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200M/09-98-981815

THE BOOK OF CATS.

C(?£t\A*/(v

THE doctor's pet.

Page 48.

/

^ g- — i

CAT^

CHAS.H.ROS^

LONDON :

GRIFFITH & FARRAN,

CORNER OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.

MDCCCLXVIir.

THE

BOOK OF CATS

A Chit-Chat Chroiikk

OF

FELINE FACTS AND FANCIES, LEGENDARY, LYRICAL
MEDICAL, MIRTHFUL AND MISCELLANEOUS.

By Chai\les W. Ross.

^ijjcntg jIllustratiDns ig tfje ^utfjor.

LONDON:
GRIFFITH AND FARRAN,

(SUCCESSORS TO NEWBERY AND HARRIS),

CORNER OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.

MDCCCLXVIII.

LONDON :

WERTHEIMER, LEA AND CO., PRINTERS, CIRCUS PLACE,

FINSBURY CIRCUS.

NOTICE.

The Author would thankfully receive any
well-authenticated anecdotes respecting Cats,
with the view of incorporating them with the
work, in the event of a fresh Edition being
called for.

Spring Cottage, Fulham.
November, 1867.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER I.

Page
Of the reason why this Book was wTitten, and of several sorts

oi Cats which are not strictly Zoological 3

CHAPTER II.
Of some Wicked Stories that have been told about Cats . . 15

CHAPTER III.

Of other Wicked Stories, with a few Words in Defence of

the Accused 35

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Manners and Customs of Cats 59

CHAPTER V.
Of Whittington's Cat, and another Cat that ^^sited Strange

Countries 79

CHAPTER VI.
Of various kinds of Cats, Ancient and Modern 91

CHAPTER VII.
Of some Clever Cats m

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.

Page
Of some amiable Cats, and Cats that have been good

Mothers 139

CHAPTER IX.
Of Puss in Proverbs, in the Dark Ages, and in the Com-
pany of Wicked Old Women 159

CHAPTER X.

Of a certain Voracious Cat, some Goblin Cats, Magical Cats,

and Cats of Kilkenny 185

CHAPTER XL
Of Pussy poorly, and of some Curiosities of the Cat's-meat

Trade 207

CHAPTER XH.
Of Wild Cats, Cat Charming, etc 229

CHAPTER XHI.
Conclusion 275

The j3ooK OF C

CHAPTER I

Of the reason why this Book was
written^ and of several sorts
of Cats which are not strictly
Zoological.

NE day, ever
so long ago, it
struck me that
I should like
to try and write a book about Cats. I mentioned
the idea to some of my friends : the first burst out
laughing at the end of my opening sentence, so I
refrained from entering into further details. The
second said there were a hundred books about
Cats already. The third said, " Nobody would

4 The Book of Cats.

read it," and added, " Besides, what do you know
of the subject ?" and before I had time to begin to
tell him, said he expected it was very little. "Why
not Dogs ?" asked one friend of mine, hitting upon
the notion as though by inspiration. " Or Horses,"
said some one else ; '' or Pigs ; or, look here, this is
the finest notion of all : —

'THE BOOK OF DONKIES,

' BY ONE OF THE FAMILY !' "

Somewhat disheartened by the reception my
little project had met with, I gave up the idea for
awhile, and went to work upon other things. I
cannot exactly remember what I did, or how much,
but my book about Cats was postponed sine die,
and in the meantime I made some inquiries.

I searched high and low; I consulted Lady Gust's
little volume ; I bought Mr. Beeton's book ; I read
up Buffon and Bell, and Frank Buckland ; I eagerly
perused the amusing pages of the Rev. Mr. Wood ;
I looked through two or three hundred works of
one sort and another, and as many old newspapers
and odd numbers of defunct periodicals, and
although I daresay I have overlooked some of
the very best, I have really taken a great deal of

The Book of Cats. 5

trouble, and sincerely hope that I shall be able to
amuse you by my version of what other people
have had to tell, with a good many things which
have not yet appeared in print, that I have to tell
myself.

One thing I found out very early in my researches,
and that was, that nine out of ten among my
authorities were prejudiced against the animal
about which they wrote, and furthermore, that they
knew very little indeed upon the subject. Take for
instance our old friend Mavor, who thus mis-teaches
the young idea in his celebrated Spelling Book.
"Cats," says Mr. Mavor, "have less sense than dogs,
and their attachment is chiefly to the house ; but
the dog's is to the persons who inhabit it." Need
I tell the reader who has thought it worth his
w^hile to learn anything of the Cat's nature, that
Mr. Mavor's was a vulgar and erroneous belief, and
that there are countless instances on record where
Cats have shown the most devoted and enduring
attachment to those who have kindly treated them.
Again, nothing can be more unjust than to call
Cats cruel. If such a word as cruel could be
applied to a creature without reason, few animals
could be found more cruel than a Robin Redbreast,
which we have all determined to make a pet of

6 The Book of Cats.

since somebody wrote that pretty fable about the
"Babes in the Wood." And apropos of the Robin,
do you remember Canning's verses ?

" Tell me, tell me, gentle Robin,
What is it sets thy heart a-throbbing ?
Is it that Grimalkin fell
Hath killed thy father or thy mother,
Thy sister or thy brother.
Or any other ?
Tell me but that,
And I'll kill the Cat.

But stay, little Robin, did you ever spare,
A grub on the ground or a fly in the air ?
No, that you never did, I'll swear;
So I won"t kill the Cat,
That's flat."

But all the cruel and unjust things that have been
said about poor pussy I will tell you in another
chapter. I mean to try and begin at the beginning.
In the first place, what is the meaning of the word
" Cat." Let us look in the dictionary. A Cat, ac-
cording to Dr. Johnson, is " a domestick animal
that catches mice." But the word has one or two
other meanings, for instance: —

In thieves' slang the word "Cat" signifies a lady's
muff, and " to free a cat " to steal a muff. Among
soldiers and sailors a " Cat " means something very
unpleasant indeed, with nine tingling lashes or tails,

The Book of Cats. 7

so called, from the scratches they leave on the skin,
like the claws of a cat.

A Cat is also the name for a tackle or combina-
tion of pulleys, to suspend the anchor at the cat's-
head of a ship.

Cat-harping is the name for a purchase of ropes
employed to brace in the shrouds of the lower masts
behind their yards.

The Cat-fall is the name of a rope employed upon
the Cat-head. Two little holes astern, above the
Gun-room ports, are called Cat-holes.

A Cat's-paw is a particular turn in the bight of a
rope made to hook a tackle in; and the light air
perceived in a calm by a rippling on the surface of
the water, is known by the same name.

A kind of double tripod with six feet, intended to
hold a plate before the fire and so constructed that,
in whatever position it is placed, three of the legs
rest on the ground, is called a Cat, from the belief
that however a Cat may be thrown, she always
falls on her feet.

Cat-salt is a name given by our salt-workers to a
very beautifully granulated kind of common salt.

Cat's-eye or Sun-stone of the Turks is a kind of
gem found chiefly in Siberia. It is very hard and
semi-transparent, and has different points from

8 The Book of Cats.

whence the light is reflected with a kind of yellowish
radiation somewhat similar to the eyes of cats.

Catkins are imperfect flowers hanging from trees
in the manner of a rope or cat's-tail.

Cat's-meat, Cat-thyme, and Cat's-foot are the
names of herbs ; Cat's head of an apple, and also of
a kind of fossil. Cat-silver is a fossil. Cat's-tail
is a seed or a long round substance growing on
a nut-tree.

A Cat-fish is a shark in the West Indies. Gua-
nahani, or Cat Island, a small island of the
Bahama group, in the West Indies, is supposed to
be so called because wild Cats of large size used
to infest it, but I can find no particulars upon the
subject in the works of writers on the West Indies.

In the North of England, a common expression
of contempt is to call a person Cat-faced. Artists
call portraits containing two-thirds of the figure
Kit-cat size. With little boys in the street a Cat
is a dreadfully objectionable plaything, roughly
cut out of a stick or piece of wood, and sharpened
at each end. Those whose way to business lies
through low neighbourhoods, and who venture upon
short cuts, well know from bitter experience that
at a certain period of the year the tip-cat season sets
in with awful severity, and then it is not safe for

TIP-CAT.

Page 8.

The Book of Cats. 9

such as have eyes to lose, to wander where the
epidemic rages.

In the North, however, the same game is called
** Piggie." I learn by the newspaper that a young
woman at Leeds nearly lost her eye-sight by a blow
from one of these piggies or cats, and the magis-
trates sent the boy who was the cause of it to an
industrial school, ordering his father to pay half-a-
crown a week for his maintenance.

The shrill whistle indulged in upon the first night
of a pantomime by those young gentlemen with the
figure six curls in the front row of the gallery are
denominated cat-calls. This is, I am given to un-
derstand, a difficult art to acquire — I know I have
tried very hard myself and can't ; and to arrive at
perfection you must lose a front tooth. Such a
thing has been known before this, as a young coster-
monger having one of his front teeth pulled out to
enable him to whistle well. Let us hope that his
talent was properly appreciated in the circles in
which he moved.

With respect to cat-calls or cat-cals, also termed
cat-pipes, it would appear that there was an instru-
ment by that name used by the audiences at the
theatre, the noise of which was very different to
that made b)- wliistling through the fingers, as now

lO The Book of Cats.

practised. In the Covent Garden Journal for l8lO
the O. P. Riots are thus spoken of : — " Mr. Kemble
made his appearance in the costume of ' Macbeth,'
and, amid vollies of hissing, hooting, groans, and
cat-calls, seemed as though he meant to speak a
steril and pointless addressa nnounced for the oc-
casion."

In book iii. chap. vi. of Joseph Andrews^ occurs
this passage : — " You would have seen cities in em-
broidery transplanted from the boxes to the pit,
whose ancient inhabitants were exalted to the
galleries, where they played upon cat-calls."

In Lloyd's Law Student we find : —

" By law let others strive to gain renown !
Florio's a gentleman, a man o' th' town.
He nor courts clients, or the law regarding,
Hurries from Nando's down to Covent Garden.
Zethe's a scholar — mark him in the pit,
With critic Cat-call sound the stops of wit."

In Chetwood's History of the Stage (ly^l), there is
a story of a sea-officer who was much plagued by
"a couple of sparks, prepared with their offensive
instruments, vulgarly termed Cat-calls;" and de-
scribes how " the squeak was stopped in the middle
by a blow from the officer, which he gave with so
strong a will that his child's trumpet was struck
through his cheek."

The Book of Cats. 1 1

The Cat-call used at theatres in former times
was a small circular whistle, composed of two plates
of tin of about the size of a half-penny perforated
by a hole in the centre, and connected by a band
or border of the same metal about one-eighth of an
inch thick. The instrument was readily concealed
within the mouth, and the perpetrator of the noise
could not be detected.

There used to be a public-house of some notoriety
at the corner of Downing-street, next to King-
street, called the ''Cat and Bagpipes'' It was also
a chop house used by many persons connected with
the public offices in the neighbourhood. George
Rose, so well known in after life as the friend of
Pitt, Clerk of the Parliament, Secretary of the
Treasury, etc., and executor of the Earl of March-
mont, but then "a bashful young man," was one
of the frequenters of this tavern.

Madame Catalini is thus alluded to with dis-
respectful abbreviation of her name in a new song
on Covent Garden Theatre, printed and sold by
J. Pitts, No. 14, Great St. Andrew-street, Seven
Dials.

" This noble building, to be sure, has beauty without bounds,
It cost upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds ;
They've Madame Catalini there to open her white throat.
But to hear your foreign singers I would not give a groat ;

12 The Book of Cats.

So haste away unto the play, whose name has reached the skies,
And when the Cati ope's her mouth, oh how she'll catch the flies !"

It was once upon a time the trick of a country-
man to bring a Cat to market in a bag, and sub-
stitute it for a sucking pig in another bag, which
he sold to the unwary when he got the chance. If
the trick was discovered prematurely, it was called
letting the cat out of the bag — if not — he that made
the bad bargain was said to have bought a pig in
a poke. To turn the Cat in the pan, according to
Bacon, is when that which a man says to another
he says it as if another had said it to him.

There is a kind of ship, too, called a Cat, a vessel
formed on the Norwegian model, of about 600 tons
burthen. That was the sort of cat that brought the
great Dick Whittington, of ''turn again" memory,
his fortune. Do you remember how sorr}- you
were to find out the truth .^ Do you recollect what
a pang it cost you when first you heard that Robin-
son Crusoe was not true } I shall never forget
how vexed and disappointed I was at hearing that
Dick Turpin never did ride to York on his famous
mare ^lack Bess, and that no such person as
William Tell ever existed, and that that beautiful
story about the apple was only a beautiful story
after all.

^-%^

CHAPTER II

0/ some Wicked Stories that have

been told about Cats.

-0 —

DO not love
a Cat," says
a popular
author, often
"^ quoted ; " his disposi-

tion is mean and suspicious. A friendship of years
is cancelled in a moment by an accidental tread on
the tail. He spits, twirls his tail of malignity, and
shuns you, turning back as he goes off a staring
vindictive face full of horrid oaths and unforgive-
ness, seeming to say, ' Perdition catch you ! I hate
you for ever.' But the Dog is my delight. Tread

l6 The Book of Cats.

on his tail, he expresses for a moment the uneasi-
ness of his feehngs, but in a moment the complaint
is ended : he runs round you, jumps up against you,
seems to declare his sorrow for complaining, as it
was not intentionally done, — nay, to make himself
the aggressor, and begs, by whinings and lickings,
that the master will think of it no more." No sen-
timents could be more popular with some gentle-
men. In the same way there are those who would
like to beat their wives, and for them to come and
kiss the hand that struck them in all humility. It
is not only when hurt by accident that the dog
comes whining round its master. The lashed hound
crawls back and licks the boot that kicked him, and
so makes friends again. Pussy will not do that
though. If you want to be friendly with a cat on
Tuesday, you must not kick him on Monday. You
must not fondle him one moment and illtreat him
the next, or he will be shy of your advances. This
really human way of behaving makes Pussy un-
popular.

I am afraid that if it were to occur to one of our
legislators to tax the Cats, the feline slaughter
would be fearful. Every one is fond of dogs, and
yet Mr. Edmund Yates, travelling by water to
Greenwich last June, said that the journey was

The Book of Cats, \j

pleasingly diversified by practical and nasal de-
monstrations of the efficient working of the Dog-
tax. " No fewer than 292 bodies of departed
canines, in various stages of decomposition, were
floating off Greenwich during the space of seven
days in the previous month, seventy-eight of which
were found jammed in the chains and landing-
stages of the " Dreadnought " hospital ship, there-
by enhancing the salubrity of that celebrated hot-
house for sick seamen." And I cannot venture to
repeat the incr'edible stories of the numbers said to
have been taken from the Regent's Canal.

There are some persons who profess to have a
great repugnance to Cats. King Henry III. of
France, a poor, weak, dissipated creature, was one
of these. According to Conrad Gesner, men have
been known to lose their strength, perspire violently,
and even faint at the sight of a cat. Others are
said to have gone even further than this, for some
have fainted at a cat's picture, or when they have
been in a room where such a picture was concealed,
or when the picture was as far off as the next room.
It was supposed that this sensitiveness might be
cured by medicine. Let us hope that these gentle-
men were all properly physicked. I myself have
often heard men express similar sentiments of aver-
C

1 8 The Book of Cats.

sion to the feline race ; and sometimes young
ladies have done so in my hearing. In both cases
I have little doubt but that the weakness is easily
overcome. As for a hidden and unheard Cat's pre-
sence affecting a person's nerves, I beg to state my
conviction that such a story is utterly ridiculous ;
and I was vastly entertained by the following nar-
rative, written by a lady for a Magazine for Boys,
and given as a truth. Such a valuable fact in
natural history should not be allowed to perish ;
she calls it, A TALE OF MY GRANDMOTHER.

My maternal grandmother had so strong an
aversion to Cats that it seemed to endow her with
an additional sense. You may, perhaps, have heard
people use the phrase, that they were " frightened
out of their seven senses," without troubling your-
selves to wonder how they came to have more than
five. But the Druids of old used to include sym-
pathy and antipathy in the number, a belief which
has, no doubt, left its trace in the above popular
and otherwise unmeaning expression ; and this
extra sense of antipathy my grandmother cer-
tainly exhibited as regarding Cats.

When she was a young and pretty little bride,
dinner parties and routs, as is usual on such occa-
sions, were given in her honour. In those days,

The Book of Cats. 1 9

now about eighty years ago, people usually dined
early in the afternoon, and you may imagine
somewhere in Yorkshire, a large company assem-
bled for a grand dinner by daylight. With all due
decorum and old-fashioned stately politeness, the
ladies in rustling silks, stately hoops, and nodding
plumes, are led to their seats by their respective
cavaliers, in bright coloured coats with large gilt
buttons.

With dignified bows and profound curtsies, they
take their places, the bride, of course, at her host's
right hand. The bustle subsides, the servants re-
move the covers, the carving-knives are brandished
by experienced hands, and the host having made
the first incision in a goodly sirloin or haunch,
turns to enquire how his fair guest wishes to be
helped.

To his surprise, he beholds her pretty face flushed
and uneasy, while she lifts the snowy damask and
looks beneath the table.

" What is the matter, my dear madam } Have
you lost something } "

"No, sir, nothing, thank you; — it is the Cat,''
replied the timid bride, with a slight shudder, as
she pronoimced the word.

" The Cat ? " echoed the gentleman, with a puzzled

20 The Book of Cats.

smile ; " but, my dear Mrs. H — , we have no
Cat !"

" Indeed ! that is very odd, for there is certainly
a Cat in the room."

" Did you see it then } "

" No, sir, no : I did not see it, but I know it is in
the room."

" Do you fancy you heard one then } "

" No, sir."

" What is the matter, my dear ^ " now enquires
the lady of the house, from the end of the long
table ; " the dinner will be quite cold while you are
talking to your fair neighbour so busily."

" Mrs. H — says there is a Cat in the room, my
love ; but we have no Cat, have we ? "

" No, certainly ! " replied the lady tartly. " Do
carve the haunch, Mr. — ."

The footman held the plate nearer, a due portion
of the savoury meat was placed upon it.

" To Mrs. H — ," said the host, and turned to look
again at his fair neighbour ; but her uneasiness and
confusion were greater than ever. Her brow was
crimson — every eye was turned towards her, and
she looked ready to cry.

" I will leave the room, if you will allow me, sir,
for I k?iow that there is a Cat in the room."

The Book of Cats. 21

*' But, my dear madam — "

" I am quite sure there is, sir ; I feel it — I would
rather go."

"John, Thomas, Joseph, can there be a Cat in
the room ? " demanded the embarrassed host of the
servants.

" Quite impossible, sir ; — have not seen such
a hanimal about the place since I comed, any
way."

" Well, look under the table, at any rate ; the lady
says she feels it ; look in every corner of the room,
and let us try to convince her."

" My dear, my dear ! " remonstrated the annoyed
bridegroom from a distant part of the table ; " what
trouble you are giving."

" Indeed, I w^ould rather leave the room," said
the little bride, slipping from her chair. But, mean-
while, the servants ostentatiously bustled in their
unwilling search for what they believed to be a
phantom fancy of the young lady's brain ; when,
lo ! one of the footmen took hold of a half-closed
window-shutter, and from the aperture behind out
sprang a large cat into the midst of the astonished
circle, eliciting cries and exclamations from others
than the finely organised bride, who clasped her
hands rigidly, and gasped with pallid lips.

22 The Book of Cats.

Such facts as this are curious, certainly, and remain
a puzzle to philosophers.

This habit of hiding itself in secret places is
one of the most unpleasant characteristics of the
Cat. I know many instances of it — especially of a
night alarm when we were children, ending in a
strange cat being found in a clothes bag.

Here, indeed, we have truth several degrees
stranger than fiction ; but this is not the only
wonderful story the authoress has to tell. I will
give you some others very slightly abridged.

" A year or two ago, a man in the south of Ireland
severely chastised his cat for some misdemeanour,
immediately after which the animal stole away, and
was seen no more.

" A few days subsequently, as this man was start-
ing to go from home, the Cat met and stood before
him in a narrow path, with rather a wicked aspect.
Its owner slashed his handkerchief at her to frighten
her out of the way, but the Cat, undismayed, sprang
at the hand, and held it with so ferocious a gripe,
that it was impossible to make it open its jaws, and
the creature's body had actually to be cut from the
head, and the jaws afterwards to be severed, before
the mangled hand could be extricated. The man
died from the injuries."

The Book of Cats. 23

The jaws of a Cat are comparatively strong, and
worked by powerful muscles ; it has thirty-four
teeth, but they are for the most part very tiny
teeth, like pin's points. What, I wonder, were the
dimensions of this ferocious animal with the iron
jaws ; and how many courageous souls were engaged
in its destruction. If this story is, however, rather
hard to swallow, the next is not less so. Says
our authoress —

" I also know an Irish gentleman, who being an
only son without any playmates, was allowed, when
he was a child, to have a whole family of Cats
sleeping in the bed with him every night.

" One day he had beaten the father of the family
for some offence, and when he was asleep at night,
the revengeful beast seized him by the throat, and
would probably have killed him had not instant
help been at hand. "The Cat sprang from the
window, and was never more seen." (Probably
went away in a flash of blue fire.)

What do you think of these very strange stories }
If they surprise you, however, what will you say to
this one .^ " Dr. C — , an Italian gentleman still
living in Florence (the initial is just a little un-
satisfactory), who knew at least one of the parties,
related to the authoress the following singular story.

24 The Book of Cats.

A certain country priest in Tuscany, who lived
quite alone with his servants, naturally attached
himself, in the want of better society, to a fine he-
cat, which sat by his stove in winter, and always
ate from his plate.

One day a brother priest was the good man's
guest, and, in the rare enjoyment of genial conver-
sation, the Cat was neglected ; resenting this, he
attempted to help himself from his master's plate,
instead of waiting for the special morsels which
were usually placed on the margin for his use, and
was requited with a sharp rap on the head for the
liberty. This excited the animal's indignation still
more, and springing from the table with an angry
cry, he darted to the other side of the room. The
two priests thought no more of the Cat until the
cloth was about to be removed ; when the master
of the house prepared a plateful of scraps for his
forward favourite, and called him by name to come
and enjoy his share of the feast. No joyful Cat
obeyed the familiar call : his master observed him
looking sulkily from the recess of the window, and
rose, holding out the plate, and calling to him in a
caressing voice. As he did not approach, however,
the old gentleman put the platter aside, saying
he might please himself, and sulk instead of dine,

The Book of Cats. 2$

if he preferred it ; and then resumed his conversa-
tion with his friend. A Httle later the old gentle-
man showed symptoms of drowsiness, so his visitor
begged that he would not be on ceremony with
him, but lie down and take the nap which he knew
he was accustomed to indulge in after dinner, and
he in the meantime would stroll in the garden for
an hour. This was agreed to. The host stretched
himself on a couch, and threw his handkerchief
over his face to protect him from the summer flies,
while the guest stepped through a French window
which opened on a terrace and shrubbery.

An hour or somewhat more had passed when he
returned, and found his friend still recumbent : he
did not at first think of disturbing him, but after a
few minutes, considering that he had slept very
long, he . looked more observantly towards the
couch, and was struck by the perfect immobility of
the figure, and with something peculiar in the posi-
tion of the head over which the handkerchief lay
disordered. Approaching nearer he saw that it
was stained with blood, and hastily removing it,
saw, to his unutterable horror, that his poor friend's
throat was gashed across, and that life was already
extinct.

He started back, shocked and dismayed, and for

26 The Book of Cats.

a few moments remained gazing on the dreadful
spectacle almost paralysed. Then came the specu-
lation who could have done so cruel a deed ? An
old man murdered sleeping — a good man, beloved
by his parishioners and scarcely known beyond the
narrow circle of his rural home. It was his duty to
investigate the mystery, so he composed his coun-
tenance as well as he was able, and going to the
door of the room, called for a servant.

The man who had waited at table presently ap-
peared, rubbing his eyes, for he, too, had been
asleep.

" Tell me who has been into this room while I
was in the garden."

" Nobody, your reverence ; no one ever disturbs
the master during his siesta."

He then asked the servant where he had been, and
was told in the* ante-room. He next enquired
whether any person had been in or out of the house,
or if he had heard any movement or voice in the
room, and also how many fellow-servants the man
had. He was told that he had heard no noise or
voices, and that he had two fellow-servants — the
cook and a little boy. His reverence demanded
that they should be brought in, that he might
question them.

The Book of Cats. 27

They came, and were cross-questioned as closely
as possible, but they declared that they had not
been in that part of the house all day long, and
that nobody could possibly get into the house with-
out their knowledge, unless it was through the
garden. The priest had been walking all the time
in view of the house, and he felt convinced that the
murderer could not have passed in or out on that
side without his knowledge.

" Listen to me ; some person has been into that
room since dinner, and your master is cruelly mur-
dered."

" Murdered !" cried the three domestics in tones
of terror and amazement ; " did your reverence say
'murdered'? "

" He lies where I left him, but his throat is
gashed from ear to ear — he is dead. My poor old
friend !"

" Dead ! the poor master dead, murdered in his
own house."

They wrung their hands, tore their hair, and wept
aloud.

" Silence ! I command you ; and consider that
every one of us standing here is liable to the sus-
picion of complicity in this foul deed ; so look to it.
Giuseppe was asleep."

28 The Book of Cats.

" But I sleep very lightly, your reverence."

" Come in and see your master," said the priest
solemnly.

They crept in, white with fear and stepping
noiselessly. They gazed on the shocking spectacle
transfixed with horror. Then a cry of " Who can
have done it i^" burst from all lips.

" Who, indeed r repeated the cook.

The priest desired Giuseppe to look round the pre-
mises, and count the plate, and ascertain if there had
been a robbery, or if any one was concealed about
the house. The man returned without throwing any
new light upon the mystery ; but, in his absence,
while surveying the room more carefully than he
had previously done, the priest's eye met those of
the Cat glowing like lurid flames, as he sat crouch-
ing in the shade near a curtain. The orbs had a
fierce malignant expression, which startled him, and
at once recalled to his recollection the angry and
sullen demeanour of the creature during dinner.

'' Could it possibly be the Cat that killed him .?"
demanded of the cook the awe-struck priest.

'' Who knows T' replied he ; " the beast was surly
to others, but always seemed to love him fondly ;
and then the wound seems as though it were made
with a weapon."

A TALE OF TERROR.

Pa^e 2g.

The Book of Cats. 29

'' It does, certainly," rejoined the priest ; " yet I
mistrust that brute, and we will try to put it to the
proof, at any rate."

After many suggestions, they agreed to pass
cords round the neck and under the shoulders of
the deceased, and carried the ends outside the room
door, which was exactly opposite the couch where
he lay. They then all quietly left the apartment,
almost closing the door, and remained perfectly
still.

One of the party was directed to keep his eye
fixed on the Cat, the others after a short delay
slowly pulled the cords, which had the effect of
partially raising the head of the corpse.

Instantly, at this apparent sign of life, the savage
Cat sprang from its corner, and, with a low yell and
a single bound, fastened upon the mangled neck of
its victim.

At once the sad mystery was solved, the trea-
cherous, ungrateful, cowardly, and revengeful mur-
derer discovered ! and all that remained to be done
was to summon help to destroy the wild beast, and
in due time to bury the good man in peace.

Well, to such stories as these I have no particular
objection, under certain circumstances. They are

30 TJie Book of Cats.

well enough, for instance, to fill up the odd corners
of a weekly newspaper in the dull season, and are a
pleasant relief to the ' enormous gooseberry' ; but I
have my doubts whether they should be given as
facts for the instruction of youth, though I am not
much surprised that the editor should have ad-
mitted them into his pages, when he speaks of them
in another part of the magazine as " delightful
papers." When children's minds are thus filled
with absurd falsehoods, it is not to be wondered at
if, when the child grows up into a man, the man
should express himself somewhat in the words of
this instructor of youth, who says, " I must confess,
on my own part, an aversion- to the feline race,
which, with the best intentions, I am unable entirely
to conquer. I have occasionally become rather
fond of an individual Cat, but never encounter one,
unexpectedly, without a feeling of repugnance ; and,
as I like, or feel an interest in, every other animal,
I regard this peculiarity as hereditary."

I suppose, however, that there are few of my
fair readers who have not a feeling somewhat akin
to repugnance towards snakes, black-beetles, earvvigs,
spiders, rats, and even poor little, harmless mice ;
yet ladies have been known to keep white mice, and
make pets of them after a time, when the first

The Book of Cats. 3 1

timidity was overcome. There was a captive once,
you may remember, who tamed a spider. A man,
about ten years ago, who used to go about the
streets, got his living by pretending to swallow
snakes. He allowed them, while holding tight on
their tails, to crawl half-way down his throat and
back again. He said they were nice clean animals,
and good company. Little boys at school often
swallow frogs. An ear^vig probably has fine
social qualities, which only want bringing out :
naturalists tell us they make the best of mothers.
The black beetle has always been a maligned
insect : it is a sort of nigger among insects, ap-
parently born only to be poisoned, drowned, or
smashed ; but some one ought, decidedly, to take
the race in hand and see of what it is capable. I
have, myself, a horror of most of the creatures I have
named, but happen not to have been reared with an
aversion for Cats, and I have a strong belief that if
I tried hard (which I am not going to do) I might
get upon friendly relations with the other animals
named above, which, I suppose, most of us are
taught, when children, to dislike; and as our fathers
and mothers have entertained the same feeling,
perhaps, as my authoress says, we may " regard
this peculiarity as hereditary."

32

The Book of Cats.

Probably a good many ladies reading these lines
will endorse my authoress's opinions. For the
most part these will be married ladies with large
families ; and it will be found upon enquiry, I feel
certain, that ladies who have many children will
have a dislike for the feline race.

*^^''

CHAPTER III

^•^^^

TOLD you a-
while ago what
good Mr. Mavor
says of Cats.
" La defiance que cet animal inspire," says another
instructor of youth, M. Pujoulx, in his Livre du
Second Age^ " est bien propre k corriger de dissimu-
lation et de rhypocrisie." I have nothing to say of
poor Pujoulx, whose books and opinions are by this
time well nigh forgotten ; but what am I to think
of two other authors, whose words should be law,

36 The Book of Cats.

but of the value of which I leave you to judge for
yourself. I need not, I think, remind you that
there is a natural history written by one Monsieur
Buffon, " containing a theory of the earth, a general
history of man, of the brute creation, and of vege-
tables, minerals, etc.," of which Mr. Barr published
an English translation in ten goodly volumes.
Thus, in this work of world-wide celebrity, is the
feline race discussed. I give the author's words as
I find them : —

*' The Cat is a faithless domestic, and only kept
through necessity to oppose to another domestic
which incommodes us still more, and which we can-
not drive away ; for we pay no respect to those,
who, being fond of all beasts, keep Cats for amuse-
ment. Though these animals are gentle and
frolicksome when young, yet they, even then,
possess an innate cunning and perverse disposition,
which age increases, and w^iich education only
serves to conceal. They are, naturally, inclined to
theft, and the best education only converts them
into servile and flattering robbers ; for they have
the same address, subtlety, and inclination for
mischief or rapine. Like all knaves, they know
how to conceal their intentions, to watch, wait, and
choose opportunities for seizing their prey ; to fly

The Book of Cats. 37

from punishment, and to remain away until the
danger is over, and they can return with safety.
They readily conform to the habits of society, but
never acquire its manners ; for of attachment they
have only the appearance, as may be seen by the
obliquity of their motions, and duplicity of their
looks. They never look in the face those who
treat them best, and of whom they seem to be the
most fond ; but either through fear or falsehood,
they approach him by windings to seek for those
caresses they have no pleasure in, but only to
flatter those from whom they receive them. Very
different from that faithful animal the dog, whose
sentiments are all directed to the person of his
master, the Cat appears only to feel for himself,
only to love conditionally, only to partake of
society that he may abuse it ; and by this disposi-
tion he has more affinity to man than the dog,
who is all sincerity."

So much for M. Buffon : though he is sadly
mistaken on the subject of which he writes, these
were probably his honest opinions ; but what can be
said for a writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
who holds forth as follows, and is not only ignorant
of what he talks about, but steals Buffon's absurd
prejudices, and passes them oft" as his own. In his

38 The Book of Cats.

opinion the cat " is a useful but deceitful domestic.
Although when young it is playful and gay, it pos-
sesses at the same time an innate malice and
perverse disposition, which increases as it grows up,
and which education learns it to conceal, but never
to subdue. Constantly bent upon theft and rapine,
though in a domestic state, it is full of cunning
and dissimulation : it conceals all its designs, seizes
every opportunity of doing mischief, and then flies
from punishment. It easily takes on the habits of
society, but never its manners ; for it has only the
appearance of friendship and attachment. This
disingenuity of character is betrayed by the ob-
liquity of its movements and the ambiguity of its
looks. In a word, the Cat is totally destitute of
friendship."

. Here, I think, are some pretty sentiments and
some valuable information about the Cat-kind. Let
us hope that the other contributors to the Encyclo-
paedia knew something more of what they wrote
about than the gentleman above quoted. And
these opinions are not uncommon ; for instance,
allow me to quote from an article in a popular mis-
cellany : —

" No ! I cannot abide Cats," says the writer.
'* Pet Cats, wild Cats, Tom Cats, gib Cats, Persian

The Book of Cats. 39

Cats, Angora Cats, tortoiseshell Cats, tabby Cats,
black Cats, Manx Cats, brindled Cats, mewing
once, twice, or thrice, as the case may be, — none of
these Cats delight me ; they are associated in my
mind with none but disagreeable objects and re-
membrances— old maids, witchcraft, dreadful sab-
baths, with old women flying up the chimney
upon broom-sticks, to drink hell-broth with the evil
one, charms, incantations, sorceries, sucking child-
ren's breaths, stopping out late on the tiles, catter-
wauling and molrowing in the night season, prowl-
ing about the streets at unseasonable hours, and a
variety of other things, too numerous and too un-
pleasant to mention."

Upon the other hand. Puss has had her defenders,
and Miss Isabel Hill writes thus : —

" Poor Pinkey, I can scarce dare a word in praise
of one belonging to thy slandered sisterhood ; yet
a few good examples embolden me to assert that I
have rarely known any harm of Cats who were
giyen a fair chance, though I own I have seldom
met with any that have enjoyed that advantage.
Is it their fault that they are born nearly without
brains, though with all their senses about them, and
of a tender turn .? That they want strength, both
of body and instinct, are dependant, and ill edu-

40 The Book of Cats.

cated ? No ! their errors are thrust upon them ;
they become selfish per force, cowards from their
tenacious regard for that personal neatness which
they so labour to preserve. Oh ! that all females
made such good use of their tongues ! Cross from
sheer melancholy, reflecting, in their starved and
persecuted maturity, on the fondness lavished over
the days in which they were pet useless toys ; as
soon as they can deserve and may require kind
treatment, they are as ill-used as if they were con-
stant wives — rather unfair on ladies of their exces-
sive genius. Could every Cat, like Whittington's,
catch fortunes for her master as well as mice, we
should hear no more said against the species. Sup-
pose they only fawn on us because we house and
feed them, they have no nobler proofs of friendship
with which to thank us ; and if their very gratitude
for this self-interested hire be adduced as a crime,
alas ! poor Pussies ! Had Minette been a Thomas,
a whiskered fur-collared Philander, he would most
probably have surmounted that unmanly weakness,
and received all favours as but his due. I never
see a Mrs. Mouser rubbing her soft coat against me,
with round upturned eyes, but I translate her purr
into words like these : — * I can't swim ; I can nei-
ther fetch and carry, nor guard the house ; I can

The Book of Cats. 41

only love you, mistress ; pray accept all I have to
offer.' "

An anonymous writer says : " We may learn some
useful lessons from Cats, as indeed, from all animals.
Agur, in the book of Proverbs, refers to some ; and
all through Scripture we find animals used as types
of human character. Cats may teach us patience,
and perseverance, and earnest concentration of mind
on a desired object, as they w^atch for hours together
by a mouse-hole, or in ambush for a bird. In their
nicely calculated springs, we are taught neither to
come short through want of mercy, or go beyond
the mark in its excess. In their delicate walking
amidst the fragile articles on a table or mantelpiece,
is illustrated the tact and discrimination by which
we should thread rather than force our way ; and,
in pursuit of our own ends, avoid the injuring of
others. In their noiseless tread and stealthy move-
ments, we are reminded of the frequent importance
of secresy and caution prior to action, while their
promptitude at the right moment, warns us, on
the other hand, against the evils of irresolution
and delay. The curiosity with which they spy into
all places, and the thorough smelling which any
new object invariably receives from them, commends
to us the pursuit of knowledge, even under diffi-

4.2 The Book of Cats.

culties. Cats, however, will never smell the same
thing twice over, thereby showing a retentive as well
as an acquiring faculty. Then to speak of what
may be learned from their mere form and ordinary
motions, so full of beauty and gracefulness. What
Cat was ever awkward or clumsy } Whether in
play or in earnest, Cats are the very embodi-
ment of elegance. As your Cat rubs her head
against something you offer her, which she either
does not fancy or does not want, she instructs you
that there is a gracious mode of refusing a thing ;
and as she sits up like a bear, on her hind legs, to
ask for something (which Cats will often do for a
long time together), you may see the advantage of
a winning and engaging way, as w^ell when you are
seeking a favour as when you think fit to decline
one. If true courtesy and considerateness should
prevent you not merely from positively hurting
another, but also from purposely clashing, say,
with another's fancies, peculiarities, or predilections,
this too, may be learned from the Cat, who does
not Hke to be rubbed the wrong way (who does like
to be rubbed the wrong way }), and who objects to
your treading on her tail. Nor is the soft foot,
with its skilfully sheathed and ever sharp claws,
without a moral too ; for whilst there is nothing

The Book of Cats. 43

commendable in anything approaching to spite,
passion, or revenge, a character that is all softness
is certainly defective. The velvety paw is very well,
but it will be the better appreciated when it is known
that it carries within it something that is not soft,
and which can make itself felt, and sharply felt, on
occasion. A cat rolled up into a ball, or crouched
with its paws folded underneath it, seems an em-
blem of repose and contentment. There is some-
thing soothing in the mere sight of it. It may re-
mind one of the placid countenance and calm repose
with which the sphynx seems to look forth from
the shadow of the Pyramids, on the changes and
troubles of the world. This leads to the remark,
that Cats, after all, are very enigmatical creatures.
You never get to the bottom of Cats. You will
never find any two, well known to you, that do not '
offer marked diversities in ways and dispositions ;
and, in general, the combination they exhibit of
activity and repose, and the rapidity with which
they pass from the one to the other, their gentle
aspects and fragile form, united with strength and
pliancy, their sudden appearances and disap-
pearances, their tenacity of life, and many escapes
from dangers ( " as many lives as a Cat " ), their
silent and rapid movements, their sometimes un-

44 ^>^^^ Book of Cats.

accountable gatherings, and strange noises at night
— all contribute to invest them with a mysterious
fascination, which reaches its culminating point in
the (not very frequent) case of a completely black
cat."

Instances are frequent, I am happy to tell Cat-
haters, of illustrious persons who have been attached
to the feline race, and of Cats who have merited
such attachment.

Mahomet would seem to have been very fond of
Cats, for it is said that he once cut off the sleeve of
his robe rather than disturb his favourite while
sleeping on it. Petrarch was so fond of his Cat that
when it died he had it embalmed, and placed in a
niche in his apartment ; and you ought to read what
Rousseau has to say in favour of the feline race.
M. Baumgarten tells us that he saw a hospital for
Cats at Damascus : it was a large house, walled
round very carefully, and said to be full of patients.
It was at Damascus that the incident above related
occurred to Mahomet. His followers in this place
ever afterwards paid a great respect to Cats, and
supported the hospital in question by public sub-
scriptions with much liberality.

When the Duke of Norfolk was committed to
the Tower, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a

The Book of Cats. 45

favourite Cat made her way into the prison room
by getting down the chimney.

