[Although the reader will scarcely fail to recognise the typographical
amendments contemplated in the Preface to our last volume, we may be
allowed to point attention to the most important change. To give our souls
"elbow-room," we have widened our columns so as to add upwards of two
pages throughout each sheet of our future volumes: that is sixteen pages
of the size of the present will be found to contain as much as eighteen
pages the size of those in our last volume. But the page has not been
widened like the citizen's back--at the expense of the corporation--or of
the public. The whole of the type is new, having been cast, as the
prospectus says, expressly for this work; its face is as brilliant as our
hopes, and so, now, with the reader's permission, Flow on thou shining
river.]
We commenced our last volume with three Vignette Views in the Surrey
Zoological Gardens. The season was then cold and ungenial, the trees
leafless; in short, it was about mid-winter, but the magic pencil of our
artist invested his scenes with all the pride of summer. Upon the present
occasion, our Engravings need not the aid of his creative fancy. The
Gardens are now
made glorious by the summer sun
--the weather and the public are all propitious, and hundreds of gaily
dressed folks are flocking to inspect the zoological and botanical
curiosities of the place.
During the six months since our last visit, Mr. Cross has been
indefatigable. The grounds have been laid out under the superintendance of
Mr. Henry Phillips, the author of _Sylva Florifera_, and it is almost
impossible to give the reader an idea of their beauty and variety. The
avenues to the various buildings are planted with forest-trees, and each
tree and new plant has its name affixed on a tally; a botanical garden, on
a small scale, is, moreover talked of.
But we are forgetting the zoological tenants. The visiter enters by a
broad walk, beside which Parrots, Maccaws, and Cockatoos are uncaged on
perches; so that we may almost say with Montgomery:--
The blossoms swung like blossoms on the trees.
To the right is a semicircular glazed house containing many beautiful
foreign birds, and two Boas, which, from their torpidity, appear nearly as
harmless as their shaggy namesakes that encircle many a fair neck. The
movable aviaries are too numerous to describe; but we must notice, in one
of them, a fine pair of Great Crowned Pigeons from New Guinea; their front
colour is a bright slate, as is that of their crests of fine silky
feathers. We next pass the circular Confectionary room, and reach the
curvilinear glazed building of 300 feet in diameter. (_See the Cut_.) This
has been planned by Mr. Henry Phillips; of the execution we spoke in _The
Mirror_, No. 528. There are four entrances to this well-contrived building.
Immediately within the wall, and all throughout the circle, is a channel
of water containing gold and silver fish; from the margin of which plants
are to be trained up within the glass. Next is a circular range of seats,
then a broad walk, and in the centre of the building are placed the cages
of carnivorous quadrupeds, as Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Hyaenas, &c. The
Lions are especially worth notice: they are African and Asiatic, and the
contrast between a pair from the country of the Persian Gulf with their
African neighbours, is very striking. A sleek Lynx from Persia, with its
exquisite tufted ears, and a docile Puma, will receive the distant
caresses of visiters. The fronts of the cages are ornamented with painted
rock-work, and our artist has endeavoured to convey an idea of the lordly
Lion in his embellished dwelling. The whole building is admirably
ventilated.
Another addition is an octagonal walled enclosure, the entrances to which
are surmounted by pairs of magnificent horns. Here are cages for large
birds, as the Ostrich, Emu, and Cassowary; and foreign _pecora_, as the
Llama and Camel, and a pair of Gnus of great beauty.
Next is an enclosure containing two pair of fine Pelicans, and the
solitary kennels of an Alpine and Cuban Dog: the Armadillo house, with a
pair of eight-banded inmates: near the latter a sty or cage is preparing
for Porcupines. At this extremity of the grounds, is the Deer paddock,
with about forty specimens, among which the Axis or spotted varieties are
very beautiful. We now reach a picturesque group of rock-work, (_See the
third Cut_), the lower part of which is intended for Beavers, the upper
craigs being at present occupied by Vultures and Eagles. The rock-work
consists chiefly of granite, with a few masses of the rock of Gibraltar.
Of the lake, hermitage, and boathouse we have already spoken. The long, or
rather semicircular, glazed building is now finished for the Monkeys, as
is an adjoining house for large birds of prey: here we should notice a
fine Ruppell Vulture, from Senegal, (named after Major Ruppell, the
celebrated traveller in Africa,) a chanting Falcon from Brazil, and a
white Hawk, from New Holland, the latter especially rare in this country.
Among the improvements we ought not to omit the affixing of the scientific
and popular names to the abodes of the respective animals. This is one of
the beneficial results of the honorary aid of Messrs. Swainson and Gray,
the distinguished zoologists.
By the way, there has been in these grounds a Fancy Fair with the laudable
object of aiding the funds for the repair of the Ladye Chapel of St.
Saviour's Southwark. We anxiously hope the _faire ladyes_ were successful
in their appeal to the fancy of their visiters.
* * * * *