204 
LONDON BEARS 
Albany Street barracks, where it was kept chained 
up like a big dog, and treated with all the consideration 
due to a non-combatant member of the corps. A boy 
who was rather a favourite with the men, and used 
to run errands, and make himself useful about the 
barracks, took a fancy to the bear, and was employed 
to bring it its daily rations. One day, when the animal 
was asleep, the boy woke it by pulling the chain, at 
the same time laying the food before it. The experi- 
ence of all those employed in the care of animals, 
whether wild or domesticated, forbids any approach 
without speaking to the creature first. In this case 
the bear, sulky at being wakened, and tethered only 
by a very long chain, seized the lad, and bit and 
clawed him so seriously that he was for some time an 
inmate of the Middlesex Hospital. The bear was 
“ dismissed from the service,” and condemned to 
solitary confinement in a cage in the terrace in the 
Gardens. The ungrateful behaviour of the Guards’ 
bear must not be taken as a reflection on military 
treatment of wild animals, for an almost similar 
instance of the innate surliness of its species occurred 
many years ago in the establishment of one of those 
retired East India civilians whose Oriental habits were 
such a puzzle to the country squires, in the country 
seats in which the retired “ Nabobs ” often chose to 
spend their latter days. The gentleman in question 
had bought an estate in Devonshire ; but it was his 
pleasure always to be waited upon by a “ black man ” 
at dinner, and in the later parts of the evening to 