" The first day," says Lady Morgan, in her de-
Hghtful book, " we had the honour of dining at the
palace of the Archbishop of Toronto, at Naples,
he said to me, * You must pardon my passion for
Cats, but I never exclude them from my dining-
room, and you will find they make excellent com-
pany.' Between the first and second course, the
door opened, and several enormously large and
beautiful Angora Cats were introduced by the
names of Pantalone, Desdemona, Otello, etc. : they
took their places on chairs near the table, and were
as silent, as quiet, as motionless, and as well behaved
as the most bon ton table in London could require.
On the bishop requesting one of the chaplains to
help the Signora Desdemona, the butler stepped
up to his lordship, and observed, ' My lord, La
Signora Desdemona will prefer waiting for the
roasts.' "

Gottfried Mind, the celebrated Swiss painter, was
called the " Cat Raphael," from the excellence with
which he painted that animal. This peculiar talent
was discovered and awakened by chance. At the
time when Frendenberger painted his picture of the
*' Peasant Clearing Wood," before his cottage, with

46 The Book of Cats.

his wife sitting by, and feeding her child out of a
basin, round which a Cat is prowling, Mind, his
new pupil, stared very hard at the sketch of this
last figure, and Frendenberger asked with a smile
whether he thought he could draw a better.
Mind offered to show what he could do, and did
draw a Cat, which Frendenberger liked so much
that he asked his pupil to elaborate the sketch,
and the master copied the scholar's work, for
it is Mind's Cat that is engraved in Frenden-
berger's plate. Prints of ]\Iind's Cats are now
common.

Mind did not look upon Cats merely as subjects
for art ; his liking for them was very great. Once
when hydrophobia was raging in Berne, and eight
hundred were destroyed in consequence of an
order issued by the civic authorities, Mind was in
great distress on account of their death. He had,
however, successfully hidden his own favourite, and
she escaped the slaughter. This Cat was always
with him when he worked, and he used to carr}' on
a sort of conversation with her by gesture and
signs. It is said that Minette sometimes occupied
his lap, while two or three kittens perched on his
shoulders ; and he was often known to remain for
an hour together in almost the same attitude for

The Book of Cats. 47

fear of disturbing them ; yet he was generally
thought to be a passionate, sour-tempered man.
It is said that Cardinal Wolsey used to accommo-
date his favourite Cat with part of his regal seat
when he gave an audience or received princely
company.

There is a funny story told of Barrett, the painter,
another lover of Cats. He had for pets a Cat and
a kitten, its progeny. A friend seeing two holes in
the bottom of his door, asked him for what purpose
he made them there. Barrett said it was for the
Cats to go in and out.

" Why," replied his friend, " would not one do
for both r

" You silly man," answered the painter, " how
could the big Cat get into the little hole .''"

** But," said his friend, " could not the little one
go through the big hole }''

" Dear me," cried Barrett, " so she could ; well, I
never thought of that."

M. Sonnini had an Angora Cat, of which he writes :
'* This animal was my principal amusement for
several years. How many times have her tender
caresses made me forget my troubles, and consoled
me in my misfortunes. My beautiful companion at
length perished. After several days of suffering,

48 The Book of Cats.

during which I never forsook her, her eyes constantly
fixed on me, were at length extinguished ; and her
loss rent my heart with sorrow."

You have heard, of course, of Doctor Johnson's
feline favourite, and how it fell ill, and how he,
thinking the servants might neglect it, himself
turned Cat-nurse, and having found out that the
invalid had a fancy for oysters, daily administered
them to poor Pussy until she had quite recovered.
I like to picture to myself that good old grumpy
doctor nursing Pussy on his knee, and wasting who
shall say how many precious moments which other-
wise might have been devoted to his literary avo-
cations. I dare say now, in that tavern parlour
where the lexicographer held forth so ably after
sun-set, he made but scant allusion to his nursing
feats, lest some mad wit might have twitted him
upon the subject, for you may be sure that the wits
of those days, as of ours, could have been mighty
satirical on such a theme.

Madame Helvetius had a Cat that used to lie
at its mistress's feet, scarcely ever leaving her for
five minutes together. It would never take food
from any other hand, and it would allow no one but
its mistress to caress it ; but it would obey her
commands in everything, fetching objects she

The Book of Cats. 49

wanted in its mouth, like a dog. During Madame
Helvetius's last illness, the poor animal never quitted
her chamber, and though it was removed after her
death, it returned again next morning, and slowly
and mournfully paced to and fro in the room, crying
piteously all the time. Some days after its mis-
tress's funeral, it was found stretched dead upon
her grave, having, it would seem, died of grief.

There is a w^ell-authenticated story of a Cat
which having had a thorn taken out of her foot by a
man servant, remembered him, and welcomed him
with delight when she saw him again after an
absence of two years.

As a strong instance of attachment, I can quote
the case of a she Cat of my own, which always
waited for me in the passage when I returned home
of an evening, and mounted upon my shoulder
to ride upstairs. Returning home once after an
absence of six weeks, this Cat sat on the corner of
the mantel-piece, close by the bed, all night, and as it
would appear wide awake, keeping a sort of guard
over me, for being very restless I lay awake a long
while, and then awoke again, several times, after
dozing off, to find upon each occasion Miss Puss,
with wide open eyes, purring loudly. I may add,
that although, when we have gone away from home,
E

50 The Book of Cats.

the Cats have taken their meals and spent most of
their time with the servants, yet upon our return
they have immediately resumed their old ways, and
cut the kitchen dead.

By the report of a police case at Marlborough
Street, on the 28th of June last, it appeared that a
husband, brutally ill-using his wife, flung her on the
ground, and seizing her by the throat, endeavoured
to strangle her. While, however, she lay thus, a
favourite Cat, named " Topsy," suddenly sprang
upon the man, and fastened her claws and teeth in
his face. He could not tear the Cat away, and was
obliged to implore the woman he had been ill-using
to take the Cat from him to save his life.

The Cat is reproached with treachery and cruelty,
but Bigland argues that the artifices which it uses
are the particular instincts which the all-wise Creator
has given it, in conformity with the purposes for
which it was designed. Being destined to prey
upon a lively and active animal like the mouse,
which possesses so many means of escape, it is re-
quisite that it should be artful ; and, indeed, the
Cat, when well observed, exhibits the most evident
proofs of a particular adaptation to a particular
purpose, and the most striking example of a pecu-
liar instinct suited to its destiny.

The Book of Cats. 5 i

Every animal has its own way of killing and
eating its prey. The fox leaves the legs and
hinder parts of a hare or rabbit ; the weasel and
stoat eat the brains, and nibble about the head, and
suck the blood ; crows and magpies peck at the
eyes ; the dog tears his prey to pieces indiscrimi-
nately ; the Cat always turns the skin inside out
like a glove.

Mr. Buckland relates the case of a gamekeeper
who bought up all the Cats in the neighbouring
town, cut off their heads, and nailed them up as tro-
phies of veritable captures in the woods. In a game-
keeper's museum, visited by the same writer, were
no less than fifty-three Cats' heads staring hideously
down from the shelves. There was a story attached
to each head. One Cat was killed in such a wood ;
another in such a hedge-row ; some in traps, some
shot, some knocked on the head with a stick ; but
what was most remarkable was the different ex-
pression of countenance observable in each indivi-
dual head. One had died fighting desperately to
the last, and giving up its nine lives inch by inch.
Caught in a trap, it had lingered the night through
in dreadful agony, the pain of its entrapped limb
causing it to- make furious efforts to free itself, each
effort but lending" another torment to the wound.

52 The Book of Cats.

In the morning the gamekeeper had released the
poor exhausted creature for the dogs to worry out
what little life was left in its body. The head dried
by the heat of two summers, the wrinkled fore-
head, the expanded eyelids, the glary eyeballs, the
whiskers stretched to their full extent, the spiteful
lips, exposing the double row of tiger-like teeth,
envenomed by agony, told all this. The hand of
death had not been powerful enough to relax the
muscles racked for so many hours of pain and
terror.

Another Cat's head wore a very different expres-
sion ; she had neither been worried nor tortured.
Creeping, stealthily, on the tips of her beautifully
padded feet, behind some overhanging hedge, the
hidden gamekeeper had suddenly shot her dead.
In death her face was calm ; no expression of fear
ruffled her features ; she had been shot down and
died instantly at the moment of anticipated triumph.
A third head belonged to a poor little Puss that
had died before it had attained the age of cathood ;
her young life had been knocked out of her with a
stick : her head still retained the kitten's playful
look, and there was an appealing expression about
it- as though it had died quickly, wondering in what
it had done wrong.

The Book of Cats. 53

I find a writer upon Cats who speaks thus In their
praise : —

" It has been said that the Cat is one of those
animals which has made the least return to man for
his trouble by its services ; but it is certain that it
renders very essential service to man."

And another says : —

" Authors seem to delight in exaggerating the
good qualities of the Dog, while they depreciate
those of the Cat ; the latter, however, is not less
useful, and certainly less mischievous, than the
former."

Indeed, it would be unfair not to state that Pussy
has had many able defenders, who have argued her
case in verse as well as prose ; for example, in
Edmond Moore's fable of " The Farmer, the Spaniel
and the Cat,'' the Spaniel, when Puss drew near to
eat some of the fragments of a feast, repelled her,
saying she does nothing to merit being fed, etc. : —

" ' I own' (with meekness Puss replied)
* Superior merit on your side ;
Nor does my breast with envy swell
To find it recompens'd so well.
Yet I, in what my nature can,
Contribute to the good of man.
\Vhose claws destroy the pilf 'ring mouse ?
Who drives the vermin from the house ?

54 The Book of Cats.

Or, watchful for the lab'ring swain,
From lurking rats secures the gi-ain ?
For this, if he rewards bestow,
Why should your heart with gall o'erflow ?
Why pine my happiness to see.
Since there's enough for you and me ? '
' Thy words are just,' the Farmer cried.
And spurned the Spaniel from his side."

And, again, the same idea occurs in Gay's fable
of the " Man., the Cat., the Dog., and the FlyT
The Cat solicits aid from the Man in the social
state.

" ' Well, Puss,' says Man, 'and what can you
To benefit the public do ?'
The Cat replies, ' These teeth, these claws,
W^ith vigilance shall serve the cause.
The Mouse, destroy'd by my pursuit,
No longer shall your feasts pollute ;
Nor Rats, from nightly ambuscade,
With wasteful teeth your stores invade.
' I grant, ' says Man, * to general use
Your parts and talents may conduce ;
For rats and mice purloin our grain,
And threshers whirl the flail in vain ;
Thus shall the Cat, a foe to spoil.
Protect the farmers' honest toil.' "

Mr. Ruskin says, " There is in every animal's
eye a dim image and gleam of humanity, a flash of
strange life through which their life looks at and up
to our great mystery of command over them, and

The Book of Cats. 55

claims the fellowship of the creature, if not of the
soul !"

Poor Pussy ! on the whole she has had but few
champions in comparison to the number of her foes.
Let us see what anecdotes we can find which will
show her in a favourable light ; but my chapter is
long enough, and I will conclude it with the epitaph
placed over a favourite French Puss : —

** Ci repose pauvre Mouton,
Qui jamais ne fut glouton ;
J'espere bien que le roi Pluton,
Lui donnera bon gite et crouton."

CHAPTER IV.

E T us see
though, before
we try our anec-
dotes, what is
known of the Cat's pecu-
liarities. I rather hke
this quaint description of the domestic Pussy, which
occurs in an old heraldic book, John Bossewell's
" Workes of Armor ie',' published in 1 59/ : —

*' The field is of the Saphire, on a chief Pearle, a
Masion Cruieves, This beaste is called a ' Masion,'
for that he is enimie to Myse and Rattes. He is

6o The Book of Cats.

slye and wittie, and seeth so sharpely that he over-
commeth darkness of the nighte by the shyninge
lyghte of his eyne. In shape of body he is like
unto a Leoparde, and hathe a greate mouthe. He
doth deHghte that he enjoyeth his hbertie ; and in
his youth he is swift e, plyante, and merye. He
maketh a rufull noyse and a gastefulle when he pro-
fereth to fighte with another. He is a cruell beaste
when he is wilde, and falleth on his owne feete
from moste highe places : and never is hurt there-
with. When he hathe a fayre skinne, he is, as it
were, proude thereof, and then he goethe muche
aboute to be seene."

It is commonly supposed that a Cat's scratch is
venomous, because a lacerated wound oftener fes-
ters than a smooth cut from a sharp knife.

It is erroneously said that Cats feel a cutaneous
irritation at the approach of rain, and offer sensible
evidence of uneasiness : allusion may be found to
this in " Thomson's Seasons." Virgil has also made
the subject a theme for poetic allusion.

The Chinese look into their Cat's eyes to know
what o'clock it is ; and the playfulness of Cats is
said to indicate the coming of a storm. I have
noticed this often myself, and have seen them rush
about in a half wild state just before windy weather.

The Book of Cats. 6l

T think it is when the wind is rising that they are
most affected.

It is stated in a Japanese book that the tip of
a Cat's nose is ahvays cold, except on the day
corresponding with our Midsummer-day. This is
a question I cannot say I have gone into deeply.
I know, however, that Cats always have a w^rm
nose when they first awaken from sleep. All Cats
are fond of warmth. I knew one which used to
open an oven door after the kitchen fire was out,
and creep into the oven. One day the servant shut
the door, not noticing the Cat was inside, and
lighted the fire. For a long while she could not
make out whence came the sounds of its crying and
scratching, but fortunately made the discovery in
time to save its life. A Cat's love of the sunshine
is well known, and perhaps this story may not be
unfamiliar to the reader : —

One broiling hot summer's day Charles James
Fox and the Prince of Wales were lounging up St.
James's street, and Fox laid the Prince a wager
that he would see more Cats than his Royal High-
ness during their promenade, although the Prince
might choose which side of the street he thought fit.
On reaching Piccadilly, it turned out that Fox had
seen thirteen Cats and the Prince none. The

62 The Book of Cats.

Prince asked for an explanation of this apparent
miracle.

'* Your Royal Highness," said Fox, " chose, of
course, the shady side of the way as most agree-
able. I knew that the sunny side would be left for
me, and that Cats prefer the sunshine."

Cats usually, but not always, fall on their feet,
because of the facility with which they balance
themselves when springing from a height, which
power of balancing is in some degree produced by
the flexibility of the heel, the bones of which have
no fewer than four joints. Cats alight softly on
their feet, because in the middle of the foot is a
large ball or pad in five parts, formed of an elastic
substance, and at the base of each toe is a similar
pad. No mechanism better calculated to break the
force of a fall could be imagined.

A Cat, when falling with its head downwards,
curls its body, so that the back forms an arch, while
the legs remain extended. This so changes the posi-
tion of the centre of gravity, that the body makes
a half turn in the air, and the feet become lowest.

In the inside of a Cat's head there is a sort of
partition /wall projecting from the sides, a good way
inwards, towards the centre, so as to prevent the
brain from suffering from concussion.

The Book of Cats. 63

There Is a breed of tail-less white Cats in the
Isle of Man, and also in Devonshire. These are
not the sort of animals with which, on shipboard,
the *' stow-aways " are made acquainted.

A great many Cats in the Isle of Man are said
to be deaf. Thus, " As deaf as a Manx Cat."
There is an idea that white Cats with blue eyes
are always deaf, but a correspondent of Notes and
Queries says, " I am myself possessed of a white
Cat which, at the advanced age of upwards of
seventeen years, still retains its hearing to great
perfection, and is remarkably intelligent and de-
voted, more so than Cats are usually given credit
for. Its affection for persons is, indeed, more like
that of a dog than of a Cat, It is a half-bred
Persian Cat, and its eyes are perfectly blue, with
round pupils, not elongated, as those of Cats usually
are. It occasionally suffers from irritation in the
ears, but this has not at all resulted in deafness."

Do you know why Cats always wash themselves ^
after a meal .^ A Cat caught a sparrow, and was
about to devour it, but the sparrow said,

" No gentleman eats till he has first washed his
face."

The Cat, struck with this remark, set the sparrow
down, and began to wash his face with his paw, but

64 The Book of Cats.

the sparrow flew away. This vexed Pussy ex-
tremely, and he said,

" As long as I live I will eat first and wash my
face afterwards."

Which all Cats do, even to this day.

A French writer says, the three animals that
waste most time over their toilet are cats, flies, and
women.

The attitudes and motions of a Cat are very
graceful, because she is furnished with collar-bones.
She can, therefore, carry food to her mouth like a
monkey, can clasp, can climb, and can strike side-
ways, and seat herself at a height upon a very
narrow .space.

The lateral movements of the head in Cats are
not so extensive as in the owl, but are, neverthe-
less, considerable. A cat can look round pretty far
behind it without moving its body, which might be
apt to startle its prey. The spine of the Cat is
very full and loose, in order that all its movements
in all possible directions and circumstances may be
free and unrestrained. For this purpose, too, all
the joints which connect it's bones together are ex-
tremely loose and free. Thus, the Cat is enabled
to get through small apertures, to leap from great
heights, and even to fall in an unfavourable posture

The Book of Cats. 65

with little or no injury to itself. Its ears are not so
moveable as those of some other animals, but are
more so than in very many animals. The shape of
the external ear, or rather cartilaginous portion,
is admirably adapted to intercept sounds. The
natural posture is forward and outward, so as to
catch sounds proceeding from the front and sides.
The upper half, however, is moveable, and by
means of a thin layer of muscular fibres, it is made
to curv^e backwards and receive sounds from the
rear. Although a Cat cannot lick its face and
head, it nevertheless cleans these parts thoroughly ;
in fact, as we often observe, a Cat licks its right paw
for a long time, and then brushes down the corre-
sponding side of the head and face ; and when this
is accomplished, it does the same with the other
paw and corresponding side.

"'A May kitten makes a dirty Cat,' is a piece
of Huntingdonshire folk-lore," says Mr. Cuthbert
Bede, " quoted to me in order to deter me- from
keeping a kitten that had been born in May."

Dr. Turton says, " The Cat has a more volumin-
ous and expressive vocabulary than any other
brute ; the short twitter of complacency and affec-
tion, the purr of tranquility and pleasure, the mew
of distress, the growl of anger, and the horrible
F

66 Tlje Book of Cats.

wailing of pain." For myself, I seldom hear a
catawauling without thinking of that droll picture
in Punch of the old lady sitting up in bed and
pricking up her ears to the music of a mewing
Cat.

" Oh, ah ! yes, it's the waits," says she, with a
delighted chuckle ; " I love to listen to 'em. It
may be fancy, but somehow they don't seem to
play so sweetly as they did when I was a girl.
Perhaps it is that I am getting old, and don't hear
quite so well as I used to do."

Few, even amongst Pussy's most ardent admirers,
who possess the faculty of hearing, and have heard
the music of Cats, would desire the continuance of
their "sweet voices"; yet a concert was exhibited
at Paris, wherein Cats were the performers. They
were placed in rows, and a monkey beat time to
them, as the Cats mewed ; and the historian of the
facts relates that the diversity of the tones which
they emitted produced a very ludicrous effect.
This exhibition was announced to the Parisian
public by the title of " Concert Miaulant."

This would seem to prove that Cats may be
taught tricks, which is not generally believed, but
is nevertheless the case.

In Pool's Twists and Turns about the Streets of

The Book of Cats. 6^

London, mention is made of ''a poor half-naked
boy, strumming a violin, while another urchin with
a whip makes two half-starved Cats go through
numerous feats of agility."

De Roget says, that in animals that graze and
keep their heads for a long time in a dependent
position, the danger from an excessive impetus in
the blood flowing towards the head is much greater
than in other animals ; and we find that an extra-
ordinaiy provision is made to obviate this danger.
The arteries which supply the brain on their en-
trance into the basis of the skull suddenly divide
into a great number of minute branches, forming
a complicated network of vessels, an arrangement
which, on the well known principle of hydraulics,
must greatly check the velocity of the blood con-
ducted through them. That such is the real pur-
pose of this structure, which has been called the
rete mirabile, is evident from the branches afterwards
uniting into larger trunks when they have entered
the brain, through the substance of which they are
then distributed exactly as in other animals, where
no such previous subdivision takes place. The rete
mirabile is much developed in the sheep, but scarcely
perceptible in the Cat.

Being an animal which hunts both by day and

68 Tlie Book of Cats,

night, the structure of its visual organs is adjusted
for both. The retina, or expansion of the optic
nerve, is most sensitive to the stimulus of light ;
hence, a well-marked ciliary muscle contracts the
pupil to a mere vertical fissure during the day,
while in the dark, the pupil dilates enormously, and
lets in as much light as possible. But even this
would be insufficient, for Cats have to look for their
prey in holes, cellars, and other places where little
or no light can penetrate. Hence, the Cat is fur-
nished with a bright metal-like, lustrous, mem-
brane, called the Tapetum, which lines part of the
hollow globe of the eye, and sheds considerable
light on the image of an object thrown on the
retina. This membrane is, we are told, common to
all vertebrated animals, but is especially beautiful
and lustrous in nocturnal animals. The herbivora,
such as the ox and sheep, have the tapetum of the
finest enamelled green colour, provided probably
to suit the nature of their food, which is green.
The subject, however, of the various colours of the
tapetum in different animals is not yet understood.
The sensibility of the retina in Cats is so great that
neither the contractions of the pupil nor the closing
of the eye-lids would alone afford them sufficient
protection from the action of the light. Hence,

The Book of Cats. 69

in common with most animals, the Cat is furnished
with a nictitating membrane, which is, in fact, a
third eyeUd, sHding over the transparent cornea be-
neath the common eyehds. This membrane is not
altogether opaque, but translucent, allowing light
to fall on the retina, and acting, as it were, like a
shade. The nictitating membrane is often seen in
the Cat when she slowly opens her eyes from a
calm and prolonged sleep : it is well developed in
the eagle, and enables him to gaze steadfastly on
the sun's unclouded disk.

The illumination of a Cat's eye in the dark
arises from the external light collected on the eye
and reflected from it. Although apparently dark,
a room is penetrated by imperceptible rays of ex-
ternal light from lamps or other luminiferous bodies.
When these rays reach the observer direct, he sees
the lamps or luminiferous bodies themselves, but
when he is out of their direct sight, the bright-
ness of their illumination only becomes apparent,
through the rays being collected and reflected by
some appropriate substance.

The cornea of the eye of the Cat, and of many
other animals, has a great power of concentrating
the rays and reflecting them through the pupil.
Professor Bohn, at Leipsic, made experiments

70 The Book of Cats.

proving that when the external light is wholly
excluded, none can be seen in the Cat's eye. For
the same reason, the animal, by a change of pos-
ture or other means, intercepting the rays, imme-
diately deprives the observer of all light otherwise
existing in, or permeating, the room. In this action,
when the iris of the eye is completely open, the
degree of brilliancy is the greatest ; but when the
iris is partly contracted, which it always is when
the external light, or the light in the room, is in-
creased, then the illumination is more obscure.
The internal motions of the animals have also great
influence over this luminous appearance, by the
contraction and relaxation of the iris dependent
upon them. When the animal is alarmed, or first
disturbed, it naturally dilates the pupil, and the
eye glares ; when it is appeased or composed, the
pupil contracts, and the light in the eye is no
longer seen.

A German savant says, that at the end of each
hair of a Cat's whiskers is a sort of bulb of nervous
substance, which converts it into a most sensitive
feeler. The whiskers are of the greatest use to
her when hunting in the dark. The nervous bulbs
at the ends of a lion's whiskers are as large as a
small pea.

The Book of Cats. yi

feut an English writer differs from him ; thus : —
" Every one must have observed what are usually
called the " whiskers " on a Cat's upper lip. The
use of these, in a state of nature, is very important.
They are organs of touch ; they are attached to a
bed of close glands under the skin ; and each of
these long and stiff hairs is connected with the
nerves of the lip. The slightest contact of these
whiskers with any surrounding object is thus felt
most distinctly by the animal, although the hairs
are of themselves insensible. They stand out on
each side in the lion, as well as in the common
Cat ; so that, from point to point, they are equal
in width to the animal's body. If we imagine,
therefore, a lion stealing through a covert of wood
in an imperfect light, we shall at once see the use
of these long hairs. They indicate to him, through
the nicest feeling, any obstacle which may present
itself to the passage of the body : they prevent the
rustle of boughs and leaves, which would give
warning to his prey if he were to attempt to pass
through too dense a bush, and this, in conjunction
with the soft cushions of his feet, and the fur upon
which he treads (the retractable claws never com-
ing in contact with the ground), enable him to
move towards his victim with a stillness even

72 The Book of Cats.

greater than that of the snake, who creeps along
the grass, and is not perceived till he is coiled round
his prey."

Black Cats especially are said to be highly
charged with electricity, which, when the animal is
irritated, is easily visible in the dark. Here are
directions I have for producing the effect : — Lay
one hand upon the Cat's throat, and slightly press
its shoulder bones. If the other hand be drawn
gently along its back, electric shocks will be felt in
the hand upon the Cat's throat. If the tips of the
ears be touched after the back has been rubbed,
shocks of electricity may also be felt, or they may
be obtained from the foot. Lay the animal upon
your knees, and apply the right hand to the back,
the left fore paw resting on the palm of your left
hand, apply the thumb to the upper side of the
paw, so as to extend the claws, and by this means
bring your fore finger in contact with one of the
bones of the leg, where it joins the paw ; when
from the knob or end of this bone, the finger slightly
pressing on it, you may feel distinctly successive
shocks similar to those obtained from the ears.
The Reverend Mr. Wood expresses an opinion, that
on account of the superabundance of electricity
which is developed in the Cat, the animal is found

The Book of Cats. 73

very useful to paralysed persons, who instinctively
encourage its approach, and from the touch derive
some benefit. Those who suffer from rheumatism
often find the presence of a Cat alleviate their
sufferings. The same gentleman, writing of a
favourite Cat, says, that if a hair of her mistress's
head were laid upon the animal's back it would
writhe as though in agony, and rolling on the floor,
would strive to free herself from the object of her
fears. The pointing of a finger at her side, at a
distance of half a foot, would cause her fur to
bristle up and throw her into a violent tremour.

It is difficult to account for the fondness of Cats
for fish, as nature seems to have given them an ap-
petite, which, with their great antipathy to water,
they can rarely gratify unassisted. Many instances
have, however, been recorded of Cats catching fish.
A Mr. Moody, of Sesmond, near Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, had a Cat in 1829 which had been in his
possession for some years, and caught fish with
great assiduity, and frequently brought them home
alive. Besides minnows and eels, she occasionally
carried home pilchards, one of which, about six
inches long, was once found in her possession ; she
also contrived to teach a neighbour's Cat to fish,
and the two were sometimes seen together watching

74 ^he Book of Cats.

by a river side for their prey. At other times they
were seen at opposite sides of the river, not far from
each other, on the look out for game.

A writer in the Plymouth Journal, June 1828,
says : — " There is now at the battery, on the Devil's
Point, a Cat which is an expert catcher of the finny
tribe, being in the constant habit of diving into the
sea and bringing up the fish alive in her mouth,
and depositing them in the guard room for the use
of the sailors. She is now seven years old, and has
long been a useful caterer. It is supposed that her
pursuit of the water-rats first taught her to venture
into the water, to which it is well known Puss has
a natural aversion. She is now as fond of the water
as a Newfoundland dog, and takes her regular
peregrinations along the rocks at its edge, looking
out for her game ready to dive for it at a mo-
ment's notice."

Talking of the Cat's fondness for fish, I should,
however, mention, that if a plate of meat and a
plate of fish, either raw or cooked, be placed before
the generality of Cats, they will be found almost
always to choose the meat.

It is usually supposed that a tortoiseshell Tom is
an impossibility. The animal is certainly rare, as
is also a Queen Anne's farthing ; but it is not

The Book of Cats. 75

such a rarity as we are led to believe. On the con-
trary, specimens are frequently offered for sale at
the Zoological Gardens.

It is another great mistake to think that Cats
have fleas : the insect infesting a half-grown Cat
does not leap like a flea.

The she Cat goes with young from fifty-five to
fifty-eight days, and generally has four or five
kittens at a litter. When born, they are blind and
deaf, like puppies. They get their sight in about
nine days, and are about eighteen months before
reaching full growth.

Those who wish their Cats to catch mice, I should
advise not to neglect the Cat's food. A starved
Cat makes a very bad mouser ; being too eager and
hungry for the work, it tries to pounce upon its
prey before the proper time comes. A good mouser
does not eat the mouse. I have a black Cat, which
is very fat, but a wonderful huntsman, and surpris-
ingly nimble at the chase. He is also as proud of
his achievements as a human sportsman, and brings
me every head of game he catches. Sometimes,
if I have been out when he has caught his
mouse, he has gone all over the house in search
of me, and at last has taken his seat by the fire-
side, or out in the garden, and nursed the trophy
of his prowess until I returned, mewing piteously if

je The Book of Cats.

anyone attempted to take it away ; but once having
laid it at my feet, and had his head scratched in
return, his interest in the matter seemed to cease,
and he went away without again attempting to
touch it. It was clear that he had made me a pre-
sent of the game ; and, as we sometimes think, when
we make anyone a present of something to eat,
it would be more delicate for us to go away imme-
diately, lest it might be supposed we desired to be
asked to stop and partake of it, Tom thus de-
parted, no doubt with a similar idea.

" No experiment," says an intelligent writer, " can
be more beautiful than that of setting a kitten for
the first time before a looking-glass. The animal
appears surprised and pleased with the reflection,
and makes several attempts to touch its new ac-
quaintance ; and at length, finding its efforts fruit-
less, it looks behind the glass, and appears highly as-
tonished at the absence of the figure. It again views
itself, and tries to touch the image Avith its foot,
suddenly looking at intervals behind the glass. It
then becomes more accurate in its observations, and
begins, as it were, to make experiments by stretch-
ing out its paw in different directions ; and when
it finds that these motions are answered in every
respect by the figure in the glass, it seems at length
to be convinced of the real nature of the image."

"VT^^"^

CHAPTER V.

^@^^^

nr\r\r\'^r^r\r\ri

* .

t-'*<?'

0/ Whittingtoji's Cat, and ano-
ther Cat that visited Strange
Countries.

S no work about
Cats could be
complete with-
out the story of
Dick Whittington, from
the first moment I had made up my mind to write
this book, I had also made up my mind to look up
the best authorities upon the subject— to write Whit-
tington's Cat's life, and to give her a chapter all to
herself Having come to this conclusion, the ques-
tion naturally arose where were the authorities. I
made search, I read deeply, but I gathered small

8o The Book of Cats.

matter on which I could place reliance, and I was
half inclined to abandon my resolve, when happen-
ing to have ten minutes to spend, waiting for an
omnibus at a street corner in the east-end of
London, I made a discovery in a shop window, by the
result of which I intend that you shall benefit
almost as much as I have myself ; for this discovery
was nothing less than the very identical tale-book
that I bought when I was a child, only it was a
penny now, instead of twopence, as in the days of
my extreme youth, — yes, the very identical tale of
Whittington and his Cat, with a splendid illustrated
pink wrapper and seven magnificent engravings,
hand-coloured blue, red, yellow and pink on each
plate, with here and there a dash of green laid
boldly on, irrespective of outline, and now and
again reaching as far as the type. Here, in the
well -remembered verses, was Richard's history
related : —

" Dick Whittington had often heard
The curious story told
That far fam'd London's brilliant streets
Were paved with sheets of gold ;
Sometimes by waggon, erst on foot.
Poor Dick he came to town,
But found the streets, instead of gold,
Were muddy, thick, and brown."

The Book of Cats. 8 1

(You will observe that the poet sacrifices every-
thing for the rhyme, and I do not blame him, when
I contemplate the noble result) : —

" In search of work he wandered round,
Till his heart was sick and sore ;
Then cold and hungry laid him down
Besides a Merchant's door.
The Merchant kindly took him in,
And gave him food to eat,
But the plainest of plain cooks " —

(Do you notice the poet's wit and humour ?)

" Him cruelly did treat."

(There is a picture here of the Cook beating-
Whittington with two ladles.)

" No longer could he stay.

So towards the famous Highgate Hill

Poor Dick he ran away.

Four miles he ran, then weaiied much,

He sat him on a stone,

And heard the merry bells of Bow

Speak to him in this tone —
' Turn again, Whittington,

Thrice Lord Mayor of London.' "

The poet's lines at this point have been beauti-
fully illustrated by a picture of Whittington, sitting
on the stone aforesaid, labelled '' four miles to
London," in an attitude of attention, whilst the
G

82 The Book of Cats.

merry church of Bow is to be seen on the other
side of a wooden fence, apparently fifty yards
off.

" Then taking heart, he wandered home,
But meeting on the road
A boy, who had a Cat to sell,
He took't to his abode."

(I think, now, that " took't " shows real genius !
How else could you have got over the diffi-
culty ?)

' ' She drove away the rats and mice —
She was his only friend," —

(This is true pathos.)

•' But when the Merchant went abroad,
He Puss did with him send."

(This part wants thinking over. It means Whit-
tington sent the Cat with his master ; please, how-
ever, read on) : —

*' It was the only thing he had —
Each servant something sent ;
The cook became more cruel still
After her master went.
Meanwhile Puss sail'd across the seas,
Unto the Moorish Court,
And to the palace of the King
The merchant Pussy brought ;

The Book of Cats. 83

For that poor Kins: 1^0 rest enjoy'd
All through the rats and mice,
They swept the food from off his board—
Puss killed them in a trice."

(And I should rather think she did, too, if the
artist may be believed who depicts her simultane-
ously seizing one rat with her teeth, and two others
with each of her fore paws.)

'* The King then gave him heaps of gold
For an animal so rare ;
The merchant brought it all to Dick,
Oh, how the boy did stare !

(And he is represented staring tremendously at
a box, apparently four feet by two-and-a-half, and
two-and-a-quarter high, marked *'R. W.," and
chock full of guineas.)

" The kindly bells had told him true
In saying, ' Turn again,'
For Whittington was thrice Lord Mayor
In great King Henry's reign."

The poem here concludes with a beautiful pic-
ture of a gentleman and a lady sitting on chairs of
state. I am not quite certain whether this is in-
tended to represent King Henry and his Queen, or
Lord and Lady Whittington ; as far as the portrait

84 The Book of Cats.

goes, I should say that the gentleman was Charles
the First.

In 1857 ^^ advertisement appeared in several
newspapers of a person w^ho was willing to buy any
number of live Cats for exportation. They were
probably wanted for New Zealand ; but it is not
every emigrating Puss that is as lucky as Dick
Whittington's (which, of course, by the way, never
existed at all.) As a contrast to the successful
career of the Cat described above, let me tell you,
in almost the same words in which it is amusingly
told in a magazine article, the story of a Cat who
went " some strange countries for to see."

During the bold campaign of Mr. Williams the
Missionary in Polynesia, a favourite Cat was taken
on shore by one of the teacher's wives at their first
visit to the island of Rarotonga. But Tom, not
liking the aspect of his new acquaintance, fled to
the mountains. Under the influence of the apostles
of the new religion, a priest named Tiaki had de-
stroyed his idol. His house was situated at a dis-
tance from the settlement, and at midnight, while
he was lying asleep on his mat, his wife, who was
sitting awake by his side, musing upon the strange
events of the day, beheld, with consternation, two
fires glittering in the doorway, and heard with sur-

The Book of Cats. 85

prise a mysterious and plaintive voice. Petrified
with fear, she awoke her husband, and began to up-
- braid him with his folly for burning his god, who, she
declared, was now come to be avenged of them.
*' Get up and pray !" she cried. The husband arose,
and, on opening his eyes, beheld the same glaring
lights, and heard the same ominous sound. He
commenced with all possible vehemence to vocife-
rate the alphabet, as a prayer to the powers above
to deliver them from the vengeance of Satan. The
Cat, on hearing the incantation, was as much
alarmed as the priest and his wife ; so he escaped
once more into the wilderness, leaving the repentant
priestly pair in ecstacies at the efficacy of their
exorcism. The nocturnal apparition of a Cat in
the flesh had nearly reinstated an overthrown idol.
Subsequently, Puss, in his perambulations, perhaps
in hopes of finding a native fur-clad helpmate,
went to another distant district ; and as a maral
or temple stood in a retired spot, and w^as shaded
by the rich foliage of ancient trees. Tommy, pleased
with the situation, and wishing to frequent good
society, took up his abode with the wooden gods.
A few days after, the priest came, accompanied by
a number of worshippers, to present some offering
to the pretended deities ; and, on opening the door,

S6 The Book of Cats.

Tom greeted them with a respectful mew. Unac-
customed to such salutations, the priest, instead of
returning the welcome with a reciprocal politeness,
rushed out of the sanctuary, shouting to his com-
panions, *' Here's a monster from the deep ! ci
monster from the deep ! "

The whole party of devotees hastened home, col-
lected several hundreds of their brethren, put on
their war-caps, brought their spears, clubs, and
slings, blackened themselves with charcoal, and,
thus equipped, came shouting on to attack the
enemy. Tom, affrighted at the formidable array,
sprang towards the open door, and, darting through
the terror-stricken warriors, sent them scampering
in all directions. In the evening, while the brave
conspirators were entertaining themselves and a
numerous company with a war-dance, to recruit
their spirits, poor Tom, wishing to see the sport,
and bearing no malice in his heart, stole in amongst
them to take a peep. Again the dusky heroes
seized their weapons and gave chase to the unfor-
tunate Cat ; but " the monster of the deep " was
too nimble for them. Some hours afterwards, when
all was quiet, Tom unwisely endeavoured to renew
his domiciliary relations with man. In the dead of
the night he entered a house, crept beneath a

The Book of Cats. ^7

coverlet, under which a whole native family were
lying, and fell asleep. His purring awoke the man,
in the hospitality of whose night-cloth he had taken
refuge, and who, supposing that some other monster
had come to disturb his household, closed the door-
ways, awoke the inmates, and procured lights to
search for the intruder. Poor Tom, fatigued with
the two previous engagements of the day, lay
quietly asleep, when the warriors, attacking him
with their clubs and spears, thought themselves
models of bravery in putting an end to him.

But Cats, though thus misunderstood at first,
seem in the end to have proved a welcome and
valuable introduction to the country. One of Mr.
Williams's means of proselytism was, the exercise
of a useful handicraft — he turned blacksmith ; but
he found unusual difficulties in the way of his
working a forge. Rarotonga was devastated by a
plague of rats, which congregated at night in his
blacksmith's shop, and devoured every particle of
leather, so that, in the morning, nothing remained
of his bellows but the bare boards. The rats, how-
ever, were not permitted to have everything their
own way. The missionaries imported a singular
cargo, consisting of pigs, cocoa-nuts, and Cats.
The Cats proved a real blessing to the island, but

88 The Book of Cats.

even they did not destroy so many rats as the
pigs, which were exceedingly voracious, and took
greedily to the rodent diet.

By the way, I must not close the chapter without
one little scrap.

Mr. Spectator, in No. 5, March 6, 171 1, says : —
" I am credibly informed that there was once a
design of casting into an opera the story of Whit-
tington and his Cat, and that in order to do it there
had been got together a great quantity of mice,
but Mr. Rich, the proprietor of the playhouse, very
prudently considered that it would be impossible
for the Cat to kill them all."

-^^f^

CHAPTER VI

1^

^ <^

^^^^HF

^k^^^^

Of various kinds of Cats^
Ancient and Modern.

OW, although
this is the Book
of Cats, do you
know I am
more that half afraid
that if I give you too much about Cats in it, you
will go away dissatisfied. Some years ago there
was a great rage for mechanics' institutions and in-
structive lectures on things generally, and one half
the world was for jumping on to the platform and
improving the mind of the other half in gases and

92 The Book of Cats.

ologies ; and, in those days, there was one particular
sort of lecture, which might be roughly described
as hard words and an explosion, with which the
frequenter of all institutes was perfectly familiar ;
and you may remember, too, how we did not so
much care about the words, but thought that the
stuff out of the bottle, that went off with a bang,
was the best fun out. Carried away by the popu-
larity of these oratorical and chemical displays, the
heads of schools were wont to encourage lecturing
on a small scale among their pupils, only suppres-
sing the explosive part of the entertainment as too
dangerous ; and young gentlemen told other young
gentlemen what they knew rather better than the
young gentlemen telling them respecting the ology
of which they treated.

