Comments on: A London Bestiary

By: Caroline Murray

Caroline Murray — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 16:32:25 +0000

I believe the vegetable lamb of Tartary in fact lives in the Garden Museum (currently closed for restoration and development works) next to Lambeth Palace. There’s a bit more about the phenomenon here: http://bit.ly/1FgBVXD

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 09:40:55 +0000

Quite startling.

By: Tessa Harris

Tessa Harris — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 08:33:22 +0000

These are fascinating. I was particularly interested by the 12 ft giant . I’ve done quite a bit of research into 18th century giants from Ireland who came to London to show themselves for my novels, but I’ve never come across this one. Do you have any more information please? Thanks.

By: John Barrett

John Barrett — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 06:39:53 +0000

Super woodcuts I didn’t see any in Lambeth Palace during my visit, lots of wood panels here I only saw the ancient fig tree. Besides the London merman wood cut there is a tale from Orford in Suffolk, a mythical merman which was fish and half human was caught in a fisherman’s net in the 15thC. I didn’t realize until now the word bestiary means a ‘medieval treatise on beasts’. So these beastly figures on the woodcuts could have been mounted on panels in a palace or large house, every picture tells a story for the medieval mind, on story boards. Thanks to Adam Dant and GA for letting us see these treasures nice one. John B