It is said that the "Shows" and other attractive gear is inferior as compared with former years. . .

Wombwell has the largest collection which he has yet brought to these parts; and here is found much that is interesting in animated nature, from the sagacious elephant to the most tiny and ridiculous of the monkey tribe. The inhabitants of Glasgow would not have objected had this wild-beast magnate exhibited to them a specimen of a majestic boa constrictor; and we are the more surprised at this, for if we are not mistaken; it was the accidental purchase of a serpent that first turned Mr. Wombwell 's attention to the trade in which he has since become so celebrated. His collection, however, has been so often described that it would be bootless [sic] to enter upon the duty here. . . .

Mr. Wombwell's collection of wild animals forms a most attractive feature in the fair, and here any one who has a small sum to spare, may not only be pleased, but receive a very instructive lesson in natural history. There are two elephants, one of them a very sensible fellow, who displays a wondrous degree of sagacity; a rhinoceros, eight or nine lions, five of them full grown, living in a domestic way in one cage; tigers, hyenas and cubs, leopards, wolf, zebra, alpaca, ostrich, pelicans, and a whole legion of smaller birds and beasts, including a battalion of the chattering tribe, which it would be tedious to particularise. Mr. Wombwell has travelled for 25 years, and is perhaps the most extensive lion breeder of any man similarly situated in Europe - having had during that time about 160 brought into the world in his collection. His establishment is a large one, numbering 16 waggons, 46 horses, and 33 men, the expenses of which and whom are estimated at £25 per day, exclusive of casualties. Mr. Wombwell had much difficulty in reaching Glasgow on the present occasion. He had been to Greenock and instead of proceeding direct from that town to Glasgow, he was compelled, on account of some obstruction caused by the railway operation, to make a detour round by Largs, Ardrossan, Kilwinning, Stewarton, Barrhead to Glasgow, a distance of upwards of 50 miles instead of 21, and at an expense of £25 in tolls.

In the above we have not alluded in detail to the attractions presented by Mr. Marshall's Panorama of Rome, or the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius at the Zoological Gardens, for they are permanently with us, and do not partake of the ephemeral character of many of those already noticed. . . . Vesuvius has become quite a lion, and at the opening of the Gardens on Monday evening, there were more than four thousand persons present. On Wednesday evening, the exhibition was of a still more successful description, and, in addition to those within the grounds, the inhabitants of Blytheswood-hill, and the New City Road, were delighted by the brilliancy of the fire-works.