152 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



been too successful in a duel ? ' Ah ! mon grand 

 ami, vous avez tue mon autre grand ami.' " 



To have been, even "in some sort," Sir Walter's 

 friend for fifteen happy years was as enviable a lot 

 as to have shared Dr. Johnson's London lodgings. 

 " Canonized pets of literature ! " Why, here are 

 two who may lord it in Elysium through all the 

 centuries to come. 



When Scott was absent from Abbotsford, he 

 was not insensible to the charms of other cats 

 who assiduously sought his society. " There are 

 no dogs in the hotel where I live," he wrote on one 

 occasion from London ; " but a tolerably conversa- 

 ble cat, who eats a mess of cream with me in the 

 morning." While at Naples, he visited the Arch- 

 bishop of Taranto, — "a most interesting old man, 

 whose foible is a passion for cats," — and was de- 

 lighted with the ecclesiastical pets. " One of 

 them," he noted in his journal, "is a superb brin- 

 dled Persian, a great beauty, and a particular fa- 

 vourite. I remember seeing at Lord Yarmouth's 

 house a Persian cat, but not so fine as the Bish- 

 op's." These pussies were famous in their day, 

 and Scott was not the only traveller to sing their 

 praises. Sir Henry Holland scarcely knew which 

 he admired the more, — the prelate or his cat. 

 Each was the exact picture of what each should 

 be ; and, as they sat side by side, the cat seemed 



