The travelling show moved on, leaving either a dying or dead elephant behind. Some reports state that the elephant drank water contaminated by a lead mine and died shortly afterward. There are several different versions as to what happened next but the following Friday the pages of the Carmarthen Journal carried a more sombre story reporting the death in Tregaron of ‘no less illustrious a personage than one of Batty’s young elephants.’ Many were so caught up in the excitement that they skipped church, preferring to witness instead the ‘wonderful spectacle’ of the travelling show.Īn angry cleric, reporting to the Carmarthen Journal, denounced the troupe as a ‘shocking outrage’ and a ‘desecration of the Lord’s Day.’ A judgement that, for many, possibly served to increase the show’s appeal. So, when on the evening of the first Friday in July, 1848 the outlying leafy lanes and villages were suddenly filled with the brash glamour of Batty’s Travelling Menagerie, the people streamed from their houses to witness it, and the church officials tightened their belts and braced themselves for trouble.Īccustomed only to cattle, sheep and the odd flock of geese, the local populace watched in glee as the procession of caravans, horses, bears and, most startling of all, elephants, rolled into town. In many respects the town could have been mistaken for the Wild West but to the local inhabitants, of course, nothing much ever happened. For hundreds of years cattlemen drove their herds through the town, and its twelve pubs and fourteen brothels kept the local clergy very busy in their perpetual war against vice.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |