THE LAW ON CAT KILLING, 207 



century. Somewhere I remember having seen "Whitting- 

 ton's Cat " without the master, which, I suppose, arose from 

 the painter not knowing how to portray " Sir Richard." 



" Cat and Kittens. — A public-house sign, alluding to the 

 pewter pots so called. Stealing these pots is termed ' Cat 

 and kitten sneaking.' We still call a large kettle a kitchen^ 

 and speak of a soldier's kit (Saxon, cytel, a pot, pan, or 

 vessel generally)." — Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and 

 Fable. 



May not this sign be intended to mean merely what 

 is shown, " The Cat and Kittens," indicative of comfort and 

 rest? Or may it have been *' Cat and Chitterlings" in 

 allusion to the source from which fiddlestrings were said to 

 be derived ? 



Cat and Tortoise. — This seems to have no meaning 

 other than at a tavern extremes meet, the fast and the 

 slow, the lively and the stolid ; or it is possibly a corruption 

 of something widely different. 



THE LAW ON CAT KILLING. 



An *' Articled Clerk," writing to The Standard with regard 

 to the illegality of killing cats, states : " It is clearly laid down 

 in ' Addison on Torts,' that a person is not justified in killing 

 his neighbour's cat, or dog, which he finds on his land, unless 

 the animal is in the act of doing some injurious act which can 

 only be prevented by its slaughter. 



"And it has been decided by the case of ' Townsend v. 

 Watken' 9 last 277, that if a person sets on his lands a 

 trap for foxes, and baits it with such strong-smelling meat 

 as to attract his neighbour's dog or cat on to his land, to the 

 trap, and such animal is thereby killed or injured, he is 

 liable for the act, though he had no intention of doing it, 

 and though the animal ought not to have been on his land." 



