Note 336 — Chapter XX · SIGHT-SEEING AND FAIRS

'I took three lads, who are under my Guardianship, a rambling, in a hackney Coach, to shew them the town; as the lions, the tombs, Bedlam.'[336] These were the three great sights of London: the lions at the Tower, the tombs in Westminster Abbey, and the poor mad folk in Bedlam. 'To see the lions' is proverbial, and these had to be visited by every one new to the City. In 1703 there were four, two lions and two lionesses—one with a cub. In this reign three of the lions died almost at the same time, and it was looked upon by some as an event of dire portent. Addison laughingly alludes to the popular idea of something awful happening on the death of a 'Tower' lion, when, in the Freeholder, he makes the Jacobite squire ask the keeper whether any of the lions had fallen sick when Perth was taken, or on the flight of the Pretender. When dead they were sometimes stuffed, as Ward relates. He also says there was a leopard, three eagles, two owls, and a hyena. That was in 1703; and Thoresby, writing in 1709, went to see the 'lions, eagles, catamountains, leopards, &c.' He also relates[337] his experiences of a visit to the Tower itself: 'Walked with Mr. Dale to the Tower; was mightily pleased with the new and excellent method the Records[338] are put into (of which see a letter of the Bishop of Carlisle to me;) and viewed many great curiosities of that nature, and original letters from foreign kings and potentates, upon parchment, and paper as old (reckoned as great a rarity) to the Kings of England, very ancient tallies, Jewish stars, &c., which the obliging Mr. Holms showed me, who also gave me an autograph of Queen Elizabeth, that was his own property; then went to view the several armouries, as that more ancient of the weapons taken in the year 1588 from the pretended Invincible Armada, and those modern from Vigo, and in other memorable transactions of this age; the present armoury for use is put to a surprising method, in the form of shields, pyramids, trophies, &c. Some of the elder and later kings' armour are placed as though mounted on horseback.'