About Me

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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Saturday, July 14, 2007

two wombats, owls, kangaroos, wallabies, a deer, armadillos

. . . "parakeets, peacocks, a raccoon, a Canadian marmot or woodchuck, a Japanese salamander, two laughing jackasses and a zebu or small Brahminee bull."

This is a list of the inhabitants of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's garden at 16 Cheyne Walk in the late 1860's. I don't think they were all there at once, if you're wondering. He had moved to Cheyne Walk after the tragic death of his wife in 1862. The pets were a way of consoling himself, and much more constructive than drugs, which I'm sorry to say he also used to salve his broken heart.

The wombats were his favorites. He always had a thing for them. In fact, his preferred meeting spot at the Zoological Gardens was "The Wombat's Lair". The British Museum has a great drawing from his hand, mourning his short-lived 2nd wombat. Background on it here, nice closeup here.

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