In like fashion, I am afraid I may be only telling
you what you know already, or what you might
have known, but have not cared about learning.
The fact is, all that this chapter contains is to be
elsewhere found at greater length. I have no new
theories of my own upon the subject, and, indeed,
would not presume to argue the question of the
domestic Cat's origin with those who have so ably
treated the subject in books long since written. To
tell the truth, I was not myself very much inte-

The Book of Cats. 93

rested about the matter when I began to read the
arguments on either side. Will you be ? I am in-
clined to think not. However, here is a brief state-
ment of the case, which is easily skipped if not
approved of.

M. Riippel, who discovered in the wild regions
west of the Nile a Cat about one-third smaller
than the European Cat, and having a longer tail,
is of opinion that the animal was descended from
the domestic Cat of the ancient Eg>^ptians, and
that the Egyptian and our domestic Cat are iden-
tical. Temminck is of the same opinion ; but Pro-
fessor Owen objects to this theory, because the first
deciduous molar-tooth of the Egyptian Cat has a
relatively thicker crown, and is supported by three
roots, whilst the corresponding tooth of the do-
mestic and wild Cat of Europe has a thinner crown,
and only two roots. A writer on the subject, in
1836, says, there is no doubt but that the wild Cat
of the European forests is the tame Cat of European
houses ; that the wild Cat at some period has
been domesticated, and that the tame Cat would
become wild if turned into the woods. Mr. Bell,
however, with regard to the belief that the common
wild Cat is the father of the tame, says, that the
general conformation of the two animals is con-

94 The Book of Cats.

siderably different, especially in the length and
form of the tail. The fur, too, of the wild Cat is
thicker and longer.

Sir William Jardine thinks that, since the intro-
duction of our house Cat to this country, there may
have been an accidental cross with the wild native
species, by which the difference in form between
the wild and tame Cat may be accounted for.
" The domestic Cat," says he, " is the only one of
this race which has been generally used in the
economy of man. Some of the other small species
have shown that they might be applied to similar
purposes ; and we have seen that the general dis-
position of this family will not prevent their train-
ing. Much pains would have been necessary to
effect this, and none of the European nations were
likely to have attempted it. The scarcity of Cats
in Europe, in its earliest ages, is also well known,
and in the tenth and eleventh centuries a good
mouser brought a high price."

Another author, quoting the above, says : —
"Although our opinion coincides with that of
Riippel, and we think that we are indebted to the
superstition of the ancient Egyptians for having
domesticated the species mentioned by Riippel, we
have no doubt that since its introduction to this

The Book of Cats. 95

country, and more particularly to the north of
Scotland, there have been occasional crosses with
our native species, and that the result of these
crosses have been kept in our houses. We have
seen many Cats very closely resembling the wild
Cat, and one or two which could scarcely be dis-
tinguished from it. There is, perhaps, no other
animal that so soon loses its cultivation and re-
turns apparently to a state completely wild : the
tasting of some wild and living food may tempt
them to seek it again and to leave their civilized
homes. They then prowl about in the same
manner as their prey, couching in the long grass
and brush-wood, and hiding themselves from all
publicity."

No game destroyer, however, is more easily
caught than the Cat. In summer, when rabbit-
paunches will not keep on account of the weather,
a little valerian root is used as a bait. The Cats
come to rub themselves on it, finding some unac-
countable pleasure in so doing. The valerian root
is of a whitish colour, and it has a very strong and
disagreeable smell : it is used by us as a medicine
in nervous disorders, and its good effects against
headaches, low-spirits, and trembling of the limbs
are well known. A story is told of a little boy

g6 The Book of Cats.

home for the holidays who played an old lady
this trick : — He put some valerian root under the
hearth-rug, which set the Cat scratching, rubbing
her back on it, and performing a hundred antics,
till the old lady, getting frightened, thought Puss
had gone mad. The boy then quietly took away
the valerian. The Cat grew calm again, and the
old lady was much astonished.

It is a cruel custom in some parts of the country
to cut off the ears of Cats and remove the hairs all
round the exposed aperture of the ear, to prevent
the animal from poaching in the woods. It is
thought that by so doing, the wet off the bushes
and grass may get into the internal cavity of the
ear, and by the pain cause the Cat to desist from
the chase. Cats so mutilated, however, often
choose fine days for their poaching expeditions.

A Cat caught in a trap is a dangerous customer
to let loose again. If the door be opened incau-
tiously, the Cat will probably fly at the catcher's
face the moment she sees the light. The only safe
way of getting the Cat out of the trap is to place a
sack over the door end of the trap, and then rattle
the other end with a stick. The animal runs at
once into the sack.

Wild Cats not only eat birds, but seek eagerly

The Book of Cats. 97

after their eggs, of which they are passionately
fond.

Regarding the wild Cat, Pennant says, " It may
be called the * British Tiger ' : it is the fiercest and
most destructive beast we have ; making dreadful
havoc amongst our poultry, lambs and birds. It
inhabits the most mountainous and w^ooded parts
of these islands, living mostly in trees and feeding
only at night. It multiplies as fast as our common
Cats."

A wald Cat is said to have been killed in Cum-
berland (my authority gives no date) which mea-
sured above five feet in length from the nose to
the end of the tail.

Mr. Timbs relates how, in 1850, he saw, at No.
175, Oxford Street, a beautifully-marked tabby
Cat weighing 25I lbs., and measuring 27 inches
round the body, and 37 inches from the tip of the
tail to the end of the nose ; height to top of
shoulders 11 J inches: he was then seven years
old.

The tame Cat's tail ends in a point ; the wild
Cat's in a tuft. The head of the wild Cat is trian-
gular and strongly marked, the ears triangular,
large, long and pointed.

At the village of Barnborough, in Yorkshire,
H

98 The Book of Cats.

there is a tradition extant of a serious conflict that
once took place between a man and a wild Cat.
The inhabitants say that the fight began in an
adjacent wood, and that the man and Cat fought
from thence to the porch of the church, where each
died of the wounds received. A rude painting in
the church commemorates the sanguinary event,
and the red colour of some of the stones are, of
course, said to be blood-stains, which all the soap
and water in the world could not remove.

In the reign of Richard II. wild Cats were
reckoned among the beasts of the chase, and there
was an edict that no man should use more costly
apparel than that made of lambs' or Cats'-skins.

In Egypt Cats were considered sacred to the
Goddess Bubastis, the Egyptian Diana. Her
priestesses were vowed to celibacy : they passed
a great portion of their time attending on the Cats
of the temple. Mrs. Loudon suggests that hence,
perhaps, may have arisen the idea that a fondness
for Cats is a sign of old maidlsm.

Apollo created the lion to terrify his sister Diana,
and she turned his fearful beast into ridicule by
mimicking it in the form of a Cat. Cats were de-
dicated to Diana, not only when she bore her proper
name, but when she was called "Hecate." Witches

The Book of Cats. 99

who worshipped Hecate had always a favourite
Cat.

A very great number of Cats' mummies, dis-
covered in Egypt, afford ample proof of the esteem
in which Pussy was held in " Thebes' Streets Three
Thousand Years Ago." If one died a natural death,
it was mourned for with many ceremonies ; among
others the entire household, where the death took
place, shaved off their eyebrows. If killed, the
murderer was given up to the mob to buffet him to
death. Cats were held sacred when alive, and
when they died were embalmed and deposited in
the niches of the catacombs. An insult offered by
a Roman to a Cat caused an insurrection among
the Egyptians when nothing else could excite them.
Cambyses gained Pelusis, which had previously
successfully resisted all attacks, by the following
stratagem : — He gave to each of his soldiers em-
ployed in the attack a live Cat, instead of a buckler,
and tlie Egyptians, rather than hurt the objects
of their veneration, suffered themselves to be van-
quished without striking a blow.

Herodotus tells us that " on every occasion of a
fire in Egypt, the strangest prodigy occurs with the
Cats. The inhabitants allow the fire to rage as
long as it pleases, while they stand about, at inter-

100 The Book of Cats.

vals, and watch these animals, which, slipping by
the men, or else leaping over them, rush headlong
into the flames."

In some of the curious Egyptian pictures at the
British Museum, you may see the representation of
Cats being trained to catch birds.

Cats are frequently trained in California to catch
a species of burrowing pouched rat, called a gopher,
a destructive animal infesting fields and gardens.
Cats, so trained, are very valuable.

We are are told that there was once a Cape in the
Island of Cyprus, which was called Cat Cape. A
monastery stood here, the monks of which were
compelled by their vows to keep a great number of
Cats, to wage war against the snakes, with which
the Island was swarming. At the sound of a
certain bell the Cats came trooping home to their
meals, and then rushed out again to the chase.
When, however, the Turks conquered the Island,
they destroyed both the Cats and their home.

In the middle ages, animals formed as prominent
a part in the worship of the time as in the old
religion of Egypt. The Cat was a very important
personage in religious festivals. At Aix, in
Provence, on the festival of Corpus Christi, the
finest Tom-cat of the country, wrapt in swaddling

The Book of Cats. lOI

clothes like a child, was exhibited in a magnificent
shrine to public admiration. Every knee was bent,
every hand strewed flowers, or poured incense, and
Grimalkin was treated in all respects as the god of
the day. But on the festival of St. John, poor
Tom's fate was reversed. A number of the tabby
tribe were put into a wicker basket, and thrown
alive into the midst of an immense fire, kindled in
the public square by the bishop and his clergy.
Hymns and anthems were sung, and processions
were made by the priest and people in honour of
the sacrifice.

In the reign of Howel the Good, who died in
948, a law was made in Wales, fixing the price of
the Cat, which was then of great scarcity. A
kitten before it got its sight was to cost one penny ;
until a warranty was given of its having caught a
mouse, twopence ; after this important event, four-
pence, and a very high price, too, the times con-
sidered. The Cat, however, was required to be
perfect in its senses of seeing and hearing, should
be a good mouser, have its claws uninjured, and, it
a lady pussy, be a good mamma. If after it was
sold, it was found wanting in any of these particu-
lars, the seller was to forfeit a third of the purchase-
money. If any one stole or killed the Cat that

102 The Book of Cats.

was guarding the prince's granary, the criminal for-
feited a milch ewe with her fleece and lamb, or as
much wheat as when poured upon a Cat suspended
by its tail, would bury the animal up to the top of
its tail.

In Abyssinia, Cats are so valuable, that a
marriageable girl who is likely to come in for a
Cat, is looked upon as quite an heiress.

The resemblance between the Tiger and the Cat
is so striking, that little children first taken to the
Zoological Gardens almost always call the Tigers
great Cats ; and, in their native woods, Tigers
purr.

The domestic species require no description, but
one or two of the varieties may be mentioned :

The Cat of Angora, is a very beautiful variety,
with silvery hair of fine silken texture, generally
longest on the neck, but also long on the tail. Some
are yellowish, and others olive, approaching to the
colour of the Lion ; but they are all delicate
creatures, and of gentle dispositions. Mr. Wood,
while staying in Paris, made the acquaintance of an
Angora, which ate two plates of almond biscuits at
a sitting. This breed of Cats has singular tastes ;
I knew one that took very kindly to gin and water,
and was rather partial to curry. He also ate peas,

The Book of Cats. 103

greens, and broad beans (in moderation). Most
Cats are fond of asparagus.

The Persian Cat is a variety with hair very
long, and very silky, perhaps more so than the Cat
of Angora ; it is however differently coloured,
being of a fine uniform grey on the upper part,
with the texture of the fur as soft as silk, and the
lustre glossy ; the colour fades off on the lower parts
of the sides, and passes into white, or nearly so, on
the belly. This is, probably, one of the most beau-
tiful varieties, and it is said to be exceedingly gentle
in its manners.

The Chinese Cat has the fur beautifully glossed,
but it is very different from either of those which
have been mentioned. It is variegated with black
and yellow, and, unlike most of the race, has the
ears pendulous. Bosman, writing about the ears,
says : " It is worthy of observ^ation, that there is in
animals evident signs of ancestry of their slavery.
Long ears are produced by time and civilization,
and all wild animals have straight round ears."

The Tortoise-shell or Spanish Cat is one of the
prettiest varieties of those which have the fur of
moderate length, and without any particular silvery
gloss. The colours are very pure, black, white, and
reddish orange ; and, in this country, at least, males

104 "^he Book of Cats.

thus marked are said to be rare, though they are
quite common in Egypt and the south of Europe.
This variety has other quahties to recommend it,
besides the beauty of its colours. Tortoise-shell
Cats are very elegant, though delicate in their
form, and are, at the same time, very active, and
among the most attached and grateful of the whole
race.

Bluish grey is not a common colour ; this species
are styled " Chartreux Cats," and are esteemed
rarities.

The Manx Cat is perhaps the most singular ;
its limbs are gaunt, its fur close set, its eyes staring
and restless, and it has no tail ; that is to say, there
is only a sort of knob as though its tail had been
amputated. '' A black Manx Cat," says a modern
writer, "with its staring eyes and its stump of a
tail, is a most measly looking beast, which would
find a more appropriate resting place at Kirk
AUoway or the Black Bay, than at the fireside of a
respectable household. So it might fitly be the
quadrupedal form in which the ancient sorcerers
were wont to clothe themselves on their nocturnal
excursions."

I read in an article by Mr, Lord that there is a
variety of tailless Cats found in various parts of the

The Book of Cats, 1 05

world, and he suggests that this deficiency may be
due to an accident originally, but perpetuated by
interbreeding. I am not quite of the same opinion.
It reminds one of the old saying, " It runs in the
blood, like wooden legs."

I recollect the case of a young gentleman who
devoted his leisure evenings to cutting off Cats'
tails in the neighbourhood in which he lived. He
hung them up in bunches to dry, and had rare
sport, while it lasted, in making the collection, only
some one, who was a Cat-owner, did not see the
fun of it, and put an end to the joke. Some
young men think it a manly sport to kill or hunt
down Cats ; and, by the way, do you remember
Sir Robert Peel's memorable speech about the
Volunteers, thus reported in Hansard? —

" At Hythe the first prize was carried off
by a genuine Cockney. Upon being asked how
he had acquired his extraordinary skill and pre-
cision—

'' * Oh,' said he, as reported in the columns of the
Court yournal, ' I live in London, and have had con-
siderable practice in shooting at the Cats of my
Brompton neighbours.'

" It was not, perhaps, of much consequence in
the depth of winter (continued Sir R. Peel), but no

io6 Tlu Book of Cats.

man could tell what a scene London would present
in the height of the season. Everybody would be
shooting at his neighbour's Cat. There would be
the stoker of the Railway Rifles potting at the
funnels of the North Western, and we should have
the Finsbury Filibusters fluking over Cripplegate.
He trusted, however, that before that time a stop
would be put to the Volunteer movement," etc., etc.

Cats do certainly seem to enjoy themselves on
moonlight nights, anyhow they make noise enough.
The Cat w^as believed by the ancients to stand in
some relation to the moon, for Plutarch says that
the Cat was the symbol of the moon on account of
her different colours, her busy ways at night, and
her giving birth to twenty-eight young ones during
the course of her life, which is exactly the number
of the phases of the moon.

The ancients identified Bubastis with the Greek
Artemis (or Diana), and each was regarded as the
Goddess of the moon. Bubastis was generally re-
presented as a woman with a Cat's head.

It might occur to some, that " Puss " is derived
from the Egyptian name, Pasht ; but perhaps it is
better to acquiesce in the derivation from the Latin,
Pusus (a little boy), or Pusa (a little girl). By others
this term is thought to be a corruption of Pers.

The Book of Cats. 107

The French of Cat is Chat ; the German, Katze ;
the Italian, Gatto ; the Spanish, Gato ; the Dutch
and Danish, Kat ; the Welsh, Cath ; the Latin,
Catus :■ the French of Puss is Minette, You have
heard the story, I suppose, of the person who being
told to decline the noun Cat, when he came to the
vocative, said " O Cat !" on which he was reminded
that if he spoke to a Cat he would say " Puss."

Mr. Buchton says, that " the only language in
which the name of the Cat is significant, is the Zend,
where the word Gatu, almost identical with the
Spanish Gato, means a place — a word peculiarly
significant in reference to this animal, whose at-
tachment is peculiar to place, and not to the person,
so strikingly indicated by the dog."

In some parts of Lancashire, a Tom is still called
a " Gib " or " Gibbe" Cat, the g being pronounced
hard^ not jibbe, as found in most dictionaries. Accord-
ing to Nares, Gib, the contraction of Gilbert, was
the name formerly applied to a Cat, as Tom is now,
and that Tibert, as given in Reynard the Fox, was
the old French for Gilbert. Chaucer in his Romance
of the Rose translates Thibert le Cas by " Gibbe our
Cat." Shakespeare applies the word Gibbe to an
old worn-out animal. The term Gib-face means the
lower lip of a horse. In mechanics, the pieces of

I08 The Book of Cats.

iron employed to clasp together the pieces of wood
or metal of a frame which is to be keyed previous
to inserting the keys, are called Gibs. Anyone
curious upon the subject of Gib Cats, my find the
subject treated at length in the Etymologic on.

CHAPTER VII.

HIS domestic
animal, as Dr.
Johnson puts it,
** that catches

^^t ^^

mice, "can do many other
things when it has a fair opportunity of distinguish-
ing itself. It is difficult, but by no means impos-
sible, to teach a Cat tricks. I myself had a favourite
Cat, lately dead, which performed a variety of
amusing feats, though I must own that it was ex-
tremely coquettish, and nine times out of ten

112 The Book of Cats.

refused to exhibit before a visitor, invited specially
to witness the little comedy. Many Cats, without
teaching, learn droll tricks.

Doctor Smellie tells of a Cat that had learned
to lift the latch of a door ; and other tales have
been related of Cats that have been taught to ring
a bell by hanging to the bell rope ; and this anec-
dote is related by the illustrious Sam Slick, of Slick-
ville. It occurred, several times, that his servant
entered the library without having been summoned
by his master, and in all cases the domestic was
quite sure he had heard the bell. Great wonder-
ment was caused by this, and the servant began to
suspect that the house was haunted. It was, at
length, noticed that on all these mysterious occasions
the Cat entered with the servant. She was, there-
fore, watched, and it was soon perceived that
whenever she found the library door closed against
her, she jumped on to the window-sill, and thence
sprang at the bell. This feat was exhibited to
several of the clockmaker's friends, for the Cat
when shut out of the room, would at once resort to
this mode of obtaining admission.

My third story is a time-honoured one that
almost every person who has written about Cats
has related. There was once upon a time, a

THE CUNNING CAT.

Pas;e 113,

The Book of Cats. 1 1 3

monastery, a Cat, and a dinner-bell. Every day
at a certain hour the bell was rung, and the monks
and the Cat had their meal together. There how-
ever came a time when, during the bell ringing, the
Cat happened to be locked in a room at the other
end of the building. Some hours afterwards she was
released, and ran straight to the refectory, to find,
alas ! nothing but bare tables to welcome her. Pre-
sently the monks were astonished by a loud sum-
mons from the dinner-bell. Had the cook, in his
absence of mind, prepared another dinner .? Some
of them hurried to the spot, where they found the
Cat swinging on the bell-rope. She had learnt from
experience that there never was any dinner without
a bell ringing ; and by force of reasoning, no doubt,
had come to the conclusion that the dinner would
be sure to come if she only rang loud enough.

But that story is not half so wonderful as another,
about an Angora Cat belonging to a Carthusian
monastery at Paris. This ingenious animal dis-
covered that, when a certain bell rang, the cook left
the kitchen to answer it, leaving the monks' dinners,
portioned out in plates, unprotected. The plan the
Cat adopted was to ring the bell, the handle of
which hung outside the kitchen by the side of a
window, to leap through the window, and back

I

1 14 The Book of Cats.

again when she had secured one of the portions.
This little manoeuvre she carried on for some
weeks before the perpetrator of the robbery was
discovered ; and there is no saying, during this
lapse of time, how many innocent persons were
unjustly suspected. Who shall say, indeed, but
that the head of the establishment did not, as in
the great Jackdaw case, call for his candle, his bell,
and his book, and in holy anger, in pious grief,
solemnly curse that rascally thief, as, you remem-
ber, the Cardinal cursed the Jackdaw : —

" He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed,
From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head ;
He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in drinking,
He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing, in winking ;
He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying ;
He cursed him in walking, in riding, in flying ;
He cursed him in living, he cursed him in dying ; —
Never was heard such a terrible curse !

But what gave rise

To no little surprise,
Nobody seemed one penny the worse !"

When, however, they found out that Pussy was
the wrong-doer, and, unlike the Jackdaw, had grown
fat upon her misdeeds, they did not hang her, as
you might suppose, though I have no doubt that
course was suggested ; on the contrary, they allowed

The Book of Cats. I15

her to pursue her nefarious career, and charged
visitors a small fee to be allowed to see her do it.
Out of evil sometimes may come good ; but one
would hardly think that the best way of making a
person's fortune was to rob him.

Cats have been frequently known to do their
best to protect the property of their masters, as
well as dogs. A man who was imprisoned for a
burglar^^, in America, stated after his conviction,
that he. and two others broke into the house of a
gentleman, near Harlem. While they were in the
act of plundering it, a large black Cat flew at one
of the robbers, and fixed her claws on each side of
his face. He added, that he never saw a man so
frightened in his life ; and that in his alarm, he
made such an outcry, that they had to beat a
precipitate retreat, to avoid detection.

A lady in Liverpool had a favourite Cat. She
nevci returned home, after a short absence, without
beinf ioyfully received by it. One Sunday, how-
ever, .n returning from church, she was surprised to
find that Pussy did not receive her as usual, and its
contiDiied absence made her a little uneasy. The
serv'a, s were all appealed to, but none could
accoui c for the circumstance. The lady, therefore,
made a strict search for her feline friend, and

Ii6 The Book of Cats.

descending to the lower storey, was surprised to
hear her cries of " Puss " answered by the mewing
of a Cat, the sounds proceeding from the wine cellar,
which had been properly locked and the key placed
in safe custody. As the Cat was in the parlour
when the lady left for church, it was unnecessary to
consult a " wise man " to ascertain that the servants
had clandestine means of getting into the wine-
cellar, and that they had forgotten, when they them-
selves returned, to request pussy, also, to withdraw.
The contents of the cellar, from that time forward,
did not disappear as quickly as they had been
doing for some time previously.

A woman was murdered at Lyons, and when the
body was found weltering in blood, a large white
Cat was seen mounted on the cornice of a cup-
board. He sat motionless, his eyes fixed on the
corpse, and his attitude and looks expressing horror
and affright. Next morning he was still found
there ; and when the room was filled by the officers
of justice, neither the clattering of the soldiers'
arms nor the loud conversation frightened him
away. As soon, however, as the suspected persons
were brought in, his eyes glared with fury, a' id his
hair bristled. He darted into the middle of the
room, where he stopped for a moment to g ze on

The Book of Cats. WJ

them, and then fled precipitately. The faces of the
assassins showed, for the first time, signs of guilt :
they were afterwards brought to trial, condemned,
and, before execution, confessed.

In September, 1850, the mistress of a public
house in the Commercial Road, London, going late
at night into the tap-room, found her Cat in a state
of great excitement. It would not suffer itself to
be stroked, but ran wildly, to and fro, between its
mistress and the chimney-piece, mewing loudly.
The landlady alarmed, summoned assistance, and
presently a robber was discovered up the chimney.
Upon his trial it was proved that he had robbed
several public-houses, by remaining last in the tap-
room, and concealing himself in a similar manner.

An old maiden lady, rich and miserly, had, in
the latter years of her life, placed all her affections
upon a Cat she called " Minny," for w^hich she had
made a fine bed-place in the wainscot, over a closet
in the parlour, where she kept the animal's provi-
sions. The food in question was stowed away in a
drawer, and under the drawer which served as
Minny's safe, was another, very artfully concealed,
and closing with a spring. To the latter the Cat
had often seen its mistress pay lengthened visits.
When the old lady died, her heirs came to live in

Ii8 TJie Book of Cats.

the house, and Minny being no longer fed with the
same regularity, Avas often hungry, and would then
go and scratch at the drawer where its food had
been kept. The draAver being at length opened,
some pieces of meat were found within in a mum-
mified state. These having been given to the Cat,
failed to console her, and she scratched harder than
ever at the secret drawer underneath ; and Minny's
new masters, in course of time understanding what
she m.eant, broke it open, and found twenty small
canvas bags of guineas snugly packed up within.
My authority does not say how Minny fared after
this little discovery. Let us hope she was allowed
her old sleeping-place, and got her food with toler-
able regularity. But there is no knowing.

Cats are very fond of creeping into out-of-the-
way holes and corners, and, sometimes, pay dearly
for so doing.

Once when repairing the organ in Westminster
Abbey, a dried Cat was found in one of the large
recumbent wooden pipes, which had been out of
tune for some time. In one of the rooms at the
Foreign Ofhce, some years ago, there was, for a
long time, a very disagreeable smell, which was sup-
posed to arise from the drains. At length some
heavy volumes being taken down from a shelf, the

The Book of Cats. 1 19

body of a dried Cat was found behind them. The
unfortunate animal had been shut up by accident,
and starved to death, a prisoner, Hke the heroine
of the *' Oak Chest."

Mrs. Loudon, in her book of Domestic Pets, tells
several amusing stories. Her mother, the writer
says, had a servant who disliked Cats very much,
and in particular a large black Cat, which she was
in the habit of beating, whenever she could do so
unobserved. The Cat disliked and feared the girl
exceedingly ; however, one day, when her enemy
was carrying some dishes down-stairs into the
kitchen, and had both her hands full, the Cat flew
at her and scratched her hands and face severely.

A strange Cat had two kittens in a stable belong-
ing to the house, and one day, pitying its wretched
condition, Mrs. Loudon ordered her some milk.
A large Tom Cat, attached to the establishment,
watched the proceeding very attentively, and while
the Cat was lapping, went to the stable, brought
out one of the kittens in his mouth, and placed it
beside the saucer, and then fetched the other, look-
ing up into the lady's face, and mewing when he
had done so, as much as to say, " You have fed the
mother, so you may as well feed the children,"
which was done ; and it should be added, for the

120 The Book of Cats.

credit of Tom's character, that he never attempted
to touch the milk himself.

But the best story is this : — Mrs. Loudon had a
Cat which had unfortunately hurt its leg. During
the whole time the leg was bad, that lady constantly
gave it milk ; but, at last, she found out that, though
the Cat had become quite well, yet whenever it
saw her, it used to walk lame and hold up its paw,
as though it were painful to put it to the ground.

A favourite Cat, much petted by her mistress ,
was one day struck by a servant. She resented the
injury so much that she refused to eat anything
which he gave her. Day after day he handed her
dinner to her, but she sat in sulky indignation,
though she eagerly ate the food as soon as it was
offered to her by any other person. Her resent-
ment continued, undiminished, for upwards of six
weeks.

The same Cat, having been offended by the
housemaid, watched three days before she found a
favourable opportunity for retaliation. The house-
maid was on her knees, washing the passage, when
the Cat went up to her and scratched her arm, to
show her that no one should illuse her with im-
punity. It is, however, but fair to record her good
qualities as well as her bad ones. If her resent-

The Book of Cats. 121

ment was strong, her attachment was equally so,
and she took a singular mode of showing it. All
the tit-bits she could steal from the pantry, and all
the dainty mice she could catch, she invariably
brought and laid at her mistress's feet. She has
been known to bring a mouse to her door in the
middle of the night, and mew till it was opened,
when she would present it to her mistress. After
doing this she was quiet and contented.

Just before the earthquake at Messina, a mer-
chant of that town noticed that his Cats were
scratching at the door of his room, in a state of
great excitement. He opened the door for them,
and they flew down-stairs and began to scratch
more violently still at the street-door. Filled with
wonder, the master let them out and followed them
through the town out of the gates, and into the
fields beyond, but, even then, they seemed half mad
with fright, and scratched and tore at the grass.
Very shortly the first shock of the earthquake was
felt, and many houses (the merchant's among them)
came thundering in ruins to the ground.

A family in Callander had in their possession
a favourite Tom Cat, which had, upon several occa-
sions, exhibited more than ordinary sagacity. One
day, Tom made off with a piece of beef, and the

122 The Book of Cats.

servant followed him cautiously, with the inten-
tion of catching, and administering to him a little
wholesome correction. To her amazement, she saw
the Cat go to a corner of the yard where she knew
a rat-hole existed, and lay the beef down by the
side of it. Leaving the beef there, he hid himself a
short distance off, and watched until a rat made its
appearance. Tom's tail then began to wag, and
just as the rat was moving away with the bait, he
sprang upon, and killed it.

It one day occurred to M. de la Croix that he
ought to try an experiment upon a Cat with an air
pump. The necessity for her torture was not, how-
ever, so apparent to the intended victim of science
as to the scientific experimenter. Therefore, when
she found the air growing scarce, and discovered
how it was being exhausted, she stopped up the
valve with her paw. Then M. de la Croix let the
air run back, and Pussy took away her paw, but as
soon as he began to pump, she again stopped up
the hole. This baffled the man of science, and
there is no knowing what valuable discovery might
have been made, had not his feline friend been so
very unaccommodating.

Dr. Careri, in his Voyage round the PVorld in 1 695,
says, that a person, in order to punish a mischievous

TJie Book of Cats. 1 23

monkey, placed upon the fire a cocoa nut, and
then hid himself, to see how the monkey would
take it from the fire without burning his paws.
The cunning creature looked about, and seeing a
Cat by the fireside, held her head in his mouth, and
with her paws took off the nut, which he then threw
into water to cool, and ate it.

Cats have always been famous for the wonder-
ful manner in which they have found their way
back to their old home, when they have been taken
from it, and for this reason alone, have often been
accused of loving only the house and not its inmates.
It is more probable though, I should think, that the
animal returns to the place because its associations
there have been happy, and, in the confusion and
strangeness of the new house, it cannot comprehend
that its old friends have come with it. For instance,
I have known a Cat when taken away from a house,
return to it, and going from room to room, mew
pitifully, in search of the former inmates. When
taken away a second time, the new place having
in the meantime been set straight, it found nothing
to frighten it there, and returned no more to its old
house.

I knew a person who was in the habit of moving
about a great deal, and hiring furnished houses, who

124 The Book of Cats.

had a Cat called Sandy, on account of his colour,
which he found in the first instance, in a sort of half-
wild state, on Hampstead Heath, mostly living up a
tree. It had been left behind by the people who had
last occupied the house, and locked out by the land-
lady. It was about nine or ten years old, and good-
ness knows how many dwelling places it may have
had; with its new friends, I know of five or six
changes, and am told that it always made itself per-
fectly at home in half an hour after entering a new
house. It was taken from place to place in a
hamper, and the lid being raised would put out
its head and sniff the air in the drollest manner.
Getting out very cautiously, it would then make a
tour of the premises, and inspect the furniture ; at
the end of about half an hour it washed its face
and seemed settled.

A lady residing in Glasgow had a handsome
Cat sent to her from Edinburgh : it was conveyed
to her in a close basket in a carriage. The animal
was carefully watched for two months ; but having
produced a pair of young ones at the end of that
time, she was left to her own discretion, which she
very soon employed in disappearing with both her
kittens. The lady at Glasgow wrote to her friend
at Edinburgh, deploring her loss, and the Cat was

The Book of Cats, 1 25

supposed to have formed some new attachment.
About a fortnight, however, after her disappearance
from Glasgow, her well-known mew was heard at
the street-door of her Edinburgh mistress ; and
there she was with both her kittens, they in the
best state, but she, herself, very thin. It is clear
that she could carry only one kitten at a time.
The distance from Glasgow to Edinburgh is forty-
four miles, so that if she brought one kitten part of
the way, and then went back for the other, and thus
conveyed them alternately, she must have travelled
120 miles at least. She, also, must have journeyed
only during the night, and must have resorted to
many other precautions for the safety of her
young.

Mr. Lord relates a story of a Cat living with
some friends of his in a house on an island. The
family changed residence, and the Cat was sewn
up in a hamper and taken round to the other side
of the island in a boat. The island was sparsely
inhabited, timbered, and there were but few paths
cut to traverse it by, and yet the Cat found its
way during the night back again to its old re-
sidence. There could have been no scent of
foot-prints, neither was there any road or path to
guide it.

126 The Book of Cats.

Another Cat was conveyed from its home in
Jamaica to a place five miles distant, and during
the time of its transport was sown up closely in a
bag. Between the two places were two rivers, one
of them about eighty feet broad, deep, and running
strong ; the other wider and more rapid. The Cat
must have swum these rivers, as there were no
bridges ; but in spite of all obstacles, she made her
way back to the house from which she had been
taken.

In 1 8 19 a favourite Tabby belonging to a ship-
master was left on shore, by accident, while his
vessel sailed from the harbour of Aberdour, Fife-
shire, which is about half a mile from the village.
The vessel was a month absent, and on her return,
to the astonishment of the shipmaster, Puss came
on board with a fine stout kitten in her mouth, ap-
parently about three weeks old, and went directly
down into the cabin. Two others of her young
ones were afterwards caught, quite wild, in a neigh-
bouring wood, where she must have remained with
them until the return of the ship. The shipmaster
did not allow her, again, to go on shore, otherwise it
is probable she would have brought all her family
on board. It was very remarkable, because vessels
were daily going in and out of the harbour, none of

The Book of Cats. 12/

which she ever thought of visiting till the one she
had left returned.

In a parish in Norfolk, not six miles from the
town of Bungay, lived a clergyman, who, having a
Cat, sentenced it to transportation for life because
it had committed certain depredations on his larder.
But the worthy gentleman found it far easier to
pronounce the sentence than to carry it into exe-
cution. Poor Puss was first taken to Bungay, but
had hardly got there when she escaped, and was
soon at home again. Her morals, however, had
in no way improved, and a felonious abstraction of
butcher's meat immediately occurred. This time
the master determined to send the hardened culprit
away to a distance, which, as he expressed it, " she
would not walk in a hurry." He accordingly gave
her (generous man) to a person living at Fakenham,
distant at least forty miles. The man called for
her in the morning, and carried her off in a bag,
that she might not know by what road he went.
Vain hope ! She knew well enough the way
home, as he found to his cost, for directly the house-
door was opened the next morning, she rushed out
and he saw no more of her. The night after a
faint mewing was heard outside the minister's
dwelling, but not being so rare an occurrence no

128 The Book of Cats.

attention was paid to it. However, on opening the
door next morning, there lay the very Cat which he
thought was forty miles away, her feet all cut and
blistered, from the hardness of the road, and her
silky fur all clotted and matted together with dust
and dirt. She had her reward ; however her thievish
propensities might annoy him, the worthy vicar re-
solved never again to send her away from the house
she loved so well, and exerted herself so nobly to
regain.

The Rev. Mr. Wood furnishes some curious par-
ticulars of two commercial Cats of his acquaintance,
which he very comically describes : —

" I will tell you," says he, '' something about our
Mincing Lane Cats. Their home was in the cellar,
and their habits and surroundings, as you may
imagine, from the locality, were decidedly commer-
cial. We had one cunning old black fellow, whose
wisdom was acquired by sad experience. In early
youth, he must have been very careless ; he then
was always getting in the way of the men and
the wine cases, and frequent were the disasters he
suffered through coming into collision with moving
bodies. His ribs had often been fractured, and
when nature repaired them, she must have handed
them over to the care of her ' prentice hand,' for the

The Book of Cats. 129

work was done in rather a rough and knotty
manner. This battered and suffering Pussy was at
last assisted by a younger hero, which, profiting by
the teachings of his senior, managed to avoid the
scrapes which had tortured the one who was self-
educated. These two Cats, Junior and Senior, ap-
peared to swear (Cats will swear) eternal friendship
at first sight. An interchange of good offices was
at once established. Senior taught Junior to avoid
men's feet and wine cases in motion, and pointed
out the favourite hunting grounds, while Junior
offered to his Mentor the aid of his activity and
physical prowess.

Senior had a cultivated and epicurean taste for
mice, though he was too old to catch them ; he
therefore entered into a solemn league and covenant
with the junior to this effect : — It was agreed be-
tween the two contracting powers, that Junior should
devote his energies to catching mice for the benefit
of Senior, who, in consideration of such service, was
to relinquish his claim to a certain daily allowance of
Cat's meat in favour of Junior. This courteous com-
pact was actually and seriously carried out. It was
an amusing and touching spectacle, to behold young
Pussy gravely laying at the feet of his elder the
contents of his game bag; on the other hand, Senior,
K

130 The Book of Cats,

true to his bargain, licking his jaws and watching
Junior steadily consuming a double allowance of
Cat's meat.

Senior had the rare talent of being able to carry
a bottle of champagne from one end of the cellar
to the other, perhaps a distance of a hundred and
fifty feet. The performance was managed in this
wise. You gently and lovingly approached the
Cat as if you did not mean to perpetrate anything
wicked ; having gained his confidence by fondly
stroking his back, you suddenly seized his tail, and
by that member raised the animal bodily from the
ground — his fore feet sprawling in the air ready to
catch hold of any object within reach. You then
quickly brought the bottle of wine to the seizing
point ; Pussy clutched the object with a kind of
despairing grip. By means of the aforesaid tail,
you carefully carried pussy, bottle and all, from one
part of the cellar to the other. Pussy, however,
soon became disgusted with this manoeuvre, and
whenever he saw a friend with a bottle of cham-
pagne looming, he used to beat a precipitate
retreat.

The reverend gentleman before quoted, had at
one time in his possession a marvellously clever
little Cat, which he called " Pret," and concerning

The Book of Cats. 131

which he relates a host of anecdotes ; from them
are culled the following : —

Pret knew but one fear, and had but few hates.
The booming sound of thunder smote her with
terror, and she most cordially hated grinding
organs and singular costumes. At the sound of
a thunderclap poor Pret would fly to her mistress
for succour, trembling in every limb. If the
dreaded sound occurred in the night or early
morning, Pret would leap on the bed and crawl
under the clothes as far as the very foot. If the
thunder came on by day, Pret would climb on her
mistress's knees, put her paws round her neck and
hide her face between them with deliberation.

She disliked music of all kinds, but bore a special
antipathy to barrel organs ; probably because the
costume of the organ-grinder was as unpleasing to
her eyes, as his doleful sounds were to her ears. But
her indignation reached the highest bounds at the
sight of a Greenwich pensioner accoutred in those gro-
tesque habiliments with which the crippled defenders
of their country are forced to invest their battered
frames. It was the first time that so uncouth an
apparition had presented itself to her eyes, and her
anger seemed only equalled by her astonishment.
She got on the window sill, and there chafed and

132 The Book of Cats.

growled with a sound resembling the miniature
roar of a lion. When thus excited she used to
present a strange appearance, owing to a crest or
ridge of hair which then erected itself on her back,
and extended from the top of her head to the
root of her tail, which latter member was marvel-
lously expanded. Gentle as she was in her ordinary
demeanour, Pret was a terrible Cat when she saw
cause, and was undaunted by size or numbers.

She had a curious habit of catching mice by the
very tips of their tails, and of carrying the poor
little animals about the house, dangling miserably
from her jaws. Apparently her object in so doing
was to present her prey uninjured to her mistress,
who she evidently supposed would enjoy a game
with a mouse as well as herself, for like human
beings she judged the characters of others by her
own. This strange custom of tail-bearing was carried
into the privacy of her own family, and caused
rather ludicrous results. When Pret became a
mother, and desired to transport her kittens from
one place to another, she followed her acquired
habit of porterage, and tried to carry her kittens
about by the tips of their tails. As might be sup-
posed, they objected to this mode of conveyance,
and sticking their claws in the carpet, held firmly

The Book of Cats. 133

to the ground, mewing piteously, while their mother
was tugging at their tails. It was absolutely neces-
sary to release the kittens from their painful posi-
tion, and to teach Pret how a kitten ought to be
carried. After a while, she seemed to comprehend
the state of things, and ever afterwards carried her
offspring by the nape of the neck. At one time,
when she was yet in her kittenhood, another kitten
lived in the same house, and very much annoyed
Pret, by coming into the room and eating the meat
that had been laid out for herself However, Pret
soon got over the difficulty, by going to the plate
as soon as it was placed at her accustomed spot,
picking out all the large pieces of meat and hiding
them under the table. She then sat down quietly,
placing herself sentry over her hidden treasure,
while the intruding Cat entered the room, walked
up to the plate, and finished the little scraps of
meat that Pret had thought fit to leave. After
the obnoxious individual had left the room, Pret
brought her concealed treasures from their hiding-
place and consumed them with deliberation.

