A visit to the elephant by Mary Ann Hedge
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"A visit to the elephant" by Mary Ann Hedge is a didactic children's book written in the early 19th century. Framed by affectionate domestic scenes and gentle Christian reflection, it uses a family outing to a menagerie—and a kindly grandfather’s memories of India—to teach natural history, moral lessons, and wonder at creation, with the elephant as its central subject. The opening of the book introduces Mr. Elmer, a benevolent retiree, and his
faithful servant Alan, whose lifelong bond began in a Scottish cottage and deepened during years in India. After a stormy night, a handbill for a nearby menagerie prompts Mr. Elmer to collect his grandchildren—Harry, Joanna, and little Ellen—from their mother, Mrs. Monson, and take them to see the elephant. At the show he explains the animal’s features, diet, bathing, docility, and strength, praising the Creator and adding vivid anecdotes from India; afterward, over dinner, he describes how elephants are captured and tamed, the perilous Abyssinian hunts, and the pomp of Asian courts with war elephants and royal processions. A visit to his sketchbook widens the lesson to ivory, Solomon’s throne, the Mogul’s peacock throne, and the animal’s sensitivity to music, while Mr. and Mrs. Monson draw gentle morals about piety, gratitude, and kindness to animals. The section closes the next morning with more talk of useful elephant labor and a new thread on serpents, as Mr. Elmer begins describing the beautiful, harmless boiga. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Hedge, Mary Ann |
|---|---|
| Title | A visit to the elephant |
| Original Publication | London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy; Harvey and Darton; and Swinborne and Walter, 1825. |
| Credits | The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Toronto Public Library) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres |
| Subject | Children's stories |
| Subject | Elephants -- Juvenile fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78540 |
| Release Date | Apr 24, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 316 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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