194 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE CAT. 



"Of some the aboundance of an ydle braine* 

 "Will judged be, and painted forgery, 

 Rather than matter of just memorie." 



So that T shall keep all the marvellous to myself, and without treading 

 in the foot-prints of other worthy narrators, endeavour to give, as briefly as 

 possible, a few simple facts which will perhaps tend to put '^poor puss" on 

 a little better footing with some of its accusers. 



The Cat's antipathy to water is proverbial. 



"The Cat fain fish would cat 

 Yet she is loath to wet her feet. 



Again an old Scottish poet draws a simile after this fashion — 



"The Cat,t 

 They wald na weit their feit, 

 But yit if ony fisch ye gat 

 They wad be fain to eit. 



A friend of mine, William Wood, Esq., of Whinbrook, Moorallerton, tells 

 me he well remembers a Cat at Aberford Mills, that was a regular fisher 

 in the little rivulet there, (the Cock.) So soon as the wheels were stopped, 

 and the mill race once agaia placed, puss might often have been seen, generally 

 at noon, swimming and diving about in pursuit of her finny prey. It was 

 not exactly ^'bobbing for eels," but "tickling trout," that was most to her 

 fancy, and when these grew scarce, smaller fry in the shape of minnows, 

 were made to suffice: "better sma' fish than nane." I believe that this is 

 not the only instance of the kind on record, but at any rate it is a curious 

 feature in the Cat's habits, whose particular relish for fish rarely induces them 

 to follow the "gentle craft" after this style. 



I have known them take to water in time of peril, such as when closely 

 pursued by some uncivil dog, when no friendly tree has been at hand to 

 afibrd a shelter. In some parts we may still fall in with your Corporal 

 Bunting Cats,| who, turned adrift with a roving commission, commit sad 

 depredations among both game and poultry. A farmer once told me he lost 

 several young ducks by one of this class, who made little scruple about 

 launching himself if need required. But you will rarely find them turn out 

 badly if they are well fed and properly cared for. It is only your poor 

 half-starved and ill-used wretches who take to keeping themselves at the 

 expense of the squire's sport or farmer's pocket. 



I recollect two male Cats kept at a farm-house at Pannal, remarkable 

 for their opposite dispositions; the least of them, for there was some little 

 difierence in their size, was a regular spitfire, and invariably the first to bring 

 the major up to scratch, the conflict generally ending in favour of the least, 

 not, I am sure, from any superiority in tactics, but the more peaceable 

 nature of the other, who generally beat a retreat, and perhaps absented himself 



* "Spenser's Fairy Queen." f "Alexander Montgomery— Elizabethan Era." X "Bulwer's 

 Eugene Aram." 



