of excavating the remains 
of the mammoth were pursued during the past 
summer by Dr. Andrews, with the assistance of a 
specialist attached to the museum, who is an ex- 
pert in dealing with ancient discoveries of this 
character. As each relic was uncovered, it was 
coated with plaster of Paris, and removed to a 
building close by, some of the bones being im- 
mense, and as many as four men being required 
to lift the shoulder-blade on to a truck for trans- 
port. The toe-bone dug out by Mr. Turner was 
5Jin. by 10|in. , and some of the other measure- 
ments confirm the experts in the belief that the 
animal stood about 15ft. high, with tusks — one of 
which has been excavated uninjured — 9ft. long. 
(The "Illustrated London News," January 8th, 
1916, has most interesting sketches and pho- 
tographs of the World's Biggest Elephant. — 
Ed.) 
FURTHER REMINISCENCES OF 
OLD-TIME SHOWMEN. 
By A. H. Paterson. 
Your photo of old showmen is most interest- 
ing. I call to mind a number of them. I should 
imagine you have a lot of photographs of such a 
crowd that you could run a series of them — say 
one or two a month, with about lfJi or 12l lines of 
copy, just enough to say who they were — with 
birth and death — the show they ran, and one or 
two* hints at events that stood out in their history. 
Talking of menageries ! I can well remember 
the last half dozen shows that occasionally wan- 
dered into East Norfolk. First of all these was 
Edmond's with the magnificent show of horses — 
great huge beasts, with 20 milk-white horses 
to draw the elephant van alone. It was an event 
when they came, talked of weeks before, and a 
fortnight or so after. When it was known they 
were on the 20 mile grind from Norwich to Yar- 
mouth, sporting fellows drove half way to meet 
the show. One, named Drake, a menagerie-mad 
fellow, used to go with a heap ipf stuff in a sack 
to' escort the elephant. His rooms were decorated 
with pictures of animals, and a great litho of Man- 
der's interior hang over the bed-rails. Drovesmen 
and bandsmen and others were regularly feted. 
The band in the Market drew thousands to hear it; 
and the top-hatted bandsmen took themselves very 
seriously. The last waggon always came in with 
a condemned horse behind, round which we boys 
marched in an awe-stricken picket, talking in 
whispered accents about " it being for the lions to 
eat!" 
In 1868 came Mander's magnificent show with 
a rhinoceros, 3 giraffes, and the great Blue-faced 
Mandrill, "captured specially for this show — in 
Abyssinia." This was while the Abyssinian war 
was on. The horses were magnificent; the show 
great. It came to or three years after, a wreck — 
nearly all the horses had died with some mange- 
like disease — it might have been glanders, but I 
forget. And the show built up without a front ! — 
it had been distrained for rent at Norwich. Man- 
ders went the same way his predecessor Hvlton 
died — drink and trouble. 
In 1872 came the nobliest little menagerie of 
the time — Day's Crystal Palace Menagerie, with 8 
waggons and a living waggon. The great feature 
was "Daniel in the Lions Den" — young Dan. Day 
(whom I afterwards saw in Preston in 1884 with a 
decaying show, the chief attraction to me was a 
sick lioness) as a child rode round on Wallace in 
its den. Another feature was a nigger in a coal 
sack who went and boxed and wrestled with a big 
bear — it was a picturesque gag, and to us boys 
a huge gladiatorial display. In 1875 this show 
came again, no larger, but more gaudy. The 
paintings on panels outside were delightfully 
bright and well painted — I think by some one in 
Gloucester. They were real works of art, worthy 
of a genuine artist. Day never came this way 
again. 
Then there were the Bostocks (usually No. 1). 
Old Lady Bostock, plump and pleasant, I admired 
as the Menagerie Queen. I was so eager for show 
work that when but a lad I made up friendly to 
her, and might have been taken on as monkey-bow 
But father's foot was too big" to get away from. 
Old Jack (I think it was), the elephant, was very 
truculent at times, making his keeper stand in 
awe of him — or bolt. No one dare go near the 
pachyderm save Mrs. B., who would waddle up 
into the van, Jack flapping his ears, either in res- 
pect or salutation, or well-feigned terror, while 
she put a chain on his leg, and then he'd stand 
still while she bobbed under his belly and came 
out puffing, theatening- him with dire vengeance 
if he didn't behave himself. Then as< I grew older 
the show came less and less, occasionally with 
three or four years intervals. When it came it was 
working south for the Agricultural Hall at London. 
Always in damp rotten weather, and the usual 
thing was for the sound of pouring rain on the 
canvas outside, and streams running across the 
middle inside, over the hard ground on which the 
show pitched. 
