204 "^^^^ Book of Cats. 



plate upon the table ? The change in Pussy's for- 

 tune is a clever touch ; but of all Cat pictures, one 

 of the same artist's illustrations to the Brothers 

 Mayhew's Greatest Plague of Life is that to be re- 

 membered ; I mean the one called " The Cat did 

 it," in the chapter about Mrs. Burgess's Tom. There 

 are a score and more of wonderful Cat stories in 

 the Munchener B'llderbogen, and in other German 

 books ; and who of those who have seen them can 

 forget Grandville's extraordinary animals, so like 

 Cats, and yet so human. There were some pictures 

 that Charles Bennett drew, showing the gradual 

 change of a human face into that of a beast, in 

 which it was astonishing to note how easy and with 

 what a few lines the transformation could be 

 effected. 



I might make this book a great deal longer (and 

 more wearisome, perhaps) if I gave even the briefest 

 outline of all the stories I have come upon during 

 my long search ; but I believe that those to be found 

 in these pages are among the best extant. 



