of an
elephant in the British Museum, shows how wonderfully an elephant is at
times able to defend itself from attack. Many a shot that "rogue
elephant" had received, years before the three or four Indian sportsmen,
who presented its skull as a trophy, succeeded in planting a shot in its
brain, or in its heart. Think of the feelings of Lord Clive's relations,
at the prospect of his sending home an elephant for a pet. The good
folks, not without some motive, as the great Indian ruler conceived,
other than mere love for him, had been sending him presents. Samuel
Rogers, who wrote the neatest of hands, records that Clive wrote the
worst and certainly the most illegible of scrawls. Instead of
"elephant," as they read it, their liberal relative had written
"equivalent!"

THE LORD KEEPER GUILFORD AND HIS VISIT TO THE RHINOCEROS IN THE CITY OF
LONDON.[188]

It is strange to read in the life of the Lord Keeper Guilford, that his
lordship's court enemies, "hard put to it to find, or invent, something
tending to the diminution of his character," took advantage of his going
to see a rhinoceros, to circulate a foolish story of him, which much
annoyed him. It was in the reign of James II. his biographer thus
records it. The rhinoceros, referred to, was the first ever brought to
England. Evelyn, in his "Memoirs," says, that it was sold for L2000, a
most enormous sum in those days (1685).

Roger North relates the story:--"It fell out thus--a merchant of Sir
Dudley North's acquaintance had brought over an enormous rhinoceros, to
be sold to showmen for profit. It is a noble beast, wonderfully armed by
nature for offence, but more for defence, being covered with
impenetrable shields, which no weapon would make any impression upon,
and a rarity so great that few men, in our country, have in their whole
lives the opportunity of seeing so singular an animal. This merchant
told Sir Dudley North that if he, with a friend or two, had a mind to
see it, they might take the opportunity at his house before it was sold.
Hereupon Sir Dudley North proposed to his brother, the Lord Keeper, to
go with him upon this exhibition, which he did, and came away
exceedingly satisfied with the curiosity he had seen. But whether he was
dogged to find out where he and his brother housed in the city, or
flying fame carried an account of the voyage to court, I know not; but
it is certain that the very next morning a bruit went from thence all
over the town, a