Clever as Pret was, she sometimes displayed a
most unexpected simplicity of character. After
the fashion of* the Cat tribe, she delighted in cover-
ing up the remainder of her food with any sub-

134 ^^*^ ^°^^ rf Cats.

stance that seemed most com^enlent. She was
accustomed, after taking her meals, to fetch a piece
of paper and lay it over the saucer, or to put her
paw in her mistress's pocket and extract her hand-
kerchief for the same purpose. This little per-
formance showed some depth of reasoning in the
creature, but she would sometimes act in a manner
totally opposed to rational actions. Paper or hand-
kerchief failing, she has been often seen, after partly
finishing her meal, to fetch one of her kittens and
to lay it over the plate for the purpose of covering
up the remaining food. When kitten, paper, and
handkerchief were all wanting, she did her best to
scratch up the carpet and lay the fragments over
the plate. She has been known, in her anxiety to
find a covering for the superabundant food, to drag
a tablecloth from its proper locality, and to cause
a sad demolition of the superincumbent fragile
ware. Please to remember that I have the above
upon Mr. Wood's authority, not my own.

Regarding the attachment of Cats to places, the
following remarks of the late Rev. Caesar Otway,
in his lecture on the Intellectuality of Domestic
Animals before the Royal Zoological Society of
Ireland, some years ago, deserve attention. " Of
Cats," he says, "time does not allow me to say

The Book of Cats. 155

much, but this I must affirm, that they are mis-
represented, and often the victims of prejudice. It
is strictly maintained that they have little or no
affection (or persons, and that their partialities are
confined to places. I have known many instances
of the reverse. When leaving, about fifteen years
ago, a glebe-house to remove into Dublin, the Cat
that was a favourite with me, and with my children,
was left behind, in our hurry. On seeing strange
faces come into the house, she instantly left it, and
took up her abode in the top of a large cabbage
stalk, whose head had been cut off, but which re-
tained a sufficient number of leaves to protect poor
Puss from the weather. In this position she re-
mained, and nothing could induce her to leave it,
until I sent a special messenger to bring her to my
house in town. At present I have a Cat that
follows my housekeeper up and down like a Dog ;
every morning she comes up at daybreak in winter
to the door of the room in which the maid servants
sleep, and there she mews until they get up."

I think I ought to conclude my chapter of Clever
Cats with this story, which, though old, is funny : —
There was a lady of Potsdam, living with her little
children, one of whom, while at play, ran a splinter

136 The Book of Cats.

into her foot, causing her to scream violently. The
elder sister was asleep at the time, but awakened
by the child's cries, and while just in the act of
getting up to quiet it, observed a favourite Cat,
with whom the children were wont to play, and
which was of a remarkably gentle disposition, leave
its seat by the fire, go to the crying baby, and give
her a smart blow on the cheek with one of her paws ;
after which, Puss walked back with the greatest
composure and gravity to her place, as if satisfied
with her own conduct, and with the hope of bein^
able to go on with her nap undisturbed.

'^^^^^G^^'^l^'^-^

(^^^MM^^

CHAPTER VIIL

CAT AND DOG LIFE,

ras:e 139.

BE:w^PE-?.=

DOGS__

some amiable Cats, and Cats
we been good Mothers.

O lead a " Cat
and Dog life"
means a good
deal of scratch-
ing and biting; but Dogs
and Cats have been known to get on very amiably
before now.

There was a Cat which had formed a very warm
friendship with a large Newfoundland dog : she
continually caressed him — advanced in all haste
when he came home, w^ith her tail erect, and rubbed

I40 The Book of Cats.

her head against him, purring with delight. When
he lay before the kitchen fire, she used him as a
bed, pulling up and settling his hair with her claws
to make it comfortable. As soon as she had
arranged it to her liking, she lay down upon him,
and fell asleep. The dog bore this combing of his
locks with patient placidity, turning his head towards
her during the operation, and sometimes gently
licked her.

Pincher and Puss were sworn friends. Puss had
a young family, with whom Pincher was on visiting
terms. The nursery was at the top of the house.
One day there was a storm ; Puss was upstairs with
the babies, and Pincher was in the parlour. Pincher
evidently was disturbed by the thunder.' Presently
Puss came down-stairs mewing, went straight to
Pincher, rubbed her cheek against his, and touched
him gently with her paw, and then walked to the
door, and, looking back, mewed, as though asking
him go with her. But Pincher was himself sorely
afraid, and could render no assistance. Puss grew
desperate, and having renewed her application with
increased energy, but without success, at last left
the room, mewing piteously, while Pincher sat, with
a guilty face, evidently knowing his conduct was
selfish. A lady, who had watched this scene, went

The Book of Cats. 1 41

out to look after the Cat, when the animal, mewing,
led the way to a bed-room on the first floor, from
under a wardrobe in which a. small voice was heard
crying. Puss had brought one of her babies down-
stairs, and was racked with anxiety respecting its
welfare while she fetched the others. It was as
clear as possible she wanted Pincher to lend a paw
— that is to say, look after this isolated infant
while she brought down the rest. The lady took
up the kitten in her arms, and accompanied Puss
up-stairs, then moved the little bed from the
window, through which the lightning had been
flashing so vividly as to alarm Puss for the safety
of her family. She remained with the Cat until
the storm had subsided, and all was calm. On the
following morning, the lady w^as much surprised to
find Puss waiting for her outside her bed-room door,
and she went with her down-stairs to breakfast,
sat by her side, and caressed her in every possible
way. Puss had always been in the habit of going
down with the lady of the house, but on this occa-
sion she had resisted all her mistress's coaxing to
leave the other lady's door, and would not go
away until she made her appearance. She re-
mained till breakfast was over, then went up-stairs
to her family. She had never done this before.

142 The Book of Cats,

and never did it again. She had shown her grati-
tude for the lady's care of her httle ones, and her
duty was done.

A gentleman, residing in . Sussex, had a Cat
which showed the greatest attachment for a young
blackbird, which was given to her by a stable-boy
for food a day or two after she had been deprived
of her kittens. She tended it with the greatest
care ; they became inseparable companions, and
no mother could show a greater fondness for her
offspring than she did for the bird.

This incongruity of attachment in animals will
generally be found to arise either from the feelings
of natural affection which the mother is possessed
of, or else from that love of sociability, and dislike
of being alone, which is possessed, more or less, by
every created being.

A Horse and Cat were great friends, and the
latter generally slept in the manger. When the
horse was about to be fed, he always took up the
Cat gently by the skin of the neck, and dropped
her into the next stall, that she might not be in his
way while he was feeding. At other times, he was
pleased to have her near him.

Mr. Bingley tells of a friend of his who had a
Cat and Dog that were always fighting. At last

7 he Book of Cats. ■ 1 43

the dog conquered, and the Cat was driven away ;
but the servant, whose sweetheart the dog dis-
turbed, poisoned him, and his body was carried
lifeless into the courtyard. The Cat, from a neigh-
bouring roof, was observ-ed to watch the motions of
several persons who went up to look at him, and
when all had retired, he descended and crept
cautiously towards the body, then patted it with
his paw. Apparently satisfied that the dog's day
was over, Puss re-entered the house and washed
his face before the fire.

The Reverend Gilbert White, in his amusing
book, tells of a boy, who having taken three little
young squirrels in their nest or " dray," put these
small creatures under the care of a Cat that had
lately lost her kittens, and found that she nursed
and suckled them with the same assiduity and affec-
tion as if they were her own ofTspring. This cir-
cumstance, to some extent, corroborates the stories
told of deserted children being nurtured by female
beasts of prey who had lost their young, of the
truth of which some authors have seriously vouched.
Many people went to see the little squirrels suckled
by the Cat, and the foster mother became jealous
of her charge, and fearing for their safety, hid them
over the ceiling, where one died. This circumstance

144 ^'^^ -^^^^ °f Cats.

proves her affection for the fondlings, and that she
supposed them to be her young. In Hke fashion
hens, when they have hatched duckHngs, are as
attached to them as though they were their own
chickens.

The first public exhibition of a " happy family "
in England, was one started at Coventry, about
thirty-two years ago, and began with Cats, Rats,
and Pigeons in one cage. The proprietor of a
happy family gave Mr. Henry Mayhew some amus-
ing particulars on the subject. Among other things,
he said that Mr. Monkey was very fond of the Cat,
probably for warmth. He would cuddle her for an
hour at a time, but if Miss Pussy would not lie
still to suit his comfort, he would hug her round
the neck and try to pull her down. If then she
became vexed, he would be afraid to face her, but
stealing slily behind, would give her tail end a nip
with his teeth. The Cat and Monkey were the best
of friends as long as Miss Pussy would lie still to
be cuddled, and suit his convenience. The Monkey
would be Mr. Master in a happy family. For that
reason the proprietor would not allow either of his
Cats to kitten in the cage, because Mr. Monkey
would be sure to want to know all about it, and
then it would be open war, for if he went to touch

The Book of Cats. 145

Miss Pussy or her babies, there would be a fight.
Now a Monkey is always very fond of anything
young, such as a kitten, and he and Miss Pussy
would want to nurse the children. The Monkey
liked very much to get hold of a kitten and he
would nurse it in his arms like a baby. The Cats
and the Birds were good friends indeed : they would
perch on her back, and even on her head, and peck
at her fur. A strange Cat was introduced into the
cage, and the moment she made her entry, she
looked round in a scared way, and made a dart
upon the animal nearest her, namely the owl ; the
Monkey immediately ran behind and bit her tail,
and the other Cats' hair swelled up, and they
seemed on the point of flying at the stranger. The
Rats fled in terror, and the little Birds fluttered on
their perches with fear.

A priest of Lucerne, I don't know how many
hundred years ago, taught a Dog, Cat, Mouse and
Sparrow, to eat out of the same plate. There is
also a somewhat unsatisfactory legend of a maiden
lady who induced twenty-two different animals to
live together upon friendly terms.

Lemmery shut up a Cat and several Mice to-
gether in a cage. The Mice in time got to be very
friendly, and plucked and nibbled at their feline

L

146 The Book of Cats.

friend. When any of them grew troublesome, she
would gently box their ears. A German magazine
tells us of a M. Hecart, who tamed a wild Cat
and placed a tame sparrow under its protection.
Another Cat attacked the Sparrow, which Vv^as at
the most critical moment rescued by its protector.
During the Sparrow's subsequent illness, the Cat
watched over it with great tenderness. The same
authority gives an instance of a Cat trained
like a Avatch dog, to keep guard over a yard con-
taining a Hare, and some Sparrows, Blackbirds
and Partridges.

Captain Marryat, in his amusing way, relates this
anecdote. A little black spaniel had five puppies,
which were considered too many for her to bring up.
As, however, the breed was much in request, her
mistress v/as unwilling that any of them should be
destroyed, and asked the cook whether she thought
it would be possible to bring a portion of them up by
hand before the kitchen fire. In reply, the cook ob-
served that the Cat had that day littered, and that,
perhaps, two puppies might be substituted. The
Cat made no objection, took to them kindly, and
gradually all the kittens were taken away, and the
Cat nursed the two puppies only. Now the first
curiosity was, that the two puppies nursed by the

The Book of Cats. 147

Cat were, in a fortnight, as active, forward, and
playful as kittens would have been ; they had the
use of their legs, basked and gambolled about ;
while the other three, nursed by the mother, were
whining and rolling about like fat slugs. The Cat
gave them her tail to play with, and they were
always in motion ; they soon ate meat, and long
before the others they were fit to be removed.
This was done, and the Cat became very incon-
solable. She prowled about the house, and on
the second day of tribulation, fell in with the little
spaniel who was nursing the other puppies.

" Oh !" says Puss, putting up her back, " it is
you who have stolen my children."

" No !" replied the Spaniel, with a snarl ; " they
are my own flesh and blood."

" That won't do," said the Cat ; " I'll take my
oath, before any Justice of the Peace, that you
have my two babies."

Thereupon issue was joined — that is to say,
there was a desperate combat, which ended in the
defeat of the Spaniel, and in the Cat walking off
proudly with one of the puppies, which she took
to her own bed. Having deposited this one, she
returned, fought again, gained another victory, and
bore off another puppy. Now, it is very singular

148 The Book of Cats.

that she should have only taken two, the exact
number she had been deprived of.

A lady had a tortoiseshell Cat and a black and
white one. A few years ago, the latter was ob-
served to carry her kitten, when two or three days
old, to her companion, who brought it up with her
own kitten, though of a different age, with all the
tenderness of a mother. This was done time after
time, for several years ; but last year it was reversed,
the black and white Cat taking her turn to dis-
charge the duties of wet-nurse to the kitten of the
other. It is probable that a deficiency of milk was
the cause of the Cats not suckling their young.
I find in the Leisure Hour this story : —
*' A lady of the writer's acquaintance was once
walking amid the scenery of the Isle of Wight,
when she observed a little kitten curled up on a
mossy bank, in all the security of a mid-day nap.
It was a beautiful little creature, and the lady
gently approached, in order to stroke it, when
suddenly down swooped a hawk, pounced upon the
sleeping kitten, and completely hid it from her
sight. It was a kestrel : our friend was greatly
shocked, and tried to rescue the little victim ; but
the kestrel stood at bay and refused to move.
There he stood on the bank, firmly facing her, and

The Book of Cats. 149

all her efforts to drive him from his prey failed.
The lady hurried on to a fisherman's cottage,
which was near at hand, and told of the little
tragedy with the eloquence of real feeling.

" But the fisher-folk were not so disconcerted,
and, laughing, said —

" ' It is always so ; that hawk always comes down
if anybody goes near the kitten. He has taken to
the kitten, and he stays near at hand to watch
whenever it goes to sleep.'

" The case was so remarkable that the lady en-
quired further into its history, and learned that the
kitten's mother had died, and that the fisherman's
family had missed the little nurseling. After some
time, they observed a kestrel hawk loitering about
the cottage : they used to throw him scraps of
meat, and they noticed that he always carried
off a portion of every meal, dragging even heavy
bones away out of sight. His movements were
watched, and they saw that he carried the stores
to the roof of a cottage. A ladder was placed,
some one ascended, and there, nestling in a hole in
the thatch, lay the lost kitten, thriving prosperously
under the tender care of its strange foster-father.
The foundling was brought down, and restored to
civilized life, but the bandit-protector was not

150 The Book of Cats.

disposed to resign his charge, and ever kept at
hand to fly to the rescue whenever dangerous ladies
threatened it with a caress."

The following instance of maternal courage and
affection is recorded in the Naturalists^ Cabinet : —

" A Cat that had a numerous brood of kittens,
encouraged her little ones to frolic one summer
day in the sunshine, at a stable-door. A hawk
sailing by, saw them : swift as lightning it darted
down on one of the kittens, and would have carried
it off, but the mother, seeing its danger, sprang
upon the common enemy, which, to defend itself,
let fall the prize. The battle that followed was
terrible, for the hawk, by the power of his wings,
the sharpness of his talons, and the keenness of his
beak, had for awhile the advantage, cruelly lace-
rating the poor Cat, and had actually deprived
her of one eye in the conflict ; but Puss, no way
daunted by this accident, strove with all her cun-
ning and agility for her little ones, till she had
broken the wing of her adversary. In this state
she got him more within the power of her claws,
the hawk still defending himself apparently with
additional vigour ; and the fight continued with
equal fury on the side of Grimalkin, to the great
entertainment of many spectators. At length,

The Book of Cats. 1 5 i

victory seemed to favour the nearly exhausted
mother, and she availed herself of the advantage ;
for, by an instantaneous exertion, she laid the hawk
motionless beneath her feet, and, as if exulting in
the victory, tore off the head of the vanquished
tyrant. Disregarding the loss of her eye, she imme-
diately ran to the bleeding kitten, licked the wounds
inflicted by the hawk's talons on its tender sides,
purring while she caressed her liberated offspring,
with the same maternal affection as if no danger
had assailed them or their affectionate parent."

A lady writer says : —

" Soon after I came to Middlehill, a small
tortoise-shell Cat met my children on the road,
and followed them home. They, of course, when
they saw her, petted and stroked her, and showed
their inclination to become friends. She is one of
the smallest and most active of full grown Cats I
ever saw. From the first she gave evidences of
being of a wild and predatory disposition, and
made sad havoc among the rabbits, squirrels, and
birds. I have several times seen her carrying
along a rabbit half as big as herself Many would
exclaim, that, for so nefarious a deed, she ought to
have been shot ; but I confess to having the feel-
ings of the unsophisticated Arab, the descendant of

152 The Book of Cats.

Ishmael, and as she had tasted of my salt, and taken
refuge under my roof, besides being the pet of my
children, I could not bring myself to order her
destruction. Before this we had discovered her
lawful owner, a poor cottager, and had sent her
back ; but each time that she was sent away, she
returned to our porch ; so we made her by
purchase legitimately ours. She seemed to be
aware of the transaction, and from that time
became perfectly at home, and adopted civi-
lised habits, though she still continued very
frequently to indulge in a rabbit-hunt. I had
added a fine dog to my establishment, to act as a
watchman over the wood yard and stables. She
and he were at first on fair terms, — a sort of armed
neutrality. In process of time, however, she be-
came the mother of a litter of kittens. With the
exception of one, they shared the fate of other
kittens. When she discovered the loss of her
hopeful family, she wandered about looking
for them, in a very melancholy way, till, en-
countering the dog Carlo, it seemed suddenly
to strike her that he had been guilty of that act of
barbarous spoliation. With back up, she approach-
ed, and flew at him with the greatest fury, till
blood dropped from his nose, and though ten times

The Book of Cats. 1 53

her size, he fairly turned tail and fled. Her surviving
kitten was the very picture of herself, and inherit-
ing also all her predatory habits ; when it grew up,
I was obliged to give it away. It left the house in
the neighbouring town to which I sent it, however,
and was afterwards seen domesticated in a stable
yard. Pussy and Carlo now became friends again;
at least, they never interfered with each other.
Pussy, however, to her cost, still continued her
hunting expeditions. The rabbits had committed
great depredations in the garden, and the gardener
had procured two rabbit-traps ; one had been set
a considerable distance from the house, and fixed
securely in the ground. One morning, the nurse
heard a plaintive mewing at the nursery window.
She opened it, and in crawled poor Pussy, dragging
the heavy iron rabbit-trap, in the teeth of which
her fore foot was caught. I was called in, and
assisted to release her ; her paw swelled, and for
some days she could not move out of the basket
in which she was placed before the fire. Though
suffering intense pain, she must have perceived that
the only way to release herself, was to dig up the
trap, and then she must have dragged her heavy
clog up many steep paths to the room where she
knew her kindest friends, nurse and the children.

154 "^he Book of Cats.

for whom she had the greatest affection, were to be
found. Carlo was caught before in the same trap,
and he bit at it and at everything around, and
severely injured the gardener who went to release
him, biting- his arm and lec^s, and tearing his trousers
to shreds. Thus, Pussy, under precisely the same
circumstances, showed by far the greatest amount
of sagacity and cool courage. She, however, not
many weeks afterwards, came in one day with her
foot sadly lacerated, having again got caught in a
trap. So although she could reason, she did not
appear to have learned wisdom from experience.
She was for long a cripple ; perhaps this last mis-
fortune may have taught her prudence. Poor thing !
she went limping about the garden, in vain en-
deavouring, even in the frosty weather, to catch
birds."

I know of a young man who was accustomed to
leave home on a Monday morning and return on
the Saturday, and who had a Cat that used to
come home a few moments after him, and watch
him wash and dress himself, and then sleep on
his clothes until the following Monday, when soon
after the young man went away, the Cat would
go too, and not return all the week.

I also know of a Cat that once rushed into a

The Book of Cats. 155

house, and took her seat between the master and
mistress while they were at tea ; from that time she
took up her abode with them, and every afternoon
a hamper in which she slept, was heard to creak in
a cellar below, and she would come up and par-
take of their afternoon meal.

You have all heard of dog-stealers selling a dog
and afterwards stealing it from the purchaser, so
as to sell it again to some other person ; but I
have had a story told me, upon good authority, of
a certain dishonest owner of a very curiously
marked French Cat, who made quite a nice little
income by selling his feline property to the ladies
in his neighbourhood.

You see Pussy had no notion of what an un-
principled ruffian he was, nor what was the nature
of the contract between him and her other owners.
She loved him very much, and fretted in her new
home, waited impatiently for an opportunity, and
at last, finding the door open, returned to her
robber master rejoicing.

He, worthy creature, also rejoiced' at sight of
her, and hugged her to his manly breast. Then
he gave her some nice warm milk, and a large
slice of meat. Next day he sold her again, if he
crot a chance.

156 The Book of Cats.

This little game went on very comfortably for
some months, and might have gone on longer, had
it not been for an awkward mistake. An old lady,
who had been one of the purchasers of the Cat,
changed her residence, and our ingenious friend,
unaware of the circumstance, called upon her again,
and tried to re-sell her the animal ; thereupon,
some unpleasantness occurred, and I believe the
Cat-merchant got into trouble.

ihJ^^Jhyt

^Yf"

^

CHAPTER IX.

.4. A A*,

fYY

Of Puss in Proverbs^ in the Dark
Ages, and in the Company oj
Wicked Old Women.

H E S E are
some of the
best known
Proverbs

■^

s

about Cats: —
" Care will kill a Cat," one says, and yet Cats
are said to have nine lives. Let us hope that
poor Pussy will never be put to a worse death.
" A muffled Cat is no good mouser."
" That Cat is out of kind that sweet milk will
not lap."

l6o The Book of Cats.

"You can have no more of a Cat than her skin."
This proverb seems to refer to the unfitness of her
flesh for food. Formerly the fur of the Cat was used
in trimming coats and cloaks. The Cat-gut used
for rackets, and for the fine strings of violins, is
made from the dried intestines of the Cat, the
larger strings being from the intestines of sheep
and lambs.

" Fain would the Cat fish eat, but she is loth
to wet her feet."

" The Cat sees not the mouse ever."

" When the Cat winketh, little wots the mouse
what the Cat thinketh."

" Though the Cat winks a while, yet sure she is
not blind."

" Well might the Cat wink when both her eyes
were out .'' "

" How can the Cat help it, if the maid be a
fool .'' " Which means how can it help breaking
or stealing that which is left in its way }

" That that comes of a Cat will catch mice."

" A Cat may look at a king."

" An old Cat laps as much as a young kitten."

"When the Cat is away, the mice will play."

" When candles are out, all Cats are grey." Other-
wise, " Joan is as good as my Lady in the dark."

The Book of Cats. i6l

" The Cat knows whose lips she licks."

" Cry you mercy, killed my Cat." This is spoken
to those who play one a trick, and then try to
escape punishment by begging pardon.

" By biting and scratching, Cats and Dogs come
together."

" I'll keep no more Cats than will catch mice ;"
or no more in family than will earn their living.

" Who shall hang the bell about the Cat's neck."
The mice at a consultation, how to secure them-
selves from the Cat, resolved upon hanging a
bell about her neck, to give warning when she
approached ; but when this was resolved on, they
were as far off as ever, for who was to do it } John
Skelton says : —

*' Bat they are lothe to mel,
And lothe to hang the bel
About the Catte's neck,
Fro dred to have a checke"

" A Cat has nine lives, and a woman has nine
Cats' lives."

" Cats eat what hussies spare."
'' Cats hide their claws."
" The wandering Cat gets many a rap."
" The Cat is hungry when a crust contents her."
M

1 62 The Book of- Cats.

"■ He lives under the sign of the Cat's foot ;' that
is to say, he is hen-pecked — his wife scratches
him.

Here are some French proverbs : —

" Chat echaude craint I'eau froide." (A burnt
child dreads the fire.)

" Ne reveillons pas les Chats qui dort." (Let
sleeping dogs alone.)

" La nuit tous Chats sont gris."
Moliere says : —

" Vous etes-vous mis dans la tete que Leonard
de Pourceaugnac soit un homme a acheter Chat en
poche." (To buy a pig in a poke.)

" Ce n'est pas a moi que Ton vendra un Chat
pour un lievre." (Don't think you can catch an old
bird with chaff.)

" EUe est friande comme une chatte." (She's
as dainty as a Cat.)

" Payer en Chats et en rats." (To pay in driblets.)

" Appeler un Chat un Chat." (Call a spade a
spade.)

" Avoir un Chat dans la gorge." (Something
sticking in the throat.)

Shakespeare says : —

" Letting 'I dare not' wait upon ' I would,'
Like the poor Cat i'the adage."

The Book of Cats. 163

Again : —

" Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The Cat will mew, and Dog will have his day."

The wisdom of our forefathers teaches us, that if
a Cat be carried in a bag from its old home to a new
house, let the distance be several miles, it will be
certain to return again ; but if it be carried back-
ward into the new house this will not be the
case.

A Cat's eyes wax and wane as the moon waxes
and wanes, and the course of the sun is followed
by the apples of its eyes.

The brain of a Cat may be used as a love spell
if taken in small doses.

If a man swallow two or three Cat's hairs, it
will cause him to faint. As a cure for epilepsy,
take three drops of blood from under a Cat's tail
in water.

The horse ridden by a man who has got any
Cat's hair on his clothing will perspire vio-
lently, and soon become exhausted. If the wind
blows over a Cat riding in a vehicle, upon the
horse drawing it, it will weary the horse very
much.

To preserve your eyesight, burn the head of a

164 Tf'^^ Book of Cats,

black Cat to ashes, and have a little of the dust
blown into your eyes three times a day.

To cure a whitlow, put the finger affected a
quarter of an hour every day into a Cat's ear.

The fat of the wild Cat (Axungia Cati Sylvestris)
is good for curing epilepsy and lameness. The
skin of the wild Cat worn as coverings, will give
strength to the limbs.

Now about dreams : —

If any one dreams that he hath encountered a
Cat, or killed one, he will commit a thief to prison
and prosecute him to the death, for the Cat signifies
a common thief. If he dreams that he eats Cat's
flesh, he will have the goods of the thief that
robbed him ; if he dreams that he hath the skin,
then he will have all the thief's goods. If any one
dreams he fought with a Cat that scratched him
sorely, that denotes some sickness or affliction.
If any shall dream that a woman became the
mother of a Cat instead of a well shaped baby,
it is a bad hieroglyphic, and betokens no good to
the dreamer.

Stevens states, that in some counties of England,
it used to be thought a good bit of fun to close up
a Cat in a cask with a quantity of soot, and
suspend the cask on a line ; then he who could

The Book of Cats. 165

knock out the bottom of the cask as he ran under
it, and was nimble enough to escape its falHng con-
tents, was thought to be very clever. After the
first part had been performed, the Cat was hunted
to death, which finished this diverting pastime.
They were full of their fun, once upon a time, in
merrie England.

In an old-fashioned treatise upon Rat-catching,
I find mentioned a means of alluring " of very
material efficacy, which is, the use of oil of Rho-
dium, which, like the marumlyriacum, in the case
of Cats, has a very extraordinary fascinating
power on these animals."

Among the sympathetic secrets in occult philo-
sophy, published in the Conjurors' Magazine, in
1 79 1, I find a recipe " to draw Cats together, and
fascinate them," which is as follows : —

"In the new moon, gather the herb Nepe, and
dry it in the heat of the sun, when it is temperately
hot: gather vervain in the hour $, and only ex-
pose it to the air while q is under the earth.
Hang these together in a net, in a convenient
place, and when one of them has scented it, her
cry will soon call those about her that are within
hearing ; and they will rant and run about, leaping
and capering to get at the net, which must be huno-

1 66 The Book of Cats.

or placed so that they cannot easily accomplish it,
for they will certainly tear it to pieces. Near
Bristol there is a field that goes by the appellation
of the * Field of Cats,' from a large number of
these animals being drawn together there by this
contrivance."

One of the frauds of witchcraft was the witch
pretending to transform herself into a Cat, and
this led to the Cat being tormented by the ignorant
vulgar.

In 1618, Margaret and Philip Flower were exe-
cuted at Lincoln ; their mother was also accused,
dying in goal before (probably of fright, added to
old age and infirmity). It was asserted that they
had procured the death of the Lord Henry Mosse,
eldest son of the Earl of Rutland, by procuring
his right-hand glove, which, after being rubbed on
the back of their imp, named " Rutterkin," and
which lived with them in the form of a Cat, was
plunged into boiling water, pricked with a knife,
and buried in a dung-hill, so that, as that rotted,
the liver of the young man might rot also, which
was affirmed to have come to pass.

Those were dreadful times for the ill-looking old
ladies, and the more so if they were unfortunate
enough to have an affection for the feline race.

The Book of Cats, 167

' A wrinkled hag, of wicked fame,
Beside a little smoky flame,
Sat hovering, pinched with age and frost,
Her shrivelled hands with veins embossed.
Upon her knees her weight sustains,
While palsy shook her crazy brains ;
She mumbles forth her backward prayer —
An untamed scold of fourscore year.
About her swarmed a numerous brood
Of Cats, who, lank with hunger, mewed ;
Teased with their cries, her choler grew.
And thus she sputtered — ' Hence, ye crew !
P'ool that I was to entertain
Such imps, such fiends— a hellish train ;
Had ye been never housed and nursed,
I for a witch had n'er been cursed ;
To you I owe that crowd of boys
Worry me with eternal noise ; —
Straws laid across, my pace retard ;
The horse-shoes nailed (each threshold's guard) ;
The stunted broom the wenches hide,
For fear that I should up and ride.' "

The belief in witchcraft is a very ancient and
deep-rooted one. From the earliest times, we can
trace records of supposed acts of witchcraft, and
their punishment. Pope Innocent VIIL, in 1484,
issued a bull, empowering the Inquisition to search
for witches and burn them. From the time of this
superstitious act, the executions for witchcraft
increased. The pope had given sanction to the

1 68 TJu Book of Cats.

belief in this demoniacal power, and had asserted
their possession of it. In 1485, forty-one poor
women were burnt as witches in Germany ; an
inquisitor in Piedmont burnt a hundred more,
and was proceeding so fast with others daily, that
the people rose en masse, and chased him out of
the country. About the same time, five hundred
witches were executed at Geneva, in the course of
three months.

Among the many who counterfeited possession
by the devil, for the purpose of attracting pity or
obtaining money, were Agnes Bridges and Rachel
Finder, who had counterfeited to be possessed by
the devil, and vomited pins and rags ; but were
detected, and stood before the preacher at St. Paul's
Cross, and acknowledged their hypocritical coun-
terfeiting: this happened in 1574.

In fifteen years, from 1580 to 1595, Remigius
burnt nine hundred reputed witches in Lorraine.
In Germany, they tortured and burnt them daily,
until many unfortunates destroyed themselves for
fear of a death by torment, and others fled the
country.

Ludovicus Paramo states, that the Inquisition,
within the space of 150 years, had burnt thirty
thousand of these reputed witches.

The Book of Cats. 1 69

The superstition continued on the increase, and
reached its cuhnination in the Puritanic time of
the Commonwealth, when persons more cunning
and wicked than the rest, gained a subsistence by
discovering witches (by pretended marks and trials
they used), and denouncing them to death. The
chief of these persons was Mathew HOPKINS,
Witch Finder General, as he termed himself. He
was a native of Manningtree, in Essex, and he
devoted his pretended powers so zealously in the
service of his country, that in 1644, sixteen witches,
discovered by him, were burnt at Yarmouth ;
fifteen were condemned at Chelmsford, and hanged
in that town and at Manningtree. Many more at
Bury St. Edmunds, in 1645 and 1646, amounting to
nearly forty in all at the several places of execu-
tion, and as many more in the country as made
up threescore.

In this work he was aided by one John Stern,
and a woman, who with the rest, pretended to
have secret means of testing witchcraft ; nor was
their zeal unrewarded by the weak and super-
stitious parliament. Mr. Hopkins, in a book
published in 1647, owns that he had twenty shil-
lings for each town he visited to discover witches,
and owns that he punished many : testing them

I/O The Book of Cats,

by a water ordeal, to see if they would sink or
swin. He says that he swam many, and watched
them for four nights together, keeping them stand-
ing or walking till their feet were blistered ; " the
reason" as he says, " was to prevent their couching
down ; for indeed, when they be suffered to couch,
immediately come their familiars in the room, and
scareth the watchers, and heartneth (encourageth)
the witch."

This swimming experiment, which was deemed
a full proof of guilt if any one subjected to it did
not sink, but floated on the surface of the water,
was one of the ordeals especially recommended
by our king, James I., who, in a work upon the
subject, among other things, assigned this some-
what ridiculous reason for its pretended infallibi-
lity:— " That as such persons had renounced their
baptism by water, so the water refuses to receive
them." Consequently, those who were accused
of diabolical practices, were tied neck and heels
together, and tossed into a pond ; if they floated
or swam they were guilty, and therefore taken
out and hanged or burnt ; if they were innocent,
they were drowned. Of this method of trial by
water ordeal, Scot observes : " that a woman above
the age of fifty years, and being bound both hand

The Book of Cats. I /I

and foot, her clothes being upon her, and being
laid softly upon the water, sinketh not a long
time, some say not at all." And Dr. Hutchinson
confirms this, by saying, not one in ten even sink
in that position of their bodies. Its utter fallacy
was shown when the witch finders themselves were
thus tested ; and the last quoted writer says, that
if the books written against witchcraft were tested
by the same ordeal, they would in no degree come
off more safely.

One of the most cruel cases was that of Mr.
Lowes, a clergyman, who had reached the patriar-
chal age of eighty. He was one of those unfor-
tunate ministers of the Gospel whose livings were
sequestered by the parliament, and who was sus-
pected as malignant because he preserved his
loyalty and the homilies of the Church. It would
have been well for him had this been the only
suspicion ; but he was accused of witchcraft ; and
it was asserted that he had sunk ships at sea by
the power he possessed, and witnesses were found
who swore to seeing him do it. He was seized and
tested. They watched him, and kept him awake at
niirht, and ran him backwards and for^vards about
the room until he was out of breath ; then they
rested him a little, and then ran him again. And

1/2 The Book of Cats.

thus they did for several days and nights together,
until he was weary of his life, and was scarce
sensible of what he said or did. They swam him
twice or thrice, although that was no true rule to
try him by, for they sent in unsuspected people at
the same time, and they swam as well as he ; yet
was the unfortunate old clergyman condemned to
death and executed.

In the book written some years after this, by
Mr. Gaul, he mentions their mode of discovering
witches, which was principally by marks or signs
upon their bodies, which- were in reality but moles,
scorbutic spots, or warts, which frequently grow
large and pendulous in old age, and w^ere absurdly
declared to be teats to suckle imps. Thus of one,
Joane Willimot, in 1619, it was sworn that she had
two imps, one in the form of a kitten, and another
in that of a mole, " and they leapt on her shoulder,
and the kitten sucked under her right ear, on her
neck, and the mole on the left side, in the like
place ; " and at another tim.e a spirit was seen
" sucking her under the left ear, in the likeness of
a little white dogge." (See The Wonderful Discovery
of the Witchcrafts of Margare and Philip Flower^
1619).

Another test was to place the suspected witch in

The Book of Cats. 1 73

the middle of a room, upon a stool or table, cross-
legged, or in some other uneasy posture, and if
she were refractory, she was tied too by cords,
and kept without meat or sleep for a space of four-
and-twenty hours ; all this time she was strictly
watched, because it was believed that in the course
of that time her imp would come to suck her, for
whom some hole or ingress was provided. The
watchers swept the room frequently, so that nothing
might escape them ; and should a fly or spider be
found that had the activity to elude them, they
were assured these were the imps. In 1645 one
was hanged at Cambridge, who kept a tame frog
which was sworn to be her imp ; and one at
Gloucester, in 1649, who was convicted for having
suckled a sow in the form of a little black creature.
In " a Tr>^al of Witches, at Bury St. Edmunds,
1664," a witness deposed to having caught one of
these imps in a blanket, waiting for her child, who
slept in it and was bewitched ; that it was in the
form of a toad, and was caught and thrown into
the fire, where " it made a great and horrible noise,
and after a space there was a flashing in the fire
like gunpowder, making a noise like the discharge
of a pistol, and thereupon the toad was no more
seen nor heard." All of which was the simple

1/4 TJ^^ S^^ok of Cats,

natural result of this cruel proceeding, but which
was received by judge and jury, at that time, of
the poor toad being an imp !

Hutchinson, in his essay on witchcraft, says : —
" It was very requisite that these witch-finders
should take care to go to no towns but where they
might do what they would without being con-
trolled by sticklers ; but if the times had not been
as they were, they would have found but few towns
where they might be suffered to use the trial of
the stool, which was as bad as most tortures. Do
but imagine a poor old creature, under all the
weakness and infirmities of old age, set like a fool
in the middle of a room, with a rabble of ten
towns about her home ; then her legs tied across,
that all the weight of her body might rest upon
her seat. By that means, after some hours, the
circulation of the blood would be stopped, and her
sitting would be as painful as the wooden horse*
Then must she continue in pain four-and-twenty
hours, without either sleep or meat ; and since this
was their ungodly way of trial, what wonder was
it if, when they were weary of their lives, they con-
fessed many tales that would please them, and
many times they knew not what."

Hopkins' favourite and ultimate method of

TJu Book of Cats. 175

proof was by swimming, as before narrated. They
tied together the thumbs and toes of the suspected
person, about whose waist was fastened a cord, the
ends of which were held on the banks of the river
by two men, whose power it was to strain or slacken
it. If they floated, they were witches. After a
considerable course of wicked accusation on the
part of Hopkins and his accomplices, testing all by
these modes of trial, and ending in the cruel deaths
of many wretched old persons, a reaction against
him took place, probably at the instigation of some
whose friends had been condemned innocently, or
of those who were too wise to believe in his tests,
and disgusted with his cold wickedness. His own
famous and conclusive evidence — the experiment of
swimming — was tried upon himself; and this wretch,
who had sacrificed so many, by the same test, was
found to be guilty, too. He was deservedly con-
demned, and suffered death himself as a wizard."

Dr. Harsenet, Archbishop of York, in his
Declaration of Popish Impostures, says, "Out of
those is shap'd us the true idea of a witch, an old
weather-beaten crone, having her chin and knees
meeting for age, walking like a bow leaning on a
staff, hollow ey'd, untooth'd, furrow'd on her face,
having her lips trembling with the palsy, going

176 The Book of Cats.

mumbling in the streets — one that hath forgotten
her pater-noster, and yet hath a shrewd tongue to
call a drab a drab ! — if she hath learned of an
old wife in a chimney end, pax, max, fax, for a
spell, or can say Sir John Grantham's curse for
a nuller's eels — ' All ye that have stolen the miller's
eels, Laudate Dominum de Coelis, and they that
have consented thereto, Benedicamus Domino,' why
then, beware, look about you, my neighbours. If
any of you have a sheep sick of the giddies, or a
hog of the mumps, or a horse of the staggers, or
a knavish boy of the school, or an idle girl of the
wheel, or a young drab of the suUens, and hath not
fat enough for her porridge, or butter enough for
her bread, and she hath a little help of the epilepsy
or cramp to teach her to roll her eyes, wry her
mouth, gnash her teeth, startle with her body, hold
her arms and hands stiff, etc. And then, when an
old Mother Nobs hath by chance called her ' idle
young housewife,' or bid the devil scratch her, then
no doubt but Mother Nobs is the witch, and the
young girl is owl-blasted, etc. They that have
their brains baited, and their fancies distempered,
with the imaginations and apprehensions of witches,
conjurors, and fairies, and all that lymphatical
chimera, I find to be marshalled in one of these

The Book of Cats, 177

five ranks : — Children, fools, women, cowards, sick
or black melancholic discomposed wits."

Many hundreds of poor old women, and many a
Cat, were sacrificed to the zealous Master Hopkins,
for Cats and Kittens were frequently said to be
imps, who had taken that form. However, he was
not the only scoundrel who made witch-finding a
trade.

