The New Murrey and Blue blog

EDWARD IV’S CAMEL

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As I was wandering the deep valleys of darkest Wiltshire, I suddenly thought I was having a hallucination. Across the green rises, I spotted, not the usual line of ponies and horses…but three humpy Bactrian camels ambling along a trail! Not the kind of beasties one normally expects in the Wiltshire countryside.

Apparently I was not having a ‘funny moment’ and the three camels do actually exist, and live at Great Durnford Manor, a 17th century house built on the site of a house mentioned in an inquisition of 1470. They are becoming rather famous locally, having been marched into the cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral over Christmas, presumably with some Wise Men.

Out of curiosity, I began looking up ‘camels in Britain’ and found that in the 15th c, none other than Edward IV had one. In fact, he seems to have had six, though he gave one away to someone in Ireland in 1472. The six camels had arrived in 1466, a gift to the King and Queen by the Patriarch of Antioch. The animal that went to Ireland was described as having a yellow colour, cow’s hoofs, a long neck, a thick head and tail–and she (yes, it was a she) was ‘ugly’.

This is a medieval picture believed to be of this particular camel–

Other Kings had the odd camel too, including Edward II and Richard II.

 

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