GREAT NORWAY EATS. 143 



omen of some misfortune^, which^ though not satisfac- 

 tory to Mrs. Saville's more cultivated mind, she was 

 still unable to account for what she had seen, and was 

 almost ready to doubt the evidence of her senses. In 

 this state of suspense she lay watching till morning. 

 When it was time to rise, the maid attempted to reach 

 some of her clothes that had fallen on the ground, 

 when a rat, which had concealed itself in them, flew 

 at her and tore her arm. The next day, carpenters 

 were employed to examine the apartments, but neither 

 crack nor cranny was found through which a rat 

 could pass ; it was therefore supposed that these rats 

 were on a journey, and in their passage came down 

 the chimney, and returned by the same aperture.'" 



Mr. Palmer said, that this was an extraordinary 

 instance of the migration of rats, which, in this coun- 

 try, is effected in smaller companies than in the cold 

 regions of the north ; where, as travellers relate, the 

 great Norway rats migrate in astonishing multitudes, 

 and never go out of their way, but pass over any ob- 

 struction they meet in their road. 



Evening closed the conversation. Before we part- 

 ed, it was proposed that Rachel and I should accom- 

 pany Mr. and Mrs, Palmer on a little excursion to 

 the sea-coast. We both looked at Mrs. Saville for her 



* This circumstance happened in an out-room of the author's, 

 in the house opposite Bow Church in Cheapside. 