In Syke's Local Recorder, mention is made of a
Scotchman, who pretended great powers of dis-
covering witchcraft, and was engaged by the towns-
m*en of Newcastle to practise there ; and one man
and fifteen women were hanged by him. But he
ultimately shared, as Hopkins did, the cruel fate
he had awarded to so many others. " When the
witch-finder had done in Newcastle, and received
his wages, he went into Northumberland to try
women there, and got three pounds a-piece ; but
Henry Doyle, Esq., laid hold on him, and required
bond of him to answer at the Sessions. He
escaped into Scotland, where he was made prisoner,
indicted, arraigned, and condemned for such-like
villany exercised in Scotland, and confessed at the
gallows that he had been the death of above two
hundred and twenty women in England and Scot-
land."

N

lyS Tlu Book of Cats.

Here is an account of the death of a famous
witch's famous Cat : —

' ' Ye rats, in triumph elevate your ears !
Exiilt, ye mice ! for Fate's abhorred shears
Of Dick's nine lives have slit the Cat- guts nine ;
Henceforth he mews 'midst choirs of Cats divine !"

So sings Mr. Huddesford, in a " Monody on the
death of Dick, an Academical Cat," with this
.motto : —

" Mi-Cat inter omnes."

Hor, Carj7i,^ Lib. i., Ode 12.

He brings his Cat, Dick, from the Flood, and
consequently through Rutterkin, a Cat who was
'' cater-cousin to the great-great-great-great-great-
great-great-great-great-grandmother of Grimalkin,
and first Cat in the Caterie of an old woman, who
was tried for bewitching a daughter of the Countess
of Rutland, in the beginning of the sixteenth
century." The monodist connects him w^ith Cats
of great renown in the annals of witchcraft ; a
science whereto they have been allied as closely as
poor old women, one of whom, it appears, on the
authority of an old pamphlet, entitled " Mewesfrom
Scotland!' etc., printed in the year 1591, '' confessed

The Book of Cats. 179

that she took a Cat and christened it, etc., and that
in the night following, the said Cat was conveyed
into the middest of the sea by all these witches
sayling in their riddles, or cives, so left the said
Cat right before the towne of Leith, in Scotland.
This done, there did arise such a tempest at sea,
as a greater hath not been seen since. Againe it
is confessed that the said christened Cat was the
cause of the Kinge's majestie's shippe, at his
coming forthe of Denmark, had a contrarie winde
to the rest of the shippes then being in his com-
panie, which thing was most straunge and true, as
the Kinge's Majestic acknowledgeth, for when the
rest of the shippes had a fair and good winde, then
was the winde contrarie, and altogether against his
Majestic," etc.

All sorts of Cats, according to Huddesford,
lamented the death of his favourite, whom he calls
" premier Cat upon the catalogue," and who, pre-
ferring sprats to all other fish —

" Had swallow'd down a score, without remorse,
And three fat mice slew for a second course ;
But, while the third his grinders dyed with gore,
Sudden those grinders clos'd — to grind no more !
And, dire to tell ! commission'd by old Nick,
A catalepsy made an end of Dick.

l80 The Book of Cats.

Calumnious Cats, who c\rc\x\:iie faux pas.

And reputations maul with murderous claws ;

Shrill Cats, whom fierce domestic brawls delight,

Cross Cats, who nothing want but teeth to bite ;

Starch Cats of puritanic aspect sad,

And learned Cats, who talk their husbands mad ;

Confounded Cats, who cough, and croak, and cry,

And maudlin Cats who drink eternally ;

Fastidious Cats, who pine for costly cates,

And jealous Cats who catechise their mates ;

Cat prudes who, when they're ask'd the question, squall,

And ne'er give answer categorical ;

Uncleanly Cats, who never pare their nails,

Cat- gossips, full of Canterbury tales ;

Cat-grandams, vex'd with asthmas and catarrhs,

And superstitious Cats, who curse their stars ;

Cats of each class, craft, calling, and degree,

Moum Dick's calamitous catastrophe !

Yet while I chant the cause of Richard's end,

Ye sympathising Cats, your tears suspend !

Then shed enough to float a dozen whales,

And use for pocket handkerchiefs your tails I

Ah ! though thy bust adorn no sculptur'd shrine.

No vase thy relics rare to fame consign ;

No rev' rend characters thy rank express.

Nor hail thee, Dick, ' D.D. nor F.R.S.'

Though no funereal cypress shade thy tomb.

For thee the wreaths of Paradise shall bloom ;

There, while Grimalkin's mew her Richard greets,

A thousand Cats shall purr on purple seats.

E'en now I see, descending from his throne,

Thy venerable Cat, O Whittington !

The kindred excellence of Richard hail.

And wave with joy his gratulating tail !

The Book of Cats. iSl

There shall the worthies of the whiskered race
Elysian mice o'er floors of sapphire chase,
Midst beds of aromatic marum stray,
Or raptur'd rove beside the milky way.
Kittens, than eastern houris fairer seen,
Whose bright eyes glisten with immortal green.
Shall smooth for tabby swains their yielding fur,
And, to their amorous mews, assenting purr ; —
There, like Alcmena's, shall Grimalkin's son
In bliss repose, — his mousing labours done,
Fate, envy, curs, time, tide, and traps defy,
And caterwaul to all eternity."

To conclude this Chapter, an incident which toak
place only a few days ago, in Essex, at a village
within forty miles of London, and which came
under the personal knowledge of the writer, may
be adduced, to show that, however witchcraft may
have been laughed away — and laughter has been
more effectual to rid the world of it than rope or
stake — there are still to be found individuals who
believe in the evil powers of hook-nosed crones,
black Cats, and broom-sticks.

In a squalid hut lived a miserable dame, whose
only claims to a demoniacal connection were her
excessive age and her sombre Cat. Whether the
nei2"hbours thoug;ht the Cat was more of a witch
than the woman, or whether they had a wholesome
dread of the punishment inflicted upon murderers.

l82 The Book of Cats,

it was upon the animal the bewitched ones deter-
mined to wreak their vengeance, and then it was
that the true satanic nature of poor Puss appeared.
Traps were set to catch her, but she would not be
caught ; ropes were purchased to hang her, but she
would not bow her head to the noose ; and, finally,
a blunderbuss was loaded to shoot her — loaded to
the very muzzle. By conjurations and enchant-
ments, when that gun was fired, it knocked the
holder backwards, and never injured the black Cat.
Another man tried, with the same result, and yet
another. It was evident the gun was bewitched, so
Pussy's murder was given up for the time, and,
with the exception of the tip of her tail, lost in
one of the traps, passed the remainder of her life
happy and unmutilated.

^^^^^!E^9^^

CHAPTER X.

^^^^^§^:$-^

Of a certam Voracious Cat, some
Goblin Cats, Magical Cats,
a7id Cats of Kilkenny.

F all the great
big stories that
have been told
of Cats, that

which describes the origin
of Cat's-head apples is surely the greatest biggest
one. The lecrend runs thus : —

The Widow Tomkins had a back room, on the second floor ;
Her name was on a neat brass plate on one side of the door :
Companion she had only one — a beautiful Tom Cat,
Who was a famous mouser, the dickens for a rat :

1 86 Ihe Book of Cats.

His colour was a tabby, and his skin as soft as silk,
And she would lap him every day while he lapped the milk.
One day she was disturbed from sleep with double rat-tat-tat,
And she went in such a hurry that she quite forgot her Cat.

Poor Thomas, soon as day-light came, walked up and down the

floor,
And heard the dogs'-meat woman cry "Cats'-meat" at the door;
With hunger he got fairly wild, though formerly so tame —
Another day passed slowly, another just the same.
With hunger he so hungry was — it did so strong assail,
That, although very loath, he was obliged to eat his tail.
This whetted quite his appetite, and though his stump was sore,
The next day he was tempted (sad) to eat a little more.
To make his life the longer then, he made his body shorter,
And one after the other attacked each hinder quarter.
He walked about on two fore legs, alas ! without beholders,
'Till more and more by hunger pressed, he dined on both his

shoulders.
Next day he found (the cannibal !) to eating more a check,
Although he tried, and did reach all he could reach of his neck.
But as he could not bite his ear, all mournfully he cried, —
Towards the door he turned his eyes, cocked up his nose, and died.
The widow did at last return, and oh ! how she did stare,
She guessed the tale as soon as she saw Tom's head lying there.
Quite grief sincerely heart- felt as she owned his fate a hard'un.
She buried it beneath an apple-tree just down her garden.
So mark what strange effects from little causes will appear, •
The fruit of this said tree was changed, and strangely, too, next

year.
The neighbours say ('tis truth, for they're folks who go to chapels),
This Cat's head was the sole first cause of all the Cat's-head

apples !"

THK CAT AND THE CONJUROR.

Pa^e 187,

The Book of Cats. 187

Gottfried Heller, in Die Leute von Seldwyla, tells
a droll story. This is an abridgement of a popular
author's version of it, published some years
ago:—

" One day, once upon a time, or thereabouts, the
witch-finder of a certain Swiss town — himself
secretly a wizard — was taking his afternoon's walk,
when he came across a Tom Cat, looking very thin
and miserable. This Cat had once been the chief
favourite of a rich old lady, who had trained him
up in luxurious living. Now she was dead, and
Tom's happy days were over : he was as shaggy
and meagre, as he had formerly been sleek and
plump. Now, you must know that Cats' grease
was, in those days, an invaluable ingredient for
certain magical preparations, provided the Cat to
whom it belonged willingly made a donation of it.
This proviso rendered good efficient Cats' grease
an exceedingly rare commodity ; for though there
might be no great difficulty in finding a fat Cat, to
find one willing to part with its fat was, of course,
difficult enough.

" Here, however, was an animal in desperate cir-
cumstances, who might be accessible to reason ;
therefore, says the magician —

" ' How much will you take for your fat V

1 88 The Book of Cats.

" ^ Why, I haven't got any,' rephed Tom, who,
to tell the truth, was as thin as a hurdle.

" ' You may have, though, if you say the word,'
said the magician ; ' and I'll tell you how.'

" You see, he knew from experience that Tom was
a Cat who was capable of making flesh, for he had
known him as round as a dumpling ; so he made
this bargain : — ' He offered Tom a whole month's
luxurious living on condition that at the expiration
of that time he should voluntarily lay down his life
and yield up all the fat he had acquired during the
four weeks. Of course Tom agreed, and the con-
tract was signed on the spot. The apartment pro-
vided for Tom's lodging was ' fitted up as an
artificial landscape. A little wood was perched on
the top of a little mountain, which rose from the
banks of a little lake. On the branches of the trees
were perched dainty birds, all roasted, and emitting
a most savoury odour. From the cavities of
the mountain peered forth sundry baked mice, all
seasoned with delicious stufifing and exquisitely
larded with bacon. The lake consisted of the
newest milk, with a small fish or two at the bottom.
Thus, to the enjoyment of the epicure, was added
the excitement of imaginary sportsmanship. Tom
ate his fill, and more, and soon became as fat as the

The Book of Cats. 189

magician could wish, but before long he became
thoughtful. The month had nearly expired ; at the
end he was to die if fat enough. Ah ! a bright
thought, he would get thin again. With a won-
drous strength of mind he refrained from eating
the luxuries provided, took plenty of exercise on
the house-tops, and kept himself in excellent
health, but much thinner than suited the wizard's
fancy.

" Before long, this gentleman remonstrated with
Tom, pointing out to him very plainly, that he was
bound by all the laws of honour to get fat by the
month's end. To this, Tom had little to urge of
any moment, and the magician informed him that
he would kill him at the appointed period, let him be
in what condition he might. Tom, therefore, would
gain nothing by being thin, and it was hoped that
his good taste, unchecked by other considerations,
would induce him to make up for lost time. Time
rolled on, Tom behaved worse than ever, and when
the fatal day arrived ' he looked in worse condition
than ever — a dissipated, abandoned, shaggy scamp,
without an ounce on his bones.' The wizard could
not stand this, so he thrust Tom into an empty
coop and fed him by violence. In course of time,
the wizard was satisfied, and began to sharpen his

190 The Book of Cats.

knife ; but no sooner did Tom perceive this act, than
he began to utter such singular expressions of con-
trition, that his proprietor paused to ask him to
explain them. The Cat in wild terms alluded to
a certain sum of ten thousand florins lying at the
bottom of a well, and the wizard wanted to know
more about them. It appeared then, that Tom's
late mistress had thrown the sum he named to the
bottom of a well, and informed her Cat that 'should
he find a perfectly beautiful and a penniless maiden,
whom a perfectly honest man was inclined to wed
in spite of her poverty, then he should empty the
contents of the well as a marriage portion.'

*' Of course this tale was false. The money existed
where Tom had described, but it had been ill-gotten
gold, with a curse upon it. But the wizard nibbled
at the bait, put a chain round Tom's neck, and
went to have a look at the treasure. There it was,
sure enough, shining under the water.

" * Are you quite sure that there are exactly ten
thousand florins }' asked the magician.

" ' I 've never been down to see,' replied Tom ; ' I
was obliged to take the old lady's word for it.'

" 'But where shall I find a wife.'*' asked the wizard.

" ' I'll find you one,' said Tom.

'"Will you.?'

The Book of Cats. 19 1

" 'To be sure. Tear up that contract, though, to
begin with.'

" The wizard, not without grumbhng, drew from
his pocket the fatal paper, which Tom no sooner
perceived than he pounced on it and swallowed it
whole, making at the same time the reflection that
he had never before tasted so delicious a morsel in
his life.

"In the neighbourhood dwelt an old woman, who
was a witch — one of the ugliest old women you
ever saw, who every night flew up the chimney on
a broom-stick, and played Meg's diversions by the
light of the moon. This lady had an owl, who was
a bird of loose principles, and had been an asso-
ciate of Tom's in his gay days. This bright couple
consulted together how they should persuade the
ancient maiden to marry the old man.

" ' She never will,' said the owl.

*' ' Then we must make her ; but how V

" ' We must catch her first, and take her prisoner,
and that is to be done easily enough, with a net,
spun by a man of sixty years old, who has never
set eyes on the face of woman.'

" ' Where are we to find him }'

" ' Just round the corner : he has been blind from
his birth.'

192 The Book of Cats.

" When the net had been procured, they set it in
the chimney, and presently caught the old lady,
and after much trouble they starved her into com-
pliance. Then, by magical art, she put on an ap-
pearance of youth and beauty, and the wizard
married her in an ecstacy of delight ; but was he
not in a fury when, evening approaching, she re-
sumed her pristine ugliness. And was he not dis-
gusted at his bride, in spite of the treasure she had
brought him. As for Tom, like many bad people,
he lived happy ever afterwards."

Here is an abridgement of the famous tale of
Puss in Boots : —

" A miller died, leaving his youngest son nothing
but a Cat : the poor young fellow complained bit-
terly of his fate ; the Cat bade him be of good cheer,
and procure a pair of boots and a bag : the youth
contrived to do so. The first attempt Puss made
was to go into a warren, in which there was a great
number of rabbits. He put some bran and parsley
into his bag ; and then, stretching himself out at
full length, as if he were dead, he waited for some
young rabbits, who as yet knew nothing of the
cunning tricks of the world, to come and get into
the bag. Scarcely had he laid down, before he
succeeded as well as could be wished. A giddy

The Book of Cats. 193

young rabbit crept into the bag, and the Cat im-
mediately drew the strings, and killed it without
mercy. Puss, proud of his prey, hastened directly
to the palace, where he asked to speak to the King.
On being shown into the apartment of his Majesty,
he made a low bow, and said : — '' I have brought
you. Sire, this rabbit from the warren of my Lord
the Marquis of Carabas, who commanded me to
present it to your Majesty, with the assurance of his
respects." One day, the Cat having heard that the
King intended to take a ride that morning by the
river's side with his daughter, who was the most
beautiful Princess in the world, he said to his
master : — " Take off your clothes, and bathe yourself
in the river, just in the place I shall show you, and
leave the rest to me." The Marquis did exactly as
he was desired, without being able to guess at
what the Cat intended. While he was bathine, the
King passed by, and Puss directly called out, as
loudly as he could bawl : — " Help ! help ! My Lord
Marquis of Carabas is in danger of being drowned !"
The King hearing the cries, and recognising the
Cat, ordered his attendants to go directly to the
assistance of my Lord Marquis of Carabas ; and
the cunning Cat having hid his master's clothes
under a large stone, the King commanded the
O

194 '^he Book of Cats.

officers of his wardrobe to fetch him the handsomest
suit it contained. The King's daughter was mightily
taken with his appearance, and the Marquis of
Carabas had no sooner cast upon her two or three
respectful glances, than she became violently in love
with him. The Cat, enchanted to see how well his
scheme was likely to succeed, ran before to a
meadow that was reaping, and said to the reapers : —
'' Good people, if you do not tell the King, who will
soon pass this way, that the meadow you are reap-
ing belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you
shall be chopped as small as mince-meat." The
King did not fail to ask the reapers to whom the
meadow belonged ? " To my Lord Marquis of
Carabas," said they all at once ; for the threats of
the Cat had terribly frightened them. Puss at
length arrived at a stately castle that belonged to
an Ogre, whom he first persuaded to assume the
form of a mouse, and then cleverly gobbled him up
before he could get back to his proper shape again.
The King's party soon after arrived. The Cat said
the castle was his master's ; and the King was so
much charmed with the amiable qualities and noble
fortune of the Marquis of Carabas, and the young
Princess too had fallen so violently in love with
him, that when the King had partaken of a colla-

The Book of Cats. 195

tion, he said to the Marquis : — " It will be your
own fault, my Lord Marquis of Carabas, if you do
not soon become my son-in-law." The Marquis
received the intelligence with a thousand respectful
acknowledgments, accepted the honour conferred
upon him, and married the Princess that very day.
The Cat became a great lord, and never after
pursued rats, except for his own amusement.

I think, too, that the famous story of the White
Cat should also find a place in this little volume : —

There once was a King, the legend says, who was
growing old, and it was told to him that his three
sons wished to govern the kingdom. The old King,
who did not wish to give up his power just }^et,
thought the best way to prevent his sons from
taking his throne was to send them out to seek for
adventures ; so he called them all around him, and
said : —

" My sons, go away and travel for a year ; and
he of you who brings me the most beautiful little
dog, shall have the kingdom, and be King after
me."

Then the three Princes started on the journey ;
but it is of the youngest of the three that I have
now to tell. He travelled for many days, and at
last found himself, one evening, at the door of a

196 The Book of Cats.

splendid castle, but not a man or woman was to be
seen. A number of hands, with no bodies to them,
appeared : two hands took off the Prince's cloak,
two others seated him in a chair, another pair
brought a brush to brush his hair, and several pairs
waited on him at supper. Then some more hands
came and put him to bed in a fine chamber, where
he slept all night, but still no one appeared. The
next morning, the hands brought him into a
splendid hall, where there sat on a throne a large
White Cat, who made him sit beside her, and ex-
pressed herself glad to see him. Next day, the
Prince and the White Cat went out hunting toge-
ther : the Cat was mounted on a fine spirited
monkey, and seemed very fond of the Prince,
who, on his part, was delighted with her wit and
cleverness.

Instead of dogs. Cats hunted for them. These
creatures ran with great agility after rats, and
mice, and birds, catching and killing a great num-
ber of them ; and sometimes the White Cat's
monkey would climb a tree, with the White Cat on
his back, after a bird, a mouse, or a squirrel. This
pleasant life went on for a long time : every day
the White Cat became more fond of the Prince,
while, on his part, the Prince could not help loving

The Book of Cats, 197

the poor Cat, who was so kind and attentive to
him. At last, the time drew near when the Prince
was to return home, and he had not thought of
looking for a Httle dog ; but the Cat gave him a
casket, and told him to open this before the King,
and all would be well ; so the Prince journeyed
home, taking with him an ugly mongrel cur. When
the brothers saw this, they laughed secretly to each
other, and thought themselves quite secure, so far
as their younger brother was concerned. They
had, with infinite pains, procured each of them a
very rare and beautiful little dog, and each thought
himself quite sure to get the prize. When the day
came on which the dogs were to be shown, each of
the two elder Princes produced a beautiful little
dog, on a silk velvet cushion : no one could judge
which was the prettier. The youngest now opened
his casket, and found a walnut : he cracked this
walnut, and out of the walnut sprang a little tiny
dog, of exquisite beauty. Still the old King would
not give up his kingdom. He told the young
Princes they must bring him home a piece of
cambric so fine that it could be threaded through
the eye of a needle ; and so they went away in
search of such a piece of cambric. Again the
youngest Prince passed a year with the White Cat,

198 The Book of Cats.

and again the Cat gave him a walnut when the
time came for him to return home. The three
Princes were summoned before their father, who
produced a needle. The first and second Princes
brought a piece of cambric which would almost,
but not quite, go through the needle's eye. The
youngest Prince broke open his walnut-shell : he
found inside it a small nut-shell, and then a cherry-
stone, and then a grain of wheat, and then a grain
of millet, and in this grain of millet a piece of
cambric four hundred yards long, which passed
easily through the eye of the needle. But the old
King said : —

" He who brings the most beautiful lady shall
have the kingdom."

The Prince went back to the White Cat, and
told her what his father had said. She replied —

" Cut off my head and my tail."

At last he consented : instantly the Cat was
transformed into a beautiful Princess ; for she had
been condemned by a wicked fairy to appear as a
Cat, till a young Prince should cut off her head and
tail. The Prince and Princess went to the old
King's court, and she was far more beautiful than
the ladies brought by the other two Princes. But
she did not want the kingdom, for she had four of

The Book of Cats. 1 99

her own already. One of these she gave to each
of the elder brothers of the young Prince, and over
the other two she ruled with her husband, for the
young Prince married her, and they lived happily
together all their lives.

In Mr. Morley's Fairy Tales, there is a funny
passage : — " ' I wonder,' said a sparrow, ' what the
eagles are about, that they don't fly away with the
Cats? And now I think of it, a civil question cannot
give offence.' So the sparrow finished her breakfast,
went to the eagle, and said : —

" ' May it please your royalty, I see you and your
race fly away with the birds and the lambs that do
no harm. But there is not a creature so malignant
as a Cat ; she prowls about our nests, eats up our
young, and bites ofT our own heads. She feeds so
daintily that she must be herself good eating. She
is lighter to carry than a bird, and you would get a
famous grip in her loose fur. Why do you not feed
upon Cat } '

*" Ah !* said the eagle, 'there is sense in your
question. I had the worms to hear this morning,
asking me why I did not breakfast upon sparrows.
Do I see a morsel of worm's skin on your beak,
my child .'''

" The sparrow cleaned his bill upon his bosom.

200 The Book of Cats,

and said : — ' I should like to see the worm who
came with that enquiry.'

" ' Come forward, worm,' the eagle said. But
when the worm appeared, the sparrow snapped
him up, and ate him. Then he went on with his
argument against the Cats."

Everybody has heard of the Kilkenny Cats, and
how they fought in a saw-pit with such ferocious
determination, that when the battle was over, no-
thing was remaining of either combatant except
his tail. Of course, we none of us suppose that the
tale is true, but some writers think that the account
of the mutual destruction of the contending Cats
was an allegory designed to typify the utter ruin to
which centuries of litigation and embroilment on
the subject of conflicting rights and privileges tended
to reduce the respective exchequers of the rival
municipal bodies of Kilkenny and Irishtown— sepa-
rate corporations existing within the liberties of one
city, and the boundaries of the respective jurisdic-
tion of which had never been marked out or defined
by an authority to which either was willing to bow.
The desperate struggles for supremacy of these
parish worthies began A.D. 1377, and they fought, as
only vestrymen can fight, a little over three hundred
years, by the end of which time there was, as you

The Book of Cats. 201

may suppose, very little left of them but their tails,
for, of course, there was a disinterested third person
to whom the affairs were referred for arbitration, in
the old way that the Cats appealed to the monkey
upon the great cheese question — who swallowed his
huge mouthful. In the end it would appear that
all the property of either side was mortgaged, and
bye-laws were passed by each party that their re-
spective officers should be content with the dignity
of their station, and forego all hope of salary till the
suit at law with the other " pretended corporation "
should be terminated.

Let this be as it may, one thing is certain : Kil-
kenny Cats are quite as amiable now-a-days as the
Cats of any other city in Great Britain.

But there is another story of a great Cat fight in
the same neighbourhood. One night in the summer
time, all the Cats in the city and county of Kilkenny
were absent from their homes, and next morning a
plain near the city was strewn with thousands of
slain Cats ; and it was reported that almost all the
Cats in Ireland had joined in the fight, as was
shown by the collars of some of the dead bearing
the names of places in all quarters of the island.
The cause of the quarrel is not stated, but there
are yet men alive who knew persons since dead,

202 The Book of Cats.

who actually inspected the field — at least so they
say.

Time out of mind the Cat has figured largely in
our nursery annals — from the days of Heigh Diddle-
Diddle and the House that Jack Built to the present
moment. There is some waggishness, by the way,
in Mr. Blanchard's version of the second mentioned
rhyme, printed, as a sort of argument, in the book
of the Drury Lane Pantomime : —

" Anon, with velvet foot and Tarquin strides,
Subtle Grimalkin to his quarry glides ;
Grimalkin grim, that slew the fierce Rodent,
Whose tooth insidious Johann's sackcloth rent.
Lo ! how the deep-mouthed canine foe's assault,
That vest th' avenger of the stolen malt
Stored in the hallowed precincts of that hall
That rose complete at Jack's creative call.
Here stalks th' impetuous cow with crumpled horn,
Thereon th' exacerbating hound was torn,
Who bayed the feline slaughter-beast that slew
The rat predacious, whose keen fangs ran through
The textile fibres that involved the grain
That lay in Han's inviolate domain."

The Cat is one of the principal of the dramatis
persona in Mr. D'Arcy Thompson's droll Nursery
Nonsense ; and some of the most ingenious pictures
Charles Bennett ever drew are to be found in his
Nine Lives of a Cat. There is some good fun for

Tlu Book of Cats. 203

little folks in a small book called Tales from Catland,
with some masterly pictures from the graceful
pencil of Mr. Harrison Weir ; and there is another
work called Cat and Dog, which I would recommend
to all young readers. Of some other children's
books, in which Pussy takes a prominent part, it
behoves not the writer of this volume to say very
much, for obvious reasons. I may, however, re-
mark, that though a great admirer of the feline
race, the artist who illustrated the works in ques-
tion and this, has very limited notions concerning
the way in which a Cat should be drawn, and has
found, after all his trouble, that under his hand
Pussy transferred to wood is very wooden indeed.
It is some consolation to that artist, however, to
reflect that Hogarth's Cats are anything but good
ones. By the way, I always wonder when I look
at that picture of the " Actress's Dressing Room "
in the barn, whether poor strollers were ever driven
to such an expedient as that of cutting a Cat's tail
for the blood, and if so, how was it used .'' In
George Cruikshank's "Bottle," do you remember
in the first scene how happily the Cat and Kittens
are playing on the hearth, and how in the next the
kitten has disappeared, and the Cat, a poor half-
starved wretch, is sniffing wistfully at an empty

204 "^^^^ Book of Cats.

plate upon the table ? The change in Pussy's for-
tune is a clever touch ; but of all Cat pictures, one
of the same artist's illustrations to the Brothers
Mayhew's Greatest Plague of Life is that to be re-
membered ; I mean the one called " The Cat did
it," in the chapter about Mrs. Burgess's Tom. There
are a score and more of wonderful Cat stories in
the Munchener B'llderbogen, and in other German
books ; and who of those who have seen them can
forget Grandville's extraordinary animals, so like
Cats, and yet so human. There were some pictures
that Charles Bennett drew, showing the gradual
change of a human face into that of a beast, in
which it was astonishing to note how easy and with
what a few lines the transformation could be
effected.

I might make this book a great deal longer (and
more wearisome, perhaps) if I gave even the briefest
outline of all the stories I have come upon during
my long search ; but I believe that those to be found
in these pages are among the best extant.

CHAPTER XI.

Of Pussy Pooj'Iy, and of some
Ctiriosities of the Cats'" -meat
Trade.

So sickly Cats neglect their

fur attire,
And sit and mope beside the

kitchen fire."

Bomhastcs Ftirioso.

WRITER on Cats, when speaking of the
necessity of administering physic in cer-
tain cases, says that the bare thought
of so doing is sufficient to daunt at least

nine-tenths of the lady Cat-owners of the kingdom ;

and gives these directions to assist the timid fair one

in her arduous task : —

2o8 The Book of Cats.

" Have ready a large cloth and wrap the patient
therein, wisping the cloth round and round her body
so that every part of her, except the head, is well
enveloped. Any one may then hold it between
their knees, while you complete the operation. Put
on a pair of stout gloves, and then with a firm hand
open the animal's mouth wide !"

Poor Pussy ! From the formidable nature of these
preparations, one would almost fancy that it was a
full-grown tigress about to be doctored, and its iron
mouth required a firm hand to wrench apart the
jaws. To such inexperienced ladies as could require
these directions, the writer's further advice not to
pour down the Cat's throat too much at a time,
comes very seasonably, but I am not too sure that
Pussy will not be choked for all that. When
properly managed, says he, "a sick Cat may be
made to take pills or any other drug without risk
of a severe scratching on your part, and danger of a
dislocated neck on the part of suffering Grimalkin."

I can readily understand that there is small fear
of the Cat's claws penetrating through five or six
folds of stout calico, but about the safety of its
neck I have my doubts. One, indeed, feels almost
inclined to add, as a further safeguard for the
trembling doctor, a suit of chain-mail or a diver's

The Book of Cats. 209

dress, such as the man wears who braves the dangers
of the tank at the Polytechnic.

Seriously speaking, a lady who is kind to her
domestic pets will have no trouble in giving them
medicine. When they are Kittens, they should be
taught to lie upon their backs, and in this attitude,
with the head raised, the physic is easily enough
administered. A sick Cat, too, does not fly from
those for whom it has an affection ; on the contrary,
I have always known Cats to come for sympathy to
those who nurse and feed them. Administer the
physic with a teaspoon, if liquid, and be most care-
ful when the dose has been given, to gently wash
from the Cat's face or breast any drop of the stuff
that may have fallen there, so that she may not find
the nasty taste lingering about her when she goes to
clean herself, as otherwise she has the unpleasant-
ness of the physic long after the doses have been
discontinued.

These are some of the complaints from which
Cats suffer, and the best methods to be adopted for
their cure : —

A cat is sometimes affected by a sort of dis-
temper which attacks it between the first and third
month of its life. The Cat or Kitten, when thus
suffering, refuses its ood, seems to be sensitive

P

210 The Book of Cats.

of cold, and creeps close to the fire or hides itself in
any warm corner. A mild aperient — small doses of
brims.tone, for instance — should be administered.
Whilst ill, feed the Cat upon light biscuit spread
with butter. A little manna is a good thing if the
Cat will eat it, and the animal should be kept warm
and quiet. If, however, you see the sick Cat
frequently vomiting, the vomit being a bright yellow
frothy liquid, be very careful of the animal should
she be a pet, for then the distemper is taking an
ugly turn, and requires special attention. Probably
before long the sickness will change to diarrhoea,
which in the end will turn to dysentery if prompt
measures be not taken. When the vomiting first
comes on, give the Cat half a teaspoonful of common
salt in aboiit two teaspoonsful of water, as an emetic,
for the purpose of clearing the stomach. Then
to stop the sickness, give half a spoonful of melted
beef marrow free from skin. If this is not found
sufficient, the dose may be repeated.

Cats just reaching their full growth are liable to
have fits. Male cats almost always have, at this time,
a slight attack of delirium. When coming on, it
may easily be known by an uneasy restlessness and
a wildness of the eyes. In bad cases, the Cat, when
seized with delirium, will rush about with staring

The Book of Cats. 2 1 1

eyes, sometimes fly at the window, but more often
fly from your presence and hide itself in the darkest
place it can find. If it have a regular fit, with frothing
at the mouth, quivering limbs, etc., as in a human
being so attacked. Lady Cust recommends that one
of the ears be slightly slit with a sharp pair of
scissors in the thin part of the ear. You must then
have some warm water ready and hold the ear in it,
gently rubbing and encouraging the blood to flow,
a few drops even will afford relief. During the at-
tack, the Cat does not feel, nor does it resist in the
least, therefore the most timid lady might perform
this little operation without fear. But where the
symptoms are not so violent, a gentle aperient may
do all that is required. A good alterative for them
is half a teaspoonful of common salt in two tea-
spoonfuls of water, as mentioned above, though in
this case it will not cause vomiting. Female Cats,
Lady Cust says, are less subject to fits of delirium,
and never have them after they have once nursed
young ones, unless frightened into them, which all
Cats easily are. In this, however, I think she is mis-
taken, for I have had a Cat so affected when nursing
her second litter of Kittens. Another Cat of mine
was seized with delirium, rushed suddenly out of the
kitchen, and disappeared mysteriously for three days.

212 The Book of Cats,

At the end of that time, the servant going to light
the fire under the copper, the animal crawled forth
from the copper hole very thin and weak, but other-
wise seemingly cured of its strange complaint.
All cats are subject to diarrhoea, and the signs of
their so suffering are to be found in dull eyes,
staring coat and neglected toilet, and the animal is
very likely to die of the complaint unless the proper
remedies be applied. As soon as it is discovered,
give the Cat some luke warm new milk, with a piece
of fresh mutton suet (the suet the size of a walnut to
a teacupful of milk) melted, and mixed in it. If the
patient be too ill to lap, administer the mixture a
teaspoonful every two hours. Take care not to
give it too much so as to make it sick. If there is
no bile, you should give the Cat (full grown) a grain
and a half of the grey powder used in such cases.
If the diarrhoea still continue, Lady Cust suggests
that a teaspoonful of the chalk mixture used by
human beings, be tried, with seven or eight drops of
tincture of rhubarb, and four or five of laudanum,
every few hours until the complaint ceases. Cats
will continue ill, her Ladyship says, for a few
days, their eyes even fixed, but still with watching
and care they may be cured. A teaspoonful at
a time of pure meat gravy should be given now and

The Book of Cats. 213

then, but not until nearly two hours after medicine,
to keep up the strength, until appetite returns.

There is a disease resembling the chicken-pox,
which appears in the shape of eruptions upon a
Cat's head and throat. It is, in these cases, ad-
visable to rub the bad places with flour of brimstone
mixed with fresh hog's lard, without salt. The Cat
will lick some of this ointment off, and swallow it,
which operation will assist the cure. Much of the
necessity for physic is, however, avoided when the
Cat is able to get some grass to eat, without which,
I believe, it can never be in good health. I have
a Tom Cat, which seems to be particularly partial
to ribbon grass, but this, I should say, is quite an
epicurean taste of his. According to Lady Cust,
who is the greatest, indeed, the only authority on
such matters, the hair swallowed by the Cat in
licking itself, and conveyed into the stomach and
intestines, where it remains in balls or long rolls,
causing dulness and loss of appetite, "is digested
easily by adhering to the long grass ; or if the mass
is too large, as is often the case in the moulting
season, especially with Angora Cats, it will be seen
thrown up : long rolls of hair with grass ; perfectly
•exclusive of any other substance. But, again, the
Cat itself seems to know that grass is very needful

214 The Book of Cats.

for the preservation of its health. The food and
prey it eats often disorder the stomach. On such
occasions, it eats a Httle grass, which, however, goes
no further than the commencement of the oeso-
phagus ; this is irritated by the jagged and saw-
like margins of the blades of grass, and this
irritation is, by a reflex action, communicated to
the stomach, which, by a spasmodic action, rejects
its vitiated secretion.

It is very cruel and injurious to the mother to
destroy the whole litter of kittens at once, unless it
has some feline friend or relation to relieve it of its
milk : one of its grown-up children, or its husband,
will generally do so, without much persuasion. If
deprived of this resource, however, the frequent de-
struction of the kittens will, in all probability, cause
cancers, and in the end kill the Cat. If the mother
die, and the kittens be left orphans, they may be
easily reared by hand. Feed them with new milk,
sweetened with brown sugar — plain milk is too
astringent. To imitate the Cat's lick, wipe the
kittens with a nearly dry sponge, and soap and
water. A good way to feed them is to use a well-
saturated fine sponge, which the kittens will suck.
The most common way, however, is to pour the
milk gently down the throat from a pointed spoon.

The Book of Cats. 215

I knew a lady who fed a pet kitten from her mouth,
and it grew up extraordinarily affectionate and
sagacious. But I have seen many cases where a
Cat has- conceived a strong affection towards a
person who has never fed it, and scarcely ever
noticed it.

I lately heard, on good authority, of a case of a
lady, one of whose Cats came every morning to
her bed-room door, at six o'clock precisely, making
so much noise mewing, that it would awaken every
one in the house, if she did not hasten to get up,
open the door, and shake hands with it, after which
ceremony it went quietly away. But, as a rule,
these animals do not tax their masters' good nature
to such an extent : a pat on the head now and then,
a kind word now and again, nothing more is re-
quired.

Mr. Kingston says : — " I was calling on a de-
lightful and most clever kind old lady, who showed
me a very beautiful Tabby Cat, coiled up on a
chair before the fire.

" ' Seventeen years ago,' said she, * that Cat's
mother had a litter : they were all ordered to be
drowned, with the exception of one ; the servant
brought me that one ; it was a tortoiseshell. ' No,'
I said, * that will always be looking dirty ; I will

2l6 The Book of Cats.

choose another ;' so I put my hand into the basket,
and drew forth this tabby. The tabby has stuck
by me ever since. When she came to have a
family, she disappeared, but the rain did not, for it
came pouring down through the ceihng, and it was
discovered that Dame Tabby had made a lying-in
hospital for herself in the thatched roof of our
house. The damage she did cost us several pounds ;
so we asked a bachelor friend, who had a good
cook, fond of Cats, to take care of tabby the next
time she gave signs of having a family, as we
knew that she would be well fed. We sent her in
a basket, well covered up, and she was carefully
shut into a room, where she soon was able to ex-
hibit a progeny of young mewlings. More than
the usual number were allowed to survive ; and it
was thought that she would remain quietly where
she was ; but, at the first opportunity, she made her
escape, and down she came all the length of the
village ; and I heard her mewing at my bed-room
door, early in the morning, to be let in. When I
had stroked her back, and spoken kindly to her, off
she went to look after her nurselings. From that
day, every morning down she came regularly to
see me, and would not go away till she had been
spoken to and caressed. Having satisfied herself

The Book of Cats. 21/

that I was alive and well, back she would go again.
She never failed to pay me that one visit in the
morning, and never came twice in the day, till she
had weaned her kittens, and then every day she
came back, and nothing would induce her to go
away again : I had not the heart to force her back.
From that day to this she has always slept at the
door of my room.' Never was there more evident
affection exhibited in the feline race."

With respect to a Cat's food, I think it should
not have too much meat ; and I should prefer feed-
ing it on scraps that have come from the table, to
buying Cats' meat. If their taste be consulted
upon the subject, almost all Cats are passionately
fond of lights, particularly as they grow old ; and
one elderly red-haired gentleman in particular, with
whom I had once the honour of being acquainted,
was in the habit of watching the pot whilst the
lights boiled, with lively interest, sniffing the steam
when the saucepan-lid was raised, and licking his
lips in anticipation of joys to come, when he could
gorge himself to his heart's content. As he was a
very old gentleman, and enjoyed the privileges of
age, he had unlimited lights supplied to him ; and
it was his habit to eat as much as he could possibly
swallow, and then lie down within sight of the

2i8 The Book of Cats.

plate, and catch uneasy snatches of sleep, waiting
until he could go on again with his orgie, but
racked meanwhile by horrid fears lest anyone else
should get at his food, and only dozing off, as the
saying is, one eye at a time. This same red Cat
one day, when the servants were out, and I was
alone in the garden, came to me mewing in a
strange sort of way, looking, as I thought, very
anxious, and running backwards and forwards be-
tween me and the house. At last, following him as
he seemed to wish me to do, I accompanied him to
the street-door, where I found the butcher's boy
waiting with the lights.

