Along with Polito’s and Miles’s Menagerie, which visited Bristol for the Fairs, horses, dogs, cats, and a variety of other fauna could be seen at smaller exhibits in various booths and inns around the city. Menageries were extremely popular and could be presented as being educational too. One such show, at the White Swan which once stood here on what was St James’s Back, was reported in a newspaper:
Amongst the Number of Natural Curiosities arrived in this City, there seems none to equal or rival the Two wonderful Siboya Serpents. Those Ladies and Gentlemen who have already seen these extraordinary Reptiles, are so highly gratified with the sight of them, that the Proprietor flatters himself, from their high Recommendation that all ranks of people will gratify their curiosity, as they are undoubtedly the only ones of the Kind ever exhibited in the kingdom alive. To be seen at a commodious room at the White Swan, St. James’s Back. N.B. The Proprietor gives the utmost value for Foreign Birds and curious animals. (Bristol Mercury and Universal Advertiser, September 1807)