Rookmaaker, L.C., 1997. Evidence of a rhinoceros at Hay-Market in 1737. Newsletter of the Bartlett Society 1997 July: 2
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Captive |
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Captivity - Before 1800 |
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All Rhino Species |
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Evidence of a rhinoceros at Hav-Market in 1737 'From Africa always something new': and the same applies to England and to historical studies. I have been studying rhinoceros literature for years, and the exhibition of these animals in Europe in past centuries has always interested me. The following advertisement has just struck me as a great surprise.
Now to be Seen, At the George Inn in the Hay-Market, at 1 s. each Person, A Great female RHINOCEROS, landed within a month from on board the Shaftesbury, from the East Indies. This extraordinary Animal is in its full Strength and Beauty, being four Years old, and in Height four Feet nine Inches, and nine Feet and three Inches round her Body; she has a large Horn on her Nose, and three Hoofs to each Foot; its Skin is scaled all over, and so hard and well folded as to secure from any Hurt by other Beasts, and not hinder its Motions. If any Person is dispos'd to treat for it, they may deliver their Proposals at the Inn, directed to Capt. Canet, the Owner.
This is a clipping in a collection of newspaper advertisements, newspaper and date unknown. But 'Shaftesbury', the name of the ship rings a bell. There is a coloured drawing of a rhinoceros copied by George Edwards from an unknown original, with explanation: 'This Beast dy'd in the Passage from East lndia to England, on board the Shaftsbury, Captain Matthew Bookey commander - Anno 1737, and was drawn after Death by a Gentleman on board' (figured in T.H. Clarke, The Rhinoceros from Direr to Stubbs 7575- 7 799, London 1 986, p.42). The animal in this drawing is a male. The advertisement refers to a female, otherwise one could suggest that they were exhibiting the stuffed skin. Another rhinoceros arrived in London on first June 1739 on the ship Lyell, exhibited in Red Lyon Square and studied by James Parsons. It is strange that Parsons never said anything about a rhinoceros presumably alive in London in 1737, although there is one strange remark in his paper of 1743 (p.535) in the Philosophical Transactions: 'We need say no more of the female Rhinoceros, that came over since, but that she is exactly like this [male of 17391 in all respects, except the sex.' This passage has always bothered me. It is most unlikely that Parsons could have seen the Dutch Rhinoceros which arrived in Holland on 22 July 1741, because ships of the Dutch East lndia Company did not usually pass a British harbour, and even then, was the animal really taken on shore? On the other hand, to write in 1743 about a female rhinoceros 'that came over since seems unlikely to refer to one on show in 1737. It is my hope that further study of the sources may reveal the truth about the newspaper advertisement presumed to date to 1737 quoted here. Kees Rookmaaker
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Evidence of a rhinoceros at Hay-Market in 1737
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