In giving a Cat the scrapings of dirty plates, it is
as well, if you value the animal's life, to remove the
fish bones, should there be any among the leavings.
Very frequently, as most Cats bolt their food, they
get a bone sticking in their mouth or throat, of
which they are unable to relieve themselves, and
suffer much pain without their owner's guessing at
the cause of their discomforture. A lady in a
house I was staying at, had a Cat that got what was
afterw^ards supposed to be a fish bone sticking in its
mouth, far at the back, in such a way that it was
unable to close its jaws. For two or three days it
remained in this state, refusing all food, and looking

The Book of Cats. 219

in a woeful plight ; indeed, we afterwards supposed
that it could not even lap ; but at the time, although
we made several examinations of the sufferer, we
could not discover what ailed it. At last, some one
suggested seeking the aid of a veterinary surgeon,
whose dignity seemed just a little bit ruffled by
being called in for a Cat, and who, when he did
come, did not bring his instruments with him.
Nevertheless, he found out what was wrong, and
forcing open the Cat's jaws, put in his finger to loosen
what he called a fish-bone. Being rather fearful of
getting a bite, he was somewhat hasty, and the bone
jerked out, flew into the air, as he released his hold
of the Cat's head, whereupon the Cat caught the
bone as it fell, and instantly swallowed it, leaving
us until this day in the dark as to the size and
nature of the bone, and indeed, rather doubtful
whether it was a bone at all.

In cases where the Cat is accidentally crippled, or
should be so ill that it were better to put it out of
its misery at once, the best plan is to send for a
chemist, who for a small sum would administer the
poison upon your own premises. I have known
cases where men servants entrusted to take the
animal to the chemist's shop, have thrown it down
in the street, or killed it with unnecessary torture

220 The Book of Cats.

themselves, and pocketed the money they should
have paid for the poisoning.

To administer the poison yourself is by no means
a vWse course, as probably you may give too much
or too little, and in either case defeat your object.
I know for a fact, that two medical students once
barbarously practising experiments with poison on
an unhappy Cat, twice poisoned the animal, as they
supposed, and once actually buried it, of course
not very deeply, after w^iich it recovered again-, and
crawled into the house, rather to their alarm,
as you may suppose, as on the second occasion it
happened in the dead of night.

Those unable to procure the assistance of a
doctor or chemist, can easily drown a Cat by
putting it into a pail of water, and pressing another
pail down upon it, care being taken of course to
handle the Cat gently, so as not to alarm it before
the last moment.

Concerning the Cats'-meat trade, Mr. Henry
Mayhew gives many curious particulars, of which
the following are some of the most amusing : —

" The Cats'-meat carriers frequently sell as much
as ten pennyworth to one person, and there has
been a customer to the extent of sixteen penny-
worth. This person, a black woman, used to get

The Book of Cats. 221

out on the roof of the house, and throw it to the
Cats on the tiles, by which conduct she brought so
many stray Cats round about the neighbourhood,
that the parties in the vicinity complained of the
nuisance. The noise of about a hundred strange
Cats, a little before feeding-time, about ten in the
morning, was tremendous ; and when the meat was
thrown to them, the fighting and confusion was
beyond description.

" There was also a woman in Islington who used
to have fourteen pounds of meat a-day. The per-
son who supplied her was often paid two and three
pounds at a time. She had often as many as thirty
Cats at a time. Every stray Cat that came she
would take in and support.

" The carriers give a great deal of credit ; indeed,
they take but little ready money. On some days
they do not come home with more than 2s. One
with a middling walk, pays for his meat Js. 6cL per
day ; for this he has half-a-hundred weight : this
produces him as much as lis. 6d., so that his profit
is 45., which, I am assured, is about a fair average
of the earnings of the trade. One carrier is said
to have amassed ;/; 1,000 at the business : he usually
sold from li to 2 cwt. every morning, so that his
profits were generally from i6s. to ^^i per day. But

222 The Book of Cats.

the trade is much worse now : there are so many
at it, they say, that there is barely a living for any."

A carrier assured Mr. Mayhew he seldom went
less than thirty, and frequently forty miles, through
the streets every day. The best districts are among
the houses of tradesmen, mechanics, and labourers.
The coachmen in the mews at the back of the
squares are very good customers.

" ' The work lays thicker there,' said one carrier.
' Old maids are bad, though very plentiful custo-
mers : they cheapen the carriers down so that tliey
can scarcely live at the business : they will pay one
half-penny, and owe another, and forget that after
a day or two.' The Cats'-meat dealers generally
complain of their losses from bad debts : their custo-
mers require credit frequently to the extent of j^i.

"'One party owes me 15^. now,' said a carrier,
* and many lOs. ; in fact, very few people pay ready
money for the meat.'

" The best days for the Cats'-meat business are
Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. A double
quantity of meat is sold on the Saturday ; and on
that day and Monday and Tuesday, the weekly
customers generally pay."

"The supply of food for Cats and Dogs is far
greater than may be generally thought.

The Book of Cats. 223

" ' Why, sir,' said one of the dealers, ' can you
tell me how many people's in London ?' On Mr
Mayhew's replying, upwards of two millions; 'I don't
know nothing whatever,' said the man, ' about
millions, but I think there's a Cat to every ten
people, aye, and more than that; and so, sir, you
cafi reckon.'"

Mr. Mayhew told him this gave a total of 200,000
Cats in London, but the number of inhabited
houses in the Metropolis was 100,000 more than
this, and though there was not a Cat to every house,
still, as many lodgers as well as householders kept
Cats, he added, " that he thought the total number
of Cats in London might be taken at the same
number as the inhabited houses, or 300,000 in all."

" 'There is not near^half so many Dogs as Cats; I
must know, for they all knows me, and I serves
about 200 Cats and 70 dogs. Mine's a middling
trade, but some does far better. Some Cats has a
hap'orth a day, some every other day; werry few
can afford a penn'orth, but times is inferior. Dogs
is better pay when you've a connection among' em/

" A Cats'-meat carrier who supplied me with in-
formation," says the same writer, " was more com-
fortably situated than any of the poorer classes
that I have yet seen. He lived in the front room

224 "^he Book of Cats.

of a second floor, In an open and respectable quarter
of the town, and his lodgings were the perfection of
comfort and cleanliness in an humble sphere. It
was late in the evening when I reached the house ;
I found the ' carrier ' and his family preparing the
supper. In a large morocco leather easy chair sat
the Cats'-meat carrier himself ; his blue apron and
black shiny hat had disappeared, and he wore a
' dress ' coat and a black satin waistcoat instead.
His wife, w^ho was a remarkably pretty woman, and
of very attractive manners, wore a ' Dolly Varden *
cap, placed jauntily on the back of her head, and
a drab merino dress. The room was cosily car-
peted ; and in one corner stood a mahogany
* crib,' with cane-work sides, in which one of the
children was asleep. On the table was a clean white
table-cloth, and the room was savoury with the
steaks and mashed potatoes that were cooking on
the fire. Indeed, I have never yet seen greater
comfort in the abodes of the poor. The cleanliness
and wholesomeness of the apartment were the more
striking from the unpleasant associations connected
with the calling.

" It is believed by one who has been engaged at
the business for 25 years, that there are from 900 to
1,000 horses, averaging 2 cwt. of meat each, little

The Book of Cats. 225

and big, boiled down every week; so that the
quantity of cats' and dogs' meat used throughout
London is about 200,000 lbs. per week, and this,
sold at the rate o( 2hd. per lb., gives ;f 2,000 a-week
for the money spent in cats' and dogs' meat, or
upwards of ^100,000 a-year, which is at the rate of
_^ioo worth sold annually by each carrier. The
profits of the carriers may be estimated at about
^50 each per annum. The capital required to start
in this business varies from ^i to £2. The stock-
money needed is between ^s. and lOs. The barrow
and basket, weights and scales, knife and steel, or
blackstone, cost about £2 when new, and from 15J.
to 4s. second hand.

Mr. Mayhew also states the London dogs' and
cats' meat carriers to number at least one thousand.
" The slaughtermen," he says, *' are said to reap
large fortunes very rapidly. Many of them retire
after a few years and take large farms. One after
twelv^e years' business retired with several thousand
pounds, and has now three large farms. The
carriers are men, women, and boys. Very few
women do as well at it as the men. The carriers
are generally sad drunkards. Out of five hundred
it is said three hundred at least spend £1 a head
a-week in drink. One party in the trade told me

Q

226 The Book of Cats.

that he knew a carrier who would spend los. in
hquor at one sitting. The profit the carriers make
upon the meat is at present only a penny per
pound. In the summer time the profit per pound
is reduced to a halfpenny, owing to the meat being
dearer, on account of its scarcity."

The following are, as well as I can remember,
the words of an old song, to the tune of " Cherry
Ripe," that were sung in some play : —

" Cats'-meat, Cats'-meat — meat, I cry,
On a skewer — come and buy ;
From Hyde Park Comer to Wapping Wall,
All the year I Cats'-meat bawl ;
Cats'-meat, Cats'-meat — meat, I cry,
On a skewer — come and buy."

CHAPTER XII

ITHOUT en-
tering into any
very length-
ened details, I
will here make room for
a few natural history notes, collected from various
sources : —

The Cat belongs to the same family as the lion,
tiger, panther, leopard, puma, serval, ocelot, and
lynx. The tribe is, perhaps, one of the best defined
in zoology, all its members having characteristics
of structure and habit not to be confounded with

230 The Book of Cats.

those of other animals. The rounded head and
pointed ears, the long, lithe body, covered with fine
silky hair, and often beautifully marked ; the silent,
stealthy step, occasioned by treading only on the
fleshy ball of the foot ; the sharp, retractile claws,
the large, lustrous eyes, capable, from the expansive
power of the pupil, of seeing in the dark ; the
whiskered lip, the trenchant, carnivorous teeth, and
the tongue covered with recurved, horny prickles,
are common to all.

In their habits and manners of life they are
equally akin : they inhabit the forest and the brake,
sleeping away the greater part of their time, and
only visiting the glade and open plain when pressed
by hunger. They are for the most part nocturnal
in their habits, being guided to their prey by their
peculiar power of vision, by their scent, and by
their hearing, which is superior to that of most
other animals. Naturally, they are strictly carni-
vorous, not hunting down their prey by a pro-
tracted chase, like the wolf and dog, but by lying
in wait, or by moving stealthily with their supple
joints and cushioned feet till within spring of their
victims, on which they dart with a growl, as if the
muscular effort of the moment were painful even
to themselves. Whether the attack be that of a

The Book of Cats. 231

tiger on a buffalo, or that of a Cat on a helpless
mouse, the mode of action is the same — a bound
Avith the whole body from the distance of many
yards, a violent stroke with the fore foot, a clutch
with the claws, which are thrust from their sheaths,
and a half-tearing, half-sucking motion of the jaws,
as if the animal gloated in ecstacy over the blood
of its victim.

This mode of life has gained for these animals
the common epithets of " cruel, savage, and blood-
thirsty," and has caused them to be looked upon by
the uninformed as monsters in creation. When its
natural instincts shall die out, then also will the tiger
cease to exist ; and were the whole world peopled
and cultivated equally with our own island, the
feline family would be limited to a single genus —
namely, the humble Cat. But as things are at pre-
sent constituted, the valleys and plains of the
tropics are clothed with an extensive vegetation,
supporting numerous herbivorous animals, which
could only be kept within due limits by the exis-
tence of carnivora, such as the lion, tiger, leopard,
and panther.

The distribution of the feline animals is governed
by those conditions to which we have alluded ; and
thus the puma inhabits the North American prairie ;

232 The Book of Cats.

the jaguar the savannahs of South America ; the
Hon the arid plains of Africa and Asia ; the tiger
and panther the tropical jungles of the old world ;
the minor species, as the ocelot and lynx, have a
wider range in both worlds, while the domestic Cat
associates with man in almost every region. With
the exception of the latter, none of the other
genera have been tamed or domesticated, so that
they are strictly " wild beasts," against which man
wages a ceaseless war of extirpation. It is true
that, in the East, one species of leopard is trained
for hunting, but this only very sparingly, and even
then he does not follow the game by scent, but is
carried by the hunters, and only let loose when he
is within a few bounds of the animal. It must not
be inferred, however, that they are untameable, for
every creature is capable, more or less, of being
trained by man, provided it receives due attention ;
and we have sufficient evidence in the wonderful
feats performed by the lions and tigers of Mr.
Carter and Van Amburgh, that the felinae are by
no means destitute of intelligent docility. The
truth is, there is no inducement to tame them, and
thus the Cat, the most diminutive of the family, and
the only one of direct utility to civilise, is likely to
continue, as it ever has been, the sole domesticated
member.

The Book of Cats. 233

The wild Cat is more plentiful in the wooded dis-
tricts of Germany, Prussia, and Hungary than in
any other part of Europe. It is found also in the
north of Asia and in Nepaul. Besides the true
wild Cat, there are other species of felis which, on
account of their resemblance to the tiger, are called
"Tiger-Cats": they are found in all parts of the
world, with the exception of Europe. The largest
of this family is the Rimau-Dahan, an inhabitant
of Sumatra. When full grown, it measures over
seven feet from the nose to the tip of its tail, which
appendage, however, monopolises three feet six of
the whole. It is nearly two feet high at the
shoulders : its colour is light grey, striped and
spotted with jet black. One of the first specimens
of this Tiger-Cat seen in England was brought
here by Sir Stamford Raffles, who. procured two of
them from the banks of the Bencoolen River.

" Both specimens," writes this gentlemen, " while
in a state of confinement, were remarkable for
good temper and playfulness ; no domestic kitten
could be more so ; they were always courting in-
tercourse with persons passing by, and in the ex-
pression of their countenance, which was always
open and smiling, showed the greatest delight when
noticed, throwing themselves on their backs, and

234 'T^he Book of Cats.

delighting in being tickled and rubbed. On board
the ship there was a small dog, who used to play
round the cage and with the animals ; and it was
amusing to observe the playfulness and tenderness
with which the latter came in contact with their in-
ferior sized companion. When fed with a fowl that
died, they seized the prey, and after sucking the head,
and tearing it a little, amused themselves for hours
in throwing it about and jumping after it, in the
manner that a Cat plays with a mouse before it is
quite dead. This species of Cat never seems to
look on man or children as his prey ; and the
natives assert that, when wild, it lives chiefly on
poultry, birds, and small deer."

The colour of the wild Cat is more uniform than
that of the domestic species. On a ground colour
of pale reddish-yellow are dark streaks extending
over the body and limbs, forming pretty much the
sort of pattern exhibited on the tiger's robe. From
the back of the neck to the spine, a line of very
dark spots extends to the tail, which is short and
bushy, and has a black tip. The feet and insides
of the legs are yellowish grey. In the female,
which is smaller that the male, the colours are not
as distinct. The medium size of a full-grown male
wild Cat is as follows : — Length of head and body.

TJie Book of Cats. 235

I foot 10 Inches ; length of head, 3^ inches ; length
of ears, 2^ inches ; length of tail, 11 inches. The
wild Cat affects rocky and densely-wooded dis-
tricts, living in holes or in hollow trees. According
to ]\Ir. St. John, a wild Cat will sometimes take up
its residence at no great distance from a house, and,
entering the hen-houses and outbuildings, carry off
fowls or even lambs, in the most audacious manner.
Like other vermin, the wild Cat haunts the shores
of lakes and rivers, and it is, therefore, easy to
know where to lay a trap for it. Having caught
and killed one of the colony, the rest of them are
sure to be taken, if the body of their slain relative
be left in some place not far from their usual hunt-
ing-ground, and surrounded with traps, as every
wild Cat which passes within a considerable distance
of the place will to a certainty come to it.

America has several Tiger-Cats, foremost amongst
which may be mentioned the Ocelot. Two of these
animals were kept at the Tower of London, at the
time when that ancient fortress counted a mena-
gerie among its other attractions ; and of one of
these Mr. Bennett gives the following descrip-
tion : —

" Body when full grown nearly 3 feet in length ;
tail rather more than i foot ; medium height about

236 The Book of Cats.

18 inches. Ground colour of fur grey, mingled
with a slight tinge of fawn, elegantly marked with
numerous longitudinal bands, the dorsal one con-
tinuous and entirely black, the lateral (six or seven
on each side) consisting for the most part of a series
of elongated spots, with black margins, sometimes
completely distinct, sometimes running together.
The centre of each spot is of a deeper fawn than
the ground colour external to it ; this deeper tinge
is also conspicuous on the head and neck, and on
the outside of the limbs, all of which parts are
irregularly marked with full black lines and spots
of various sizes. From the top of the head, be-
tween the ears, there pass backwards towards the
shoulders, two or more, frequently four, uninter-
rupted diverging bands, which enclose a narrow
fawn-colour space, with a black margin ; between
these there is a single longitudinal, somewhat inter-
rupted, narrow black line, occupying the centre of
the neck above. Ears short and rounded, exter-
nally margined with black, surrounding a large
central whitish spot : under parts of the body
whitish, spotted with black, and the tail, which is
of the same ground colour with the body, also
covered with black spots. This animal is a native
of Mexico and Paraguay : its home is the gloomiest

Tlie Book of Cats. 237

depths of the forest, where all day long it lies
quiet, but, as night advances, comes out to prey
on birds and small quadrupeds. It is said to be a
particularly cunning creature, and sometimes, when
other stratagems to replenish his larder have failed,
to stretch himself all along the bough of a tree and
sham death. The monkeys of the neighbourhood
have no greater enemy than the Ocelot, therefore it
is only natural that, when they find him dead, they
would be much rejoiced, and call together their
friends and relations to see the pretty sight. The
treacherous ocelot is, however, meanwhile keeping
sharp watch through a tiny chink of his eyelids,
and when the rejoicing is at its highest, up he
jumps, and, before the monkey-revellers can recover
from their fright, at least a couple will feel the fatal
weight of his paw. There are several ocelots, the
painted, the grey, and the common, among others.
In captivity, few animals are more surly and spite-
ful, until they grow thoroughly well acquainted
with their keepers or others who court their notice.
There is, however, one weapon keener than the
sharpest sword, more potent than the Armstrong
gun, more powerful than all the gunpowder and
bullets ever made, and yet so simple, that the boy
yet in pinafores may direct it : to this weapon the

238 The Book of Cats.

suspicious tiger-cat succumbs, and the name of this
weapon is — Kindness! So armed, the Rev. J. G.
Wood conquered a body of Ocelots exhibited at
the menagerie. He says : —

*' Several of these animals, when I first made
their acquaintance, were rather crabbed in disposi-
tion, snarled at the sound of a strange step, growled
angrily at my approach, and behaved altogether in
a very unusual manner, in spite of many amicable
overtures. After a while, I discovered that these
creatures were continually and vainly attempting
the capture of certain flies, which buzzed about the
cage ; so I captured a few large bluebottle flies,
and poked them through a small aperture in the
cage, so that the Ocelot's paw might not be able to
reach my hand. At first the ocelots declined to
make any advance in return for the gift, but they
soon became bolder, and at last freely took the flies
as fast as they were caught. The ice was now
broken, and in a very short time we were excellent
friends, the angry snarl being exchanged for a com-
placent composed demeanour. The climax to their
change of character was reached by giving them a
few leaves of grass, for which they were, as I thought
they would be, more anxious than for the flies.
They tore the green blades out of my hand, and

The Book of Cats. 239

enjoyed the unaccustomed dainty undisturbed.
After this, they were quite at their ease, and came
to the front of the cage whenever I passed."

The Colocolo is another tiger-cat : it is an in-
habitant of Guiana, and though not more than a
third the size of the Rimau-Dahan, is a most for-
midable enemy to the smaller animals of the forests
which it inhabits. It is related by Mr. Wood that
a specimen of this creature was shot on the banks
of a river, in Guiana, by an officer of rifles, who
stuffed it, and placed the skin to dry on the awning
of his boat. As the vessel dropped down the river,
it passed under overhanging boughs of large trees,
on which rested numerous monkeys. Generally
when a boat passed along a river, the monkeys,
which inhabit the trees that border its banks, dis-
played great curiosity, and ran along the boughs,
so as to obtain a close view of the strange visitant.
Before the Colocolo had been killed, the passage of
the boat had been attended, as usual, by the inqui-
sitive monkeys, but when the stuffed skin was ex-
hibited on the awning, the monkeys were horribly
alarmed, and instead of approaching the vessel, as
they had before done, trooped off with prodigious
yells of terror and rage. From this universal fear
which the sight of the animal occasioned to the

240 The Book of Cats.

monkeys, it may be conjectured that the Colocolo
is in the habit of procuring its food at the expense
of the monkey tribes. Of the tiger-cat in Africa,
the Serval may be taken as the type : it is about two
feet long, exclusive of the tail, which measures nine
inches, and is a foot in height at the shoulders. Its
upper parts are clear yellow, and its under parts
white, and its entire body is spotted with black.
Among the Dutch settlers it is known as " Bosch-
katte," or " Bush-cat." It is an inoffensive creature,
not easily irritated, and behaving generally like our
own familiar grimalkin.

The wild Cat of Ireland would seem to be quite
as savage a fellow as his Scotch cousin. In Max-
well's " Wild Sports of the West',' is a story of one
of these animals, which was killed after a severe
battle : it was of a dirty grey colour, double the
size of the common house Cat, and with formidable
teeth and claws. It was a female, and was tracked
to its burrow under a rock, and caught with a rabbit-
net. So flimsy an affair, however, was scorned by
the fierce brute, which speedily rent a hole with its
teeth and claws, and was about to run off, when
the lad who had set the snare seized it by the
neck. It was finally dispatched by a blow of an
iron spade. The lad, however, was so terribly

The Book of Cats. 241

wounded as to necessitate his removal to an hos-
pital, where he for some time remained, in peril
o( lock-jaw.

The following narrative is furnished by Mr. St.
John : —

" Once, when grouse shooting, I came suddenly,
in the rough and rocky part of the ground, upon a
family of two old and three half-grown wild Cats.
In the hanging birch-woods that bordered some of
the highland streams and rocks, the wild Cat is
still not uncommon ; and I have heard their wild
and unearthly cries echo afar in the quiet night as
they answer and call to each other. I do not know
a more harsh and unpleasant cry than the cry of
the wild Cat, or one more likely to be the origin
of superstitious fears in the mind of an ignorant
Highlander. These animals have great skill in
finding their prey ; and the damage they do to the
game must be very great, owing to the quantity of
food which they require. When caught in a trap,
they fly, without hesitation, at any person who ap-
proaches them, not waiting to be assailed. I have
heard many stories of their attacking and severely
wounding a man, when their retreat has been cut
off. Indeed, a wild Cat once flew at me in a most
determined manner. I was fishing in a river in

242 The Book of Cats.

Sutherlandshire, and in passing from one pool to
another, had to climb over some rocky and broken
ground. In doing so, I sank through some rotten
moss and heather up to my knees, almost upon a
wild Cat, who was concealed under it. I was quite
as much startled as the animal herself could be
when I saw the wild looking beast rush out so un-
expectedly from between my legs, with every hair
on her body standing on end, making her look
twice as large as she really was. I had three small
sky-terriers with me, who immediately gave chase,
and pursued her till she took refuge in a corner of
a rock, where, perched in a kind of recess, out of
reach of her enemies, she stood with her hair
bristled out, and spitting and growling like a
common Cat. Having no weapon with me, I laid
down my rod, cut a good sized stick, and proceeded
to dislodge her. As soon as I came within six or
seven feet of the place, she sprang right at my
face, over the dogs' heads. Had I not struck her
in mid-air, as she leapt at me, I should probably
have got some severe wound. As it was, she fell,
with her back half broken, among the dogs, who,
with my assistance, dispatched her. I never saw
an animal fight so desperately, or one so difficult to
kill. If a tame Cat has nine lives, a wild Cat must
have a dozen."

The Book of Cats. 243

That a long course of domestic drill is insufficient
to win a Cat from its native savagery, is proved by
the following scrap, lately culled from the Sihansea
Herald:—

"A fight of more than ordinary interest took
place on the bank of the canal, near Kidwelly Quay,
a few days ago. A domestic Cat, making her usual
walk in search of prey along the embankment, was
attacked by an otter of no small dimensions, and
was in an instant tossed into the middle of the
canal, and there had to fight, not for the ' belt,' but
for her life, in an uncongenial element. But very
soon they were observed by some sailors and
shippers, employed not far from the scene of con-
test, who hastened to witness the stranije occur-
rence. Either from fear of the men, or of its for-
midable antagonist, the otter relinquished its hold,
and poor Puss safely landed, amidst hearty cheers
and congratulations. But Puss, not being content
with the laurels she had won in the first contest,
went out again on the following day, and, strange
to say, the old combatants met again, and the otter,
with undiminished pluck, attacked the Cat on land.
The contest became very severe, but ultimately the
otter was glad to regain its watery refuge, and
leave Puss the victor the second time, without su'f-

244 "The Book of Cats.

fering very considerably from an encounter with
such a formidable foe."

A writer on the subject of wild cats says —
" When a domesticated creature is no longer
found in the wild state anywhere, like the camel
and the lama, or when a reasonable scepticism may
be entertained respecting the species assumed to
be its savage ancestor, as is the case with the dog
and the fowl, the steps of all our reasonings march
straight into a blind alley, from which there is no
issue, except by turning back, I believe that there
never was such an animal as a really wild Pussy.
The supposition involves an absurdity. Whose
legs could she rub in a state of nature .'* On whose
arrival could she set up her back, and arch her tail,
and daintily tread on the same little spot .^ From
what carpet, Kidderminster or Brussels, could she
gently pull the threads with her claws .? In what
dairy could she skim the cream ? From what
larder could she steal cold roast pheasant .^ And
if she did not do these things, or some of them,
would she be a genuine Puss "i No, no ! I believe
that Adam and Eve had a nice little tortolseshell
to purr between them, as they sat chatting on a
sunny bank, and that a choice pair of tabbies
slumbered, with half-shut eyes, and their feet

The Book of Cats. 245

turned under them, before the fire, which was the
centre of Noah's family circle on board the Ark !"

Apropos of Cat-charming or Cat-taming, here
are two anecdotes from Mr. Beeton's book : —

" I have," says the writer, " a vivid recollection
of once charming a Cat to within an inch of getting
myself thoroughly well thrashed. There lived in
our neighbourhood a kind-hearted old gentleman,
w^ho was good enough to take a fancy to my un-
grateful self, and would frequently invite me (he
was a bachelor) to dine with him. The dining part
of the business I had not the least objection to ; but
after dinner, when we had chatted till he fell into a
doze, it became, to a boy nine years old, rather
tedious. It was on one such occasion that I be-
haved so disgracefully. The old gentleman was
nodding, with his slippered feet crossed lazily be-
fore the fire, and a fat tortoiseshell Cat, his pro-
perty, lay along the rug, placidly asleep, too. Had
I been a good boy, I should have sat still, and
turned the leaves of Fox's Book of Martyrs till my
friend awoke ; but I was not a good boy : I felt
myself like a martyr, doomed to the dreadful
torture of sitting still. I felt in my pocket for a
top-string I had there, and for a minute or so
amused myself by bobbing the button at the end
of the string on to the nose of the tortoiseshell

246 The Book of Cats,

Cat, till I had aroused that lazy animal to a state
of extreme irritability. This sport, after a while,
grew tame, so I shifted the string, and allowed it
to dangle within an inch of my host's feet. Really,
it was done with scarce a thought, but the result
was rather astonishing. The Cat, who all the time
kept her eye on the tormenting string, no sooner
saw it at a distance convenient to spring at, than
she made a bound, and, missing the cord, fiercely
embraced one of the slippered members with ten
of her talons. For the moment I was too frightened
to weigh the possible consequences of laughing, and
laughed outright, which, with the sudden bound the
old gentleman gave, so alarmed the tortoiseshell
Cat, that she flew towards the door like a mad Cat.
I doubt, however, whether its utmost agility would
have saved it from the tongs, with which its out-
raged master pursued it, had I not ashamedly
explained the matter, and begged forgiveness."

" I have certainly, in my time, made the acquaint-
ance of some queerish Cats. When quite a little
boy, there was attached to our house, a quaint black
and white Cat whose sole recommendation was that
he was a magnificent mouser; nay, to such lengths
would he carry his passion for hunting, as regularly
to haunt a ditch that existed in the neighbourhood
for the purpose of pursuing and capturing water-

The Book of Cats. 247

rats, which class of vermin he despatched in a
manner that at once secured the death of the rat,
and himself immunity from the rat's teeth. Seizing
the animal by the back of the neck, the Cat, by a
sudden wriggle, threw himself on his back, and
at once transferred the custody of the rat from
his mouth to his fore-paws, holding it neatly behind
the shoulders, while with his hind talons he cruelly
assailed the unlucky animal's loins and ribs till it
ceased to struggle. I have stated that the Cat in
question was attached to our house, and that
certainly was the extent of his intimacy, for he was
attached to nobody residing there. Myself, he
particularly disliked, and although he never con-
sidered it beneath his dignity to steal any article
of food from me, would never accept my overtures
of friendship. I have reason to believe that his
special dislike to me arose out of a pair of boots
possessed by me at that period. They were creak-
ing boots, and fastened with laces. Whether it
was that their loud creaking as I moved about
the room in them, reminded him of the squeak
of rats, or whether, not being a particularly
tidy boy, the before-mentioned laces were some-
times allowed to trail rats'-tail-wise, aggravatingly
heightened the illusion, I can't say; I only know

248 The Book of Cats.

that as sure as I happened to allow my small feet
to swing loosely while seated at breakfast or dinner,
so surely would the black and white Cat, if he were
in the room, make a sudden dash at the hated boots,
giving my leg a severe wTench in his endeavour to
fling himself on his back for the purpose of tearing
the life out of them after his own peculiar mode.

" My enemy was, however, finally subdued, and
in a rather curious way. Some one brought me one
of those difficult musical instruments known as a
mouth organ, and delighted with my new pos-
session, I w^as torturing it as I sat on a seat in
the garden. Suddenly there appeared in a tree
just above my head, my foe, the black and white
Cat, with his tail waving from side to side, his
eyes staring, and his mouth twitching in an odd
sort of way. I must confess that I was rather
alarmed, and In my nervous condition, I might be
excused if I construed the expression of the Cat's
countenance to intimate, " Here you are then with
another hideous noise, a noise that is even more
suggestive of rat squeaking than your abominable
boots ; however, I've caught you by yourself this
time, so look out for your eyes." I did not, how-
ever, cease playing my organ; my enemy's green
eyes seem.ed to fascinate me, and my tremulous

The Book of Cats. 249

breath continued to wail on the organ pipes. Slowly
the black and white Cat descended the tree, and
presently leapt at my feet with a bound that
thrilled through me, and expelled a scream-like
note from my instrument. But to my astonishment,
my enemy did not attack me ; on the contrary, he
approached the offending boots humbly, and caressed
them with his head. Still I continued to play, and
after every inch of my Bluchers had received
homage from the Cat's hitherto terrible muzzle,
he sprang on the seat beside me, and purred and
gently mewed, and finally crept on to my shoulders
and lovingly smelt at the mouth-organ as I played
it. From that day hostilities ceased between us.
He would sit on my shoulders for half an hour
together, and sing, after his fashion, while I played,
and I had only to strike up to lure him from any
part of the premises where he might happen to be.

" There used to come to our house a young man
who played the trombone, and having heard the
story, insisted that there was nothing in it, — that all
Cats like music, and that savage as was our Cat to
strangers, he would be bound to conquer him with
a single blast of his favorite instrument. Next
time he came armed with the terrible-looking
trombone, which our Cat no sooner saw than, (as I

250 The Book of Cats.

had predicted, for I knew liis nature better than
anyone else could) he took a violent dislike to it.
A blast on the trombone ; the effect was as he
prognosticated instantaneous, though not perfectly
satisfactory ; the brazen note was immediately
responded to by one equally loud from our Cat, who
appeared to regard it as a challenge to combat, and
thickened his tail and bared his teeth accordingly,
at the same time swearing and spitting dreadfully.
I need not say that the trombone-player was
discomfited, while my fame as a Cat-charmer
was considerably augmented."

Poor Pussy ! her character is not often properly
understood, as we read elsewhere : —

'' One or two common errors about Cats may be
noticed. Many persons will destroy them when
anything is the matter with them, whereas, in many
cases they would recover with a little care. Some
think they do not drink much, which is a mistake.
Water should always be placed within their reach.
As to their want of attachment, there is no doubt
that is generally owing to the neglect (if not worse
treatment) they often experience. Every animal
will ordinarily return kindness for kindness ; and,
if persons will only try, they will not find Cats an
exception. But to knock an animal about, or

Ihe Book of Cats. 251

hardly ever to notice it, and to punish severely any
fault it may commit, are not ways to attach it to
you. The writer has heard of more than one in-
stance in which, on its master's death, a favourite
Cat has gone away and not been seen again. There
is a great diversity of character in Cats, as, indeed,
in all animals. As to the colour, this is not of
such importance as the shape. She should be
well rounded, compactly formed, with small ears
and fur of fine texture. It sometimes happens that
ordinary-looking Cats have some very good qua-
lities. Cats are very much afraid of each other :
two of them will often look at one another over a
plate for a long time, neither venturing to move or
to take anything. At other times they are great
bullies. One will get close up to another, and
scream into his ear until the other gradually shrinks
back and runs off when he has got clear."

"The Chinese, it seems," says another writer,
"learn the hour of the day by looking into the eyes
of their Cats ; but I imagine that if Cats could
speak Chinese, they would tell us, not only Avhat
o'clock it is, but also what is the day of the week.
When a boy, I was a great pigeon-keeper : pigeon-
keeping in a town leads to excursions on the roofs.
Excursions over roofs lead sometimes to neck-

252 The Book of Cats.

breaking-, sometimes to strange discoveries. Our
neighbour at the back was a large coach-builder,
and the nearest buildings were his forges. On week
days, I beheld, during my airy rambles, nothing
but the blacksmiths hammering away at bolt, and
spring, and tire, and nail ; but on Sundays, except
in case of inclement weather, the warm tiles that
covered the forges were tenanted by numerous
parties of Cats. There they sat, all day long, ad-
miring one another, holding silent deliberations,
determining in their minds which partner they
should select for the evening's concert and ball.
While daylight lasted, it was a Quaker's meeting,
silent and sober ; but after dark — the darker the
better — leaps and friskings were audible, with vocal
effects of long-swelling notes, such as called forth
Peter Pindar's Ode to* the Jewish Cats of Israel
Mendez, whose opening line is —

" Singers of Israel ! O, ye singers sweet !"

From Monday morning till Saturday night not a
Cat was to be seen : they knew when Sunday came
round, as well as I did, from the low temperature
of the tiles.

It is very common for Cats to select one member
of a family on whom they lavish all their fondness,

TJie Book of Cats. 253

while towards the others they comport themselves
with the utmost indifference. " I remember," says a
lady, " there was a Cat with her Kittens found in a
hole in the wall, in the garden of the house where
my father-in-law lived. One of the kittens, being a
very beautiful black one, was brought into the
house, and almost immediately attached himself in
a very extraordinary way to me. I was in mourn-
ing at the time, and, perhaps, the similarity of the
hue of my dress to his sable fur, might first have
attracted him ; but, however this may have been,
whenever he came into the room, he constantly
jumped into my lap, and evinced his fondness by
purring and rubbing his head against me in a very
coaxing manner. He continued thus to distinguish
me during the rest of his life ; and though I went
with my father-in-law's family every winter to
Dublin, and every summer to the country, the
cliange of abode (to which Cats are supposed to be
averse) never troubled my favourite, provided he
could be with me. Frequently, when we have been
walking home, after spending the evening out, he
has come running down half the street to meet us,
testifying the greatest delight. On one occasion,
when I had an illness, which confined me for up-
wards of two months to my room, poor Lee Boo

254 "^he Book of Cats.

deserted the parlour altogether, though he had been
always patted and caressed by every one there.
He would sit for hours mewing disconsolately at
my door ; and when he could, he would steal in,
jump upon the bed, testifying his joy at seeing me
by loud purring and coaxing, and sometimes licking
my hand. The very day I went down, he resumed
his regular attendance in the parlour,"

Another lady describes how her Cat awoke her
in the middle of the night. It sat down by the
bed-side and mewed, while it rubbed itself back-
wards and forwards against the bedposts. The
lady had no idea what was the matter, but felt sure
there was something, and lighting the candle, found
a dead mouse quite close to her. Satisfied that the
lady had examined its capture, Puss took it off, and
after playing with it for an hour, ate it up, leaving, as
usual, the tail and paws. In the countiy or in farm-
houses, the Cat will never fail to bring home birds
and mice, and, in Southern climes, lizards and even
snakes. She does this, however, very much in pro-
portion to the amount of kindness bestowed upon
her at home, and if this be altogether lacking, the
prey is only shown to other Cats living in the same
house, or to her own young, if she happens to have
any ; often indeed, she brings her trophy imme-
diately and only to her young.

TJie Book of Cats. 255

There was a gentleman who had a tortoiseshell
Cat, which, though he never fed it, or paid much
attention to it, formed an attachment for him equal
to that of a dog. It knew his ring at the bells, and
at whatever time he came home, it was rubbing
against his legs long before the servant came, saw
him into the sitting-room, and then walked off. It
was a very active animal, and usually went bird-
catching during the night ; but when its master
rose, which was generally early in the morning, the
Cat was always ready to receive him at the door of
his room, and accompany him in his morning walk
in the garden, alternately skipping to the tops of
the trees, and descending and gambolling about
him. When he was in his study, it used to pay him
several visits in the day, always short ones ; 6ut it
never retired till he had recognized it. If rubbing
against his legs had not the desired effect, it would
mount the writing-table, nudge his shoulder, and if
that would not do, pat him on the cheek ; but the
moment he had shaken it by the paw, and given
it a pat or two on the head, it walked off. Wlien
he was indisposed, it paid him several visits every
day, but continued in the room ; and although it
was fond of society generally, and also of its food ;
it never obtruded its company during meals. Its

256 Vie Book of Cats,

attachment was thus quite disinterested, and no
pains whatever had been taken to train it."

Here is a curious anecdote, culled from another
source : —

" I have at the present time about my house a
Cat that came into my possession under rather
singular circumstances. Before we knew her, Ave
had a Cat that gave perfect satisfaction, was a
good mouser, and an affectionate mother. In the
rear of our house, there is a shed, commonly used
as a wood store, and frequented, at least, once a
day. It is by no means a secluded place, and the
door, through a weakness in . its hinges, is con-
stantly ajar.

" One morning there was discovered in the shed,
not only a strange Cat, but a strange Kitten, with
its eyes open, plump, and about a fortnight old.
The strange Cat made no attempt to stir when the
maid entered, but lay suckling her baby, and look-
ing up with an expression that said as plainly as
Cat language could, —

*' * A persecuted Cat and her Kitten at your ser-
vice ; don't drive us out, that's a good creature.'

" More singular still, before the person appealed
to could consider the case, our own Cat peeped into
the shed, and after deliberately walking up to the

TJie Book of Cats. 257

refugees, and giving them a kindly touch with her
nose, walked back to the servant and commenced
to rub against her, purring the while, as though to
manifest her goodwill towards the strangers, and to
recommend a favourable consideration of their case,
so they were taken in.

" As soon, however, as the novelty of the affair
wore off, it began to dawn on us that we did not
require a * house-full ' of Cats, though for that
matter the four lived happily together. Which
should we get rid of } The strange Cat's kitten
was too big to drown and too little to send adrift ;
our own ' Topsy ' and her daughter must, of course,
be retained, so there was nothing left but to send
away the strange she-Cat. She was rather a good-
looking Cat, and that, coupled with her known
cleverness, gave us good ground for supposing that
she would soon find another home. It appeared,
however, that we did not give her credit for being
nearly so clever as she was.

" It was arranged that she should be conveyed
in a basket to a certain square, about a quarter-of-
a-mile distant, and there left to seek her fortune.
To the best of ever>'body's belief, this arrangement
was carried out to the letter, therefore the amaze-
ment of the entire household may be easily

S

258 The Book of Cats.

imagined when, on reference being made to the
Cat-cupboard, to see how Topsy and her two young
charges were getting on, to find no Topsy at all, —
only the strange Cat and the two Kittens. How
the cheat had been accomplished, it was impossible
to say. That Topsy was not the Cat placed in the
basket was vouched for by two witnesses — one of
them had held the basket-lid open while the other
pushed the animal in.

