Hippopotamus in Grey Capybara who married the future King

who married the future King William IV in 1818

or Brush Rabbit

Ancient and Modern

made of black silk-rayon velvet and white silk satin

Hippopotamus in Grey Capybara who married the future KingOne of my favourite things about old natural history illustrations are the number of animals that were obviously drawn from descriptions, by artists who had never seen the real thing. So many old hippo drawings just looked all wrong, with little tiny heads! I finally found a happy hippo with a properly gigantic head in the 1895 book Brehm's Life of Animals: A Complete Natural History for Popular Home Instruction and for the Use of Schools. The