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INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A RAT, 



TOGETHER WITH HIS ADVENTURES ATLEEDS, HARROWGATE, ILKLEY& HULL. 



HAVING read with a great deal of pleasure and admiration, the recital 

 of the interesting adventures of the Rev. J. Winterbotham, on his jour- 

 ney from Haworth to Harrowgate, and being at the same time convinced, 

 that the majority of your readers have done the same ; allow me, though 

 but a Poor Rat, yet still having the amusement and instruction of my 

 race (as well as of the nobler race of animals, called human) at heart, to 

 detail to you, and by your permission, to your readers, my adventures, 

 and the interesting incidents which happened to me, a Poor Rat, on 

 journeying to the very same place (Harrowgate); rich.it is said, in "health- 

 giving water," and rich in fine air; but, in the opinion of the " poor 

 rat" who now presumes to address you, rich in barren heaths, rich in 

 chill cold air, and rich in the most abominable water that was ever 

 offered a " Poor Rat," with which to satisfy " the calls of nature, with 

 needful gratification." 



It may be necessary, in the first instance, to mention in what manner 

 I became acquainted with the history of Mr. Winterbotham's journey from 

 Haworth to Harrowgate, and of the interesting incidents which therein be- 

 fell him ; as " to how" he set outto walk to Keighley, to go by coach, but 

 being delayed past his time, by the sleepy god he with manful resolu- 

 tion determined " to pad the hoof the whole way ; and as " to how" he 

 had the unprecedented good luck " to fall in" with a cart, and the way in 

 whichhe got a lift on his journey; and as "to how" busy the town of Keigh- 

 ey was, the morning he entered, with the folks going from their manufac- 

 tories to their breakfasts ; and all the rest of the interesting, amusing, 

 and instructing, particulars of his journey, from its commencement to 

 its conclusion, from its " Oriental ascension to its Occidental decli- 

 nation ;" unlike the mad-scamp tricks of that foolish man, Don Quixotte, 

 and the outlandish incidents which befell him, but conducted in that 

 steady, sober manner, in which the journeys of the Rev. J. Winterbotham 

 ought to be. 



Having always been from my youth I had almost said from the time 

 when I first crept out of my nest, fond of hearing the news, and knowing 

 what was going on in the world, and being particularly in my element, 

 whenever 1 could hear the two-legged animals, who claim superiority in 

 every thing, discussing the politics of the day, and other matters novel 

 to rats, and always interesting because novel ; I was invariably an at- 

 tentive listener to every discussion, and frequently in the habit of going 

 to the different news-rooms in the town, purposely to hear the events of 

 the day, " mark, learn, and inwardly digest them." Why may not rats 

 hear the news as well as other people ? By this means I began to be looked 

 upon as of some consequence in the world, by my fellow-rats, and was 

 often a referee in their disputes ; and whenever I gave a decision, it was 

 always final, because, as they justly said, from my extensive knowledge, 

 I must be right, It was then, in Hellier's Coffee-House, in the Market- 

 place, Hull, that I became acquainted with the amusing history of the 



