THE LIONS IN THE TOWER.
Mr. Editor,—Some one of your readers may be interested in knowing that there was a royal menagerie in the Tower of London in the reign of Edward III. In the Issue Roll of the forty-fourth year of his reign, 1370, there are five entries of payments made to "William de Garderobe, keeper of the king's lions and leopards" there, at the rate of 6d. a day for his wages, and 6d. a day for each beast.—pp. 25. 216. 298. 388. 429.
The number of "beasts" varied from four to seven. Two young lions are specially mentioned; and a "lion lately sent by the Lord the Prince from Gascony to England to the Lord the King."
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[Our correspondent's NOTE is an addition to what Bayley has given us on this subject; who tells us, however, that as early as 1252, Henry III. sent to the Tower a white bear, which had been brought to him as a present from Norway, when the Sheriffs of London were commanded to pay four pence every day for its maintenance.]