" Perhaps, in my own mind, I have little doubt
how the business was so mulled, but I know that
in certain quarters there exists a belief, either that
by some sort of witchery the strange Cat put on so
Topsical an appearance as to deceive her would-be
smugglers, or that, after she was basketed, she
managed to sneak out, and either by persuasion
or force induced the unlucky Topsy to take her
place.

" However it came about, the result is, that the
strange Cat alone reigns at our house, to the jealous
exclusion of all her species. No one, I believe, has
any particular affection for her, but that circum-
stance is not observed to prey on her mind or to
interfere with her appetite. She devours her rations
with the air of a Cat that is conscious that she has
earned them, and as though she is aware, and rather

The Book of Cats. 259

gloried than otherwise, in the knowledge that she
is regarded as a cunning and manoeuvring beast,
that first, by hypocritical representations, induced
an honest Cat to obtain for her a situation, and
afterwards ungratefully contrived to push out her
benefactress and progeny, and install herself in their
place."

From the Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight^
Lady Companion to the Princess Charlotte of
Wales, I take the following scrap : —

" An old woman, who died a few years ago, in
Ireland, had a nephew, to whom she left by will all
she possessed. She happened to have a favourite
Cat, which never left her, and even remained by the
corpse after her death. After the will was read, in
the adjoining room, on opening the door the Cat
sprang at the lawyer, seized him by the throat, and
was with difficulty prevented from strangling him.
This man died about eighteen months after this
scene, and, on his death-bed, confessed that he had
murdered his aunt to get possession of her money."

The oft-quoted lines by Gray should not be
omitted from The Book of Cats : —

26o The Book of Cats.

"ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT,

" Drow7tcd in a Tub of Gold Fishes.

*' 'Twas on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dyed

The azure ilowers that blow,
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima reclined,

Gazed on the lake below.

" Her conscious tail her joy declared —
The fair round face, the snowy beard,

The velvet of her paws,
Her coat, that with the tortoise vies.
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes —

She saw and purred applause.

*' Still had she gazed, but 'midst the tide,
Two angel forms were seen to glide,

The genii of the stream ;
Their scaly 'armour's Tyrian hue.
Though richest purple to the view.
Betrayed a golden gleam.

" The hapless nymph, with wonder saw,
A whisker first, and then a claw ;

With many an ardent wish
She stretched in vain to reach the prize ; —
What female heart can gold despise?
What Cat 's averse to fish ?

** Presumptuous maid, with looks intent,
Again she stretched, again she bent.
Nor knew the gulf between j

The Book of Cats. 26 1

(Malignant Fate sat by and smiled) —
The slippery verge her feet beguiled,
She tumbled headlong in.

Eight times emerging from the flood,
She mewed to every watery god

Some speedy aid to send ;
No dolphin came, no nereid stirred,
No cruel Tom, no Susan heard, —

Favourite has no friend.

From hence, ye beauties, undeceived.
Know one false step is ne'er retrieved,

And be with caution bold —
Not all that tempts your wandering eyes
And heedless hearts is lawful prize^ —

Not all that glitters gold."

These verses are well known, but those which
follow are less often met with : they are attributed
to George Tuberville, and written somewhere
about the beginning of the sixteenth century : —

"THE LOUER,

" Whose mistresse feared a mouse, declareth that he would become a Cat
if he might haue his desire.

If I might alter kind,

What, think you, I would bee ?
Not Fish, nor Foule, nor Fie, nor Frog,

Nor Squirril on the Tree ;

262 Tlu Book of Cats.

The Fish the Hooke, the Foule
The lymed Twig doth catch,

The Fie the P'inger, atid the Frog
The Bustard doth dispatch.

" The Squirrill thinking nought,

That feately cracks the Nut ;
The greedie Goshawke wanting pray.

In dread of Death doth put ;
But scorning all these kindes,

I would become a Cat,
To combat with the creeping Mouse,

And scratch the screeking Rat.

*' I would be present, aye,

And at my Ladie's call.
To gard her from the fearfull mouse,

In Parlour and in Hall ;
In Kitchen, for his Lyfe,

He should not shew his hed ;
The Peare in Poke should lie untoucht

When shee were gone to Bed.

** The Mouse should stand in Feare,
So should the squeaking Rat ;
All this would I doe if I were
Converted to a Cat."

But I think George must have been very far gone
when he wrote that piece of poetry, for I should
think that, even with the advantage of nine Hves to
lose, a Cat's existence is rather too hazardous ;
and, by the way, that reminds me of some instances

The Book of Cats. 263

where Pussy's natural prey have turned upon her
in a most unpleasant manner ; thus : —

A Cat was observed on the top of a paled fence,
endeavouring to get at a blackbird's nest, which
was near it. The hen left the nest at her approach,
and flew to meet her in a state of alarm, and
uttered a wild cry. The cock bird, on perceiving
the danger, showed signs of distress by sometimes
settling on the fence just before the Cat, who was
unable to make a spring in consequence of the
narrowness of her footing. After a little while,
the cock bird flew at the Cat, settled on her back,
and pecked her head with so much violence that
she fell to the ground, followed by the blackbird,
who succeeded in driving her away. A second
time the same scene occurred ; the blackbird was
again victorious ; and the Cat became so intimi-
dated at the attacks made upon her, that she gave
over the attempts to get at the young ones. After
each battle, the blackbird celebrated his victory
with a song, and for several days afterwards he
would hunt the Cat about the garden whenever she
left the house. There is also an instance of a pair
of blackbirds following a boy into a house, and
pecking at his head, while he was conveying one of
their young into it.

264 The Book of Cats.

Here is another case : —

A lady who kept a tame Jack Hare, in giving
an account of it, says, that if a Cat approached
him he would sit upright, " square himself," as it
were, and rub his paws together like a pugilist
preparing for an encounter. With one stroke of
his soft but strong paws, the hare would tear a
strip of the hair, and often even the skin, from the
Cat's back ; at other times he w^ould make his
sharp-cutting teeth meet in her neck ; and so for-
midable at last was the " timid hare " to the little
" domestic tiger," that no sooner did Pussy spy her
conqueror than she would fly in terror from his
presence.

In these two anecdotes, as in many others,
Pussy is exhibited in a very unamiable light ; but I
hope that a few of the good traits I have been able
to relate in the foregoing pages may weigh the
balance in her favour with those inclined to judge
her fairly. As a cruel destroyer of smaller and
weaker animals she is most often painted, and so
identified is she with that character, that it is diffi-
cult to make those personally unacquainted with her
many good qualities to believe that any exist. In
this way an actor, famous for his villains, becomes
so very villainous, that even in a virtuous character

The Book of Cats. 265

we suspect him of hypocrisy, and expect that
presently he will throw off the mask and assume
his proper colours. By the way of allusion to a
Cat on the stage, I think I can quote one of the
most effective pieces that have been spoken.

Do any of my readers remember Robson acting
in the burlesque of Medea ? Upon the night of
its production Ristori went to the Olympic to see
his travestie of her great character. One of the
finest passages in the tragedy is that in which
Medea describes how like a tigress she will spring
upon her intended victim. In Robert Brough's
version the tigress is turned into a Cat, and
Robson, with one of his intensely passionate
bursts, used words, as well as I can recollect (I
have not got a book by me), something after this
fashion : —

" How will I, eh ? The way the Cat jumps
Upon a simple unsuspecting mouse
Loose in the pantry, — no one in the house, —
Nibbling away, with confidence unshaken,
Eating his cheese up first to save his bacon.
She's in no hurry. With dilating eyes,
And undulating tail, she crouching lies,
Till his enjoyments crises he is at,
Then pounce ! she makes a spring, and has him — pat.
To a short game of pitch and toss she treats him —
Tears him to pieces slowly— scrun'CH — then eats him."

266 The Book of Cats.

While upon the subject of the theatre, I might
add that it is a rule behind the scenes — a rule,
however, very seldom enforced, if I am properly
informed — that a Cat which crosses the scene when
the curtain is raised shall be put to death. Such
an unappropriate appearance has, before now,
spoilt the finest tragedy. I think there is a story
by Colonel Addison bearing upon an incident of
this kind.

The Old Catch :—

*' When a good housewife sees a rat
In a trap in the morning taken,
With pleasure her heart goes pitte-pitte-pat,
For revenge of loss of bacon ;
Then she throws it to the Dog or Cat,
To be worried, eat, or shaken,"

tolerably well indicates the popular notion of a
Cat's duties, and the idea of keeping one for a
pet, as birds are kept, would be thought by many
a monstrous absurdity. By the way, it is said
that the best way to get rid of English rats is not
to get a Dog or Cat to kill them, but to purchase
two or three Australian rats, and let them loose
among them. They are to be purghased in
London, and realise a high price from those who
have faith in their frightening propensities, which I
confess I have not.

TJie Book of Cats. 267

With respect to Pussy's mouse-catching quahties,
etc., a writer in a periodical says : —

" Most persons have heard of the beautiful con-
trivance by which the claws of these animals are
preserved constantly sharp ; being drawn, when
not used, by certain tendons, within a sheath or
integument, while only the soft parts of the foot
come in contact with the ground, thus enabling the
animal to tread noiselessly. The roughness of the
Cat's tongue is due to a multitude of horny papillae
(much stronger, of course, in lions and tigers), by
which it is materially helped to keep itself clean, —
a most important point, for cleanliness is a necessity
to Cats, inasmuch, as if they had the slightest
smell about them, their prey would detect their
presence, and never come within their reach. As
it is, the Cat is so free from smell that she may
sit close to the holes of mice without their being
aware of it, although they possess a fine sense of
smell. A Cat never eats a morsel of anything,
whatever it is, without afterwards sitting down to
clean and wipe its face and lips. The caution for
which it is so remarkable is likewise evinced in
its choice of secluded spots for bringing up its
offspring ; very often some hole or corner little
thought of by the inmates of the house. If the

268 The Book of Cats.

young be removed and placed elsewhere, the mother
will frequently take them again and again to the
place chosen by herself. Another characteristic of
the domestic Cat is an instinctive knowledge of the
presence of danger. Even a chimney on fire, or
the presence of strange workmen in the house, will
make it very restless and uneasy, and on such
occasions it will sometimes not go to rest even
during the night. Every animal is endowed with
peculiar means of self-defence ; and as the Cat
cannot trust, like the hare, to speed, on the
approach of danger, it watches its enemy, occa-
sionally taking side glances, or looking round for a
place of refuge. On these occasions, notwith-
standing its natural nervousness, it maintains great
coolness. If a hole or shelter be near, it waits for
an opportunity, or until its enemy looks away, and
then rushes under cover, or runs up a tree or a
wall, and immediately sits down and watches its
enemy. If driven to an actual encounter, the
smallness of its mouth and jaws preclude the use
of its teeth to any great extent, but it can inflict
considerable injury and acute pain with its sharp
claws, which, perhaps, no dog, except a bulldog,
can bear ; indeed, few dogs like to attack a Cat
at bay, though they all run after them. It is

The Book of Cats. 269

curious, too, that once in a place of safety, it never
seeks to leave it, or loses sight of its enemy. A
Cat on the safe side of an area railing will sit
down and coolly watch a dog barking furiously
at it.

" Its care and solicitude for its offspring are
excessive and touching. If attacked while rearing
them, it will not run away, but stand and defend
them against any odds ; like the hare in similar
circumstances, the Cat evinces immense power and
courage, no matter how formidable the enemy may
be. Of course the females of all animals possess
more or less of this quality."

Cats have a much better time of it in France
than here. A year or two since, the budget of
the Imperial Printing Office in France, amongst
other items, contained one for Cats, which caused
some merriment in the Legislative Chamber
during its discussion. According to the Pays,
these Cats are kept for the purpose of destroying
the numerous rats and mice which infest the
premises, and cause considerable damage to the
large stock of paper which is always kept there.
This feline staff is fed twice a day, and a man is
employed to look after them, so that for Cats'-
meat and the keeper's salary no little expense is

2/0 The Book of Cats.

annually incurred, sufficient, in fact, to form a
special item in the national expenditure. Of
these animals a somewhat interesting anecdote is
related. It appears that near to the Imperial
Printing Office is situated the office of the Director
of the Archives, and the gardens of the two estab-
lishments are adjacent. In that belonging to the
latter gentleman, were kept a number of choice
aquatic birds, for whose convenience a small artifi-
cial river had been constructed. Their owner
suddenly discovered, one day, that his favourites
were diminishing in a mysterious manner, and set
a watch to ascertain the reason. Soon it was dis-
covered who were the marauders — the Cats ! The
enraged director, acting in the spirit of the law,
thought he had a perfect right to shoot and other-
wise destroy these feline burglars, whenever he
found them on his grounds, and accordingly did so.
Traps were set, and soon half-a-dozen Cats paid
the penalty of their crimes. The keeper of the
Cats, also, by this time, found that the muster at
meal-times was much scantier than usual, and
reported to his superior, the director of the
printing office. At first the workmen were sus-
pected of killing them ; but the appearance, one
day, of a Cat with a broken snare round its neck.

TJie Book of Cats. 27 1

put the keeper on a fresh scent, and ultimately led
to the discovery of the truth. The director there-
upon complained to his brother official, who only
replied by pointing to the thinly-tenanted pond,
and saying that he would not have his birds de-
stroyed if he could help it. The result was that a
fierce hostility reigned between the two establish-
ments, until an arrangement was made by their
respective heads. By this treaty it was stipulated
that the Director of the Imperial Printing Office
should, on his part, cause every outlet by which
the Cats gained access to the gardens of the
Director of the Archives to be carefully closed, and
every means taken to prevent such a contingency ;
while, on the other hand, Monsieur, the Director of
the Archives, agreed never to molest any Cat
belonging to the Imperial Printing Office, who
should, by some unforeseen accident, obtain ad-
mittance into his garden. And thus, by this
famous treaty, the horrors of civil war were
averted !

Perhaps as curious an instance as any on record,
where Puss's powers as a watchman have been
called into requisition, may be found in a fact just
communicated to me. There is, it appears, a
family now residing near Richmond, who have a

2/2

The Book of Cats.

black Cat nicknamed Snow Ball, which, during
sowing time, every morning, punctually and duti-
fully presents himself to his owners, for the pur-
pose of being fastened up by a cord, near the spot
where the peas or other seed may have been
newly sown ; and whilst thus keeping guard, woe
betide any bird that might attempt to commit a
depredation within Puss's reach.

CHAPTER XIII.

(SM^^TH^K

ENTION has already been made of a
Cat concert in Paris, but we should not
forget that we once had an English actor
of the name of Harris, who took part in
the entertainments given by Foote at '* the little
Theatre," who was called Cat Harris, in conse-
quence of the talent he displayed in imitating the
mewing of the feline race. He burlesqued scenes
from Italian operas, and probably at that time the
squalling of a Cat was thought to be a very severe
satire on the foreign singers. Only a year or two
ago, however, I remember a music hall singer,
since dead, who sang a song called the Monkey and

2/6 The Book of Cats.

the Nuts, — he being dressed something Hke a mon-
key;— with a pecuharly comic mewing and jabbering
chorus. The since popular Perfect Cure is the air
of this song, sHghtly altered, in the same way that
the TVhole Hog or none is altered from Love's young
Dream.

The imitations of the ginger I allude to (I think
his name was McGown) were very good, and there
was no occasion for him to tell you which was
meant for the monkey and which the Cat, by no
means superfluous information sometimes, when a
young gentleman gives his notion of the voices of
popular actors. By the way, do any of my
readers remember the great Von Joel's celebrated
" plack purd " and " trush," and how hard it was,
occasionally, to tell which was '* te trush " or which
was " te plack purd " t

In talking of a Cat's fondness for fish (see page
73), I might also have mentioned the great liking
these animals seem to have for the ends of aspara-
gus, which I have often observed them devour with
great eagerness.

Talking of fish-catching, an officer on board an
Australian packet tells me that he has seen a Cat
watch for hours on a windy night for flying fish,
which jump on board if they see a light. From

The Book of Cats. 277

the same source I have learnt some curious facts
relating to Puss at sea. "There are," he says,
" generally two kinds of rats on board a ship, one
kind going out, another coming home. While we
were in the East India Docks, the rat-catcher
caught twenty-five rats in his traps on board our
ship, which we purchased and let loose in a malt
bin extending the width of the ship. A Cat which
we put among them killed all the brown rats, but
did not touch the black ones, of which there were
three. When she came in contact with a. black
rat she drew back, and made no attempt to harm
it, although the black rats were much the smallest.
Our ship, coming home from Sydney, was swarming
with black rats, but I never knew a Cat to kill one,
or even go near it. The reason of this I cannot
explain.

"I have seen a Cat imitate a monkey in climbing
up a loose-hanging rope. Of course it took a
longer time to do it, but it did do it in the end."

Aboard ship it would seem sometimes as though
Pussy required to have all her nine lives at
her disposal, and yet runs some risk of being
killed even then. Upon the vessel in which this
gentleman served there was a black Cat that had
lost its tail in rather a singular manner.

278 The Book of Cats.

" A squall came on one night, and I gave the
order to let go the main-top-gallant halyard. The
Cat was in the coil of rope, and in whizzing through
the leading block the rope cut off its tail. She
remembered the place which she had found so
dangerous, and could never afterwards be induced
to venture abaft the foremast.

" In Sydney we had hauled out from Campbell's
Wharf to the stream, previous to sailing next day
for England, and found, when the men had gone to
bed, that the tailless black Cat was missing. It
could not be below, as the hatches were battened
down. About 3 A.M. next morning, the two men
who kept anchor watch heard a piteous cry at the
bows, and looking over saw a black object clinging
to the chain cable, trying to get in at the hawse-
pipe. One of them lowered himself down by a
bowline, and handed up poor Pussy in an awful
plight. She had swum off to the ship, — about three
hundred yards. It took three or four days of
nursing before she recovered, but she got round at
last, and remained in the ship for more than five
years afterwards.

'' Sailors have the greatest objection to a Cat
being thrown overboard. The captain one day
found a Cat sitting on his chronometer in his

The Book of Cats. 279

cabin, and In a passion flung the Cat into the sea,
although this cruel act was protested against by the
man at the wheel and other men at work on the
poop, who said that we should have an unlucky
passage of it. This proved to be the case. We
lost three men and a boy, besides our jibboom and
fore-top-gallant mast, and we also ran short of
water. All this the sailors — (they were North
country men) — ascribed to the Cat's murder.

" As a rule, sailors treat Cats well, as they are
sources of great amusement on board. One of the
boys once took a Cat to the fore royal mast-head,
and left it there. In about half-an-hour it was on
deck again. It came down backwards, crying
pitifully all the time. It never allowed the boy to
touch it afterwards."

The same gentleman tells me that in Coburg,
Canada West, he knew a widow lady who had a
Cat two feet in height, and beautifully marked.
It was supposed to be a cross-breed between a wild
and a domestic Cat, His youngest brother has
often ridden on it when eight years old. It was
very docile. It had been fed highly when young,
and never showed the least desire to hunt mice or
birds, or to leave the house.

With regard to the origin of the name " Cat-o'-

28o Tlie Book of Cats.

nine tails,'* referred to in a former chapter, a writer
in Notes and ^eries says : —

" As there appears to be some uncertainty about
the number of cords or tails attached to this whip,
it may be a question whether, like its namesake,
the animal, it did not originally commence by
having only one tail, and in course of time or
fashion increase to nine, the number of lives pro-
verbially allotted to our domestic friend Pussy.

" According to the Talmudists {Maccoth iii. lo),
the Jews, in carrying out their sentences of
scourges, employed for that purpose a whip which
had three lashes (Jahn's Arch. Biblica, page 247),
and it is stated in the Merlinus Liberatus^ or John
Partridge's Almanack for l6g2, that in "May, 1685,
Dr. Oates was whipt," and "had 2,256 lashes with
a whip of six thongs knotted, which amounts to
I3>536 stripes." Sir John Vanbrugh, moreover, in
the prologue to his play of the False Friend (written
A.D. 1702), alludes to this scourge in these words: —

" You dread reformers of an injurious age,
You awful cat-o'-nine tails of the stage."

"In James'' s Military Dictionary, the cat, etc., is
described as " a whip with nine knotted cords,
with which the public soldiers and sailors are

The Book of Cats, 281

punished. Sometimes it has only five cords."
The following passage occurs in Mr. Sala's Waterloo
to the Peninsula : — " A Dutch king, they say, intro-
duced the cat-o'-nine tails in the British army : ere
the Nassauer's coming the scourge had three
thongs."

There is a little story of feline affection for
which I should have found a place in an earlier
chapter. A lady had a Cat which she called " the
Methodist Parson." It used for years regularly to
go away every Sunday morning, and return to its
home on the next (the Monday) morning. It was
never known to miss for a series of years, going
away on the Sunday morning, except upon one
occasion, when it stopped at home on the Sunday,
and went away on the Monday morning. After
this it never returned. In the same lady's house
upon a certain occasion, for some reason or other,
the water was turned off. It was in the evening,
and she had the tap of the water-butt turned on,
with a tub under it, thinking they would get water
when they wanted it. The family went to bed,
forgetting that the water-tap was left turned on.
In the course of the night the Cat came to the
lady's bedroom door, making a great noise, mewing.
Her husband got up several times, and drove it

282 The Book of Cats.

away, but it returned again, and would go to the
corner of the stairs, and then turn round, as if to
see ^whether he was following it. At last he
followed it down-stairs, and found the whole of the
lower premises inundated, the water having been
turned on from the main.

Here, too, is a facetious stor}^, which should not
be omitted : —

One night, some hours after a certain family had
retired to rest, there arose a most extraordinary
and unaccountable noise in the lower part of the
house. Had thieves broken in .^ If so they must
have been very noisy thieves, and quite careless as
to the noise they made. You can imagine Pater-
familias sitting up in bed, and listening with sus-
pended breath ; Materfamilias suggesting that he
had better get up, and see what was the matter ;
Paterfamilias of the contrary opinion, and inclined
to w^ait a-while, and see what happened next.
Then a group of white figures, with whiter faces, at
the head of the stairs, and the mysterious noise
below growing louder and louder.

But the explanation of all this was simple
enough, when some venturesome spirit summoned
up courage to creep down-stairs and enquire into
the cause. The servant, when she had gone to

The Book of Cats. 283

bed, had left a strong brown jug on the dresser,
with a drain of milk in the bottom of it After
everyone had retired, Puss commenced prowHng
about, and, attracted by the milk in the bottom of
the jug, put her head into it. Now, though the
top of the jug was wide enough for the Cat to put
her head through, it was not so wide but what it
required a slight pressure for her to get her head
into it. When the milk was lapped, however, she
could not get her head out again, for it required
some one to hold the jug, to enable her to do so.
In the meantime, all being in bed and asleep, the
Cat in her terror jumped about, knocking its head,
with the jug on it, against the tables and chairs,
and upon the kitchen floor. Hence the alarming
and unaccountable disturbance.

I clip this from an American paper : —
" During the progress of the war I was sitting
one day in the office of Able and Co.'s wharf-boat
at Cairo, Illinois. At that time a tax was collected
on all goods shipped south by private parties, and
it was necessary thal!»duplicate invoices of ship-
ments should be furnished to the collector before
the permits could be issued. The ignorance of
this fact by many shippers frequently caused them
much annoyance, and invoices were ofttimes made

284 TJu Book of Cats.

out with great haste, in order to ensure shipment
by boats on the eve of departure. A sutler, with
a lot of stores, had made out a hasty list of his
stock, and gave it to one of the youngest clerks on
the boat to copy out in due form. The boy
worked away down the list, but suddenly he
stopped, and electrified the whole office by ex-
claiming, in a voice of undisguised amazement, —
' What the dickens is that fellow going to do with
four boxes of Tom Cats.?' An incredulous laugh
from the other clerks was the reply, but the boy
pointed triumphantly to the list, exclaiming,
' That's what it is — T-o-m C-a-t-s — Tom Cats, if I
know how to read !' The entrance of the sutler at
that moment explained the mystery.

"'Why, confound it!' said he, 'that means four
boxes Tomato Catsup ! Don't you understand
abbreviations }' "

Here is a bit of my own experience : —
I once had in my possession a very life-like
engraving of a remarkably ugly bulldog, which
hung in a frame over a piano in the drawing-room.
With some surprise I noticed, upon several occa-
sions, that a favourite cat would climb upon the
top of the piano, and sitting close underneath the
picture, fix its eyes upon the dog's face, and

The Book of Cats. 285

putting back its ears, remain thus, with a wild and
terrified expression, for as long as an hour at a
time. This was remarked by other persons in the
house, and we could not in any way satisfactorily
account for Puss's behaviour. Two dogs formed
part of the household, and with these she was on
friendly terms, and they being of a very meek and
harmless nature, she treated them with contempt,
as a general rule, boxing their ears now and then,
when their presence annoyed her. We came to the
conclusion, however, that she must have taken the
picture for another dog of a different and higher
order, more terrible in its motionless silence than if
it had growled or barked ever so fiercely. Its eyes
were drawn in that particular angle which made
tliem seem to be fixed upon you in whatever part
of the room you might be in. Many of us recollect
in our childhood some gaunt-featured oil-painting,
with hungry eyes, which thus pursued us. I
remember one in a scrap-book, which it wanted
some courage to face all by onesself, when twilight
was gathering. With much of the same shrinking
dread Puss seemed, whilst hating, to be unable to
break the spell this picture had over her, to the
contemplation of which she returned again and
again, though frequently sent away. During the

286 The Book of Cats.

time that we noticed this conduct on the Cat's
part, she was with Kitten, and when the four
Kittens were born they were dead, and one of
them, strange to say, had a bulldog-shaped head,
marked almost exactly like the picture.

I need not tell a kind master or mistress to use
every precaution when drowning a Cat's kittens, to
keep their mother in ignorance of the fact. It can
easily be imagined that the poor creature will be in
great distress if the slaughter be committed before
her eyes ; and I know of a case where the Cat
having found her young ones which had been
drowned and thrown carelessly in the corner of a
yard, brought the bodies back to her nest, and mew-
ing and licking them, seemed to use every endeavour
to restore them to life. A friend of mine, too, once
passing along the bank of a river one moonlight
night found a Cat mewing piteously among the long
grass at the water's edge. He came to a stand-still a
dozen yards from the spot, and looked on curiously.
At sight of him, the Cat turned round, and came
running to his feet, looking-up appealingly into his
face, and running back to the water side and then
back again to him, seemingly to be entreating his
assistance. Presently the moonlight showed him
three or four kittens being borne away by the

TO THE RESCl'E.

Fagc 286.

The Book of Cats. 287

stream, and crying in small weak voices for their
mother's help. He did everything in his power to
reach them, but they were too far away from the
bank, and very soon they came to a place where the
current was stronger, and swept them out of sight.
The mother's cries were then most heart-rending,
and he was unable to induce her to come away.
Indeed, having taken her in his arms, and carried
her some distance, she struggled and fought violently
to regain her liberty, and ran back again to the
water's edge. This took place at some distance
from any habitation, but he concluded that some-
body must have thrown the kittens into the water,
and that the Cat had followed them, and seen the
deed done.

There are some children who will not cry, how-
ever much they are beaten ; it is as difficult to make
a Cat cry out when you chastise it. It will shrink ;
sometimes growl ; but rarely cry : yet when beaten
by another Cat, it will howl loudly. A dog on the
contrary, very often cries at the bare sight of the
whip, and screams at the lightest blow.

Some people say all Cats are thieves. I will not
deny that a good many are: indeed, so are dogs.
Neither will steal much if they are well fed, as they
only take food when they are hungry. Here, how-

288 The Book of Cats.

ever, Is a plan by which, I think, you can generally
ascertain whether or not a Cat is of a thievish
disposition. Give the Cat a piece of meat an inch
square, and if he is a dishonest rascal, he will
not lay it down on the floor to pick it up again
as is the usual way with his species, but keep tight
hold of it with his teeth, and jerk it down his
tliroat, sometimes using his paws to prevent its
falling.

There is one ridiculous accusation brought
against poor Pussy, which I have not yet referred
to, namely, that she is in the habit, when the
opportunity offers, of suffocating young babies by
sucking their breath. Now, since the world began,
I beg emphatically to state, no baby was ever so
suffocated, and I say this in the face of numerous
newspaper paragraphs, and a thousand old women's
stories : —

For instance, the ^'Annual Register^' January 25,
1 79 1, says: —

A child of eighteen months old, was found dead
near Plymouth ; and It appeared, on the coroner's
inquest, " that the child died In consequence of
a Cat sucking Its breath, thereby occasioning a
strangulation."

My friend Mr. Burrows, surgeon, of Westbourne

The Book of Cats. 289

Park Place, who is a great lover of animals, gives
me this note: —

" It is quite impossible for a Cat to suck a child's
breath, as the anatomical formation of the Cat's
mouth would prevent it. No doubt in some remote
country places, among the ignorant, a popular
superstition to that effect may exist, but when a
child has been found dead from suffocation, in
many cases the Cat may have lain on the infant's
mouth, in the cot or cradle near the fire, for the
sake of warmth — not with the slightest criminal
intent of course, but purely for the sake of obtain-
ing the latent caloric from the warm body and
clothing of the infant, who would probably not
possess sufficient muscular power to disencumber
itself, or even to make any resistance."

But it is not only in remote country places that
the superstition prevails, but here in London,
among most of the upper middle classes. And
after all, are not more ridiculous notions to be met
with every day? Only a few months ago, a lady
was seriously informed by a poor woman in a
village near Bath, that a mother should never cut
her child's nails before it is a year old. She should
always bite them, otherwise the children would
grow up thieves.

U

290 The Book of Cats.

In Ireland, the following cure for warts Is
practised by even the most intelligent classes : —
" Take a small stone, less than a boy's marble for
each wart, and tie them in a clean linen bag, and
throw it out on the highway. Then find out a
stone in some field or ditch with a hollow in which
rain or dew may have lodged (such stones are easily
found in rural districts), and wash the warts seven
times therein, and after this operation, whoever
picks up the bag of stones will have a transfer of
the warts."

Here again is a little bit of Devonshire Folk-lore
which has its believers : — " When you see the new
moon in the new year, take your stocking off from
one foot, and run to the next stile ; when you get
there, between the great toe and the next, you
will find a hair which will be the colour of your
lover's." This must be rare sport while there is
snow on the ground.

There is also a vulgar superstition to the effect
that a Cat left in the room with a dead body will
fly at and disfigure the face of the corpse. Some
of my readers may remember the old man's death
in '' Bleak House," and how the Cat was carefully
shut out of the room where the body lay. From
what I recollect, Cats are not great favourites of

The Book of Cats. 291

Mr. Dickens', though "Dickens' Dogs," a small
collection from his canine heroes, published some
years ago, showed him to be a great lover and
close observer of that animal.
Pope says : —

*' But thousands die without or this or that —
Die and endow a college or a Cat."

The latter case, however, is rather rare I should
think. When Pussy's good master and mistress
die, the wide world is often enough left for it to
roam in at its will, seeking its living as it can —
a wide world full of cruel kicks and cuffs. Justin's
Cat was lucky to die of old age in a good home,
and have such a fine epitaph written over his
remains : — ^

Worn out with age and dire disease, a Cat,

Friendly to all save wicked mouse and rat,

I'm sent at last to ford the Stygian lake,

And to the infernal coast a voyage make.

Me Proserpine received, and smiling said,

"Be bless'd within these mansions of the dead;

Enjoy among thy velvet-footed loves,

Elysium's sunny banks and shady groves,"

" But if I've well deserved (O gracious Queen) —

If patient under suffering I have been,

Grant me at least one night to visit home again,

292 The Book of Cats.

Once more to see my home and mistress dear,
And purr these grateful accents in her ear.
' Thy faithful Cat, thy poor departed slave,
Still loves her mistress e'en beyond the grave.' "

Stray Cats, I am afraid, have a bad time of it
before they find a new home. Cats were recently
said to be in great demand at Lucerne, in Switzer-
land, and to be selling at a high price, in conse-
quence of a malady which had greatly thinned
their numbers. According to the account in the
newspaper, the head of the animal swelled rapidly;
the Cat refused all nourishment, and very soon
dropped down dead.

It is true, that in some quarters of the globe, the
feline race is still held of some value. Vide Lady
Duff Gordon's Article in MacmillarC s Magazine,
which gives us a glimpse of a strange superstition
in Thebes. She says : —

" Do you remember the German story of the lad
who travelled * um das gruseln zu lernen ' (to learn
how to tremble) } Well, I who never * gruselte '
(quaked) before, had a touch of it a few mornings
ago. I was sitting here quietly drinking tea, and
four or five men were present, when a Cat came to
the door. I called ' bis ! bis ! ' and offered milk ;
but puss, after looking at us, ran away.

The Book of Cats. 293

" ' Well, dost thou, Lady,' said a quiet sensible
man, a merchant here, ' to be kind to the Cat, for I
daresay he gets little enough at home ; his father,
poor man, cannot cook for his children every day ; '
and then in an explanatory tone to the company :
* That's Alee Nasseeree's boy, Yussuf ; it must be
Yussuf, because his fellow-twin, Ismaeen, is with
his uncle at Negadeh.'

" ' Mir gruselte ' (I shuddered), I confess ; not
but what I have heard things almost as absurd
from gentlemen and ladies in Europe, but an * ex-
travagance ' in a kuftan has quite a different effect
from one in a tail-coat.

" 'What! My butcher-boy who brings the meat —
a Cat ? ' I gasped.

" ' To be sure, and he knows well where to look
for a bit of good cookery, you see. All twins go
out as Cats at night, if they go to sleep hungry ;
and their own bodies lie at home like dead, mean-
while, but no one must touch them or they would
die. When they grow up to ten or twelve they
leave it off. Why, your own boy, Achmet, does it.
Ho, Achmet ! '

"Achmet appears.

" ' Boy, don't you go out as a Cat at night } '

" ' No,' said Achmet tranquilly, * I am not a twin.
My sister's sons do.'

294 The Book of Cats.

" I enquired if people were not afraid of such
Cats.

" * No, there is no fear ; they only eat a little of
the cookery ; but if you beat them, they tell their
parents next day. * So and so beat me in his
house last night,' and show their bruises. No,
they are not afreets ; they are beni-Adam. Only
twins do it, and if you give them a sort of onion
broth and some milk, the first thing when they are
born, they do not do it at all.'

" Omar professed never to have heard it, but I
am sure he had, only he dreads being laughed at.
One of the American missionaries told me some-
thing like it, as belonging to the Copts ; but it is
entirely Egyptian, and common to both religions.
I asked several Copts, who assured me it was true,
and told it just the same. Is it a remnant of the
doctrine of transmigration .^ However, the notion
fully accounts for the horror the people feel at the
idea of killing a Cat."

Ah, heaven help those whom we love and cherish
when we are dead and gone ! The soft, delicate
hands that never were made to work — the gentle
hearts untried — the pretty, thoughtless heads,
pillowed so softly, slumbering so placidly, all
unconscious that there is a rough, unsympathising
crowd surging round the castle gates, whose hoarse

The Book of Cats. 295

murmur has never yet reached our darlings' ears.
And our dumb pets, where shall they find a home,
and kind hands to wait upon them ? It is a
thousand times better when we die that they
should die too ; and you, whose roof has sheltered
a Cat, should you change your home, and be
unable to take the creature with you, would act a
more humane part by having it killed at once than
leave it to the questionable mercy of the new
comer. The too often carelessly uttered words of
" Oh, the Cat will get on well enough," have sealed
the poor dependant's fate, and it has been left to
shift for itself, with what fate its late owners have
but rarely troubled themselves to enquire. What
fate would many of us meet w^ith were not a
helping hand stretched forth in time of need } To
how many of our poor brothers and sisters is the
help never tendered !

There is a hospital for dogs, which is, I am told,
in a flourishing condition ; and a lady of the name
of Deen established a sort of asylum for lost Cats
at Rottingdean, in consequence of the large
number which she saw lying dead upon the beach,
and, indeed, offered premiums to anyone who
would bring animals of the feline species to her
city of refuge. But such kind friends are scarce.

296 The Book of Cats.

and Pussy, going upon her travels, will find many

dangers upon the road, and but i^w doors opened

to receive her. Therefore, in conclusion, I would

advise all Cats to stay at home when they have a

good home to stay at. One word, too, I would

fain say to those who do not like Cats, because

they do not know them. Having long observed

these animals carefully, and, I sincerely believe,

without prejudice, I am sure that w^ien kindly

treated they will be found gentle and attached,

and little, if at all, inferior in intelligence to their

much-vaunted rival, the dog. One last word to

those who have followed me thus far. I hope I

have not been very prosy, and I hope, in the

somewhat large collection of Cat anecdotes here

brought together, " the only one worth the trouble

of relating " has not been omitted. If this has

been the case, allow me to assure you it has not

been because I have spared any trouble in

gathering together my materials.

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Or, a Boy's Struggles in the Great "World. By A. Elwes.

Ealph Seabrooke;

Or, The Adventures of a Young Artist in Piedmont and Tuscany.
By A. Elwes.

Frank and Andrea ;

Or Forest Life in the Island of Sardinia. By A. Elwes.

Paul Blake ;

Or, the Story of a Boy's Perils in the Islands of Corsica and Monte
Christo. By A. Elwes.

Ocean and her Rulers ;

A NarratiA^ of the Nations who have held dominion over the Sea;
and comprising a brief History of Navigation. By Alfred Elwes.

Lost in Ceylon ;

The Story of a Boy and Girl's Adventures in the Woods and "Wilds
of the Lion King of Kandy. By "William Dalton.

The White Elephant ;

Or the Hunters of Ava. By "William Dalton.

The War Tiger;

Or, The Adventures and "Wonderful Fortunes of the Young Sea-Chief
and his Lad Chow. By "W. Daltox.

" A tale of lively adventure vigorously told, and embodying much curious information."
Ilustruted Sews.

Neptune's Heroes : or The Sea Kings of England;

from Hawkins to Franklin. By "W.H.Davenport Adams.

"We trust Old England may ever have writers as ready and able to interpret to her
children the noble lives of her greatest men." — Athenceum.

Historical Tales of Lancastrian Times.

By the Eev. H. P. Dcnster, M.A.
" Conveys a good deal of information about the manners and customs of England and
France in the 15th Centuv j."—Ge)itlemen''s Magazine.

The Fairy Tales of Science.

By J. C. Brough, "With 16 Illustrations by C. H. Bennett. New
Edition, Eevised throughout.
" Science, perhaps, was never made more attractive and easy of entrance into the
youthful mmd."— The Builder.

"Altogether the volume is one of the most original, as M-ell as one of the most useful,
books of the season."— Gentleman's Magaziiie.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AND FARRAN. 1^

WORKS BY THOMAS HOOD'S DAUGHTER.

AVild Roses ;

Or, Simple Stories of Country Life. By rRANCisFREELiNcBRODEKiP.
Illustrated by Axelat. Post 8vo, 3s. 6d. cloth 4s. gilt edi^es.
" Written with the grace and tiiithfulness which the daughter of Tom Hood knows so
well how to im[)a.rt."— Art Journal.

Mamma's Morning Gossips ;

Or Little Bits for Little Birds. Containing Easy Lessons in Words
of One Syllable, alid Stories to read. With Fifty Illustrations by
Tom Hood. Foolscap Quarto, .Ss.. cloth, 4s. Qd. coloured, gilt edges.

Merry Songs for Little Voices;

The words by Mrs. Broderip; set to music by Thojias Murbt,
with 40 illustrations by Tom Hood. Fcap. 4to., price 5s. cloth.

Crosspatch, the Cricket, and the Counterpane ;

A Patchwork of Story and Song. Illustrated by Tom Hood.
Super royal 16mo. price 3s. Gd. cl., 4s. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.
" Hans Andersen has a formidable rival in this gentle Udy"—Art Journal.

My Grandmother's Budget

of Stories and Verses. Illustrated by Tom Hood. Price 3s. 6(/. cloth ;
4s. 6f/. coloured, gilt edges.
" Some of the most cliarming little inventions that ever adorned the department or
YitcvwiMSC."— Illustrated Times.

