Cabinet 10 - Mammals
Henry I kept wild animals such as lions, camels and porcupines in his park at Woodstock, near Oxford, and King John (1199-1216) founded a menagerie that was housed at the Tower of London until 1831. In 1736 Linnaeus visited England. He called on Sir Hans Sloane, met Dr Thomas Shaw at Oxford, and visited the Chelsea Physic Garden, where he met Philip Miller, the gardener. Perhaps Linnaeus also visited the Tower and saw first-hand the eleven lions, as well as the two leopards or tigers, three eagles, two owls, two mountain cats (pumas), and a jackal (according to Strype). His classification of the African lion - Panthera leo - appears in his Systema Naturae (1758). Linnaeus did not travel to India. He no doubt used the travel accounts of others to classify the great bandicoot rat (Mus giganteus).