Stephen Polito

He owned a menagerie which he toured around England in the late 18th century.

He continued to tour in the summer, and exhibited his animals at Exeter Exchange in the winter.

The menagerie at Exeter Exchange was very popular during Polito's short period of ownership.

It was visited by William Wordsworth and Lord Byron, and animals in his collection were painted by Edwin Landseer and Jacques-Laurent Agasse.

The menagerie included exotic animals, including an elephant, Chunee, which was put down in 1826 after killing a keeper and becoming ungovernable and in a permanently enraged state due to musth and a painful rotten tusk.