Top the Wombat

Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 07:26AM by Registered Commenterrachel | CommentsPost a Comment

Dante Gabriel Rossetti had a wombat named Top. Top the wombat died on November 6th, 1869 just two months after he joined the famous poet and painter’s equally famous menagerie in Chelsea. Rossetti_wombat.jpgBesides Top, Rossetti had a barn owl named Jessie, two armadillos, rabbits, a raccoon that hibernated in a chest of drawers, wallabies, kangaroos, parakeets and peacocks, an Irish deerhound called Wolf, a Japanese salamander, two laughing jackasses, a Canadian woodchuck, and a Pomeranian Puppy called Punch. Rossetti was known to prefer “quaint, odd, or semi-grotesque animals,” and of all his creatures he was especially fond of Top. In fact, he had desired a wombat for some time, and when Top finally arrived, he proved to be, in Rossetti’s own words, “a joy, a triumph, a delight, a madness.” Top followed Rossetti around the house, ate visitors’ straw hats, and got on famously with the rabbits. But Top was lumpish and sickly, and despite the attentions of a dog doctor, he finally succumbed to a mange-like disease. Rossetti’s famous ink sketch of himself tearfully mourning Top is surely satirical but not without genuine sentiment with the loss of his eccentric pet: Rossetti promptly ordered a wombat replacement and had Top stuffed and stationed in the front hall.