3-034-637 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Monday afternoon at the Zoological Society's Gardens, [London], 1871. 'The first statute holiday of the first Monday in August, under the Bank Holidays Act, was very generally observed...The name of Sir John Lubbock and the first Monday in August will henceforth he associated with pleasant recollections in the minds of the clerks of the bankers, brokers, merchants, and traders of the City...of all the popular places of amusement, the Zoological Society's Gardens attracted the greatest number of holidaymakers...Not a tipsy or ill-conducted person could be seen. The day had been glorious, and the sum of happiness and social and domestic enjoyment evidently conferred by this first Bank holiday in August testifies to the wisdom of the Legislature...the youngsters of both sexes...[took] short rides on camels and elephants - audacious feats to be told of years afterwards'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.