George IV and his giraffe

George and his giraffe

The 18th century was a period of scientific curiosity and investigation. One of the most prized curiosities was the giraffe, live specimens of which strange beast had only been seen once in Europe. In the 15th century, one of the Egyptian rulers had sent a live one to Lorenzo de Medici, who had it paraded around Florence. It makes an appearance in several frescoes in that city. After that, even a dead one was seen as a generous gift. Some people believed that the giraffe was a cross between a camel and a leopard, based on the name the Romans had given it, cameleopard.

There had been a royal menagerie at the Tower of London since the Middle Ages. As early as 1252 a polar bear was kept there, a gift to King Henry III from the King of Norway, along with leopards and lions. Indeed, the building named Lion Tower gives us a clue to what was kept there. During the reign of King George III there was a private royal menagerie at the Sandpit Gate in Windsor Great Park. Here could be found Clara the rhino, Chunee the elephant and Queen Charlotte’s bad tempered zebra.

In 1827 the viceroy of Egypt sent three giraffe calves as gifts to the King of France, Emperor of Austria and King George IV of Great Britain. Transport was always going to be a problem, for the poor creatures are fragile and not easy to transport. Previous attempts to export them had ended in their deaths. The viceregal gifts were captured in the Nubian desert in 1826, strapped onto the backs of camels and thus carted off to Khartoum and then by boat down the Nile to Alexandria.

The giraffe destined for King George was small and sickly. It was sent first to Malta with two attendants and two cows to keep it supplied with milk. Here she spent the winter, before being put abroad the Penelope Malta for her voyage to London. We are told that a hole was cut in the ship’s deck to accommodate her long neck. Several weeks later, having survived the treacherous Bay of Biscay, the Penelope Malta arrived at Duchy of Lancaster Wharf by London Bridge. She stayed in a warehouse for a short time whilst a container was made in which to take her to Windsor, where the king eagerly awaited her arrival.

By 1827 King George was ill, obese, depressed and a recluse, spending most of his time at The Royal Lodge. His great enjoyment was to go out to the Sandpit Gate menagerie of ‘gentle animals’ in his pony chaise, accompanied by his equally large mistress Lady Conyngham. He was thrilled when the giraffe, ten and a half feet high, arrived, and spent hours with her. It became his new obsession. There is a famous caricature showing him and Lady Conyngham riding the giraffe. Impossible because the giraffe’s legs had been injured on the voyage. There is another showing the king, surrounded by the symbols of his obsessions, prominent amongst them, and being fondled by the king, was a model of a giraffe. In addition the the menagerie George loved to go fishing on the lake at Virginia water, or sit by its banks drinking cherry gin, a large pet cockatoo on his shoulder.

Giraffe-mania took the country by storm. Dresses were produced in the colour and markings of the giraffe, they were modelled as candlesticks in porcelain. Ladies had their hair dressed high, a fashion termed ‘a la giraffe.’

The poor creature did not thrive in the somewhat chilly English weather and in October 1829 she died. George was greatly saddened, dying himself in June 1830. The taxidermist John Gould dissected and stuffed her, with the new king, William Iv carrying out his late brother’s intention to make her a gift to his people. Thus in August 1830 the stuffed and mounted remains were presented to the museum of the Zoological Society of London. The museum closed in 1855, with the giraffe being bought by a pathologist called Mr Crisp. Since then it has never been seen, and may have been destroyed.

C. Michael Montagu 2019

George IV and Lady Conyngham imagined by William Heath

Dress and hair a la giraffe, Rudolph Ackermann’s The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics in 1828.