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It is a well known fact that Frederica, Duchess of York, was a huge animal lover and that she kept many pets at her country home, Oatlands Park. In fact, on my last visit to England, I went to Oatlands to see her pet cemetery with my friend Hester Davenport. It was only recently, however, that I discovered that Lady Castlereagh also kept a private zoo. Here is what Mrs. Arbuthnot wrote:

September 4, 1820 – Returned to town, having first seen Lady Castlereagh’s establishment for animals. She has got an antelope, Kangaroos, Emeus, Ostriches and a tiger, which Lord Combermere brought from the West Indies for the Duke of Wellington and which the Duke gave to Lady C. It seemed very vicious and growled at us.

My great, good friend Susan Brown pointed me to the following passage, which she found on  the Regency Reader:

Marked by several contemporaries to be devoted and quite in love, the marriage produced no children. Instead, Lady Castlereagh kept a menagerie of animals at their country home, Loring Hall in iron cages; contemporary George Berkeley said of her pets “ It seems a strange taste for a lady patroness at Almacks, and one of the most distinguished leaders of the beau monde, to attempt to rival Exeter Change in a small country residence…nevertheless at the gay fetes given by her during the season to her innumerable fashionable friends, no part of the entertainment was more popular than the exhibition of Lady Castlereagh’s pets.”

Berekley goes on to suggest that subordinates of Lord Castlereagh at the War Office tried to ingratiate themselves, while stationed abroad in India and Africa, by sending his lady wife a tiger (known to be bad-tempered), armadillo and other wild animals. She also had, as she told an American dinner companion, a mockingbird and flying squirrel–although the mockingbird would not sing. This discomfitted her, as she was wanting to procure a hummingbird from the US but was worried, once on English soil, that “it wouldn’t hum.”
Aside from her more exotic animals, Lady Castlereagh was adoring of her bull mastiffs, who were said to ride in the carriage beside her. It was one of these dogs that created a stir, when one bit Lord Castlereagh after he tried to intervene in a squabble.”

For a brief bio of Lady Castlereagh, I direct you to Wikipedia:

Amelia Anne Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry (20 February 1772 – 12 February 1829), from 1794 until 1821 generally known as Emily Stewart, Lady Castlereagh, was the wife of the Georgian era Irish statesman Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, who from 1812 to 1822 was British Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. Well-connected by birth to the aristocracy and wife of a prominent politician who was Britain’s leading diplomat during the close of the Napoleonic Wars, Lady Castlereagh was an influential member of Regency London‘s high society.

During the Regency of George IV, Lady Castlereagh, along with Lady Jersey, Dorothea Lieven, Lady Cowper, and others, was a Lady Patroness of Almack’s, one of the first and most exclusive mixed-gender social clubs in London. In their role as Patroness, they had great influence over the ton, determining social acceptance by designating who might receive “vouchers” (entrance tickets) to Almack’s, thereby setting and enforcing complex, unwritten social codes of the London social elite.

Recently, Victoria sent me the link to an article written by film critic Roger Ebert about the London he had known in the 1960’s. Like us, Ebert had loved London, spent much time there and was fortunate enough to have uncovered many of the City’s treasures – hotels lost in time, shops that sold bespoke goods, restaurants that were known for their specialty food and a host of the sort of characters who define London. What a treat this article is and now I’m sharing it with you. The only drawback to the piece is that most of the places and people Ebert wrote about are long gone. How I wish I’d been able to book a room at No. 22 Jermyn Street for our upcoming visit. Sigh.

Here’s the link to the article. Enjoy.

Exotic animals owned by members of royalty are nothing new. In centuries past, foreign dignitaries and heads of state often gifted British royals and other diplomats with the rarest animals to be found in their parts of the world. In fact, the Tower of London was for over a century home to many of the specimens that found their way to England in this way until the Duke of Wellington declared that enough was enough and sent them all off to the London Zoo.

What is unusual is that Queen Victoria was once given an elephant – and kept it at Osborne House. From the Osborne House page at English Heritage:

Few members of the royal family have been quite as enthusiastic about their garden as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. At Osborne they were able to indulge their desire for a fashionable garden, drawing inspiration from the gardens of Europe. Osborne offers an intimate glimpse into royal family life, where you can see the vegetable plots tended by the royal children, and the beach where Queen Victoria would go for a dip in the sea. But it wasn’t just the queen who went for dip on the royal estate – upon receiving a gift of a elephant from the King of Abyssinia in 1884, the queen needed a place for the animal to bathe for a few days. It was decided that the existing cattle pond would do, and ever since the pond has been named the ‘elephant bath’!

You can still see the Elephant Baths at Osborne today, in fact, it’s purported to be the only one in Europe and it stands as a hazard on the the 7th hole at the Osborne Golf Club. It should be noted that the elephant wasn’t the only one who enjoyed bathing at Osborne House. In fact, the entire Royal family enjoyed having a private beach of their own and often took advantage of the opportunity for sea bathing. You can read all about it in this Daily Mail article from 2012 about the re-opening of the private beach to the public and the return of Queen Victoria’s bathing machine to the property.



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Victoria here, following up on Kristine’s take on London food…Bangers and Mash?  I think not! For Pub Food, I love Steak and Kidney Pie. Or Shepherd’s Pie. Or a Ploughman’s Lunch of cheddar cheese, bread and pickles…

The British Heritage article on classic London Restaurants (vol. 35, #4) also lists Rock and Sole Plaice, Langham’s Brasserie, and the great seafood restaurant, Wiltons.  And one more that I love: The Albert in Victoria Street (as well it should be).