The Eagle and the Raven

The eagle and the raven

Whist Dickens was travelling in Italy in 1845, he entrusted his beloved pet eagle and raven to his friend Edwin Landseer. Sending them his ‘affectionate protection’, he joked that they sounded ‘like the sign of a Public House’. Dickens didn’t reclaim his eagle when he returned home to London because its sad presence chained up in the garden had made his family unhappy.

Letter to Edwin Landseer, 23 July 1845. A241.