i8o CONCERNING CATS. 



*he lays it as if another had said it to him.'" This 

 is somewhat obscure in definition. Toone says : " The 

 proverbial expression, * to turn a cat in a pan/ denotes 

 a sudden change in one's party, or politics, or religion, 

 for the sake of being in the ascendant, as a cat always 

 comes down on its legs, however thrown." The Vicar 

 of Bray is quoted as simply a "turncoat," but this does 

 not affect the argument. I quite think, and in this others 

 agree with me, that it has nothing to do with the caf^ 

 but was originally cate. In olden times, and until lately, 

 it was the custom to toss pancakes (to turn them over). It 

 was no easy matter ; frequently the cake or cate went in the 

 fire or lodged in the chimney. To turn the cat or cate in 

 the pan was to toss and ttirn it completely cver^ that is, from 

 one side to the other. The meaning given to the phrase 

 helps to prove this view. I merely introduce this because 

 so many have asked for an explanation as regards " the cat 

 in pan." I consider the " far-fetched " origins of the term 

 are complete errors. It was a custom to toss pancakes on 

 Shrove Tuesday, and it required great skill to do it well, 

 cleanly, and completely. Some cooks were noted for it, and 

 thought clever if it was done without injury to themselves 

 or clothes. 



It appears from " The Westmoreland Dialect," by 

 A. Walker (1790), that cock-fighting and "casting" of pan- 

 cakes were then common in that county, thus : " Whaar 

 ther wor tae be cock-feightin', for it war pankeak Tuesday," 

 and " we met sum lads an' lasses gangin' to kest (cast) their 

 pankeaks." 



To whip the cat. — " To practise the most pinching parsi- 

 mony, grudging even the scraps and orts, or remnants of 

 food given to the cat." — Hollo way {Norfolk). 



A phrase applied to the village tailor going round from 

 house to house for work. 



" To be drunk." — Heywoob's Fhiloconothista, 1635, p. 60. 



An itinerant parson is said to "whip the cat." 



" A trick practised on ignorant country fellows, vain of 



