Tlu Book of Cats. 203 



little folks in a small book called Tales from Catland, 

 with some masterly pictures from the graceful 

 pencil of Mr. Harrison Weir ; and there is another 

 work called Cat and Dog, which I would recommend 

 to all young readers. Of some other children's 

 books, in which Pussy takes a prominent part, it 

 behoves not the writer of this volume to say very 

 much, for obvious reasons. I may, however, re- 

 mark, that though a great admirer of the feline 

 race, the artist who illustrated the works in ques- 

 tion and this, has very limited notions concerning 

 the way in which a Cat should be drawn, and has 

 found, after all his trouble, that under his hand 

 Pussy transferred to wood is very wooden indeed. 

 It is some consolation to that artist, however, to 

 reflect that Hogarth's Cats are anything but good 

 ones. By the way, I always wonder when I look 

 at that picture of the " Actress's Dressing Room " 

 in the barn, whether poor strollers were ever driven 

 to such an expedient as that of cutting a Cat's tail 

 for the blood, and if so, how was it used .'' In 

 George Cruikshank's "Bottle," do you remember 

 in the first scene how happily the Cat and Kittens 

 are playing on the hearth, and how in the next the 

 kitten has disappeared, and the Cat, a poor half- 

 starved wretch, is sniffing wistfully at an empty 



