Evidently Sir Frederick is a " catanthro- 

 pist " the word was invented by Wilkie 

 Collins. I find it used by him in a letter 

 written to my mother in 1866 : 

 < " Oh, I wanted you so at Rome in 

 the Protestant Cemetery don't start ! No 

 ghosts only a cat. I went to show my 

 friend Pigott the grave of the illustrious 

 Shelley. Approaching the resting-place of 

 the divine poet in a bright sunlight, the finest 

 black Tom you ever saw discovered at an 

 incredible distance that a catanthropist had 

 entered the cemetery rushed up at a gallop 

 with his tail at right-angles to his spine 

 turned over on his back with his four paws 

 in the air, and said in the language of cats : 

 Shelley be hanged ! Come and tickle me ! ' 

 I stooped and tickled him. We were both 

 profoundly affected. " 



<8 I have wandered far from the statement 

 that a cat is at her best in a room, and yet I 

 cling to it. For in a room a cat confers and 

 diffuses comfort in the very act of accepting 



44 



