Looking at zoological gardens, private menageries, circuses, and natural history museums, this fascinating account explores the surprising extent of the exotic-animal trade in 19th-century England and its colonies. Filled with entertaining anecdotes--from the tiger that prowled down St. George's Street in London with a boy in its mouth and the polar bear that killed a dog in Liverpool to the kangaroos hopping around the lawns of stately homes and the boa constrictor who got loose in Tunbridge Wells--this book also shares how the animals played a key role in the project to ensure that leisure was educational. As it demonstrates how the trade was intimately connected with the tides of Empire, it will be of interest to academics and general readers alike.