Matthew Paris relates,
that in 1255, an elephant was sent by the King of France to Henry
III., and that it being the first animal of that species that had been
seen in England, the people flocked in great numbers to behold it.
Upon the close rolls is entered a writ tested at Westminster the 3rd
of February, 39, H. III. (1255,) directing the sheriff of Kent to "go
in person to Dover, together with John Gouch, the King's servant, to
arrange in what manner the King's elephant, which was at Whitsand,[12]
may best and most conveniently be brought over to these parts, and to
find for the same John a ship and other things necessary to convey it;
and if, by the advice of the mariners and others, it could be brought
to London by water," directing it to be so brought. That the stranger
arrived safely, is evident from a similar writ, dated the 23rd of the
same month, commanding the Sheriffs of London to "cause to be built at
the Tower of London, a house forty feet in length and twenty in
breadth, for the King's elephant." Economy however, it seems, was not
neglected by the monarch in his _menus plaisirs_; for the Sheriffs are
expressly charged to see that the house be so strongly constructed
that, whenever there should be need, it might be adapted to and used
for other purposes; and the costs are to be ascertained "by the view
and testimony of honest men.
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