Social Gallery

Smoking club, 18th century artwork

Smoking club, 18th century artwork. The practice of smoking tobacco was popularised in England and Ireland in the 1580s and 1590s by the English soldier and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (c.1552-1618). This artwork, by the English caricaturist James Gillray (1757-1815), shows members of the House of Commons puffing smoke at each other. Those present include the Speaker (left) Charles James Fox (1749-1806), the Prime Minister (second from left) William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) and the Home Secretary (second from right) Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742-1811). This copy of this artwork was published in the work Tobacco, its History and Associations (1859) by the English engraver Frederick William Fairholt (1814-1866)

© GEORGE ARENTS COLLECTION/NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/ SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Homo heidelbergensis

Homo heidelbergensis. Artist's impression of two male H. heidelbergensis hominids which lived between 600, 000 and 250, 000 years ago in the Pleistocene era. The first remains were found in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1907 and further remains have been found in France and Greece. These remains indicate that H. heidelbergensis averaged around six foot in height and had a large brain. It used stone weapons and hunted in groups allowing it to kill large prey such as prehistoric species of rhino and elephant which lived throughout Eurasia

© MAURICIO ANTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Red deer stags

Red deer stags (Cervus elaphus) silhouetted against a sunset. The red deer is Britain's largest native mammal, with males growing to heights of 1.5 metres to the shoulder. It inhabits woodland and moorland, feeding on grass, but will also eat heather and small shrubs when grass is scarce. Males live in bachelor groups of up to 100 individuals for most of the year, only leaving them during the mating season. Only males have antlers, which are shed and regrown every year

© DAVID AUBREY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY