#hannah twynnoy

In bloom of Life
She’s snatchd from hence,
She had not room
To make defence;
For Tyger fierce
Took Life away.
And here she lies
In a bed of Clay,

Until the Resurrection Day.

- Poem from the grave of Hannah Twynnoy at Malmesbury Abbey.

In the graveyard of an unassuming village in Wiltshire, England, is the grave of Hannah Twynnoy, the first person in Britain to be killed by a tiger. Tigers are not indigenous to Britain, just in case you were wondering, so this is quite curious.

The story goes that Hannah Twynnoy was a barmaid at The White Lion, a pub in the village of Malmesbury. In 1703 a travelling menagerie, ‘an exhibition of wild beasts,’ set up their display in the garden of the pub where Ms. Twynnoy took to harassing the ‘very fierce tiger’ they’d brought along with them ‘not withstanding the repeated remonstrance of its keeper.’ 

One day the tiger had quite simply had enough of this and it escaped from its enclosure, ‘sprang towards the unhappy girl, caught hold of her gown and tore her to pieces’ (quotes via a local historian).

I visited Hannah Twynnoy’s grave in January 2019 during a little road trip of that part of England (which I would recommend to anyone). All Oddments that I have seen personally are included in the Oddment Odysseys section of the blog, which I obviously also recommend).