Tiny Tadpole;

And other Tales. With Illustrations by Tom Hood. Price 3s. 6d.
cloth; 4s. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.
" A remarkable book, by the brother and sister of a family in which genius and fun are
inherited."— Saturday Review.

Funny Fables for Little Folks.

Illustrated by Tom Hood. Price 2s. 6c?. cl.; 3s. 6d. col, gilt edges.

BY CAPTAIN MARRYAT'S DAUGHTER.

With Illustrations by various Artists. Super-royal 16mo, price 2s. 6d.

each cloth elegant, 3s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

The Children's Pic iS^ic,

And what Came of it.

What became of Tommy ;

By Emilia Marryat Norris.

A Week by Themselves ;

By Emilia ]Marrtat Norris.
" Our younger readers will be charmed with a story of some youthful Crusoes, written
by the daughter of Captain Marryat."— 6'«ay(/(U?i.

at School;

By Emilia Marryat.

Long Evenings;

OV, stories for My Little Friends. Second Edition.

Harry

16 NEW AND INTERESTING WORKS

LANDELL'S INSTRUCTIVE AND AMUSING WORKS.

The Boy's own Toy Maker.

A Practical Illustrated Guide to the useful employment of Leisure
Hours. By E. Landklls. With Two Hundred Cuts. Seventh Edi-
tion. Royal 16mo, price 2s. 6<f., cloth.

" A new and valuable form of endless amusement." — Xoriconformist.

" We recommend it to all who have children to be instructed and amused." — Economist.

The Girl's Owii Toy Maker,

And Book of Recreation. By E. and A. Landells. Fourth Edition.
With 200 Illustrations. Royal 16mo. price 25. ed. cloth.
" A perfect magazine of information." — Illustrated Xeics of Vie World.

Home Pastmie

7

Or, The Child's Owo. Toy Maker. With practical instructions. By
E. Laxdells. New and Cheaper Edition, price 3s. 6d complete, with
the Cards, and Descriptive Letterpress.

*^* By this novel and ingenious "Pastime," Twelve beautiful Models can
be made by Children from the Cards.

"As a delightful exercise of ingenuity, and a most sensible mode of passing a winter's
evening, we commend the Child's own Toy Maker." — llhistrated News.
" Should be in every house blessed with the presence of children."— TAe Field.

The Illustrated Paper Model Maker;

Containing Twelve Pictorial Subjects, with Descriptive Letter-press
and Diagrams for the construction of the Models. By E. Landells.
Price 2s. in a neat Envelope.
" A most excellent mode of educating both eye and hand in the knowledge of form."—
Eriglish Churchman.

THE LATE THOMAS HOOD.

Fahy Land;

Or, Recreation for the Rising Generation, in Prose and Verse. By
Thomas and Jake Hood. Illustrated by T. Hood, Jun. Second
Edition. Super-royal 16mo; price 35. 6(/. cloth; 4*. 6cf. coloured
gilt edges.

" These tales are charming. Before it goes into the Nursery, we recommend all grown
up people should study ' Fairyland.' "—Blackwood.

The Headlong Career and Woful Ending of Preco-
cious PIGGY. Written for his Children, by the late Thomas Hood.
With a Preface by his Daughter; and Illustrated by his Son. Fourth
Edition. Post 4to, fancy boards, price 2s. 6d., coloured.
" The Illustrations are intensely himiourous."— TAe Critic.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH ANO FARRANJ 17

BY THE AUTHOR OF "TRIUMPHS OF STEAM," ETC.

^Meadow Lea ;

Or, the Gipsv Children; a Story founded on fact. "With Illustra-
tions by John Gilbert. Fcap. 8vo. price 4^. 6(/. cloth; 5s. gilt edges.

Tie Triumphs of Steam;

Or, Stories from the Lives of Watt, Arkwright, and Stephenson. With
Illustrations by J. Gilbert. Dedicated by permission to Eobert
Stephenson, Esq., M.P. Second edition. Royal l6mo, price 3s. Sd.
cloth ; 4s. 6<^/., coloured, gilt edges.
" A most delicious volume of examples.''—^/^ Journal.

Our Eastern Empire;

Or, Stories from the History of Britisli India. Second Edition, with
Continuation to the Proclamation of Queen Victoria. With Four
Illustrations. Eoyal 16rao. cloth 35. 6d.; 4s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.
" Tlese stories are charming, and convej' a general vie^v of the progress of our Empire in
the Eust. The tales are told with admirable c\edTQesi."—Athen<eum.

Miglit not Right;

Or, Stories of the Discovery and Conquest of America. Elustrated
by J. Gilbert. Royal 16mo. 35. 6f/. cloth; 45. dd. coloured, gilt edges.
"With the fortunes of Columbus, Cortes, and Pizarro, for the staple of these stories, the
writer iias succeeded in producing a very interesting volume." — Illustrated News.

Tuppy;

Or the Autobiography of a Donkey. Illustrated by Weib. Price
25. 6d. cloth; 35. 6f?, coloured, gilt edges.
" A very intelligent donkey, worthy of the distinction conferred upon him by the artist."
— Art Journal.

Rhymes and Pictures.

By William Newman. 12 Illustration?. Price 6c?. plain, Is.
coloured. 25. Gd. on linen, and bound iu cloth.

1. The Historv of a Quartern Loaf.

2. The History of a Cup of Tea.

3. The History of a Scuttle of Coals.

4. The History of a Lump of Sugar.

5. The History of a Bale of Cotton.

6. The History of a Golden Sovereign.

%* Nos. 1 to 3 and 4 to G, may be had bound in Two Volumes. Cloth
price 2s. each, plain; 35. Gd. coloured.

Hand Shadows,

To be thrown upon the Wall. By Henry Bctrsill. 1st & 2nd Series
each containing Eighteen Original Designs. 4to.25. each plain ; 2s.6d. coL
" Uncommonly clever— some wonderful effects are produced." — The Press.

Old Nurse's Book of Rhymes, Jingles, and Ditties.

Illustrated by C. H. Bennett. With Ninety Engravings. New
Edition. Fcap, 4to., price 35. Gd. cloth, plain, or 6*. coloured.
"The illustrations are all so replete vrith fun and imagination, that we scarcely know
who will be most pleased with the book, the good-natured grandfather who gives it, or the
chubby grandchild who gets it, for a Christmais-Box." — Notes and Queries.

18 NEW AND INTERESTING WORKS

Home Amusements.

A Choice Collection of Eiddles, Charades, Conundrums, Parbur
Games, and Forfeits. By Peter Puzzlewell, Esq., of Rebus Eall.
New Edition, with Frontispiece by Puiz. 16mo, 25. 6rf. cloth.

Clara Hope; •

Or, the Blade and the Ear. By Miss Milner. With Frontisjiece
by Birket Foster. Fcap. 8vo. price 3s. 6c?. cloth; 45. 6d. cloth elejant,
gilt edges.
"A beautiful narrative, showing how bad habits may be eradicated, and evil tenpers
subdued." — British Mother's Journal.

BY W. H. G. KINGSTON,

Our Soldiers;

Or, Anecdotes of the Campaigns and Gallant Deeds of the Britisli
Army during the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. By AV. H. G.
Kingston. With Frontispiece from a Painting in the Victoria Cross
Gallery. Second Edition. Fcp. 8vo. price 3s. cloth; 3s. 6(7. gilt edges.

Our Sailors;

Or, Anecdotes of the Engagements and Gallant Deeds of the Britisli
Navy during the reign of Pier Majesty Queen Victoria. With Frontis-
piece. Second Edition, Price 3s. cloth; 3s. &d. gilt edges.
"These volumes abundantly prove that both our officers and men in the Army and Navy,
have been found as ready as ever to dare, and to do as was dared and done of yore."

W. H. G. KINGSTON'S BOOKS FOR BOYS.

With Illustrations. Fcap. 8vo. price 5s. each, cloth.

True Blue;

Or, the Life and Adventures of a British Seaman of the Old School.

•' There is about all ilr. Kingston's tales a spirit of hopefulness, honesty, and cheery
good principle, which makes them most wholesome, as well as most interesting reading." —
Era.

" With the exception of Capt. Marrj-at, we know of no English author who will compare
with ilr. Kingston as a writer of books of nautical adventure."— J/<M£/ra/ed News.

WillWeatherlielm;

Or, the Yarn of an Old Sailor about his Early Life and AdA-entures.

Fred Markham in Russia;

Or, the Boy Travellers in the Land of the Czar.

Salt Water ;

Or Neil D'Arcy's Sea Life and Adventures.

Mark Seaworth;

A Tale of the Indian Ocean. Second Edition.

Peter tlie Whaler ;

His early Life and Adventures in the Arctic Regions. Third Edition.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AMD FARRAN.

19

Distant Homes;

! Or, the Graham Family in New Zealand. By Mrs. I. E. Ayli^ier.
1 With Illustrations. Price 3s. Gd, cloth; 4s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.
" knfflish cliildren will be delighted with the history of the Graham Family, and be
cnaliled to form pleasant and truthful conceptions of the ' Distant Homes' inhabited by
theii kindred."— ^^Ae/icewm.

Tl^ Adventures and Experiences of Biddy Dork-

ING and of the FAT FROG. Edited by Mrs. S. C. Hall. Illustrated
by H. Weir. 25. 6d. cloth; 3s. 6(/. coloured, gilt edges.
" Most amusingly and wittily told."— Moniing Herald.

Historical Acting Charades ;

Or, Amusements for Winter Evenings, by the author of " Cat and
Dog," etc. New Edition. Fcap. 8vo., price 3s. 6d. cloth gilt edges.
"A rare book for Christmas parties, and of practical xslne."— Illustrated News.

The Story of Jack and the Giants :

With thirty-five Illustrations by Richard Doyle. Beautifully printed.

New and Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 4to. price 2s. 6d. cloth; 3s. 6d.

coloured, extra cloth, gilt edges.
" In Doyle's drawings we have wonderful conceptions, which will secure the book a
place amongst the treasures of collectors, as well as excite the imaginations of children."
— Illustrated Times.

Granny's Wonderful Chair;

And its Tales of Fairy Times. By Frakces Browne. Illustrations
by Kenny Meadows. 3s. 6d. cloth, 4s. 6d. coloured.
"One of the happiest blendings of marvel and. moral we have ever seen." — Literary
Gazette.

The Early Dawn;

Or, Stories to Think about. Illustrated by II. Weir. Second
Edition. Price 2s. 6d. cloth; 3s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

Angelo ;

Or, the Pine Forest among the Alps. By Geraldine E. Jewsbury,
author of " The Adopted Child," etc. Illustrations by J. Absolon.
Second Edition. Price 2s. 6rf. cloth; 3s. 6c/. coloured, gilt edges.
" As pretty a child's story as one might look for on a winter's day."— Examiner.

Tales of Mao^ic and Meaninsr.

Written and Illustrated by Alfred Crowquill. 4to. ; price 3s. 6c/.

cloth; 4s. 6c/. coloured.
" Cleverly written, abounding in frolic and pathos, and inculcates so pure a moral, that
we must pronounce him a very fortunate little fellow, who catches these ' Tales of ilagic,'
as a windfall from ' The Christmas Tree'." — Athenceum.

20 NEW AND INTERESTING WORKS.

Peter Parley's Fagots for the Fire Side;

Or, Tales of Fact and Fancy. Twelve Illustrations. New Edition.
Fcap. 8vo.; 3s. (id., cloth; 4s. 6rf. coloured, gilt edges.
" A new book bv Peter Parley is a pleasant greeting for all boys and girls, wherevtr the
English language is spoken and read. He has a happy method of conveying informition,
wliile seeming to addi-ess himself to the imagination." — The Critic.

Letters from Sarawak,

Addressed to a Child; embracing an Account of the Manners, Cus- I
toms, and Eeligion of the Inhabitants of Borneo, with Inciderts of j
Missionary Life among the Natives. By Sirs. M'Dougall. Fourth i
Thousand, with Illustrations. 3s. 6^/. cloth.
" All is nev.', interesting, and admirably told." — Church cjid State Gazette.

Kate and Kosalind ;

Or, Early Experiences. By the author of " Quicksands on Foreign
Shores," etc. Fcap. 8vo, 3s. 6c?. cloth; 4s. gilt edges.

•' A book of unusual merit. The story is exceedingly well told, and the characters are
drawn with a freedom and boldness seldom met with." — Church of England Quarterly.

" The Irish scenes are of an excellence that has not been surpassed since the best days
of Miss Edgeworth." — Fraser's Magazine.

Clarissa Donnelly;

Or, The History of an Adopted Child. By Geraldine E.

Jewsburt. With an Illustration by John Absolox. Fcap. Svo,

3s. 6c?. cloth ; 4s. gilt edges.
"With wonderful power, only to be matched by as admirable a simplicity, Miss Jewsbm-y
has narrated the history of a child. For nobility of purpose, for simple, nervous writing,
and for artistic construction, it is one of the most valuable works of the day." — Lady's
Compa7iio7i.

The Discontented Children ;

And How they were Cured. By M. and E. Kirby. Illustrated
by H. K. Browne (Phiz.). Third edition, price 25. 6t/. cloth;
3s. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.
"We know no better method of banishing 'discontent ' from school-room and nursery
than by introducing this wise and clever story to then- inmates." — Art Journal.

The Talking Bird ;

Or, the Little Girl who knew what was going to happen. By M. and
E. KiRBT. With Illustrations by H. Iv. Browne. Second Edition.
Price 2s. 6d. cloth; 3s. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.

Julia Maitland;

Or, Pride goes before a Fall. By M. and E. Kirbt. Illustrated by
Absolon. Price 2s. Gd. cloth; 3s. 6(/. coloured, gilt edges.

" It is nearly such a story as Miss Edgeworth might have written on the same theme."—
The Press.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AND FARRAN. 21

COMICAL PICTURE BOOKS.
Each with Sixteen large Coloured Plates, price 2s. 6d., in fancy boards,
or mounted on cloth, Is. extra.

Picture Fables.

Written and Illustrated by Alfred Crowquill.

The Careless Chicken ;

By the Baron Krakf.msides. By Alfred Crowquill.

Funny Leaves for the Younger Branches.

By the Baron Krakemsides, of Burstenoudelafcn Castle. Illustrated
by Alfred Crowquill.

Laugh and Grow Wise ;

By the Senior Owl of lA-y Hall. With Sixteen large coloured
Plates. Price 25. 6d. fancy boards; or 3s. 6d. mounted on cloth.

The Remarkable History of the House that Jack

Built. Splendidly Illustrated and magnificently Illuminated by The
Son of a Genius. Price 25. in fancy cover.
*' Magnificent in suggestion, aiid most comical in expression ! " — Alheuatmn.

A Peep at the Pixies ;

Or, Legends of the West. By Mrs. Bray. Author of "Life of
Stothard," "Trelawny," etc. With Illustrations by Phiz. Super-
royal 16mo, price 35. 6cf. cloth; 45. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.

"A peep at the actual Pixies of Devonshire, faithfully described by Mrs. Bray, is a
treat. Her knowledge of the locality, her atiection for her subject, her exquisite feeling
for natm-e, and her real delight in tairy lore, have given a freshness to the little volume
we did not expect. The notes at the end contain matter of interest for all who feel a
desire to know the origin of such tales and legends." — irt Journal.

A BOOK FOR EVERY CHILD.

The Favourite Picture Book;

A Gallery of Delights, designed for the Amusement and Instruction of
the Young. With several Hundred Illustrations from Drawings by
J. Absolon, H. K. Browne (Phiz), J. Gilbert, T. Landseer,
J. Leech, J. S. Prout, H. Weir, etc. New Edition. Royal 4to.,
bound in a new and Elegant Cover, price 35. 6c/. plain; 75. 6c?. coloured;
105. 6(/. mounted on cloth and coloured.

Sunday Evenings with Sophia;

Or, Little Talks on Great Subjects. A Book for Girls. By Leonora
G. Bell. Frontispiece by J. Absolon. Ecap. 8vo, price 25. 6c?. cloth.

22 NEW AND INTERESTING WORKS

Blind Man's Holiday ;

Or Short Tales for the Nursery. By the Author of " Mia and Charlie."
Illustrated by Absolon. 3s. 6d. cloth; 4s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

NEW AND BEAUTIFUL LIBRARY EDITION.

The Yicar of Wakefield ;

A Tale. By Oliver Goldsmith. Printed by Whittingham. With
Eight Illustrations by J. Absolon. Square fcap. 8vo, price 5s., cloth;
7s. half-bound morocco, Eoxburghe style; 10s. 6d. antique morocco.

Mr. Absolon's graphic sketches add greatly to the interest of the volume : altogether,
it is as pretty an edition of the ' Vicar ' as we have seen. ^Irs. Primrose herself would
consider it ' well dressed.' " — Art Journal.

" A delightful edition of one of the most delightful of works : the fine old type and thick
paper make this volume attractive to any lover of books." — Edinburgh Gtuir'dian.

The Wonders of Home, in Eleven Stories.

By GRAKDrATHER Gret. With Illustrations. Third and Cheaper
Edition. Royal 16mo., 2s. 6d. cloth; 3s. Qd. coloured, gilt edges.

" The idea is excellent, and its execution equally commendable. The subjects are well
selected, and are very happily told in a light yet sensible msinner. "—Weeklj/ Neu-s.

Cat and Dog;

Or, Memoirs of Puss and the Captain. Illustrated by Weir. Eighth
Edition, Super-royal 16mo, 2s. 6d. cloth; 3s. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.

" The author of this amusing little tale is, evidently, a keen observer of nature. The
illustrations are well executed; and the moral, which points the tale, is conveyed in the
most attractive form."— Britannia.

The Doll and Her Friends ;

Or, Memoirs of the Lady Seraphina. By the Author of " Cat and
Dog." Third Edition. With Four Illustrations by H. K. Browne
(Phiz). 2s. 6d., cloth; 3s. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.

Tales from Catland;

Dedicated to the Young Kittens of England. By an Old Tabby.
Illustrated by H. Weir. Fourth Edition. Small 4to, 2s. 6d. plain ;
3s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

"The combination of quiet humour and sound sense has made this one of the pleasantest
little books of the season."— iarfj/'i Newspaper.

Scenes of Animal Life and Character.

From Nature and Eecollection. In Twenty Plates. By J. B. 4to,

price 2s., plain; 2s. 6c?., coloured, fancy boards.

" Truer, heartier, more pla.\i"ul, or more enjoyable sketches of animal life could
scarcely be found anywhere." — Spectator.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AND FARRAN. 23

WORKS BY THE LATE MRS- R. LEE-

Anecdotes of the Habits and Instincts of Animals.

Third Edition. With Illustrations by Harrison Weik. Fcap. 8to,
35. 6d. cloth; 4s. gilt edges.

Anecdotes of the Habits and Instincts of Birds,

REPTILES, and FISHES. "With Illustrations by Harrison Weir.

Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo, 35. 6d. cloth; 4^. gilt edges.
«' Amusintr, instructive, and ably written."— Zj/erorj/ Gazette.

"Mrs. Lee's authorities— to name only one, Professor Oven— are, for the most part
&Tst-T&te.'—Athenceum.

Twelve Stories of the Sayings and Doings of

ANIMALS. With Illustrations by J. W. Archer. Third Edition.
Super- royal 16mo, 2s. 6d. cloth; os. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

Familiar Natural History.

With Forty-two Illustrations from Original Drawings by Harrison
Weir. Super-royal ICmo, 3s. 6d. cloth; 5s. coloured gilt edges.
%* May be had in Two Volumes, 2s. each plain ; 2s. 6d. Coloured,
Entitled '* British Animals and Birds." " Foreign Animals and Birds."

Playing at Settlers;

Or, the Fagot House. Illustrated by Gilbert. Second Edition.
Price 2s. 6c/. cloth; 3s. 6d coloured, gilt edges.

Adventures in Australia ;

Or, the Wanderings of Captain Spencer in the Bush and the Wilds.
Second Edition. Illustrated by Prout. Fcap. 8vo., 3s. 6d. cloth; 4s.
gilt edges.

The African Wanderers ;

Or, the Adventures of Carlos and Antonio; embracing interesting
Descriptions of the Manners and Customs of the Western Tribes, and
the Natural Productions of the Country. Fourth Edition. With Eight
Engravings. Fcap. 8vo, 3s. Gd. cloth; 4s. gilt edges.
" For fascinating adventure, and rapid succession of incident, the volume is equal to any
relation of travel we ever reaLd.''—Bntaiunu.

ELEGANT GIFT FOR A LADY.

Trees, Plants, and Flowers ;

Their Beauties, Uses and Influences. By Mrs. R. Lee. With beau-
tiful coloured Illustrations by J. Andrews. 8vo, price 10s. 6(f., cloth
elegant, gilt edges.
" The volume is at once useful as a botanical work, and exquisite as the ornament of a
boudoir table."— Brila}mia. " As full of interest as of he&uty."— Art Journal.

24

NEW AND INTERESTING WORKS

WORKS BY THE AUTHOR OF IVlAtVllVlA'S BIBLE STORIES.

Fanny and her Mamma ;

Or, Easy Lessons for Children. In which it is attempted to bring Scrip-
tural Principles into dail)^ practice. Illustrated by J. Gilbert. Third
Edition. 16mo, 2s. 6d. cloth; 3s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.
"A little book in beautiful large clear type, to suit the capacity of infant readers, which
■we can with pleasure recommend." — Christian Ladies' Magazine.

Short and Shnple Prayers,

Eor the Use of Young Children. With Hymns. Sixth Edition.

Square 16mo, \s. cloth.
" Well adapted to the capacities of children — beginning with the simplest forms which
the youngest child may lisp at its mother's knee, and proceeding with those suited to its
gradually advancing age. Special prayers, designed for particular circumstances and
occasions, ai-e added. We cordially recommend the book." — Christian Guardian.

Mamma's Bible Stories,

Eor her Little Boys and Girls, adapted to the capacities of very young
Children. Twelfth Edition, with Twelve Engravings. 2s. 6d!. cloth;
3s. 6d coloured, gilt edges.

A Sequel to Mamma's Bible Stories.

Sixth Edition. Twelve Illustrations. 2s. 6(f. cloth, 3s. &d. coloured.

Scripture Histories for Little Children.

With Sixteen Illustrations, by John Gilbert. Super-royal 16mo.,
price 2s. &d. cloth; 3s. 6f/. coloured, gilt edges.
Contents. — The History of Joseph — History of Moses — History of our
Saviour — The Miracles of Christ.

Sold separately: 6d. each, plain; Is. coloured.

The Family Bible Newly Opened ;

With Uncle Goodwin's account of it. By Jefferys Taylor.
Frontispiece by J. Gilbert. Ecap. 8vo, 3s. Gd. cloth.
" A verv good account of the Sacred Wfitings, adapted to the tastes, feelings, and intel-
ligence of young people." — Educational Times.

Good in Everything ;

Or, The Early History of Gilbert Harland. By Mrs. Barwell,

Author of '* Little Lessons for Little Learners," etc. Second Edition.

Illustrations by Gilbert. 2s. 6rf. cloth; 3s. 6 cZ.. coloured, gilt. edges.

" The moral of this exquisite little tale will do more good than a thousand set tasks

abounding with dry and uninteresting truisms." — Bell's Messenger.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AND FARRAN. 25

THE FAVOURITE LIBRARY.

A Series of "Works for the Young; each Volume with an Illustration
by a -well-known Artist. Price Is. cloth.

1. THE ESKDALE HERD BOY. By Lady Stoddart.

2. MRS. LEICESTER'S SCHOOL. By Chakles and IVIart Lamb.

3. THE HISTORY OF THE ROBINS. By Mrs. Trimmer.

4. MEMOIR OF BOB, THE SPOTTED TERRIER.

5. KEEPER'S TRAVELS IN SEARCH OF HIS MASTER.

6. THE SCOTTISH ORPHANS. By Lady Stoddart.

7. NEVER WRONG; or, THE YOUNG DISPUTANT; and "IT

WAS ONLY IN FUN."

8. THE LIFE AND PERAMBULATIONS OF A MOUSE.

9. EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF

NATURE. By Mrs. Trimmer.

10. RIGHT AND WRONG. By the Author of " Always Happy."

11. HARRY'S HOLIDAY. By Jefferys Taylor.

12. SHORT POEMS AND HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.

The above may be had Two Volumes bound in One, at Two Shillings cloth.

Glimpses of Nature ;

And Objects of Interest described dui-ing a Visit to the Isle of Wight.
Designed to assist and encourage Young Persons in forming habits of
observation. By Mrs. Loudox. Second Edition, enlarged. With
Forty-one Illustrations. 3s. 6d. cloth.

" We could not recommend a more valuable little volume. It is full of information, con-
veyed in the most agreeable manner." — Literary Gazette.

Tales of School Life.

By Agnes Loudon. With Illustrations by John Absolon. Second
Edition. Royal 16mo, 2s. 6(/. plain; 3s. 6rf. coloured, gilt edges.

" These reminiscences of school days will be recognised as truthful pictures of every-da y
occurrence. The style is colloquial and pleasant, and therefore well suited to those for
whose pei-usal it is intended." — Alhenceuin.

Kit Bam, the British Sinbad;

Or, the Yarns of an Old Mariner. By Mary Cowden Clarke, illus-
trated by George Cruijisuank. Fcap. 8yo, price 3s. ^d. cloth;
4s. gilt edges.

26 NEW AND INTERESTING WORKS

The Day of a Baby Boy ;

A Story for a Young Child. By E. Berger. With Illustrations by
John Absolon. Third Edition. Super-royal IGmo, price 2s. 6d.
cloth; 35. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

" A sweet little book for the nursery."— CAm^jan Tvnet.

Visits to Beech wood Farm ;

Or, Country Pleasures. By Catherine Isl. A. Couper. Illustrations
by Absolon. Small 4to, 3s. 6c/., plain; 4s. 6c?. coloured; gilt edges.

Stories of Julian and his Playfellows.

Written by His ]Mamma. With Four Filustrations by John Absolon.
Second Edition. Small 4to., 2s. 6c?., plain; 3s. 6c?., coloured, gilt edges.

The Nine Lives of a Cat ;

A Tale of Wonder. Written and Illustrated by C. H. Bennett.
Twenty-four Engravings, price 2s. cloth; 2s. 6rf. coloured.

" Rich in the quaint humour and fancy that a man of genius knows how to spare for the
enlivenment of children."— £xa7H?wer.

Maud Summers the Sightless :

A Narrative for the Young. Illustrated by Absolon. 3s. 6c?. cloth ;
4s. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.

London Cries and Public Edifices

Illustrated in Twenty-four Engravings by Luke Limner; with descrip-
tive Letter-press. Square 12mo, 2s. 6c?. plain; 5s. coloured.

The Silver Swan;

A Fairy Tale. By Madame de Chatelain. Illustrated by John
Leech. Small 4to, 2s. 6c?. cloth ; 3s. 6d coloured, gilt edges.

Always Happy;

Or, Anecdotes of Felix and his Sister Serena. Nineteenth Edition,
Illustrated by Anelat. Koyal 18mo, price 2s. cloth.

Anecdotes of Kings,

Selected from History ; or, Gertrude's Stories for Children. With En-
gra-vings. 2s. 6c?. plain ; 3s. 6c?. coloured.

Bible Illustrations;

Or, a Description of Manners and Customs peculiar to the East, and
especially Explanatory of the Holy Scriptures. By the Rev. B. H.
Draper. With Engravings. Fourth Edition. Revised by Dr. KixTO,
Editor of " The Pictorial Bible," etc. 3s. 6rf. cloth.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AND FARRAN. 27

Trimmer's (Mrs.) Old Testament Lessons.

With 40 Engravings. I*. 6^. cloth.

Trimmer's (Mrs.) New Testament Lessons.

With 40 Engravings. Is 6d. cloth.

The Daisy,

With Thirty Wood Engravings. Price 1*. cloth. (1.9. Gd. coloured.)

The Cowslip.

With Thirty Engravings. l.s. cloth. (Is. 6d. coloured.)

History of Prince Lee Boo.

Price Is. cloth.

Dissections for Young Children;

In a neat box. Price 3s. Qd. each.

1. Lives of Joseph and Moses. I 3. Mother Hubbard and Dog.

2. History of Our Saviour. | 4. Life and Death of Cock Robin.

A Word to the Wise ;

Or, Hints on the Current Improprieties of Expression in Writing and
Speaking. By Parry Gwynne. 11th Thousand. 18mo. price 6c?.
sewed, or Is. cloth, gilt edges.

" All who wish to mind their p'* and g's should consult this little \oluine."-^Gentle}na7i's
Magazine.

The British History briefly told,

and a Description of the Ancient Customs, Sports, and Pastimes of the
English. Embellished with Portraits of the Sovereigns of England in
their proper Costumes, and 18 other Engravings. 3s. 6c?. cloth.

Chit-chat ;

Or, Short Tales in Short Words. By the author of "Always
Happy." New Edition. With Eight Engravings. Price 2s. Gd. cloth,
3s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

Conversations on the Life of Jesus Christ.

By a Mother. With 12 Engravings. 2s. 6c?. plain; 3s. 6c?. coloured.

Cosmorama.

The Manners, Customs, and Costumes of all Nations of the World
described. By J. Aspin. With numerous Illustrations. 3s. 6d. plain j
and 4s. 6c?. coloured.

Easy Lessons;

Or, Leading-Strings to Knowledge. New Edition, with 8 Engravings.
2*. Gd. plain ; 2s. Gd. coloured, gilt edges.

28 NEW AND INTERESTING WORKS

Key to Knowledge ;

Or, Things in Common Use simply and shortly explained. By a
Mother, Author of " Always Happy," etc. Thirteenth Edition. With
Sixty Illustrations. 2s. ed. cloth.

Facts to correct Fancies ;

Or, Short NaiTatives compiled from the Biography o Eemarkablc
Women. By a Mother. With Engravings, 3s. 6c?. plain; 4s. 6c?. coloured.

Fruits of Enterprise ;

Exhibited in the Travels of Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia. Fourteenth
Edition, with six Engravings by Birket Foster. Price 3s. cloth.

The Garden;

Or, Frederick's Monthly Instructions for the Management and Forma-
tion of a Flower Garden. Fomth Edition. With Engravings by
Sowerby. 3s. 6d. plain; or 6s. with the Flowers coloured.

How to be Happy ;

Or, Fairy Gifts, to which is added a Selection of Moral Allegories.
With Steel Engravings. Price 3s. 6d. cloth.

Infantine Knowledge.

A Spelling and Reading Book, on a Popular Plan. With numerous
Engravings. Tenth Edition. 2s. 6c?. plain; 3s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

The Ladder to Learning.

A Collection of Fables, arranged progressively in words of One, Two,
and Three Syllables. Edited by Mrs. Trimmer. With 79 Cuts. Nine-
teenth Edition. 2s. 6d. cloth.

Little Lessons for Little Learners.

In Words of One Syllable. By Mrs. Bar well. Tenth Edition,
with numerous Illustrations. 2s. 6d. plain ; 3s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges.

The Little Keader.

A Progressive Step to Knowledge. Fourth Edition with sixteen Plates.
Price 2s. 6c?. cloth.

Mammals Lessons.

For her Little Boys and Girls. Fifteenth Edition, with eight En-
gravings. Price 2s. 6c?. cloth; 3s. 6c?. coloured, gilt edges.

The Mine;

Or, Subterranean Wonders. An Account of the Operations of the
Miner and the Products of his Labours. By the late Rev. Isaac Taylor.
Sixth Edition, with numerous additi6ns by Mrs. Loudon. 45 Woodcuts
and 16 Steel Engravings. 3s. 6c?. cloth.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AND FARRAIM. 29

Rhoda;

Or, The Excellence of Charity. Fourth Edition. With Illustrations.
16mo, 25. cloth.

The Students;

Or, Biographies of the Grecian Philosophers. 12mo, price 2*. 6d. cloth.

Stories of Edward and his little Friends.

With 12 Illustrations. Second Edition. 3s. 6d. plain; 4s. Gd. coloured.

Sunday Lessons for little Children.

By Mrs. Barwell. Fourth Edition. 2s. 6 J. plain; 3s. coloured.

EDUCATIONAL WORKS.

Ehymes of Royalty.

The History of England in Ver.^e, from the X orman Conquest to the
reign of Queen Victoria; with an Appendix, comprising a summary
of the leading events in each reign. Fcap. 8vo, 2s. 6(/. cloth.

True Stories from Ancient History,

Chronologically arranged from the Creation of the World to the Death
of Charlemagne. Thirteenth Edition. With 24 Steel Engravings. 12mo,
5s. cloth.

True Stories from Modern History,

From the Death of Charlemagne to the present Time. Eighth
Edition. With 24 Steel Engravings. 12mo, 5s. cloth.

The Modern British Plutarch;

Or, Lives of Men distinguished in the recent History of our Country
for their Talents, Virtues and Achievements. By W. C. Taylor, LL.D.
Author of "A Manual of Ancient and Modern History," etc. 12mo,
Second Thousand. 4s. 6d. cloth; 5s. gilt edges.
"A work which will be welcomed in any circle of intelligent young persons."— J5n7j5/4
Quarterly Review.

Harry Hawkins's H-^ook;

Shewing how he learned to aspirate his H's. Frontispiece by H. Weir.
Second Edition. Super-royal 16mo, price 6rf.
" No family or school-room within, or indeed beyond, the sound of Bow bells, should bo
without this meiTy manual." — Art Journal.

Mrs. Trimmer's Concise History of England,

Revised and brought down to the present time by Mrs. :\[ilner. With
Portraits of the Sovereigns in their proper costume, and Frontispiece
by Harvey. New Edition in One Volume. 5s. cloth.

30 NEW AND INTERESTING WORKS

Stories from the Old and New Testaments,

On an improved plan. By the Kev. B. H. Draper. With 48 En-
gravings. Fifth Edition. 12mo, 5s. cloth.

Pictorial Geography.

For the use of Children. Presenting at one view Illustrations of the
various Geographical Terms, and thus imparting clear and definite
ideas of their meaning. On a Large Sheet. Price 2s. 6d. in tints;
5s. on Rollers, varnished.

One Thousand Arithmetical Tests ;

Or, The Examiner's Assistant. Specially adapted for Examination
Purposes, but also suited for general use in Schools. By T. S. Catzer,
Head Master of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, Bristol. Fourth Edition,
revised and stereotyped. Price Is. 6d. cloth.

*^* Answers to the above, Is. 6d. cloth.

One Thousand Algebraical Tests;

On the same plan. Second Edition. 8vo., price 3s. 6d. cloth.
Answers to the Algebraical Tests, price 2s. 6d. cloth.

Gaultier's Familiar Geography.

With a concise Treatise on the Artificial Sphere, and two coloured
Maps, illustrative of the principal Geographical Tenns. Sixteenth
Edition. 16mo, 3s. cloth.

Butler's Outline Maps, and Key;

Or, Geographical and Biographical Exercises; with a Set of Coloured
Outline Maps; designed for the Use of Young Persons. By the late
William Butler. Enlarged by the author's son, J. O. Butler.
Thirty-fourth Edition, revised. 4s.

Every-Day Things;

Or, Useful Knowledge respecting the principal Animal, Vegetable, and
Mineral Substances in common use. Second Edition. ISmo, Is. 6d.
cloth.
" A little encyclopaedia of useful knowledge, deserving a place in erery juvenile librarj."
—Evangelical Magazine.

Eowbotham's New and Easy Method of Learning

the FRENCH GENDERS. New Edition. 6d.

Bellenger's French Word and Phrase-book.

Containing a select Vocabulary and Dialogues, for the Use of Begin-
ners. New Edition, Is. sewed.

PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AND FARRAN. 31

MARIN DE LA VOYE'S ELEMEiMTARY FRENCH V/ORKS.

Les Jeunes Narrateurs;

Ou Petits Contes ^loraux. "With a Key to the difficult words and
phrases. Frontispiece. Second Edition. 18mo, 2s. cloth.
" Written in pure and easy French." — Morning Post.

The Pictorial French Grammar;

For the Use of Children. With Eighty Illustrations. Royal 16mo.,
price Is. sewed; Is. ^d. cloth.

Le Babillard.

An Amusing Introduction to the French Language. By a Frencli
Lady. Seventh Edition. With 16 Illustrations. 2s. cloth.

Der Schwatzer;

Or, the Prattler. An amusing Introduction to the German Language,
on the Plan of "Le Babillard." 16 Illustrations. 16mo, price 2s.
cloth.

Battle Fields.

A graphic Guide to the Places described in the History of England as
the scenes of such Events; with the situation of the principal Naval
Engagements fought on the Coast of the British Empire. By Mr.
Wadthier, Geographer. On a large sheet 3s. 6rf.; or on a roller,
and varnished, 7s. 6of.

Tabular Views of the Geography and Sacred His-

TORY of PALESTINE, and of the TRAVELS of ST. PAUL.
Intended for Pupil Teachers, and others engaged in Class Teaching.
By A. T. White. Oblong 8vo, price Is., sewed.

The First Book of Geography ;

Specially adapted as a Text Book for Beginners, and as a Guide to the
Young Teacher. By Hugo Reid, author of " Elements of Astronomy,"
etc. Fourth Edition, carefully revised. 18mo, Is. sewed.

" One of the most sensible little books on the subject of Geography we have met with."
— Educational Tii/tes.

The Child's Grammar,

By the late Lady Fenn, under the assumed name of Mrs. Lovechild.
Fiftieth Edition. 18mo, 9d. cloth.

The Prince of Wales' Primer.

With 300 Illustrations by J. Gilbert. Price 6d., or Is. Illuminated
cover, gilt edges.

32 WORKS PUBLISHED BY GRIFFITH AND FARRAIM.

DURABLE NURSERY BOOKS,

MOUNTED ON CLOTH WITH COLOURED PLATES,
ONE SHILLING EACH.

1 Alphabetof Goody Two-Shoes. 8 Little Rhymes for Little Folks.

2 Cinderella. " 9 Mother Hubbard.

3 Cock Robin. 10 Monkey's Frolic.

4 Courtship of Jenny Wren. 1 1 Old "Woman and her Pig.

5 Dame Trot and her Cat. 12 Puss in Boots.

6 History of an Apple Pie. 13 Tommy Trip's Museum of

7 House that Jack built. I Birds.

BY TH0IV3AS DARf^ELL.

PARSING SIMPLIFIED: An Introduction and Companion to all
Grammars; consisting of Short and Easy Rules (with Parsing
Lessons to each) whereby young Students may, in a short time, be
gradually led through a knowledge of the several Elementary Parts
of Speech to a thorough comprehension of the grammatical con-
struction of the most complex sentences of our ordinary Authors,
either in Prose or Poetry, by Thomas Darnell. Price Is. cloth.

' " Sound in principle, singularly felicitous in example and illustration, and though brief,
thoroughly exhaustive of the subject. The boy who will not leai-n to parse on Mr.
Darnell's plan is not likely to do so on any other.— Morning Post.

GEORGE DARNELL'S EDUCATIONAL WORKS.

The attention of all interested in the subject of Education is invited to
these "Works, now in extensive use throughout the Kingdom, prepared by
Mr. George Darnell, a Schoolmaster of many years' experience.

1. COPY BOOKS.— A SHORT and certain road to a Good Haxd-

■WRiTiKG, gradually advancing from the Simple Stroke to a superior
Small-hand.
Large Post, Sixteen Numbers, 6d. each.

Foolscap, Twenty Numbers, to which are added Three Supplementary
Numbers of Angular "Writing for Ladies, and One of Ornamental Hands.
Price 3d. each.

*»* This series may also be had on very superior paper, marble covers, 4d. each.
" For teaching -vsTiting I would recommend the use of Darnell's Copy Books. I haife
noticed a mai-ked improvement wherever they have been used." — Report of Mr. Mays
{National Society's Organizer of Schools) to the Worcester DiocesaJi Board of Education.

2. GRAMMAR, made intelligible to Children, price Is. cloth.

3. ARITHMETIC, made intelligible to Children, price Is. 6d. cloth.

*^* Key to Parts 2 and 3, price Is. cloth.

4. READING, a Short and Certain Road to, price 6d. cloth.

VEUTHEIMEK, L£A AND CO., CIRCUS PLACE, FINSBUHY CIKCUS.

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