1 8 The Book of Cats. 



sion to the feline race ; and sometimes young 

 ladies have done so in my hearing. In both cases 

 I have little doubt but that the weakness is easily 

 overcome. As for a hidden and unheard Cat's pre- 

 sence affecting a person's nerves, I beg to state my 

 conviction that such a story is utterly ridiculous ; 

 and I was vastly entertained by the following nar- 

 rative, written by a lady for a Magazine for Boys, 

 and given as a truth. Such a valuable fact in 

 natural history should not be allowed to perish ; 

 she calls it, A TALE OF MY GRANDMOTHER. 



My maternal grandmother had so strong an 

 aversion to Cats that it seemed to endow her with 

 an additional sense. You may, perhaps, have heard 

 people use the phrase, that they were " frightened 

 out of their seven senses," without troubling your- 

 selves to wonder how they came to have more than 

 five. But the Druids of old used to include sym- 

 pathy and antipathy in the number, a belief which 

 has, no doubt, left its trace in the above popular 

 and otherwise unmeaning expression ; and this 

 extra sense of antipathy my grandmother cer- 

 tainly exhibited as regarding Cats. 



When she was a young and pretty little bride, 

 dinner parties and routs, as is usual on such occa- 

 sions, were given in her honour. In those days, 



